Daocao gongs and drums (Tujia people's daocao gongs and drums in eastern Sichuan)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: weeding gongs and drums

Applicant: Xuanhan County, Sichuan Province

Item No.: 58

Project No.: Ⅱ - 27

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: Traditional Music

Region: Sichuan Province

Type: Extension Project

Applicant: Xuanhan County, Sichuan Province

Protection unit: Xuanhan Cultural Center

A brief introduction to the drum and Gong of the Tujia people in eastern Sichuan

Applicant: Xuanhan County, Sichuan Province

As a popular form of folk songs in Tujia inhabited areas, the drum and Gong for weeding grass is also known as "Da Nao song", commonly known as "Da Nao". During the weeding season, Tujia people gather dozens or even hundreds of people to work together. At this time, they often invite two singers to perform in front of the weeding crowd. One is beating drums, the other is beating gongs. They sing and dance with the sound of gongs and drums, while the weeding crowd sings from the side. Most of the lyrics are rhymed to the end, and the content is divided into "Song head" (commonly known as "Introduction"), "please God", "Yang Song", "send God" and other parts. When dancing, the hands swing with the steps, the left hand with the left foot, and the right hand with the right foot. It is light and lively, soft and firm. The music is flexible and diverse. The singers can change their lyrics according to the time sequence and the weather, so as to activate the atmosphere and turn the monotonous and hard-working farming into a lively collective activity.

The Tujia people's grass collecting gongs and drums in eastern Sichuan, also known as "digging songs", "mountain gongs and drums" and "harmony gongs and drums", are folk music forms formed by Tujia people in the process of long-term field work, playing gongs and drums while singing. Tujia people call rice cultivation as "weeding" and corn cultivation as "weeding". These two farming activities are carried out in midsummer. In order to relieve fatigue and cheer up their spirits, Tujia people use gongs and drums to boost their spirits when they work, so they are called "weeding gongs and drums". At present, the drums and gongs are mainly spread in 55 villages and towns in Xuanhan County, Sichuan Province, and the surrounding areas of Wanyuan, Kaijiang, and Kaixian County, Chongqing. Its origin can be traced back to the Ba people's transition from fishing and hunting to farming civilization.

There are various forms of performance of Tujia people's grass collecting gongs and drums in eastern Sichuan, including "two people playing drums and one person playing gongs" and "three people playing drums and gongs together". The performance forms can be divided into "wenluogu" and "wuluogu". The lyrics of the Tujia people's drums and gongs are mainly composed of seven characters and five characters, sometimes in the form of ten characters and four characters. Their sentences are highly concise, and most of them use fu, Bi and Xing techniques. The lining words are mostly function words. The lyrics are composed of four parts: introduction, inviting God, Yangge and sending God. The introduction, inviting God and sending God all have fixed lyrics. Yangge is the main content of the song. It is mostly improvised and sung along with editing. It involves a wide range of contents, including national history, production knowledge, religious sacrifice, etiquette and filial piety, love between men and women, daily trivia, flirting and so on. Most of the music melody of Tujia people's caochao gongs and drums is national pentatonic mode, with high pitched and fluent singing, bold and unconstrained, sonorous and powerful, simple and generous. Its music is a single or multi paragraph structure of upper and lower sentences, with strong local characteristics.

As an important carrier of Tujia's population history for thousands of years (local people call it "meat oral biography"), Tujia people's long-term production and life in the east of Sichuan Province have left a true portrayal of their rich traditional music culture, which has important artistic appreciation and research value. With the acceleration of modernization process, local people have gradually lost interest in traditional folk activities. In addition, the old artists have passed away one after another. There is no inheritance of Tujia people's grass collecting gongs and drums in eastern Sichuan, which is on the verge of extinction and needs urgent rescue and protection.

Chinese PinYin : Hao Cao Luo Gu Chuan Dong Tu Jia Zu Hao Cao Luo Gu