This kind of ditty is not only popular in northern Anhui, but also in the junction of Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan and Anhui, to be exact. And the content of most of the description of the countryside love affair, the theme is particularly focused on the brother-in-law sister-in-law, father-in-law and daughter-in-law, brother and sister-in-law, widow stealing a man, etc. "incest": is not very hot eyes!
Why this kind of ditty is generally concentrated in the junction of Suzhou, Henan and Anhui, and not elsewhere, I personally have an immature point of view, this is this area of the Central Huaihai region, a long time of social impoverishment, displaced people, and finally the result of ethical disorder.
The Huaihai region in ancient times suffered from wars and floods for a long period of time, broken clans, displaced populations, and overturned homes, which made it impossible for the region to have a good and stable agricultural environment, and the land could not be cultivated properly due to salinization brought about by floods, which resulted in the impoverishment of the overall society.
The stable and strong clan organization could not be maintained due to the great displacement of population,
People kept migrating and fleeing, and the individuals were atomized and became displaced; coupled with the poverty of economy and the lack of culture and education, there were no clan leaders and gentry with good character to maintain the order of the local community.
The absence of local political and cultural authority on the clan organization and even on its own, resulting in the original used to adjust the clan within the order of the Confucian ethic of superiority and inferiority has not been able to continue, the whole society has presented the situation of ethical disorder, so the brother-in-law, sister-in-law, father-in-law, sister-in-law, and so on, in fact, at the level of Confucianism is the family relationship between disobedience and disobedience of the paragraph on the hall, and circulated, and the theme of folk music. It has become the theme of folk music, and one of the spiritual pastimes of the poor townspeople who are bored with their lives in the midst of the upheaval.
Of course, this is not to say that other regions did not have this kind of music and art, but other places, because of the presence of the gentry class, were able to purify and elegize these contents, which was not possible in the Huaihai region.
I even think that the vulgar performances such as wedding funeral striptease that circulate in this area to this day are also the result of this ethical disorder. Because in the Confucian tradition, weddings and funerals are extremely serious, weddings and funerals are big events involving family changes, how can they be profaned? If you still remember your ancestors, is it not a great disrespect to the ancestors?