Traditional Folkways and Customs of Yangzhou

Yangzhou is located in the center of Jiangsu Province, on the north bank of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and has been known as the "Gateway to North Jiangsu" since ancient times. As early as 486 B.C., Yangzhou was founded as a city, and in ancient times it was called Yangzhou, which is equivalent to the present province. The name Yangzhou was first mentioned in the book "Shangshu? The name Yangzhou was first mentioned in Shangshu and Yugong: "Yangzhou in Huaihaiwei". Yangzhou is one of the earliest cities in China to engage in foreign trade and international communication. As early as in the Tang Dynasty, Yangzhou enjoyed the reputation of "weaving of merchants" and "rich in the world", and at that time there were more than 5,000 Yangzhou merchants living abroad, and it became a famous port on the "Maritime Silk Road". and became a famous port on the "Maritime Silk Road". Yangzhou has been a famous scenic tourist and leisure city in China since ancient times, and the poems praising Yangzhou by the ancients have become classics, such as "Ten years of dreaming in Yangzhou", "Ten miles of Yangzhou Road in the spring breeze", "Twenty-four bridges under the bright moon" and so on. " and so on.

Traditional architecture

Yangzhou gardens have been famous since ancient times, "Yangzhou Boat Record" has "Hangzhou to win by lakes and mountains, Suzhou to win by the market, Yangzhou to win by the gardens and pavilions, the three dichotomy, no distinction between the three," so as early as in the years of the Jiaqing of the Qianlong Dynasty, the world's most famous is the Yangzhou gardens, not the Suzhou gardens. At that time, due to the Yangzhou salt merchants rich world, so they have a lot of wealth to build gardens, very luxurious, only Yangzhou City, private gardens reached more than 200 at its peak. But after the salt system reform, the Opium War, Tianping Heavenly War, a large number of Yangzhou gardens or abandoned, or burned, or demolished and sold, it began to decline. Yangzhou garden not only has the royal garden with the splendor and grandeur, and has a large number of architectural vignettes in the Jiangnan gardens, the style of its own school. Yangzhou gardens have the longest history, the most complete preservation, the most artistic value, is located in the north corner of the ancient city of Yangzhou "Garden", is now a famous tourist attractions in Yangzhou.

Traditional Opera

Yangzhou Qingqu, as one of the influential operas with a long history in Jiangsu Province, China, flourished during the Kangxi and Qianlong reigns of the Qing Dynasty and spread to many parts of the country. Most of the music of Yangzhou Qingqu was developed from local ditties, and its music has folk and regional characteristics, with an extremely wide choice of lyrics and a rich repertoire. The singers are categorized as "broad-mouthed" and "narrow-mouthed", both of whom "use words to carry out their voices" and pay attention to the rhythm and vocalization of their voices. Each song is sung by one to several people, and now still maintains the traditional form of sitting and singing, except for the singer himself, everyone plays a musical instrument, accompanied by a small band of varying sizes, with silk, bamboo, strings and percussion as the main instruments. on May 20, 2006, this opera was approved by the State Council to be included in the list of the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage.

Food Culture

Yangzhou cuisine is famous both at home and abroad, and is known as one of China's "Four Great Cuisines" along with Lu Cuisine, Sichuan Cuisine and Cantonese Cuisine. Yangzhou cuisine, also known as Huaiyang cuisine, has a history of more than a thousand years. Huaiyang Cuisine is very concerned about knife work, and is famous for its fine knife work, especially melon carving, which is renowned in all directions. Yangzhou Cuisine is exquisite in form, mellow in flavor, and makes good use of fire and fire power in cooking. Very famous dishes include stewed lion's head with crabmeat, boiled dried silk, three sets of duck, crystal pork, squirrel fish, Liangxi eel and so on. Yangzhou Full House is launched on the basis of Kangqian Full House, which is called the first Full House in China, and it has the culinary culture of compatibility between the north and the south. The development of Huaiyang Cuisine has gone through a long history with a profound food culture, thus establishing the status of China's first flavorful cuisine a long time ago.

Traditional Crafts

Engraving was the first form of printing to appear in China. The earliest surviving engraved print is the Diamond Sutra of 868 A.D., which is currently in the British Museum, but it is likely that engraving appeared some 2,000 years earlier. In the history of printing, engraving has been called a "living fossil", and the birthplace of Chinese engraving is Yangzhou, which is the only city in China that has preserved a full set of the ancient engraving process, which has also been listed as a national intangible cultural heritage. The first step in engraving is to make the original manuscript, which is then reversed and spread on a large flat wooden board and fixed. Finally, ink is brushed onto the engraved board and pressurized in a printing press to form a replica of the original.

Traditional art

Yangzhou, as one of the earliest regions in China where paper-cutting has been passed down, has had a tradition of "paper-cutting for spring" since the Tang and Song dynasties. Yangzhou people will make paper cuttings on the day of spring, cut into spring butterflies, spring threads, spring victory and other styles, "or hanging in the head of a beautiful woman, or decorated under the flowers", very beautiful. In addition will also cut paper money, paper horses, etc., specifically as a memorial service. Development to the Qing Dynasty period, with the commercial prosperity of Yangzhou, the number of paper-cutting artists increased greatly, Jia, Dao years of famous paper-cutting artists to Baojun as a representative of its superior skills, has the reputation of "God cut". Yangzhou paper-cutting lines clean and smooth, delicate and elegant composition, the image of exaggerated simplicity, the technique changes in the search for new, forming a now unique artistic charm, is one of the representatives of the folk art of paper-cutting in southern China.