Hengzhou Huagu Opera is a folk drama that is popular in southern Hunan. The stage language is slightly refined based on the Hengzhou dialect, and the main vocal tunes are "nazi brand" and "chuanzi tune". Its predecessor was called "horse lantern" in Hengyang, Hengnan, Leiyang, and Changning; "flower drum lantern" in Hengshan and Hengdong; "ground flower drum" in Youxian and Chaling; "flower lantern" in Anren; "flower lantern" in Yongxing Jiangzuo and "singing tune" in Jiangyou. After the founding of New China, horse lantern was renamed "Hengju". In 1954, according to the opinions of the Hunan Provincial Bureau of Culture, it was renamed "Hengyang Huagu Opera". Professional troupes were established in various counties, collectively called Huagu Opera and then named after the place name. In 1982, when preparing to compile the "Hunan Volume of Chinese Opera", after discussion and consultation, the Huagu Opera popular in southern Hunan and named after the counties were collectively called Hengzhou Huagu Opera. In 2008, Hengzhou Huagu Opera was identified as a project in the second batch of intangible cultural heritage list of Hunan Province. [Historical Origin of Hengzhou Huagu Opera] Hengzhou Huagu Opera is named because it originated and was mainly spread in Hengyang (formerly known as Hengzhou) in Hunan Province. Hengzhou is one of the ancient cities in Hunan. As early as the Song Dynasty, folk lantern festivals were quite popular; in the Ming Dynasty, singing and dancing, acrobatics developed again, and folk Nuo dance was also popular. At the same time, tea-picking songs were popular in Hengzhou. Wang Fuzhi's poem "Nanyue Tea-picking Song" in the Qing Dynasty said: "The monks are newly learning to sing the conversion, the rhythm is clear and there are few mistakes. I am greedy to listen to my aunt's tea-picking song, and the chickens chase the wild ducks again." In the early Qing Dynasty, Liu Xianting also "lyed down to listen to the tea-picking song and appreciate its tone" in Hengshan. Lantern festivals, Nuo dances, tea-picking songs, and folk songs and dances are the basis for the formation and development of Hengzhou Huagu Opera. The reason why Hengzhou Huagu Opera is called "horse lantern" in Hengyang and Changning is derived from the name of the carriage lantern. The car-horse lantern is a form of song and dance in the local lantern festival in the first month of the new year. During the day, people go from house to house and play with lanterns at night. They often insert some singing programs reflecting folk life between the singing and dancing of "running lanterns", such as "Fisherman Playing with Clams" and "Lotus Picking Boat". They are sung in lantern tunes and have been passed down to this day. They often have a male lead and a female lead, calling each other brothers and sisters, making jokes and making fun of each other, singing and dancing. The early play "Duizi Tune" of Hengzhou Flower Drum Opera belongs to this category. The plays "Ben Dengzi Flower Drum" and "Lubian Flower Drum" in the Hengshan area retain many traces of tea picking. The early performance form of Hengzhou Flower Drum Opera (i.e., "two small plays" with one actor and one clown) gradually formed on the basis of lantern festival, tea picking and Nuo dance could not meet the audience's demand. In order to extend the performance time and enrich the program content, the artists created a unique form, using "Da Nao Pa" (a black handkerchief for wrapping the head) to cover a teapot or wine pot on the table to replace the third role, and the scene (musician) sang at the same time. Later, the role of Xiaosheng was officially added, and gradually formed "three small plays". The formation of "three small plays" should be before the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty. According to Yang Enshou's "Tanyuan Diary" in the Qing Dynasty, "On March 12, 1862, we moored at the mouth of the West River, more than 20 miles away from Yongxing. The people on the other side were singing Huagu Ci, which was a unique and erhuang opera in the Chu customs. I have known about it for a long time but have never seen it. When we arrived, the gongs and drums roared, and the lights were like the sea. We tied grass together to make a stage and surrounded it with rags. There was a thatched house on the side of the stage, which was where we dressed up. After dressing up, we climbed up the ladder. The villagers rushed to see it first and waited here. Half of them were on the stage. When I arrived, the performance was halfway through. I didn't know her name. A scholar asked Liuying to stay in his room. Just as he finished looking, the servant came and hid under the desk in a hurry. The scholar talked to the servant and kept looking under the desk. The servant also looked at him. The servant woke up and grabbed the servant. The scholar ran away in shame. The servant and the servant flirted with each other and acted in all kinds of coquettish ways. The cheers from the audience almost drowned out the gongs and drums, and threw money like rain. Liuying smiled and seemed to thank him silently. "The plot described by Yang Enshou is exactly the traditional small play of Hengzhou Flower Drum Opera "Wuying Drying Shoes". It can be seen that more than 140 years ago, the "three