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Cover news reporter Zeng Ye
"Early in the morning, the five squares get up, the five sides are foggy black, the yellow clouds are old and the old ancestors are shining, blowing away the dark clouds to see the sun and the moon..." The earth springs back, and the grass grows warblers fly. Every spring, the "grass gongs and drums" in Xuanhan County, Dazhou, Sichuan Province, will "make noise" in the fields. When this "field art" is performed, the gongs and drums are sung in unison, the songs are loud, the dance is majestic, and it is quite local.
Grass Gong and Drum Contest Song Contest
Xuanhan County has a large number of Tujia people, with a total population of nearly 70,000 people, and there are many types of gongs and drums. The "grass gong and drum" is the only type of local one that is only performed during the day, and is known as the "labor march" of the Tujia people. In 2008, the "Grass Gong and Drum" of the Tujia family in eastern Sichuan was included in the list of national intangible cultural heritage protection.
The "Grass Gong and Drum" has a history of more than 3,000 years
"In Xuanhan, 'Grass Gong and Drum', also known as 'He Yang Chun', is a folk art form performed in the fields after the opening of spring." Gui Decheng, chairman of the Xuanhan County Folk Writers Association, introduced that the "grass gong and drum" originated in the ancient Ba people period. At that time, people switched from fishing and hunting to farming, to drive away wild animals, locusts, and at the same time to sacrifice mountain gods, drumming and chanting, which later evolved into a labor mountain song.
In some of the surviving documents, Gui Decheng found the "song head" of "He Yangchun", telling the origin and origin of this folk art form. After Shennong "ruled the five grains", there was a plague of locusts in the fields, and Tianzi "could not be cured", so he collected the help of strange people from all over the world. Two "capable people" were elected, one named Chen Gong and the other named Liu Yuan.
Grass gong and drum teaching activities
How powerful are these two people? In the "song head" contained in the literature, it is said: "The two talents stored eight buckets, their mouths were arguing, they spoke wildly, they sang the golden lotus, the song field sang for three days, the insect locusts suddenly disappeared, and the Heavenly Son Dragon was overjoyed and was named the champion of the song."
According to research, there is also a record in the Zhou Li that "beat the earth drum to enjoy the field domain". "The gongs and drums of grass should have originated as early as the Western Zhou Dynasty and taken shape in the Han Dynasty, when agricultural production was rapidly developing." Gui Decheng told reporters that according to the existing literature, it is speculated that the grass gong and drum have a history of at least 3,000 years.
Literature records that the grass gong and drum "song head" singing segment Zeng Ye photographed
Xuanhan County is located in the southern foothills of Daba Mountain, where the mountains are high, the roads are dangerous, the soil is thin, and the Tujia people slash and burn, and live by burning crops such as bud grain, Bashan beans, and potatoes. Spring is the season when wild grass grows wildly and pests breed, and it is the time when monkeys and wild boars are most active. In order to drive away pests and wild beasts and eliminate labor fatigue, when weeding grass, the gong and drum were brought to the mountain, and the gong and drum were beaten while shouting and singing, which gradually developed into a mature "field art".
Later, the Tujia people who lived here were handed down from generation to generation, a group of people hoeing grass in the field and singing, three or five people on the ground banging gongs and drums to lead the singing, the lyrics were some oral improvisation, some were fixed singing sections, most of them were funny and humorous, only performed during the day, in addition to encouraging the laborers, they could also play the role of supervising the slackers, so it was called the "labor march" of the Tujia people.
Committed to creating a "new business card" for the integration of culture and tourism development
"The performance of the gongs and drums is rich in form, with 'suite' as the main technique, and the form of expression is a combination of instrumental music and vocal music, which can be sung from early in the morning until the sun sets, and the lyrics are not repeated." For example, Gui Decheng said that just the singing section in the early morning period includes a number of routines such as "watching the sky", "playing dew", "standing five doors", etc., and it takes at least two hours to sing them all.
Gui Decheng introduced that the "viewing of the sky" is equivalent to the weather forecast and the interpretation of the current farming seasons; "dew water" is mainly to remind farmers to pay attention to safety and impart farming experience and skills; "Li Wumen" is to worship the gods of the five directions in the southeast, south, and northwest, praying that all the farming activities will go smoothly, hoping for a good harvest in the future.
Grass gong and drum performance Feng Ruibo photo
In the 1950s and 1960s, grass gongs and drums flourished in the Xuanhan area. At that time, each production team had a gong and drum team, a special "song head" to lead the singing, and a gong and drummer who was specifically responsible for beating the gong and drum. Dozens of hundreds of people worked collectively, and the grass gongs and drums cheered up next to them, and the scene was very spectacular. After the land contract was contracted to the households, the scale of production was small, and most of the gong and drum teams during collective labor were disbanded, and the "grass gongs and drums" fell into the dilemma of no successor.
In 2008, the gongs and drums of the Tujia family in eastern Sichuan were included in the list of national intangible cultural heritage protection, which attracted great attention from the local government. In recent years, Xuanhan County has vigorously implemented the "global tourism" development strategy, made every effort to create a famous tourist county in Tianfu, vigorously built tourist scenic spots such as the Bashan Grand Canyon, and "lit up tourist scenic spots with local culture". A number of cultural heritages, represented by the grass gongs and drums, have been developed and utilized to show their style in the Bashan Grand Canyon.
"Grass Gong and Drum" Wang Xingzhai photo
In the summer of 2020, the 10th Xuecao Gong and Drum Competition will be sung in Xuanhan. The participating teams wore traditional Tujia costumes, singing, reading, knocking and playing, and their voices were full of emotion and charm. In order to make the gong and drum of the grass carry forward, Xuanhan County has held the song contest of the gong and drum of the grass for many consecutive years, and has also established a protected area at the place where the gong and drum originated, created the grass gong and drum protection association, and encouraged and supported the inheritors to establish the grass gong and drum training institute.
Nowadays, the gong and drum of grass has become an important tourism resource attracting tourists in the local area, and it is also becoming a "new business card" for the integration and development of culture and tourism in Xuanhan and even Dazhou City.
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