When did singing and dancing originate?

The origin of singing and dancing has already appeared along with labor in primitive society. The origin of singing and dancing is very early, and it has already appeared along with labor in primitive society. It arises from labor and in turn serves productive labor. In the ancient book "Shu Jing? Shun Dian", there is a record about "I hit the stone and picked up the stone, and all the beasts started dancing". People pretended to be various beasts, imitated their movements, and made various dance postures, while people beside them were beating chimes to accompany them.

In "Lu's Spring and Autumn Period? Ancient Music", another situation is recorded, which involves dancing with an oxtail and singing eight pieces of music. Like these, they all show the joy of people at that time after obtaining wild beasts in their hunting life. They used their own labor to hunt wild animals and won. Through singing and dancing, people wanted to re-satisfy the joy of finally winning after intense labor; on the other hand, they also used it to inspire people's mood for the next hunt.

After primitive agricultural production came about, there were also songs and dances that reflected this kind of agricultural production and labor. It is said that Yiqi's "Wax Ci" at that time was dancing and singing at the same time: "Let the soil return to its original place! Water flows into the ditch! No more insects, and grass and trees grow in the swamp!"

This kind of prayer-like singing and dancing reflected people’s expectations for agricultural production at that time. It can be seen that the original singing and dancing had obvious characteristics of directly serving productive labor. In addition to songs and dances that directly reflected production labor, there were also songs and dances that expressed war life. For example, there is a kind of "gan dance", which involves dancing with a weapon called "gan" and performing thrusting movements in war.

For the survival of the tribe and for self-defense, war was inevitable in people's lives at that time. The dance that expresses war not only means to re-satisfy the joy of victory in war, but at the same time, it is also directly related to training people's combat ability. These primitive songs and dances, not only did their dance postures gradually change from the movements of productive labor or war movements, but also the rhythm of the dance, the rhythm of the sound, and even the melody of the songs were all produced from the rhythms of various labors. .

From ancient cultural relics, we can also see that the musical instrument "chime" at that time was made from the stone tools used in production at that time. "Drums" are also made of animal skins obtained from hunting. They used these percussion instruments to accompany singing and dancing. From this we can see how closely the production of music, singing and dancing is related to labor.

Because ancient people could not scientifically understand natural phenomena and natural disasters, the concept of God emerged. They tried to use various methods to influence gods, so that natural disasters would no longer occur, so that people could reduce labor, increase productivity, and prevent people's lives from being disturbed by disease or death. In terms of singing and dancing, witchcraft and dance appeared. "Witch" is the kind of person who can dance. At that time, men were called "觋" and women were called "witches".

Because the songs and dances of the early people had the effect of reducing fatigue, inspiring emotions, and giving people pleasure (but the early people could not understand this effect), they tried to use this kind of thing to Influence God. They feel that the incomprehensible power and effect of singing and dancing must also have an effect on gods and allow gods to accept people's requests. The emergence of witches is people who sing and dance specifically for gods. The early people tried to control various spontaneous disasters through the singing and dancing of witches and gods. Therefore, the witch dance at this time was held as a national ceremony.

Precisely because witches who specialize in singing and dancing often come to perform to the gods, this kind of witchcraft and dance is somewhat improved compared to the original singing and dancing. This is the general situation of the development of singing and dancing in primitive society. When we entered slave society, around the Yin and Shang Dynasties (1766 BC to 1122 BC), with the emergence of classes, singing and dancing also changed.

The simple concepts of the early people were already used by slave owners as a tool to enslave the people. It allows people to believe in destiny and not to resist. The witches who represent God's will have also changed from serving the people to serving the slave owners. According to records in "Shang Shu", at that time, Wu Feng danced and sang happily in the palace. It can be seen that witch dance is no longer a national ritual.

It has now gone to the palace of the big slave owner, and is mainly used as a tool to entertain the gods (gods who serve the slave owners) and to make the slave owners happy and relieve their boredom.

In a slave society, exploited and oppressed slaves have always been regarded as talking tools by slave owners, and it is difficult for them to have any entertainment. The songs and dances that originated from the working people were almost completely usurped and appropriated by slave owners, large and small.

