Luqi is the Song and Yuan dynasties for folk artists, Luqi metaphorical meaning is also very obvious, he refers to artists mobility is very strong, often in various places on the roadside, street, etc. to sell their art, running around and hard, very hard. The origin of Luqi can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty period.
The word "hook rail" is not unfamiliar to everyone, and it represents an indecent place. But it originally meant just a railing, and before the Song Dynasty it was extended to mean a place for performing arts. It had a fixed building with a railing enclosing a piece of land, and the actors performed inside the railing, while the audience watched from outside the railing.
Luqi is not so good treatment, Luqi performance is not into the railing. They could only find an open area and set aside a space for their performances, so the term "luqi" was already used in the Song Dynasty to refer to street performers. In the Song Dynasty, Luqi also got great development, and people's demand for culture also became strong. The development of popular literature also led to the development of Luqi.
Luqi could be seen in the streets and alleys of the Song Dynasty, and even in the cities. Although Luqi performed over a vast area, not all places were accessible. In ancient times, taxes were levied according to the number of acres of land, so only land that was not subject to taxation could be used as a performance venue for luqi. In addition, Luqi's characteristic of walking through the streets was looked down upon by the people of the time. The elegant halls of the rich and noble families of the literati were naturally out of bounds for Luqi.
With the development of Luqi, its members were not only family oriented, but often the characters in the play were more than the existing actors, which required a person to both read, dance and dance. This situation, in fact, promotes the all-round development of the actors and reduces their financial burden. In order to perform the effect, Luqi's props are also very rich, in addition to swords, guns, swords and halberds there are gongs, flutes drums and so on.