The origin and development of folk songs
Folk songs are collective oral poetry creations of working people. Folk songs, that is, folk songs, are a form of folk literature that can be sung or recited, and are mostly in verse.
Folk songs are one of the earliest language arts in human history. Our ancestors created music during productive labor and sang the earliest folk songs - labor chants. Primitive folk songs are closely related to people's struggle for survival. They may express the desire to conquer nature, reproduce the joy of hunting wild beasts, or pray for the blessings of all gods. They have become an important part of people's lives. With the development of human history, class differentiation and the renewal of social systems, folk songs have become more and more involved, and their social role has become more and more important.
"Guo Feng" in "The Book of Songs" is the earliest folk song selection in ancient my country. It collects folk songs that spread in 15 regions in the north for more than 500 years from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period.
Most of the folk songs in "Guo Feng" expose the exploitative nature of the ruling class and express the resistance thoughts and fighting spirit of the exploited classes, such as "Fa Tan", which uses pungent language to satirize and Cursing the exploiting class for getting something for nothing; in "The Rat", the exploiting class is compared to a greedy rat, depicting the working people's hatred of slave owners and their yearning for a "promised land" and "paradise".
During the Spring and Autumn Period, the folk songs of Chu State were already very prosperous. In the late Warring States period, the poet Qu Yuan and others collected and organized Chu folk songs and created new words based on the tunes of Chu folk songs, which were called "Chu Ci". Many works in "Songs of Chu" are full of love for the motherland and its people, passionate and full of fantasy, and full of romanticism.
During the Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty established Yuefu, a music management organization, to collect and organize folk songs. The ballads included in Yue were called "Yuefu Poems" or "Yuefu".
These Yuefu folk songs mostly focus on describing the sufferings of the people, directly expressing the people's loves and hates, and exposing various contradictions in feudal society. The folk songs of this period have developed into long and short sentences, five-character and seven-character styles, and began to add instrumental accompaniment. The emergence of long narrative songs such as "The Peacock Flies Southeast" also marks the continuous development of folk songs in this period. development and maturity.
The creation of folk songs in the Tang Dynasty was also quite prosperous. Li Longji came to the throne, and Yang Yuhuan was favored, establishing a nepotistic relationship in the Yang family. Her sisters were all named wives. She was so arrogant that "she disliked the makeup and powder, and looked at the supreme one with a faint eyebrow". The rumor said: " From now on, the hearts of parents in the world will not be reborn as boys or girls," because "men do not make their wives concubines, but look after them as the lintel of their families." This does not necessarily represent the yearning of the common people, but is just a satire on the royal family.
In the Southern Song Dynasty, more satirical ballads were produced among the people. The ruling class of the Southern Song Dynasty was corrupt and played with political power. A folk song sarcastically said: "If you want to be an official, kill people and set fires and be recruited; if you want to be rich, follow the emperor and sell wine and vinegar." It can be said that it hits the nail on the head.
In the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, the people's suffering became more and more serious. The people sang: "Speaking of Fengyang, talking about Fengyang, Fengyang was originally a good place, but since Emperor Zhu came out, there have been nine years of drought in ten years." Due to the dual oppression of class and nation, the peasant uprising was triggered. torrent. Among them, Liu Futong from Yingzhou was the most powerful. He led 100,000 peasants. He was named the "Red Army" and was invincible. Therefore, the song went: "The whole city is on fire, the government officials are hiding in all directions, and there is no one in the city." The Red Army sat in the palace. "
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, my country's feudal system was facing collapse, and class contradictions and ethnic contradictions were becoming increasingly acute. During this period, a large number of democratic and progressive folk songs were produced. For example, the folk song of the Ming Dynasty: "Eat Chuang Wang, wear Chuang Wang, but when King Chuang comes, he will not pay for the food." "Looking forward to the stars, looking forward to the moon, looking forward to King Chuang coming forward."
After the Qing Dynasty ruled China, the people clearly realized that the ruling class was ignorant and greedy, which was the main reason for attracting foreign aggression and trapping the country in a semi-colonial and semi-feudal status. In that miserable era, the common people could not even get food and clothing, so they sighed like this:
"The emperor is sitting on the golden throne, the government is in chaos, the people are suffering, the world is upside down, and wars have begun. Don't think about the years of peace. "
In 1900, Yuan Shikai, on the orders of his master, the Qing Emperor, went to Shandong to implement a policy of bloody massacre and killed countless Boxer soldiers. The people hated Yuan Shikai so much that they sang the song "Kill Yuan Guitan, and we will eat better". On the wall of Yuan Shikai's governor's office, people painted a picture of a big turtle wearing a red crown and feathers, crawling behind a foreigner's buttocks. This cartoon and song vented the people's hatred for Yuan Shikai.
With the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, since the Republic of China, in order to support China's feudal forces, imperialism colluded with warlords, harmed the Chinese people, and supported Yuan Shikai's proclaiming emperor. At that time, Yuan Shikai heard that there were many yuanxiao sellers on the streets of Beijing and thought He violated the taboo and regarded Yuanxiao as "Yuanxiao", so he issued an order prohibiting the selling of Yuanxiao and forcibly changed the name of Yuanxiao to "Tangyuan". So folk songs spread like this: "The President, Hong Xian Nian, on the 15th day of the first lunar month Selling 'glutinous rice balls'.
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Since the September 18th Incident, the Chinese people’s national hatred for Japanese imperialism has been growing day by day. They ridiculed the merchants selling Japanese goods: “Green waistcoat, really rich, green hat, not bad, call you Selling Japanese products again! "
As a witness to history, the magnificent epic of the Chinese people's anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggle is clearly reflected in folk songs. For example, after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, northern farmers sang like this:
" The border area was originally a base area, where the Japanese were driven away and traitors were killed. "Give me back my kingdom and my rights. God of swords, mountains and fires dare to take advantage of me." ”
The founder of the People’s Republic of China gave folk songs new life. Folk song creation has entered a new period. The working people have become the masters of their own country. A bright future is unfolding among people. Before our eyes, it was like a person suddenly saw the vast expanse of blue sea after a arduous journey in the desert. People's emotions were excited, and songs continued to flow out of their excited hearts. People sang against the party and against each other. Chairman Mao's infinite love for new life. The people created masterpieces such as "The East Is Red", "Our Collector Mao Yidong", "Liuyang River", "Osmanthus Blossoms Everywhere"
Folk songs have been cultivated on the soil of New China, like wild flowers in spring fields, densely covered and swaying. The fertile field of socialist folk song creation is unfolding before our eyes, and the songs of the working people soar into the sky and resound throughout the sky.
p>The party and the government attach great importance to the collection and arrangement of folk songs, and have successively sent working groups to conduct large-scale rescue and excavation work on traditional folk culture, especially folk customs, across the country. Since 1984, they have also launched the compilation of "Chinese Songs." Through these large-scale activities, folk songs have been collected and preserved, making an indelible contribution to the enrichment and promotion of the excellent folk culture of the Chinese nation.