Hubei Dagu is a kind of storytelling art popular in Xiaogan, Huanggang and Wuhan. It was originally called "Gushu", also known as "Dagu Storytelling" and "Dagu Jingqiang". After it was named Hubei Dagu in 1950, it was widely circulated in Hubei Province. Originally, Hubei's Gushu had a common origin with the traditional storytelling art of Guci in northern my country, and Guci (Gushu) and storytelling (Pingshu) had a close connection in history. [1] When Buddhism was popular in the Tang Dynasty, believers not only told and sang Buddhist scriptures and historical stories, but also told and sang folk stories, such as "Qiuhu Novels" and "Zhang Yichao Bianwen". In the Song Dynasty, "Bianwen" evolved into Guci, and some professional storybooks appeared. These storybooks were polished and processed by scholars and had a high degree of artistic quality. From the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, Guci became increasingly popular in the north and gradually spread to the south. There are few official records of the history of Hubei Gushu. From the inheritance relationship between the master and apprentice of the drum book artists, it can be inferred that in the late Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, there were famous drum book artists who performed for sale and taught apprentices. The spread of the art before that must have been even longer. Among them, the early famous artist Ding Haizhou (Ding Tieban) was said to have come from Shandong to Wuhan, Hubei via Henan to perform and make a living. He taught five apprentices including Huang Yushan, followed by Kuang Yushan, Pan Hanchi, Wang Mingle, Chen Qianwen, Zhang Mingzhi, etc., and experienced seven generations of master-apprentice inheritance. At the same time, Wei Yuanzong (i.e. Wei Guangshan), Liu Yuanzhong (i.e. Liu Huangchuan) from Henan, as well as famous drum book artists such as Gong Boting and Liu Yuanpeng also came to Hubei to perform and teach apprentices. The drum book artists who came from the north still maintained the characteristics of northern drum lyrics when they sang and sang with northern accents, holding two crescent-shaped steel sickles (or iron or copper) in one hand and a wooden stick in the other hand, beating the drum and sang. Later, in order to be more acceptable to Hubei people, their apprentices gradually changed to singing with Hubei accents, and their singing styles also changed, gradually adopting the accents loved by local people. Then, the steel sickle was gradually replaced by cloud board, the big drum was changed to a small drum, and the rap was also performed in local accents, which was welcomed by the local people and became more and more popular, until Wuhan, eastern Hubei, northern Hubei and other large areas. In this way, drum book took root, blossomed, and took shape in Hubei, becoming an important song type in Hubei. The main schools of Hubei drum are divided into southern and northern routes. Those who use northern dialect accents and still sing with steel sickles are called "Northern Road Drum", and those who use local dialect accents, replace steel sickles with cloud boards, and replace big drums with small drums are called "Southern Road Drum". In addition to the northern and southern routes, there is a third school that combines the strengths of the two schools, named "Northern and Southern Roads". In the early days, Hubei drum was sung in the form of "patting the door", that is, the artists went door to door to sing: first, they beat the drum board for a while in front of each door to attract listeners, and then sang a story. Later, due to the popularity of drum books and the love of more and more people, drum book artists adopted the form of "pointing the stage and beating the field" to perform: drum book artists choose a venue, perch on the book platform or stand in the round field, and the audience watches around. At that time, there was no instrumental accompaniment. The artist selected the book list according to the audience's requirements on the spot, and often performed continuously for three to five days or ten days and a half months; sometimes the audience became more and more, and the book field became larger and larger. Drum book is a form of folk art with both speaking and singing, and speaking as the main part. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was put on the stage, and short pieces reflecting real life themes were mostly used. Gradually, it was changed to singing as the main part and speaking as the auxiliary part. However, in the vast rural towns, the traditional form of speaking as the main part is still adopted, and most of them are medium and long story books. Later, forms such as one-person singing, two-person singing and multi-person group singing were developed, and there were accompaniments such as erhu and sanxian. In a book or a piece, both speaking and singing are indispensable. The plot, dialogues and character descriptions of different characters are often expressed through storytelling skills; while the embodiment of character emotions, inner changes, and the rendering and foil of the plot craze are often mainly completed through drums, boards and singing skills. In terms of Hubei drum singing, different regions and different schools have different singing characteristics. Although the singing is not complicated, it is full of changes, and the singing methods are also unique. In addition, the lightness, strength, slowness and speed of the drum and board are flexibly changed to move people's hearts and attract the audience. Like other forms of folk art, Hubei drum has the common rules of storytelling literature, and pays special attention to the rhyme and rhythm of the lyrics. The lyrics require rhyme. Not only does it require that the lyrics of each paragraph must use words on the same rhyme (that is, words with the same rhyme), but it also requires attention to level and oblique tones, that is, the last word of the upper sentence (the last word) must be an oblique tone, and the last word of the lower sentence must be a level tone. In terms of rhythm, the lyrics of drum books are generally double sentences. If there is an upper sentence, there must be a lower sentence, otherwise the board will not be able to hold down. Each line of lyrics must be divided into sentences in a certain format. There are two types of formats: 223 (seven-character sentences), 334 (ten-character sentences), 343 (ten-character sentences), 23 (five-character sentences), and some irregular sentence structures. In addition, there are a few "single-tail sentences" (the last sentence falls on a single sentence) and "filler sentences" (a sentence is padded after a word as a supplement). In addition, in these sentences, sometimes for the needs of artistic expression or content, free "filler words" or "embedded words" can be added in the middle. Hubei drum uses "Siping Tune" as its basic tune. Its mode, board style, melody, structure, etc. all reflect the style of Hubei folk music. The board style is mostly one board and one eye.