Yangge was originally a song sung when planting rice and working in the fields. Based on folk farm songs and Ling songs, it gradually developed into the most common folk dance form of the Han people (singing and some instrumental music tend to disappear, Only the rhythm of gongs and drums is preserved, so it is also called: "Yangge is not a song". It mainly refers to the folk dance widely spread in Han areas of China).
Yangko opera has a long history. There are records of "Village Music" in the Southern Song Dynasty, and the name of the form appeared after the Ming Dynasty. Song Dynasty poets such as Su Dongpo and Lu You cared about rural life and wrote many poems for rural farmers. It may be said that later Yangge may have absorbed the words of rural songs, but the word "Yangge" is not found in their poems, indicating that it was not in fashion at that time. Forming the form of "Yangge". Lu You wrote a poem called "From time to time": "When the rain comes and the awns grow, rice seedlings are planted in the fields. Every family has good wheat and rice, and Lingge sings everywhere." The word "Lingge" in it can easily be mistaken for the two words "Yangge". Character. In areas south of the Yangtze River, the term "Ling Ge" generally refers to folk songs and farm songs. This word is often found in Lu You's poems, such as "How can a sound of Ling Ge rise up and wash away thousands of miles of fame and fame" ("Roading across Jize"), "Tide-sheng fishing" "Beside the seaside, the moon is setting in the water and singing" ("A small poem in the new autumn with the rhyme of the old people in the window and the autumn trees in front of the door") and so on.
By the Qing Dynasty, Yangko had gradually evolved from Yangko planting, Lingge, and Yangko singing, and gradually became a standardized form of Han singing and dancing that was popular all over the country and has the most documented records. Later, it developed into folk second-small plays (once and one ugly) and three-small plays (sheng, dan, and ugly), in which opera characters were played.
In "Qing Dynasty Bamboo Branch Poems", there are two lines like this: In early spring, the theater changes to a new tune, and half-mixed Yangko is used to entertain guests. This shows that Yangko tune was already present in the theaters during the Qianlong period. However, these two poems still cannot explain whether the "new tune" in the theater has a Yangko opera, or whether the Yangko tune is "mixed" in the opera.
After the founding of New China, Yangko operas in various places have developed to varying degrees. Professional Yangko opera troupes have been established in Fanzhi and Xiangyuan in Shanxi and Yuxian in Hebei. The actors have undergone formal training and their singing skills have improved. be further improved. However, after entering the new era, Yangko opera, as a small folk drama, not only faces fierce competition with major operas, but is also squeezed by modern popular songs and dances. There are fewer and fewer performances, and many Yangko opera types are on the verge of extinction.