Hu Weigao

The Background to the Masterpiece of Tongling Buffaloherds’ Songs And Its Meaning

Translated by Hu Weigao

Tongling buffaloherds’ songs are the folk pastorals, also called the folk children’s songs, which used to be sung by the local teenagers in the dialect of Tongling, and popular in the south of Anhui, along the Yangtze river.

Here are the lakesides rich in many products, and also the land of fish and rice, where the peasants have grown rice for generations, although the soil is fertile but kind of sticky. So strong buffaloes with the underdeveloped sweat glands used to be the main draught animals, which could eat grass freely on the wild grasslands while being looked after. The big grasslands with the numerous pools in this area became buffaloes’ natural pastures. So many buffalo fightings and singing contests in buffalo-caring used to be the country children’s favourite games. Having been spread orally for hundreds of years and promoted by numerous working people,Tongling buffaloherds’ songs were thus created .

Take the masterpiece of Tongling buffaloherds’ songs as an example. It gives a vivid description of a beautiful picture of rural landscapes, where after gathering on the big wild grassland from all the villages, the buffaloboys are playing the bamboo flutes while sitting on the backs of their buffaloes. A scholar once made a comment that there are two kinds of Anhui folk songs, some of which are sung by the people in mountainous areas and some of which are chanted by the people living on the plains. Those sung in mountainous areas can be divided into the folk songs on the mountains and the ones off the mountains and in the fields. And the folk songs sung on plains are mainly the ones, sung by the people working in the fields, owning a mountainous folk song style, which are either simple lyrics, nor a minor type of song. The birthplace of Tongling buffaloherds’ songs as well as their singing land is a partly hilly area ,and also a partly polder , which are more spacious than a completely mountainous area, and own a greater variety of landscapes than any plains. So it's not hard to understand why Tongling buffaloherds’ songs have neither higher tones than the mountainous folk songs of Anhui, nor longer tunes than the folk songs on plains. Hegel thinks the geographical environment plays a vital role in the economy, the social relations and political system, and one's personality. When savoring the starting part of the masterpiece of Tongling buffaloherds’ songs, you can feel the mood of a singer. The singer looks free but isn’t really relaxed. It 's believed that a wondful picture of the so-called men plowing and women weaving, and being self-sufficient is shown in the pastoral performance.

In 2006 the masterpiece of Tongling buffaloherds’ songs was selected into the first batch of provincial intangible cultural heritage of Anhui province. This song, containing the wisdom of the laboring people, does make more other people enjoy the charm of Tongling folk music.

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