China's folk songs of various ethnic groups are extremely rich, from the "National Wind" in the Book of Songs to the various folk song anthologies collected and published after the liberation of China, the number is quite large. As for the traditional ballads and new folk songs still circulating in the folk today, they are even more vast. In terms of the form of these folk songs, in addition to the factory ballads, children's songs, four lines of mountain songs and a variety of labor horns of the Han nationality, there are also the "Letters of Faith", "Climbing Mountain Songs", "Catch Five Sentences", "Songs of Four Seasons", "Five Shifts", "December". The "Ten Flowers" and "Plate Songs" are characterized by a variety of styles. As for the Tibetan "Lu" and "Xie", the Zhuang "Huan", the Bai "Baiqu", the Hui "Hua'er", and so on. "Hua'er" of the Hui, "Fei Song" of the Miao, "Da Song" of the Dong, "Pen Pipe Song" of the Buyi, and "Xiang Li Song" of the Yao. "Xiangli Song" of the Yao, etc., all of which have their own unique forms. In terms of style, the Miao and Yao songs are simple and thick, and the Tibetan and Dai songs are beautiful.
Mongolian folk songs are robust and melodious, Oroqen folk songs are rough and powerful. The same "flower", the security and Dongxiang different flavor, Ningxia and Qinghai are also different. The same Han folk songs, the north of the strong and bold, the south of the more euphemistic.
The content of folk songs is rich and varied. According to the content of folk songs, they can be divided into the following six categories: labor songs, current affairs songs, ceremonial songs, love songs, children's songs and life songs. Labor songs include all kinds of bugles, rammer songs, field songs, miners' songs, logging songs, carrying songs, tea-picking songs, and all other folk songs that directly reflect the labor life or coordinate the rhythm of labor. It is a kind of folk ballad directly inspired by physical labor. It is sung along with the rhythm of labor, combined with labor behavior, and has special functions such as coordinating movements, directing labor and inspiring emotions. For example, the Fujian folk song "picking tea to pounce on butterflies", the Sichuan folk song "the sun comes out joyfully".
In folk songs, labor songs are the earliest. Mr. Lu Xun believes that: our ancestors who can not speak primitive man, in *** with drudgery particularly strenuous, know how to sing songs, to relieve muscle fatigue, to inspire the enthusiasm of the work, to focus on ....... Folk songs, not the idle class of scholars or writers, sitting in the house of the disease-free moaning, it is the blood and sweat of all manual laborers stirred with tears and sweat of the crystallization and sublimation, so the farmers have rice-planting songs, fishing fishing songs, tea picking tea songs, shepherds have pastoral songs and so on. Our ancestors in the labor, in order to unite everyone together, often issued a shout before and after the response. These cries, which were repeated with strong rhythms and simple sounds accompanying labor, are the budding folk songs - the early labor songs. This ancient labor song has been passed down from generation to generation and has been constantly innovated, gradually developing into today's labor songs. In labor, there are labor songs everywhere: the loading and unloading horn and the board truck horn in carrying labor; the booklet horn and the fishing horn in water labor; the tamping horn and the wooden horn in construction labor. This is just as a writer said: all the physical labor throughout the ages, there are labor songs in line with the rhythm and characteristics of its labor, only where the big machine, labor songs are more and more replaced by its rumbling roar.
Early labor songs are more fixed in tune, the lyrics are relatively single, some are just cough ho, hey hi hua na sound, in the labor plays a role in the command. With the progress of productive forces and the development of society, labor songs are not only a simple call to arms, but also describe the process of labor, and express the living conditions and customs related to the thoughts and feelings of laborers.
The labor song in the form of shouting and ordering is characterized by the harmony of the song with the labor beat.
Its content is mainly composed of labor cries, and in the form of a leader and the masses, a small number of commanding labor and inspiring emotional phrases are added. For example, the rhythm of "Shangtan Horn" is extremely short and consists almost entirely of the phrase "Cough! Cough! Cough! Cough!" The rhythm is very short, almost entirely composed of "cough!", which shows the tense atmosphere of the boatmen fighting with the rapids and dangerous shoals at the critical moment.
Lyrical labor songs, the lyrics are longer, their content is to reflect a certain social life, labor calls in which play a role in embellishing the beat. Such as reflecting the attitude of the working people to their own labor, in the self-sufficient small peasant life, the people are positive and enthusiastic about labor, singing "Emperor Shennong is also a planter", fully demonstrating the farmers' sense of pride and optimism. However, in the old society where the rich and the poor were so different, the laboring people, who were exploited and oppressed, could only express their resistance to the exploiters with their songs. Such as "December long work", "December tea picking" and other songs, reflecting the working people all year round labor can not feed and clothe the living situation, issued a "you enjoy the blessings of my poor, this world to change" call.
