Chinese Folk Music
In the field of music culture,Chinese folk songs are the important basis for singing, dancing, quyi, and opera art. As early as in the pre-Qin period,the ancient Han people created folk songs, musical instruments, and music. In the Han Dynasty, a national musical institution called yuefu was set up by the government, which was responsible for collecting folk songs and compiling them into yuefu poems.Folk songs in the Han Dynasty were classified into "tuge"(solo singing without music), "dange" (duet ), and "xianghege" (responsive singing). From Northern Wei to Sui and Tang dynasties,folk Han music in southern and northern China were collectively called "qingshangyue" or "qingyue," including folks songs and dancing music, forming part of the yanyue "banquet music."In the Tang Dynasty,folk songs were called “quzi." In the relics unearthed from the Cangjing Cave at Duinhuang, as many as 590 quzici songs were discovered,involving more than 80 kinds of melodies, such as "pusaman," and "jianqici." In the Song and Yuan dynasties, the zaju (variety play) music and southern opera music became the main form of music, and they also absorbed a lot of musical elements of folk songs. Zaju music was formed by absorbing gewudaqu (singing and dancing performance), northern narrative-singing music, and folk ditties, and southern opera music mainly included the ditties and songs that were popular among the folks in the south, created by absorbing the popular cidiao (tonal patterns) and the music of gewudaqu.
The reason why Han folk songs became a treasure of folk culture for centuries and millenniums is that they originated from the life of the working people, expressing their true feelings. The working people were the creators of folk songs. They loved folk songs and pass them down by mouth and heart,generation by generation.Any interesting passage of folk songs survives the continuous erosion of time, and is jointly selected and processed by the people,gradually developing and becoming rich and perfect in spreading and passing down. Han folksongs have short structures, flexible rhythms, concise and simple melodies, sincere feelings in the lyrics,and vivid musical images. These folk song features bring about strong artistic effects. Widely loved by the people,these folk songs were passed down generation by generation simply through mouth and heart, and always kept its unique freshness.
China's vast territory, complicated topography and climate, and different folk customs created a rich variety of folk songs with local color and taste. The folk songs of the Han Chinese can be classified into three basic types-haozi,folk songs,and ditties by social function and artistic feature.
