Chinese folk songs can be divided into the following six categories according to the content of the folk songs, labor songs, current affairs songs, ceremonial songs, love songs, children's songs and life songs.
1. Labor songs. Labor songs include all kinds of horn, ram song, field song, miner's song, logging song, carrying song, tea-picking song and all other folk songs directly reflecting the labor life or coordinating labor rhythm.
It is a kind of folk oeuvre directly inspired by physical labor. It is sung along with the rhythm of labor, combined with labor behavior, and has a special function of coordinating movements, directing labor, and inspiring emotions. For example: Fujian folk song "picking tea and pouncing on butterflies", Sichuan folk song "the sun comes out joyfully";
2, current political songs. The current political songs are songs created by the people who have a feeling for the immediate political situation. It reflects the working people's knowledge of and attitude toward certain political events, political measures, political figures, and the political situation related to them, and expresses the working people's political ideals and the spirit of struggle for these ideals;
3, ceremonial songs. It is the song that accompanies the folk rites and rituals and other ceremonies. It arises when people do not recognize the power of natural forces and worship the power of language, that is, the fantasy of language to impress the gods, to pray for blessings and disasters. Ceremony song on the application of its rituals, can be divided into know-how song, festival song, ritual song and put the ceremony song four kinds;
4, love songs. Love song is a reflection of the people's love life. It mainly expresses the sadness and joy of young men and women who are inspired by their love for each other. It fully expresses the working people's pure and healthy outlook on 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 lyrical description, fully expresses their warmth and intimate love for each other;
5, children's songs. Children's songs are simple and vivid rhymes to create a well circulated among the children of a short oral songs. The content of children's songs is colorful. Can be roughly divided into three categories: games children's songs, teaching children's songs and tongue twisters. Children's songs are the earliest songs that people come into contact with in their lives. When babies are still in swaddling clothes, they have heard their mothers' warm songs, such as "Lullaby" and "Lullaby".
Children gradually grow up, they will learn a play children's songs. 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, and so on, there are games with the children's song. This song, in line with the psychological characteristics of children, sing up to feel friendly, interesting, greatly increasing the fun of the game;
6, life songs. The range of life songs is quite wide. What we call life song only take it narrow concept, mainly refers to reflect the people's social life and family life song. For example, the song that reflects the unfairness and irrationality of social life: "The one who weaves mats sleeps on a bare bed, and the one who carries coffins dies by the side of the road." Between the lines, it reveals the unfairness of the working people 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".
Expanded Information:
Chinese folk songs role: folk songs have a close relationship with the life of our people, it runs through all stages of life, covering different levels of life, and has become an indispensable part of the people's life. In addition to the role of entertainment, it also has many practical functions in social life.
Education and inheritance function: in some minority groups in our country, there are folk songs that sing long narrative poems and historical poems, such as the "Meiguo" of the Yi nationality, the "Ancient Songs" of the Miao nationality, the "Panwang Song" of the Yao nationality, the "Song of Opening up the Heaven and the Earth" of the Hani nationality, the "Mu Naozhaiwa" of the Jingpo nationality, the "Creation of the Century" of the Dulong nationality, and the "Wood Scraping Base" of the Lisu nationality, etc. These songs have been widely used by the Chinese people in their daily life.
These songs recount ancient myths and legends about the origin of the universe and mankind, the ancestors' knowledge of some natural phenomena, as well as history, production, life and ritual knowledge. These songs have a small undulating tune, strong chanting, and a long length, with some of the lyrics reaching tens of thousands of lines, which usually take hours, or even days, to sing.
These songs are mostly sung by shamans or respected elders during festivals, rituals or weddings and funerals, and the atmosphere is solemn.
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