As a kind of language art, the most prominent artistic feature of labor songs is its strong sense of rhythm. Every labor song has a rhythm that matches the labor movement, and it is a collection of labor in life
and therefore full of rich life atmosphere. When engaged in intense and high-intensity labor, the action is strong, short breath, labor atmosphere is strong, then the labor song is bound to be sung in a sharp and rapid rhythm, strong tone, staccato and powerful, giving a person the collective strength of the majesty and labor to create a world of powerful infection. In the light physical labor, or long intervals of labor, the speed of labor songs is softer, the sense of rhythm is weaker, and the changes in music are richer, giving people a beautiful sense of melody. Current political songs are songs composed by the people in response to the political situation that is close to their hearts. It reflects the working people's understanding of and attitude toward certain political events, political measures, political figures, and the political situation related to them, and expresses the political ideals of the working people and their spirit of struggle for these ideals.
The working people never moan without disease. In the old society, the working people lived at the bottom of the society. Economically they were heavily oppressed and politically they were cruelly exploited. Dissatisfied with the status quo, they compiled their political opinions of the time into songs in figurative language, by which they expressed their resentment and protest against the rulers. At the end of the Han Dynasty, when Dong Zhuo was in power, the people were overwhelmed by their sufferings and sang, "Thousands of miles of grass, how green it is; ten days of divination, no life". When the people can't contain the injustice and anger in their chests, they will spurt out songs of accusation, and even the heavens are included in the accusations.
The working people are not cattle and sheep to be slaughtered, and when they can't stand it any longer, they have to rise up and fight back. "Thinking and thinking, my heart is not willing, I want to go to Liangshan, learn a good martial art, come to dig up the boss's black heart." This kind of songs reflecting the peasant uprising is the part of traditional songs with the strongest political color and the strongest struggle dwelling. During the first peasant uprising in China at the end of the Qin Dynasty, the ballad "The Rise of the Great Chu, King Chen Sheng" was produced. Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out: "The results of every major peasant uprising and peasant war have struck down the feudal rule of the time, and thus more or less promoted the development of the productive forces of society." And the current political songs reflecting the peasants' uprisings are the true portrayal of the working people in these major political events through the ages.
Songs of praise were the mainstay of the new post-liberation current political songs, in which the working people were ecstatic to be the masters of their own house, and songs of praise for the Party, the leaders and the great socialism were produced in large numbers.
The current political songs were mostly ballads. It is generally short in length, with a relatively free number of sentences and words and no fixed format. Its main feature is its distinctiveness. For example, "Riding the tiger is not afraid of the tiger going up the mountain, riding the dragon is not afraid of the dragon going down the beach, determined to revolution is not afraid of death, death for the people's heart is also willing", the language is firm and powerful, without any pretense of obscurity. It is a song accompanied by folk rituals and ceremonies. It came into being when people did not know the power of nature and worshipped the power of language, that is to say, they fantasized about using language to impress the gods to pray for blessings and avoid disasters.
Ceremonial songs can be divided into four kinds of ritual songs, namely, the song of the magic, the song of the festivals, the song of the rites and customs and the song of the ceremony. The songs are sung by witches and goddesses when they are engaged in witchcraft activities, such as "Heavenly Spirit.
Earth Spirit ......" and so on, but also includes incantations used to heal the sick, such as "Heavenly Emperor, Earthly Emperor".
Seasonal songs are songs describing certain festivals or seasons, often combined with dances and games. For example, the Spring Bull Song sung during the Spring Festival Dance of the Zhuang people is mainly about singing about agricultural production and the peace of people and animals. It is often used in occasions such as marriage, funeral, inauguration of new houses and welcoming guests. The song is often used for occasions such as marriage and funeral, inauguration of new houses, and welcoming guests and hospitality.
Prayer songs are sung during major celebrations and have different contents depending on the rituals and celebrations, such as the sowing rituals, harvest rituals, rent-song rituals, and soul-recruiting rituals. When people die, there are also funeral songs to express the mourning of the living for the dead. Love songs are the reflection of the love life of the people. It mainly expresses the sadness and joyful thoughts and feelings of young men and women inspired by their love for each other. It fully expresses the working people's pure and healthy concept of love and aesthetic sentiment. Some love songs also show contempt and resistance to feudalism.
There are quite a number of songs that express the mutual love between young men and women, such as "Sister is the fragrance of osmanthus flowers for thousands of miles, brother is the bees for thousands of miles, the bees see the flowers and turn around, the flowers bloom when they meet the bees". This beautiful and lyrical description fully expresses their passionate and intimate love for each other.
In the thousands of years of feudal society, due to the livelihood of the compulsion or natural and man-made disasters, how many pairs of lovers were separated, throwing them into the abyss of the pain of parting, produced a large number of folk songs complaining about the pain of parting and longing. For example, the Dali Bai love song sung by the "Dali Dam curved and curved, sister in the sea to brother in the mountains; Cangshan Erhai two separated, want to see can not see".
