The culture and art of the Yao people

The Yao people have created culture and art with distinctive national characteristics in their long-term historical development. The Yao people have myths and legends about their national origins in ancient times. The ancient pre-Qin book "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" contains the original record of the Panhu myth. In addition to the Panhu myth, there are also myths that reflect the ancient social life of this nation, such as "Pangu created the world", "Fuxi Zimei created the people", etc. Ballads occupy a very important position in its culture and art. They have a long history, various forms, and rich content. They include creation songs that tell the origin of the world and all things; ancient songs that describe the history of the nation; hunting songs and farming seasonal songs that express working life; love songs. ; Musical songs used for sacrifices; revolutionary struggle songs praising the resistance struggle, etc. Among them, "Song of King Pan" has more than 3,000 lines of lyrics and dozens of song titles. It is a great artistic treasure of the Yao people. In addition, there are epic and beautiful legends, stories, fables, fairy tales, jokes, riddles, proverbs, etc. Some describe unfortunate experiences in history, some praise the uprising struggle against oppression; some expose the cruelty of feudal exploitation; some praise steadfast love; some describe national customs, etc., showing the Yao people's thoughts, moral concepts and Social life has high artistic value.

Yao music and dance, like their folk songs, originated from labor and religion. Famous dances include Changgu and Bronze Drums, which are large-scale dances performed to worship Panwang and Miluotuo. There are dozens of popular folk dances, including lion dance, grass dragon dance, flower stick dance, incense-burning dance, teacher-seeking dance, three-yuan dance, ancestor dance, gongcao dance, rattan dance and so on. "Pan Wang Ge" has 24 types of tunes, and the singing style is quite complicated. The production songs and drinking songs circulated among the people have gentle and joyful tunes; the bitter songs and elegiac songs have sad and deep tunes; and the love songs are cheerful and moving. The Yao people's long drum drum and bronze drum drum have been put on the stage and are very popular among the masses.

The arts and crafts of the Yao people include printing and dyeing, cross-stitching, embroidery, brocade, bamboo weaving, carving, painting, making, etc. They are diverse in form and rich in connotation, among which batik and cross-stitching are particularly famous.

As early as the Tang and Song Dynasties, the Yao people began to learn to use Chinese characters to record the history of their nation and compile various classics. So far, there are a large number of Yao historical classics scattered among the Yao people in various places, including the famous historical document "Guoshan Bang" and a large number of religious scriptures, song books, family trees, etc., which are an important contribution of the Yao people to the history and culture of the motherland. "Guoshan Bang" is valuable information for studying the history of the Yao people.

Yao artists: Lan Huaichang (Chairman of Guangxi Writers Association, Chairman of Federation of Literary and Art Circles), Qin Fuzhan (scholar), Xu Jing (young director)

Main Yao literature: "Pan Wang's Scroll" "(also known as "Crossing the Mountain List"), "Miluotuo", "Bonu River" (modern novel), "Legend of Yaoyuan".