Weishan Yi and Hui Autonomous County is one of the earliest developed areas in Yunnan. Stone coffin tombs from the Neolithic and Warring States periods have been discovered in the county. It is also the birthplace of the Nanzhao regime in the Tang Dynasty. There are still many Nanzhao relics and descendants of the Nanzhao royal family in the county. The Yi people in Weishan call themselves "Lalo Po", "Po" means people, that is, "Lalo people", also known as "Tujia", that is, a native ethnic group. "Da Ge" is called "Ouke" in Yi language. It is the most widely distributed, influential and long-standing dance in Weishan. There are many legends about its origin among the people: According to legend, during the tribal period, the Yi people and the Lisu people had a war. The Yi people were defeated and trapped on a hilltop. As the sun was setting, the Yi people were quick to think and lit a bonfire at the mouth of the mountain. Everyone circled around the bonfire, waving swords and sticks, and shouted in unison "Lisu people, watch" (this is the main line in the song). The Lisu people at the foot of the mountain saw the flames rising to the sky on the hilltop and heard the shouts. They mistakenly thought that the Yi reinforcements had arrived and hurriedly retreated. In order to commemorate the victory of this battle, the Yi people started the custom of singing around the bonfire. Zuo Weizeng (born in 1913), an old artist from Ma'anshan, told another legend: During the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang went south and planned to make his soldiers dance with swords around the fire, so that a small number of soldiers could scare off the powerful enemy. In order to commemorate the victory, the fire dance started. The swords danced in the song now are just like Guandao. It is also said that during the Tang Dynasty, during the Six Zhao period, the leader of Mengshe Zhao (Nanzhao), Piluoge, built a Songming Tower on Longxu Mountain to unify the six states. Taking advantage of the Xinghui Festival to worship the ancestors, he held a banquet on the Songming Tower and summoned the leaders of the Five Zhaos to return to Mengshechuan to worship their ancestors. During the banquet, Piluoge withdrew from the table and set fire to the tower, burning the leaders of the Five Zhaos to death. Piluoge easily annexed the Five Zhaos and established the Nanzhao Kingdom. To celebrate the victory, they celebrated by singing on the 25th day of the sixth lunar month every year. This is also the reason why the Torch Festival of the Yi people in Weishan is not on the 24th day, but on the 25th day. There are many historical documents recording "singing": Fan Chuo of the Tang Dynasty recorded in "Manshu" that "young men and women went to the alleys at night, blowing pots and reed pipes, or blowing leaves,... to call each other." The Menghua Prefecture Chronicles of the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty recorded: "At banquets, people dance and sing." The Menghua Prefecture Chronicles Draft recorded: "At weddings and funerals, guests... During dances, one foot is suspended and the sheep dance is performed. One person plays the sheng in the middle of the dance." The Midu County Chronicles (adjacent to Weishan County) recorded: "There are more than 20 Yi villages in the territory. When they come to the festival to welcome the gods, they choose a wide open space in the middle of the field, set up a swing frame, and two poles stand opposite each other. There are lanterns and flags on the top and incense burning on the bottom. At night, men and women dance and gather to sing. ... On the 14th day of the first lunar month, they go to the Iron Pillar Temple to lead the singing, kill sheep as sacrifices, burn incense, and come to sing again the next day." The Zhaozhou Chronicles also recorded the custom of leading the singing at the Iron Pillar Temple. There is a painting of "Singing under the Pine Tree" painted in the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty in the Wenlong Pavilion of Weibao Mountain (see Appendix 16 of the Summary), which may be a scene of the descendants of the Nanzhao Meng family singing and worshiping their ancestors. The back mountain of the existing "Singing Picture" is still a singing field. A large amount of historical data proves that Weishan singing has a long history. Weishan Yi men, women, old and young can sing. They sing during festivals, temple fairs, weddings and funerals, the hundredth day after the death of an old man, the three-year mourning period, the movie, and before and after meetings. "When the reed pipe sounds, the foot pole itches. When the flute is blown, the tune flies." Singing is performed wherever there are people