▲Caption: Li Fan Oil painting "Desert Love" on canvas, 60×80cm
Wen Guo Jingrui
Before the Han Dynasty, this land in northern Shaanxi was once overgrown with trees, lush green grass, birds flying together, and thick soil and fertile soil. After the Han Dynasty, the vegetation here was devastated, making the entire northern Shaanxi land become full of ravines, undulating mountains, dry climate, barren and desolate. After that, northern Shaanxi was the forefront of the Central Plains regime to resist the invasion of northern nomads, and the harsh environment coupled with frequent wars caused the people of northern Shaanxi to suffer hardships and hardships.
So, why did the barren northern shaanxi land create a unique folk song? Where does her future go? The author will make a preliminary exploration and answer to these questions through this article.
1. The influence of geographical environment on folk songs in northern Shaanxi
The influence of geography on culture has long been well known. For example, "Picking Betel Nuts" must be a southern folk song in our country, but it cannot be a northern folk song. The reason is simple, because there is no betel nut in the north of our country. Careful cultural scholars may notice that there is a big difference in the sound of birdsong in the north and south of our country, the sound of the south is lingering and gentle, and the birdsong in the north is desolate and strong. This is undoubtedly due to different geographical environments. Harsh environment, extreme heat and cold, frequent drought, rampant sand and dust, and constant war in northern Shaanxi. It has created the strong and resolute, pure and simple character characteristics of the people of northern Shaanxi. This character characteristic is reflected in the singing method of folk songs in northern Shaanxi, which is grand and high-pitched, refreshing and tough. It can be said that the original ecological singing method of northern Shaanxi folk songs is not singing but roaring songs! It seems that the original ecological singing method can better reflect the situation and charm that the folk songs of northern Shaanxi want to express. It's the environment that affects people, and people affect songs.
Secondly, the creation of folk songs by the people of northern Shaanxi? Have a crush on chanting? The author believes that this has a great relationship with the unique geographical environment and single production method in northern Shaanxi. This place in northern Shaanxi is surrounded by the Yellow River in the north, the desert in the west, and the Qinling Mountains in the south, and in the past when the level of productivity was low, the people of northern Shaanxi were basically isolated from the outside world. The smallholder economy is their only mode of production. In such a situation, the entertainment materials of the people of northern Shaanxi are particularly poor. And people can't help but express their joys, sorrows, sorrows, and fears, so that composing and singing folk songs becomes the only choice for them to express their emotions. If we carefully study the lyrics of folk songs in northern Shaanxi, we will find that most of these folk songs are created by individuals, and the maximum number is only five people. The author has examined the creative process of the song "Exorcist spirits". According to the locals, this song was composed by three young people in their village when they drove the mules to work in the fields, and then sang it all over the northern shaanxi region. When a folk song is created, it spreads, and after many singers modify and process it, it can no longer be changed, and a slight change is the destruction of the work, so that a folk song is fixed. Most of the folk songs of northern Shaanxi were created and formed in this way.
2. The influence of Taoist, Confucian, and grassland cultures on folk songs in northern Shaanxi
The founder of The Taoist doctrine was Lao Tzu, a native of Guanzhong, Shaanxi. Lao Tzu taught people to conform to nature, to be content and happy, and to let the poor understand that if they resign themselves to fate and go with the flow, they can be better off. The origin of Taoist thought is not far from northern Shaanxi and can easily spread to northern Shaanxi, so Taoist thought is most likely the direct cause of the attitude of the people of northern Shaanxi to know their fate. For a long time, the people of northern Shaanxi have eaten the simplest food, worn the most simple clothes, and lived the most ordinary life. Living in shocking and extremely tragic circumstances, but still enjoying themselves, singing, even with tears can still play songs, readers should know the song "Lamentations", it was originally a folk song of Ansai in northern Shaanxi, after being processed by modern musicians, it was first played at the memorial service of Comrade Liu Zhidan in 1936, and thus spread. Why the desolate and sad northern Shaanxi can create countless folk songs is most likely the spiritual source of creation and singing.