Old China, feudalism destroyed the happiness of countless young men and women, resulting in many love tragedies, but the love and spirit of unswerving loyalty has been living in the hearts of the people for generations, and people use songs to express their determination to love each other to the death and never give in to their determination to fight against the forces of feudalism to the end.
The new love songs produced after the Land Revolution were no longer isolated expressions of personal adoration, but linked personal love to the whole revolutionary cause. This is evidenced by the songs of the Red Army, such as "The Red Army Brother is loved by everyone, and a soldier must be a Red Army soldier".
The use of artistic techniques is extremely rich, and the more prominent than the Xing, puns, repetition, such as a hundred Mongolian love song sings: "Vibration of the mountain peaks, is the black horse's four hooves; disturbing the hearts of the people is the Han Mixiang's two eyes." The use of horse hooves clattering and shaking the mountain peaks as a metaphor for a young girl's beautiful eyes disturbing people's hearts fully embodies the artistic charm of picaresque.
Double entendre is also used in many love songs. For example, "The street gongs are beating loudly, and the center of the gongs is playing loudly." The sound of the gong is only on the surface, but the girl's heart's "thinking of Lang Lang" is the real meaning. This technique expresses the sincere and passionate feelings in a subtle way, and arouses people's infinite associations and deep thoughts.
The repetition of the expression of the same or similar words, used one after another, gives a person a feeling of love, the feeling of the intestines. A Guizhou love song sings, "Which one recognizes the sister to come, please pick water to wash the street; please pick water to wash the road, wash a big road and wait for the sister to come." The use of repetition profoundly expresses the feeling of eagerly waiting for a lover. Children's song is a kind of short oral song which is composed in simple and vivid rhyming language and circulated among children.
The content of children's songs is colorful. They can be divided into three categories: game songs, teaching songs and tongue twisters.
Playing children's songs is the earliest exposure to songs in a person's life. When babies are still in swaddling clothes, they have heard their mothers' warm songs, such as "Lullaby" and "Lullaby". As children grow older, they learn a playful children's song. This kind of children's songs can enrich the content of the children's games, add children's interest, such as "pulling the big saw". Children's shuttlecock, jumping ribbons, hide-and-seek, etc., with which there are matching games children's songs. This kind of song, in line with the psychological characteristics of children, sung doubly affectionate, interesting, greatly increasing the fun of the game.
The children's song focuses on the educational role of children. It not only enriches children's knowledge, inspires their wisdom and imagination, but also helps to cultivate children's good ideas, good style, good habits, and becomes one of the important tools for educating children. Such as "sit in rows, eat fruit, you a, I a, sister sleep stay a."
The tongue-twister, because it reads in a roundabout way, is quite popular among children. For example, "the wind blows the rattan to move the copper bell, the wind stops the rattan stops the copper bell stops". The children tend to laugh at the mispronunciation.
Children's songs are generally shorter in form and have no fixed form. In the language of easy to understand, lively and interesting, rhythmic, the most suitable for children to sing and recite. For example: Sichuan folk song "Crab Song", Guangzhou folk song "Falling Water Day", Beijing folk song "to flowers", Xinjiang folk song "Wahaha". The range of life songs is quite wide. What we call life songs only take its narrow concept, mainly refers to the songs reflecting people's social life and family life.
For example, a song that reflects the unfairness and irrationality of social life: "The one who makes mats sleeps on a bare bed, and the one who carries coffins dies by the roadside." Between the lines, it reveals the working people's injustice to this kind of life.
The feudal rites and patriarchal concepts of the old society brought great disasters to the vast number of working women, making them not treated equally with men from birth to death. This is reflected in the saying, "If you marry a chicken, you will fly with the chicken; if you marry a dog, you will leave with the dog".
People's lives are diverse, on the major events or things in life, people always have to express their own views and opinions, express their inner feelings, "Ten Sent to the Red Army" is an excellent lyrical work. It touches the scene and expresses the flesh and blood feelings of the people and the Red Army. People borrow objects to express their feelings, so that the scene is blended, the form is beautiful, is really a treasure in the folk song.
Life songs use a lot of contrasting techniques in their expression. The things and phenomena in human life are the unity of opposites, beauty and ugliness, good and evil, pain and joy, revolution and reaction, exploitation and exploitation, etc. Through the distinctive and vivid contrasts, the thoughts and feelings of the singers are expressed.
Folk songs have been changing and developing in the vicissitudes of the human world for thousands of years, and have been formed into a complete artistic whole so far. In the vast forest of folk songs, we can only pick a few of the small flowers, dedicated to you. For example, the northern Shaanxi folk song "supporting the army rice-planting song".