gathering. Weishan Yi weddings and funerals are inseparable from singing. Weishan Yi people are relatively free in love and marriage. Many young men and women met and got married in the singing field. When the Yi people hold a wedding, they have to hold a "Huazi Naofang", that is, invite twelve people to dress up as beggars, cooks, gentlemen, fortune tellers, monkeys, etc. They have to sing impromptu tunes and say auspicious words. The actors must have the talent to sing and sing tunes. In the evening, singing is an indispensable event. When the Yi family holds a funeral, they have to sing and pay tribute. However, the recipient of the sacrifice must be an old man who has lived for more than 60 years. The older he is, the bigger the singing scene will be. The life story of the deceased must be sung during the singing. The funeral is very grand. At that time, "Abi" will be invited to chant scriptures and guests will be invited to sing all night long. The funeral will be held after three days of excitement. Songs must be sung when the coffin is opened, buried, buried, and when guests are seen off and thanked. When the deceased is 100 days old or when a new grave is moved or when mourning is over, songs must be sung on the grave. This type of singing has strict regulations that must be followed, and the singing must be presided over by an authoritative person. Weishan Yi singing can be divided into the following five different types according to the region. Their costumes, music, movements, styles and customs are all different. 1 "Weibaoshan singing". Weibaoshan is the farming and grazing land of Xinuluo, the ancestor of Nanzhao. There is a mountain patrol hall in the mountain, which was built in the second year of Kaiyuan in the Tang Dynasty (714 AD). The statue of Xinuluo is enshrined in the hall. For more than a thousand years, although it has been destroyed and rebuilt several times, the incense has never stopped. Every year from the first to the fifteenth day of the second lunar month, tens of thousands of believers and men will come to worship and burn incense during the Weibao Mountain Mountain Festival. From the fourteenth to the seventeenth day, the descendants of Xinuluo will gather at the singing field behind the mountain of the patrol temple to sing. It is said that the sixteenth day is the birthday of Xinuluo, and it is the "singing day". They will go to the temple to slaughter pigs and sheep to pay tribute to the former king. During the dinner, there are eight people at a table, and usually more than fifty tables. After the meal, they sing songs and say: "When our ancestor was alive, he was a singer and loved singing. Now we have to sing songs to celebrate him." After the young women go down the mountain, they have to go to the bathing pond at the foot of Fengchuan Mountain to take a bath. It is said that Xinuluo's mother took a bath here and cured her illness. To this day, women are vying to come here to bathe, eliminate disasters and pray for children. At night, they sing songs in turn, all night long. Yunbi Township, about thirty miles away from the Weibao Mountain area, is the site of the Nanzhao Golden Temple ruins. They and the Yi people in the Weibao Mountain area maintain the same clothing, color and folk songs. The singing party in front of the Xunshan Temple on the 16th day of the first lunar month and the singing party in front of the Tuzhu Temple in Longxu Mountain on the 19th day of the second lunar month are both to commemorate the ancestor of Nanzhao, Xinuluo. Yi people in both places must participate. 2 "Dongshan Singing". The Dongshan Yi people are called "Dongshan Po" or "La Luo Po" locally, also known as "Misheba", that is, "Mengshe people". It is very likely that they have close ties with the descendants of the Mengshe royal family of Nanzhao. Many elderly people in Dongshan said that their ancestors moved from the city. The Dongshan Yi people have preserved their traditional cultural customs more completely than the Yi people in other places in Weishan. The singing in Dongshan is very particular about rules. There are specified dates for singing, and it is not allowed to sing casually. Singing in each season must be carried out strictly according to the prescribed procedures. "February 8" is the biggest festival of the Yi people. On this day, the Yi people will kill chickens and sheep, hang the slaughtered sheep on trees, and use branches to block the road at the entrance of the village, which is called "Zha Dalu". Generally, no one in the village goes out. In the evening, the whole village, young and old, sing and dance, drink and revel, all night long. After singing in the Dongshan area, they also have to "grab guests". The family that grabs more guests