Wuning Tea Picking Opera (Second Batch of Provincial Level) Wuning Tea Picking Opera is one of the four major local operas in Jiangxi. It is a popular local opera in northwest Jiangxi and southern Hubei. It has developed from tea songs to bench operas, and then into two small operas with facial expressions and movements of Xiaodan and clowns. After continuous innovation and transplantation by folk artists, the singing style has also transitioned from Sanqu and Xiaodiao to Banqiang, gradually forming a Wuning Tea Picking Opera with strong local characteristics. Wuning Tea Picking Opera has two major schools, Shanghe and Xiahe, four major vocal styles, and only gongs and drums are used for accompaniment. Because folk artists are not bound by string accompaniment, they blend folk minor tunes into flowery tunes when singing, which has evolved into "nine boards and eighteen tunes". The performance techniques of Wuning Tea Picking Opera are very unusual; for example, the female role does not raise her hand above the eyebrows, and she cannot produce a single finger, and the female role cannot produce two fingers. In particular, there are many performance forms created by artists, such as "three-step head, nine-four heads, reverse boots, lotus out of water, small mill, big station gate, small station gate, one dragon", etc. Wuning Tea Picking Opera, commonly known as "Wuning Tea Opera", is a local opera with a unique style and great influence in northern Jiangxi. It is one of the excellent local operas in our province. According to the relationship between the artists and the origin of the brother operas, it has a history of about 200 years, and its gestation period can be estimated to the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Wuning Tea Picking Opera originated from "tea songs" or "tea picking tunes". As early as the Tang and Song Dynasties, because Wuning County is located in the Mufu Mountain area in northern Jiangxi, tea is abundant in the territory. Farmers were in the fashion of "singing tea picking" when they were reclaiming wasteland and planting tea, especially when picking tea during the Qingming Festival. They sang tea songs such as "Picking Tea in December", "Picking Tea Upside Down", and "Picking Tea by Sister-in-law". In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, there were many tea houses, tea shops, and tea shops in the county. At this time, tea songs had become a kind of ditty with storylines and narrative lyrics, and the scripts began to be copied; they were widely circulated among men and women who picked and picked (made) tea. At that time, a kind of folk artist called "singing students" was popular in Wuning. They collected these songbooks, practiced singing, and sang in teahouses to make a living. This is a kind of sitting singing without performance, which is called "bench song" by the masses. The number of singing people is one or two, accompanied by tooth board and fishing drum, one person sings two or several roles, forming the prototype of tea opera. Later, it gradually developed into a two-person opera with facial expressions and movements of Xiaodan and clown, and then Xiaosheng joined and became a "three-legged class". With the passage of time, through the continuous innovation and transplantation of folk artists, tea opera expanded to a half-class stage of six or seven people, and then gradually developed to a higher stage. (I) The "banqiang" singing style of Wuning tea picking opera was formed, which absorbed a lot of local mourning, mourning and "oh-ho" from eastern Hubei. If the gong and drum accompaniment and "tooth board" are removed, its melody is the same as mourning and mourning in life. Similarly, if a woman's long and short crying tune is recorded and compiled into a rhythmic score, and accompanied by "yaban" and gongs and drums, it will become the main tune (tea tune) of Wuning Tea Picking Opera today. (ii) Taoist music is also a positive factor in the formation of Wuning Tea Picking Opera's vocal tune. Taoism has been popular among the people for a long time. In the feudal era, when someone died in the countryside, regardless of whether they were rich or poor, they would sing for the dead to help them to transcend. Therefore, Taoist music has a great influence on folk artists. Artists have incorporated some Taoist gongs and drums and singing tunes into tea opera. For example, the singing tune in Wuning Tea Picking Opera "Base Kung Fu" can be found in the singing tune of Taoist "Shifangzun". The Taoist "Ganquan Temple" flat-tune gongs and drums are very similar to the gongs and drums of "Chaqiang" in modern tea opera. (iii) Wuning Tea Picking Opera has a close relationship with Hubei Huangmei Tea Opera. The Huangmei area of Hubei Province was often hit by floods, and a large number of victims flowed into Wuning. The artists from the two places exchanged and absorbed each other, which led to the Wuning Tea Picking Opera infusing some of the singing styles, repertoires and performance methods of the Huangmei Tea Picking Opera. For example, the "Northern Tune" of the Wuning Tea Opera is very similar to the "Seven-board" opening and ending sentences of the Huangmei Tea Picking Opera. (IV) The Wuning Flower Picking Opera also absorbed foreign high-pitched singing styles and the musical singing styles of some major operas. In the tea opera "Yang Tuo Asks for Marriage", the high-pitched singing of Yang Tuozi is derived from the "Qingyang Tuo"; the shaking board, the inverted board, and the three-flow board in the tea opera are formed by borrowing from some singing styles of the Xiushui Ninghe Opera. Therefore, in addition to performing tea operas, the "Shanghe School" of Wuning Tea Opera also sings Ninghe Opera. Wuning Tea Picking Opera originated from "tea songs" to form "Xiaoer Opera", and then absorbed rap music, folk natural tones (crying for funerals, crying for weddings) and Taoist music, and borrowed some singing styles and performance techniques from neighboring counties to initially form its own complete "top board" singing system. After a long period of performance practice, it has been continuously improved and perfected to form today's unique Wuning Tea Picking Opera. In 2010, this project was included in the third batch of provincial intangible cultural heritage representative list.