The folk songs in Ming and Qing dynasties are mainly folk songs popular in rural areas and "ditties" in cities. They have made great progress in thought and art, with rich contents and diverse forms. They inherited and developed the realistic tradition of folk songs in past dynasties, and were characterized by sincerely expressing people's true feelings and real life. They were highly ideological and combative, and formed the outstanding characteristics of music culture in this era.
As early as the end of the Yuan Dynasty, in Gao Zecheng's Pipa and other Yuan people's Sanqu, ditties such as Guizhi Er and Shanpo Yang were already used. Xiaoqu was first popular in villages and towns around the country, and later entered the city. After the efforts and creation of folk professional artists in the city, it was further matured in art. About the years of Xuande and Wanli in Ming Dynasty (1426-162), many ditty centers were formed in Beijing, Bianliang, Yangzhou, Chengdu, Quanzhou and Panyu. Between these centers, there are both exchanges and different creations.
The ditty of Ming and Qing Dynasties is different from the orthodox literature and art in feudal society and the aristocratic ci-poetry songs of literati and officialdom. It shows more the vulgarity of "citizen literature and art" and reflects the resistance spirit of the newly emerging capitalist bud to feudal relations of production.
The Ming and Qing Dynasties were the times when China's capitalist economic factors began to sprout. The commodity economy was unprecedentedly prosperous, and the cities and citizens' classes were constantly expanding. Therefore, works reflecting the contradictions and struggles between the citizens' class and the ruling class also appeared in large numbers.
In such an era full of contradictions and new economic factors, the original forms of singing, such as poems, words and songs, have been divorced from people's lives and appear lifeless. However, the singing of ditty has appeared, "Don't ask the North and the South, don't ask whether men and women are good or bad, everyone in Xi Zhi likes to listen to it, and even it has been published and spread all over the world, which makes people feel heartfelt" (Shen Defu's Wild Get Compiled) Therefore, the colorful and unique folk songs are not only loved by the broad masses of people, but also aroused the "shock" of the literati.
The emergence and development of folk songs and ditties in the Ming and Qing Dynasties conformed to the historical trend and showed the people's outstanding creative ability. For example, Yuan Hongdao once said, "I say that today's poems are not good, but if they are good, or if today's Lu Yan woman Ruzi sings, she will break jade and beat jujube sticks ....." Feng Menglong said; "There are fake poets in the world and no fake folk songs"; Li Kaixian said: (folk songs) "Like the wind of the Fifteen Kingdoms, it comes from the mouth of women in the alley, and the love words are graceful. Since it is not a poet of this generation, Mo Ke has dyed his heart and shed blood, and whatever he can, he is true." Zhuo Keyue even said: "I know Tang poetry, Song poetry, Qu yuan poetry, and Wu Ge, Gui Zhier, Luo Jiangfen, jujube sticks, silver twisted wire and so on." As a result, they worked hard to learn folk songs and began to collect and compile a large number of them in an attempt to absorb fresh and beneficial nutrients from them to save the declining style of writing at that time. From the perspective of the development history of China's music, the work done by the literati in the Ming Dynasty was really a pioneering work, which replaced the work of collecting and sorting out folk songs mainly set up by the rulers in previous times. The folk songs of the Ming Dynasty collected by the literati privately were rare in the world in terms of their wide scope and quantity. There are thousands of folk songs compiled by Feng Menglong, a famous writer in Ming Dynasty. After absorbing the nourishment of folk songs and ditties, the literati in Ming and Qing dynasties wrote many excellent Sanqu.
The theme of the ditty is very extensive, and here are a few:
About opposing feudal exploitation and exposing the dim society:
Grab the mud, sharpen the iron needle, scrape the golden Buddha's face and search carefully, and find something in nothing. Quails are looking for peas, cranes chop lean meat on their legs, and mosquitoes find fat in their bellies, thanks to the old gentleman.
-Ming Li Kaixian's Laughter
God, you are old, deaf and blind, you can't see people or hear words, you enjoy the splendor of killing people and setting fires, and you are a vegetarian and starving to death. God, you can't make heaven, you are falling down! God, you can't make heaven, you are falling down!
——
The first song of "Doupeng Gossip and Biandiao Quer" in Ming Dynasty strongly exposed the insatiable nature of the ruling class and its diabolical exploitation methods, and expressed the people's strong hatred with bitter satire and ruthless ridicule. The latter one reveals the gloom and injustice of society even more sharply. "You collapsed!" This is the voice of the people's anger, a curse to the dark society, and a curse to the rulers. It is vivid and inspiring.
