Lishui boatman

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Lishui boatman's song

Applicant: Li County, Hunan Province

Item No.: 64

Project No.: Ⅱ - 33

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: Traditional Music

Region: Hunan Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Li County, Hunan Province

Protection unit: Lixian Cultural Center

Brief introduction of Lishui boatman's number:

Applicant: Li County, Hunan Province

Lixian County is located in the north of Hunan Province and the west edge of Dongting Lake. This is an important town in Northwest Hunan, known as "the gateway of Jiuli". In Ming and Qing Dynasties, it became an important commercial port and a distribution center for materials in and out of Northwest Hunan. Due to the special geographical environment, the long-distance transportation here can only be carried by water. Most of the working people along the Lishui River, censhui River and Daohe River in Lixian County make a living by shipping goods. There are nearly 1000 ships, many masts, and 8000 boatman. Each large wooden boat has at least 20 trackers. In the process of sailing against the water to pull fiber, in order to concentrate strength, inspire spirit and unify pace, a unique labor chant, which was transformed from local minor, naturally appeared, was Lishui boatman chant.

The theme of Lishui boatman's song is to reflect the miserable life and working scenes of boatman. There is no fixed libretto and libretto, and there is no need to be a special teacher. It is handed down from generation to generation by the oral instruction of ancestors. Most of these songs are improvised according to time, place and people. They are popular, but full of artistic charm. Its sentence structure is divided into seven characters and five characters. Generally, it is sung by one person and sung by all people. It is magnificent and powerful. In addition, there are songs specially sung to ship owners and onlookers, such as "the dark clouds in the mountains will arrive immediately, and fiber pulling is like crossing an overpass. The mud is rotten, the road is slippery and difficult to walk, the sweat and rain flow into troughs, the wind blows and the river bends, and brother Qing needs shoes to wear. Due to different regions, Lishui boatman's songs can be divided into Shanghe and Xiahe. Shanghe tune is sung above Shimen and below Sangzhi. Because of the high mountains and steep waters, narrow rivers, many beachheads and rocks, it's very difficult to transport goods by boat. Therefore, the boatman's chants are loud and powerful, the rhythm is bright, the lining words are more than the singing words, and he is full of fearless fighting spirit. This kind of ship is mainly rowing.

Lishui boatman's song was formed with the emergence of merchant ships, developed with the development of merchant ships, and endangered with the disappearance of Board Merchant ships. Since the reform and opening up, the transportation industry has developed by leaps and bounds. The automobile and train transportation has replaced the water transportation in the Lishui River Basin. 90% of the boat people have already changed their careers to seek a new life. The boatman fiber drawing has become a thing of the past. The older generation of boatman died one after another because of their age. In this case, the old boatman's song of Lishui River, which was once famous at home and abroad, is in danger of being lost.