The Formation and Development of Folk Songs

The Origin and Development of Folk Songs

Folk songs are the collective oral poetry creation of working people. Folk songs, that is, folk songs, belong to a form of folk literature, which can be sung or recited, and mostly appear in the form of verse.

Folk songs are one of the earliest language arts in human history. Our ancestors, in productive labor, created music and sang the earliest folk song-labor chant. Primitive folk songs, which are closely related to people's struggle for existence, have become an important part of people's lives, or express their desire to conquer nature, or reproduce the joy of hunting wild animals, or pray for the blessing of the gods. With the development of human history, class differentiation and the renewal of social system, folk songs involve more and more aspects and their social functions are becoming more and more important.

The Book of Songs is the earliest collection of folk songs in ancient China. It is a collection of folk songs that spread in the north 15 area for about 500 years from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period.

Most of the folk songs in "National Wind" reveal the exploitation essence of the ruling class, express the rebellious thoughts and fighting spirit of the exploited class, such as "Cutting Tan", which satirizes and curses the exploited class's unearned gains with bitter language; In Shuo, the exploiting class is compared to an insatiable mouse, which depicts the working people's gnashing hatred of slave owners and their yearning for "heaven" and "paradise".

During the Spring and Autumn Period, the folk songs of Chu were very prosperous. At the end of the Warring States period, the poet Qu Yuan and others collected and sorted out Chu Ci, and created new words according to the tunes of Chu Ci, which were called Chu Ci. Many works in Songs of the South are full of love for the motherland and people, full of fantasy and romanticism.

During the Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty set up a music management organization-Yuefu, which was engaged in the collection and collation of folk songs. Songs that enter music are called "Yuefu Poems" or "Yuefu".

These Yuefu folk songs mainly describe people's sufferings, directly express people's love and hate, and expose various contradictions in feudal society. Folk songs in this period have developed into long and short sentences, five-character and seven-character styles in form, and they have been accompanied by musical instruments. The appearance of long narrative songs such as Peacock Flying Southeast indicates the continuous development and maturity of folk songs in this period.

The creation of folk songs in the Tang Dynasty was also quite prosperous. After Li Longji acceded to the throne, Yang Yuhuan was in favor and the Yang family was crony. Her sisters have all been married, and their arrogance has reached the point of "being too ashamed of their own powder and dirty color and ignoring the beauty of moths". A rumor says, "From now on, inherit the wind and be happy when giving birth to girls instead of boys", because "men don't do harems, but treat women as doorposts". This may not represent the yearning of ordinary people, but it is only a satire on the royal family.

By the Southern Song Dynasty, there were more satirical ballads among the people. The ruling class in the Southern Song Dynasty was corrupt and played with political power. A folk song sarcastically said: "If you want to be an official, you must kill and set fire to it;" If you want to get rich, sell wine and vinegar with the emperor. " It can be described as hitting the nail on the head.

In the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, people's sufferings became deeper and deeper. The people sang: "Say Fengyang, say Fengyang, Fengyang used to be a good place. Since the birth of Emperor Zhu, there have been nine famines in ten years. " Due to the double oppression of class and nation, the torrent of peasant uprising has been aroused. Among them, Liu Futong in Yingzhou has the greatest momentum. He led 654.38+10,000 peasants, and was known as the "Red Army" and was invincible. Therefore, the song says, "There is a fire in the city, the officials are scattered, and there is no one in the city. The Red Army is sitting on the house. "

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, China's feudal system faced collapse, and class contradictions and ethnic contradictions became increasingly acute. This period produced a large number of democratic and progressive folk songs. For example, the folk song of the Ming Dynasty: "Eat King Chuang, wear King Chuang, and when King Chuang comes, he will not receive food." "Looking forward to the stars, looking forward to the moon, looking forward to the king's opinion."

After China was ruled by the Qing Dynasty, people clearly saw that the ruling class was groggy and insatiable, which was the main reason for foreign aggression and the semi-colonial and semi-feudal status of the country. In that tragic era, ordinary people can't even satisfy their food and clothing, so they sigh:

"The son of heaven sits in a golden basin, political chaos. The Lebanese people have suffered greatly from the past, and Gankun has turned upside down. Since then, the year of peace is hopeless. "

1900, Yuan Shikai carried out a bloody massacre policy in Shandong under the orders of his master, the Qing Emperor, killing countless soldiers of the Boxer Rebellion. The people hated Yuan Shikai's guts and sang the ballad "Kill Yuan Guidan, and we will have food". On the wall of Governor Yuan Shikai's yamen, people painted a turtle with red feathers and climbed behind a foreigner's ass. This cartoon and ballad expresses the people's hatred for Yuan Shikai.

With the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, since the Republic of China, imperialists have colluded with warlords to harm the people of China and supported Yuan Shikai to claim the title of emperor. At that time, Yuan Shikai heard that there were many people selling Yuanxiao in the streets of Beijing. He thought it was a big taboo and regarded Yuanxiao as "Yuan Xiao", so he issued an order prohibiting the selling of Yuanxiao and forcibly changing it to "glutinous rice balls", so there was a folk song: "President!

Since the September 18th Incident, China people's national hatred for Japanese imperialism has been growing day by day. They mocked the businessmen selling Japanese goods: "The green vest is really wide, and the green hat is not bad. I told you to sell Japanese goods again! "

As a witness of history, China people's anti-imperialist and anti-feudal epic is vividly reflected in folk songs. For example, after the outbreak of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, farmers in the north sang:

"The border area was originally a base area, and the devils were driven away to kill traitors." "Give me back my power and I will dare to drill."

The birth of China people has given new life to folk songs, and folk song creation has entered a brand-new period. The working people turned over and became masters, and a bright future appeared in front of people. It's like a person who suddenly sees the blue sea after trekking in the desert, and his emotions get excited, and his excited heart keeps pouring out songs. People sang their infinite love for the Party, Chairman Mao and a new life with songs. People have created masterpieces handed down from generation to generation, such as Dongfanghong, He Miao Miao Yi Dong, Liuyang River, and Osmanthus fragrans blooming everywhere in August.

Folk songs are cultivated in the soil of New China, like wild flowers in the fields in spring, dense and swaying. The fertile soil of socialist folk songs is displayed before our eyes, and the songs of working people are soaring and resounding through the sky.

The party and government attach great importance to the collection and arrangement of folk songs, and send working groups to rescue and excavate traditional folk culture, especially folk customs on a large scale. Starting from 1984, the editing work of China Ballad Integration was carried out. Through these large-scale activities, folk songs have been preserved and made indelible contributions to enriching and carrying forward the excellent folk culture of the Chinese nation.