The Ming and Qing Dynasties were the end of feudal society in China, and the contradiction between peasants and landlords was unprecedented. At this time, there are not only works that expose the dark society, but also a large number of works that directly reflect and praise the peasant uprising.
the Ming and Qing dynasties are also the times when ethnic contradictions are the most illustrated. 44 Feng Menglong's collection of Folk Songs
The anti-Japanese war in the late Ming Dynasty, the struggle against the aristocratic rule and oppression in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties and the whole Qing Dynasty are all reflected in folk songs. Under the cruel class oppression, the people had to rise up to revolt. Here are some songs about the peasant uprising:
The poor and the poor can't survive recently. Open the door early to worship the king, and both the big and the small are happy to be disciplined.
—— Ming Ji Liuqi's "A Brief Introduction to the North in the Ming Dynasty"
During the reign of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty, there was a peasant uprising in Qixia County, Shandong Province. At that time, a folk song enthusiastically praised Yu Qi, the leader of the rebel army.
The peasant uprising led by Yu Qisuo took place in the early years of the Qing Dynasty when Fu Lin, the ancestor of the Qing Dynasty, was established. The "sawtooth tooth" in the lyrics refers to the tooth mountain 9 miles east of Qixia County, where Sun Long is a bully and Qixia County is a "martial art". "December" is a fixed tune, which is repeatedly used in many folk song lyrics to express a specific content. It is also a traditional form of expression in Chinese folk songs like "Four Seasons" and "Five Watches". Songs are accompanied by musical instruments, which are similar to yangko tunes. This is an interlining sentence commonly used in folk songs after the third and fourth sentences to strengthen its expressive function.
Spectrum Example 8
This folk song changed the "lining sentence" into gongs and drums, which strengthened the lively and warm atmosphere of the music and showed the heroic spirit of the rebels.
In the ditty of Ming and Qing Dynasties, songs against the bondage and persecution of young men and women by feudal ethics also account for a large proportion, reflecting the pain caused to young people by the unreasonable marriage system in Ming and Qing Dynasties. For example,
Eighteen daughters, nine-year-old Lang, hold Lang to her gums at night, instead of her in-laws, you are my son and I will be your mother.
Sichuan Folk Songs
Among the folk songs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, "love songs" occupy a large proportion. This kind of folk songs inherited the excellent traditions of Chinese folk songs in past dynasties, enthusiastically praised the innocent love life of working people, showed their pursuit of happiness and love, and were full of fighting spirit against feudal ethics. Such as "Folk Songs on the Moon" and "Folk Songs on Stealing":
When Yue Lang made an appointment to the moon, Ran Lian went to the top of the mountain to see the canal. Gee, it's early in the low moon on the mountain; Gee, Fu Zhilang is late in the mountains and the moon.
Don't panic when you get acquainted with an affair, and take it upon yourself when you catch an adulterous slave. Spell the official double-knee steamed bread, kneel down and tell the truth, bite the nail and chew the iron, I steal the lang.
How bold the pursuit of pure love is, it reflects the spirit of young men and women's resistance to feudal ethics from one side.
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, there are also songs that show the consciousness of the emerging citizen class and reflect the sharp contradiction between the ideology of the budding capitalism and the end of feudal society. The ideology of the ruling class permeates into folk songs, and such creations are mainly popular in cities. Therefore, there are many unhealthy and erotic works in this vast folk song ditty, which are the reflection of the ruling class's empty and decadent thoughts and feelings and decadent life in folk song ditty. Generally speaking, works that come from rural areas and show the lives of working people are mostly healthy; However, works that come from cities and represent the citizen class, because their social and economic status determines their ideology, accept the thoughts of the ruling class more, so a considerable part of them are unhealthy and undesirable.
The ditty in the city is generally an artistic song based on folk songs, which is also called "minor", "seasonal tune", "folk song" and "miscellaneous song". When singing, it is accompanied by instruments such as sanxian, pipa and sandalwood, and folk songs vary from place to place. Since the middle of the Ming Dynasty, there have been a large number of single songs, such as Mountain Sheep, Drunken Peace, Parasitic Grass and Luojiang Complain, which have been popular in the north and south. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, there was a form of D singing, which connected some songs (brands), called "brand songs". Then there appeared the form of splitting a single brand song into two parts, the head and the tail, and inserting other brands in the middle. Some people say that this may be a reference to the "transfer peddler" in the Yuan Dynasty.
Although the tunes of folk songs and ditties in Ming and Qing Dynasties were not recorded directly, they were largely preserved or applied in operas, rap and song-and-dance music indirectly, some were preserved in folk instrumental music, and some were even preserved in religious music works, so they were widely circulated. Although these folk songs may be adapted and developed more or less in the long-term spread and application, they are still a very important part of the source of folk music tunes in China.