The legend of Yao Changgu

At the foot of Dayao Mountain in Guangxi, in northern Guangdong and southwestern Hunan, there are hardworking and intelligent Yao people. Since ancient times, the Yao people have created colorful culture and art, and everyone likes singing and dancing. The popular dances such as Long Drum Dance and Umbrella Dance are vigorous and lyrical, showing the brave and optimistic spirit of the Yao people. Yao dance music is very beautiful. On festivals or festive days, Yao people's presidents drum up dances, including two-person dance, four-person dance and group dance.

Regarding the origin of the long drum, there is a touching legend among the Yao people: a long time ago, the Yao people decided to elect a leader to lead everyone to resist the invasion of foreign rulers. One day, there was a loud noise, and a white light fell from the sky, inserted on a boulder and turned into a long sword. Appoint someone who can draw a sword to be the leader of the village. Many people tried hard and failed. Only a young man named Dong Bi gently pulled out his sword. So he was elected as the leader by the whole village. He led everyone to fight against foreign aggression and defend Yaoshan countless times, and finally he was injured and sacrificed. Yao people put a long white feather on the cloth in Baotou, symbolizing the shining sword. They cut down the phoenix tree in the deep mountain, made it into a long drum, and beat it with their hands, making a sound of "Dong Bi, Dong Bi" and pinning their grief over Dong Bi. Over the years, the long drum has become one of the folk musical instruments that Yao people like very much.