small plays" were loved by the people in southern Hunan and widely circulated. [Main content of Hengzhou Flower Drum Opera] The performance of Hengzhou Flower Drum Opera has the artistic characteristics of singing and dancing, being relaxed and lively. Singing and dancing are closely combined with the plot. The main plot of some plays is presented in the form of singing and dancing. The performance of Hengzhou Huagu Opera has a strong singing and dancing color. For example, the actions of rowing, chopping wood, and grinding tofu in "Picking Lotus", "Liu Hai Cutting Wood", and "Grinding Tofu" are all dance actions that are refined and beautified based on real life. In addition, the main plots of some plays are expressed through singing and dancing. Another performance feature is that the performance is very delicate and even exaggerated. In "Meeting at Lanqiao", the famous actress Zhang Qiusheng plays Lan Ruilian. When she meets Xiaosheng, she shakes out her handkerchief and shyly covers half of her face, but secretly sends her amorous glances through her fingers. When the two part, she lowers her eyebrows and looks back, tears streaming down her face. The performance is vivid and very real and touching. The singing style of Hengzhou Huagu Opera is very regional. Influenced by the music of the teacher and Buddhist music, the tune is very lively, accompanied by nazi and gongs and drums. Hengzhou Huagu Opera mainly has three main vocal styles: nazi brand, Chuanzi tune, and minor tune, and there are a few miscellaneous tunes. The tunes are high-pitched, warm, and lyrical, with a strong local flavor and the flavor of field folk songs. The performance form is close to life. Music The music of Hengzhou Huagu Opera is known for its liveliness, cheerfulness, high pitch and roughness, and it is passionate and unrestrained, with a strong flavor of folk songs. The early "two small operas" were mainly based on "nazi brand". When singing, the singing, accompaniment, and gongs and drums were performed at the same time. The atmosphere was warm, lively and joyful. There were more than 60 "nazi brands". Later, the "Chuanzi tune", a vocal style with a higher degree of drama, was introduced, and the board style was developed, which was more suitable for expressing various changes in emotions. "Chuanzi tune" is flexible to use and can be accompanied by nazi or huqin. There are two types of minor tunes: folk minor tunes and silk string minor tunes. Folk minor tunes have more words and fewer tunes, while silk string minor tunes have fewer words and more tunes. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, the Hengzhou Huagu Opera had a "half-light and half-drama" situation, that is, the South-North Road of Hengyang Xiang Opera was introduced. The artists were called "Rain and Snow", and the common people called it "half-light and half-drama", that is, the young male, the young female, and the clown sang the Huagu tune, and the old male and the painted face sang the South-North Road. This situation continued until the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China and gradually changed. The accompaniment of Hengzhou Huagu Opera is divided into civil and martial fields. The civil field is accompanied by orchestral music. Before the founding of New China, there were only two musical instruments, "bamboo tube" (huqin) and suona. Later, erhu, sanxian, yangqin, flute, pipa, violin, etc. were gradually added, but the main instruments were still suona and "bamboo tube". The old man said: "If you can't play suona, it's not considered left field (civil field)". There are five kinds of suona, namely big suona, Ertang, Sannazi, Sinazi, and Mannazi (bamboo lead). The tube and pole of the "bamboo tube" are made of bamboo. Compared with the "big tube" used in Changsha Flower Drum Opera, the tube is thinner and longer. The tuning is divided into East (2/6), West (4/1), South (5/2), and North (6/3). There is also a fourth-degree tuning (3/6), called Guangdiaoshou, which is used for accompaniment. The martial arts arena is accompanied by percussion instruments. In the early six- to eight-person classes, there were only two people operating, playing the drum and the small cymbals, and the big gong and the big cymbals. The small gong was mostly played by the apprentices of the inspection, and the drum beats were also simple. It was not until the founding of New China that it developed greatly. The lines and lyrics are also mostly in dialects, which are particularly interesting to the locals. For example, in "Blue Stepson Beats Bricks", "The old man saw the truth and asked me to go home to take care of it." "The old man" is a typical Hengyang dialect. Such examples can be found everywhere in Hengzhou Flower Drum Opera. It can be said that the stage language of Hengzhou Huagu Opera is refined based on the Hengzhou dialect. It can be roughly divided into three schools: Hengyang, Hengshan, and Anren, according to the Zhengshui River Basin, Muhe River Basin, and Leishui River Basin. Its origins and evolutions, repertoires, music, and performing arts are roughly the same. Most of the early traditional repertoires of Hengzhou Huagu Opera did not have fixed scripts. Only the lyrics of the minor tunes in small plays were fixed, and the actors had to