This is the general situation of singing and dancing in slave society. After entering feudal society and slaves who had lost their personal freedom gained partial freedom, singing and dancing among the people developed again. However, the feudal rulers inherited the mantle of the slave owners and always wanted to subordinate singing and dancing to their ruling interests and use it for them. In this way, there are two paths for singing and dancing, one is singing and dancing that serves the feudal ruling class, and the other is singing and dancing by the folk people themselves.

The Zhou Dynasty was the first feudal dynasty in the history of our country. After the world was first established, "rituals and music were made". In terms of singing and dancing, two types of "literary dance" and "martial dance" have been formulated. Wenwu dances with feathers, and Wuwu dances with weapons. In addition, there are also "Human Dance" with bare hands and "Yan Dance" with ox tail dance. The cultural dance programs include Yunmen, Xianchi, Dashao, Daxia, etc.;

The martial arts programs include Dayi, Dawu, etc. Judging from the content, "Yunmen" praises the emperor, "Xianchi" praises Emperor Yao, "Da Shao" praises Emperor Shun, "Da Xia" praises Yu, "Da Yi" praises Shang Tang, " "Dawu" praises King Wu of Zhou. In short, they all praise the "benefit" of the rulers to all the people, and ask the people to accept the rule of the feudal rulers obediently.

Whether it is "literary dance" or "martial dance", they are all changes from the traditional songs and dances of working people. They turned the songs and dances used by ancient people to express productive labor into "literary dances", and turned the songs and dances used by ancient people to express war life into "martial dances". In fact, in the final analysis, they are all taken from the creation of the working people and then changed.

However, when the rulers of the Zhou Dynasty formulated their songs and dances based on ancient songs and dances, new songs and dances appeared among the people based on traditional songs and dances. We can see this situation from the "Book of Songs", a collection of folk songs at that time. For example, in "Chen Feng Wan Qiu", there is a description of young men and women dancing with egret feathers, beating drums and playing music. In addition, there is also a song "East Gate's Tart" in "Chen Feng", which describes the singing and dancing event of the young people of Chen State.

In the poet's writing, the singing and dancing scene is very beautiful and moving. Many young men and women planted the seeds of love at this song and dance event, just like the "moon dance" of ethnic minorities as we know it. Since then, in the south during the Warring States Period, Chu State was the place where folk singing and dancing flourished most. It is said that the great poet Qu Yuan wrote his famous poem "Nine Songs" based on the folk sacrificial songs and dances at that time. In "Nine Songs", there are various gods of nature dressed up by witches (called "ling" in the south): "Yunzhongjun", "Xiangjun", "Mrs. Xiang", "Da Siming", "Shao Siming", "He" Bo "Mountain Ghost" and so on.

In the article "The Soul Conjuring", we can also see the scene of the dance team singing and dancing: "The wine and food are not over yet, the band has already appeared on the stage, ringing the bells and beating the waist drum, all girls are doing. While playing music While singing, everyone sang in unison. Lingluo's clothes were beautiful and elegant. Her hair was long and braided, and they all looked alike. The dances of Zheng and Wu, the flute, flute, and drum all seemed to be going crazy. "

The singers were singing Wu songs and Cai tunes. Look, the 16-member women's dance team, with long sleeves and graceful posture, and the people playing sheng, zither, chime bells, waist drum, bass drum and other musical instruments, the scene of crazy emotions is so exciting. ! Obviously, the singing and dancing at this time had further development.

The feudal rulers at that time adopted traditional folk songs and dances as their own and called them "grace music". The things in elegant halls are loose music and vulgar music.

Master Kong said that Zheng Sheng was no good and publicly rejected him, but privately he liked him very much. Wei Wenhou said that listening to elegant music makes people sleepy, and seeing folk songs and dances makes people forget their tiredness.

It can be seen that even the rulers have to admit the power of folk songs and dances. This is the general situation of the development of singing and dancing from two weeks to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period (about 1122 BC to 221 BC).