will be blessed. Every singing competition has a host. The head of the song must be invited in advance. Before the start, a bonfire is burned in the singing field, and then the prestigious old man in the village is invited to open the performance. The old man raises the reed pipe above his head with both hands and calls "Get up, get up!" It is called "sacrifice to the reed pipe". Everyone shouts "Hua--Hey!" around the fire before slowly entering the singing field to sing. The big knife in the singing competition is a sacred object. It is usually placed in the public house. Every time a knife is beaten, a cow must be killed for sacrifice. Different routines and lyrics are used for singing in different occasions. Happy songs are sung at weddings, and funeral songs are sung at funerals. There is basically no singing activity during the busy farming season. During singing, if there are people who do not follow the rules, they will be warned at the least and expelled from the singing field at the worst. 3. "Xishan singing". The Xishan area is wider than the Dongshan area, and it is mixed with foreign ethnic groups, so it is relatively open. All Yi temple fairs, such as the "Chashan Temple Fair" on the eighth day of the first lunar month, the "Zijinshan Fair" on the ninth day of the first lunar month, and the "Longwei Tuzhu Temple Fair" on the fourteenth day of the ninth lunar month, must hold singing in front of the temple. This kind of singing is held during the day, without a host. People gather from all directions, and there is no particular procedure. As long as the reed pipe sounds, people gather and sing. Singing is an important part of the life of the Yi people in Xishan. No matter what the occasion, there are few restrictions, and anyone can give full play to their talents in the singing field. 4. "Wuyin singing". The Wuyin area is the central residential area of the Yi people in Weishan. Wuyin singing is the most widely spread of several types of singing in Weishan. Generally, it is performed at night on weddings, funerals, festivals, or auspicious days for raising beams and setting up pillars. "Xiaojizu Mountain Temple Fair", "Linbaoshan Fair", "Laoheipeng", "God of Wealth Fair" and other temple fairs also perform singing during the day, especially the "February 8th" at the Axu geothermal pool in Niujie Township. At that time, Yi men, women, old and young from a hundred miles around will rush to take a bath. At night, any flat ground around will become a singing field. Wuyin singing is no longer concerned with traditional procedures and rules, and the singing field is relatively free. When singing, men cover their ears with their hands and sing in falsetto, with men and women singing in unison. "Qinghua String Song" spread in the southern part of Qinghua, also known as "Nanshan Song", is also called "Han Song" because the lyrics are sung in Chinese during the singing. String song is danced around an offering table. Although the dance fire is burned, it is only for the onlookers to keep warm. During the singing, the male dancers hold and play a 1-meter-long sanxian, and the female dancers wear long sheepskin coats. After the singing begins, they take off the sheepskin coats, roll them up and hold them in their left hands, and clap with their right hands to accompany the dance. 5 "Ma'anshan singing". Ma'anshan belonged to "Mongol Nanzhao" during the Nanzhao period, and was a high-altitude, cold and barren area. The Qingyun singing in Ma'anshan District is the representative, with a bright and varied rhythm and rough and unrestrained movements. During the singing, one person must dance with a Guandao or a stick. Every year from the third to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month in the Ma'anshan area, singing is held. Since ancient times, it has been stipulated that each village takes turns to be the host. In addition to the temple fair singing, every Qingshan singing also has a host. The host must set up a liver plate (food and wine with pig liver as the main ingredient) in advance. Invite the song leader and singers to the table, and during the banquet, the singers use the tune to discuss how to play the song for the host. After the head of the song is agreed upon, the host will go to light the bonfire, and the head of the song will enter the singing field first and call with the reed pipe before the singing can begin. Weishan Qingyun singing has the greatest influence and has participated in many ethnic folk art performances held in and outside the province. In 1956, it attended the National Minority Folk Art Performance. In 1980, it won the Outstanding Program Award in the Provincial Ethnic Song and Dance Festival and was invited to perform in Japan.