Confucian culture was originally designed to educate the upper rulers, and it is reasonable to say that it is not directly related to the folk songs of northern Shaanxi. What is to be explained here is the influence of certain creative techniques of the Book of Poetry as a Confucian classic (the main body of the Book of Poetry is that the author of folk songs has always disagreed with the classification of Confucian classics) on the creation of folk songs in northern Shaanxi. In the creation of the "Book of Poetry", a large number of methods of Bi and Xing are used, and the author does not know whether the creation of the "Book of Poetry" has the contribution of the people of northern Shaanxi, but the creative methods of Bi and Xing in the "Book of Poetry" are widely used in the folk songs of northern Shaanxi, so that the folk songs of northern Shaanxi always give people a feeling of natural flow of emotions. For example: "The duck in the upper river, the goose in the lower river, a pair of hairy eyes looking at the brother.". "Sheep diarrhea hand towel three blue, we meet a face easy to live hard." This is the beginning of two northern Shaanxi folk songs, and similar opening methods account for the main body in northern Shaanxi folk songs. "Guan Guan Ju Dove, in the River Continent, Lady Gentleman Good Gentleman".
This is the opening verse in the Book of Poetry and guan ju. A simple comparison shows that the contrast between the two and the application of xing are the same. The influence of Confucian culture on folk songs in northern Shaanxi can be seen.
Northern Shaanxi is the place where the northern grassland culture and the central plains farming culture blend, and the influence of the grassland culture on the folk songs of northern Shaanxi is long and far-reaching. The heroic, unrestrained, cheerful and open-minded demeanor of the grassland people is deeply integrated into the folk songs of northern Shaanxi, thus strengthening the characteristics of high pitched, slow rhythm and strong emotions of folk songs in northern Shaanxi. Some northern Shaanxi folk songs and grassland folk songs are difficult to distinguish which kind of folk songs it is without explanation. It can be seen that the exchange between the two cultures has reached the level of water and milk.
3. The heyday of folk songs in northern Shaanxi
From the 1930s to the 1950s was the heyday of the development of folk songs in northern Shaanxi. During this period, Chairman Mao of the Party Central Committee first came to northern Shaanxi, and northern Shaanxi became a liberated area, while many cultural celebrities, including Xian Xinghai, poured into northern Shaanxi. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, northern Shaanxi was the general rear area of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression commanded by the Party Central Committee. Immediately after that, the people of northern Shaanxi ushered in the birth of a new China. All this has opened the isolated gateway to northern Shaanxi, and the people of northern Shaanxi have accepted the progressive culture from all sides with full enthusiasm, and their hearts have been shaken as never before, which has strongly stimulated their enthusiasm for folk song creation. The people of northern Shaanxi have successively created a series of folk songs such as "The Sky in the Liberated Areas Is a Clear Sky", "Dongfang Hong", "Orchid Flower", "Nanniwan", "Turning Over the Road", "High-rise Buildings and Flat Ground", etc. These folk songs have reached their peak in ideology and artistry after being processed by musical artists. After the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, the folk songs of northern Shaanxi were strongly suppressed and have been silent ever since.
4. The present and future of folk songs in northern Shaanxi
It can be said that the folk songs of northern Shaanxi were created by the people of northern Shaanxi in the process of dealing with the yellow land for a long time, and the fragrance of earth is emitted between the lines of their works. Once the people of northern Shaanxi left the yellow land, they lost the inspiration and source of folk song creation. With the surging tide of the large-scale development of the western region, the northern part of Shaanxi has also been integrated into the torrent of urbanization and modernization of the motherland. With the sharp decline of the rural population in northern Shaanxi, the silence of folk songs in northern Shaanxi is irreversible. This is like Li Bai who lost inspiration for poetry once he was invited into the palace. Although some musicians have gone from village to village to folk style, and have also created some folk songs, trying to reverse the decline of folk songs in northern Shaanxi through this move, they are ultimately similar and not similar, and can only be called songs created by northern Shaanxi people, but cannot listen to folk songs in northern Shaanxi. Although its spirit is commendable, it is a nostalgia that embraces the lack of defects, and the salvation of the dead sheep. Folk songs in northern Shaanxi are the products of a specific time and space, and with the changes of time and space, they will inevitably withdraw from the historical stage. Even some singing artists who have gone out from northern Shaanxi are convinced of this.
Of course, the decline and fall of folk songs in northern Shaanxi does not mean that the cultural and artistic creation ability of northern Shaanxi people is not there, and perhaps a certain kind of artistic creation boom broke out in northern Shaanxi in a certain period.
Extended reading: Wang Erni and Ah Bao's "Zhang Lantern Color" is too exciting
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