improvise. The big plays only had a story outline, and the artists were called "Qiaolu". Before the performance every night, the reputable old artists would first tell the "Qiao", that is, assign roles, tell the story outline, the order of appearance, and the buttons of the baggage. Then the artists would go on stage to improvise, which was called "Shuici"; the borrowed or fixed key lines were called "nails". Therefore, the same play is very flexible due to different actors. The artists called this situation "eighteen roads in the rivers and lakes, all connected." After a long period of performance practice, artists of all generations mainly used oral creation methods to learn from each other's strengths and weaknesses, and gradually made the script tend to be finalized. The script of Hengzhou Flower Drum Opera is easy to understand, with local dialects and accents, vivid images, and a strong sense of life. However, due to the use of local dialects and accents, the stage language also has the dialects of various popular regions. For example, Hengshan Mandarin is used in the Hengshan area, and Anjiang and Yongxing areas are close to Chenzhou Mandarin, but the clown still uses Hengyang dialect. In the past, the performance of Hengzhou Flower Drum Opera often used some staged daily life actions and sets of postures to express the labor process. The former include opening the door, entering the door, lifting the door curtain, putting on makeup, dusting, pulling shoes, sweating, serving tea, etc.; the latter include pushing the mill, shaking the pestle, forging iron, fishing, chopping wood, rowing a boat, sewing clothes, mending shoes, etc. It was not until the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China that some routines such as Qi Ba and sword and gun skills, as well as water sleeves, beards, hat wings, feather tails and other performance skills began to be learned from the big dramas. The sections such as stepping on the horse, arranging the formation, and fighting were gradually formed by borrowing from the brother dramas after the founding of New China. The roles of Hengzhou Huagu Opera are mainly divided into Xiaosheng, Xiaodan and Xiaoqiao. There are no specialized actors for Laosheng, Laodan and Hualian. The early Huagu Opera artists did not have a clear division of labor among the "three small roles". Most of them could go around the stage and fill in any role that was missing. It was not until the 1940s that a clearer division of roles began. Among the "three small roles", the clown is the leader, and the performance technology requirements are relatively high. It requires various basic skills such as hands, eyes, body, steps, nose whiskers, fans, hand towels, etc., and it is necessary to speak various official dialects and rural conversations, and master some folk martial arts. The dan role mainly expresses rural women, such as "Duizi Diao", "Crossing the River", "Da Qianbian", "Doudu", "Grinding Tofu" and other dramas. At the same time, it pays attention to humor, wit and exaggeration. For example, in "Shanbo Visits a Friend", the details of the book boy Sijiu taking the bowl from Liang Shanbo to steal wine are inserted. In "Mangu Argues about Marriage", Li Yulian and Mangu fell in love at first sight, and the eyes of the two people could be moved by the book boy to shake their bodies. The themes of the middle and late plays are mostly "three small plays", with richer themes. In addition to those drawn from rural life, there are also plays drawn from Han folk legends, mythological stories and plays closely related to Nuotan activities. Overall, the repertoire of Hengzhou Flower Drum Opera is easy to understand. Most of the scripts are drawn from daily life, performing ordinary characters, and using local dialects and accents, which are vivid and full of life. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, a number of modern plays were created, adapted and compiled, such as "Mother-in-law and Daughter-in-law Competition", "Mending Pot", "Spring Mountain Col", "Re-encounter", "Two Pots of Soup", etc. There are 165 traditional plays preserved in Hengzhou Flower Drum Opera. Among them, there are 104 small plays, 35 medium-sized plays, and 26 large plays. In terms of vocal melody, there are 126 Zechuan Operas, 27 gong and drum group plays, and 12 small operas. In the entire repertoire, 1/3 is "two small plays", 60% is "three small plays", and there are fewer big plays. The early repertoires were "two small plays" and the themes were mainly from rural areas. The plots of the repertoires during this period were simple, the ideological tendencies were positive and healthy, and the atmosphere of life and local characteristics were strong. The main characteristics of Hengzhou Flower Drum Opera can be summarized in eight words: mixed with five flavors and unique. This characteristic comes from the nurturing of a piece of land. Hengyang, with beautiful mountains and rivers, rich products, simple folk customs, and developed transportation, has been a battleground for military strategists and a place where merchants gather since ancient times. It is also one of the birthplaces of Hunan culture and a "civilized area" of religion. Its harmonious concept of "coexistence of Buddhism and Taoism, living in the same mountain" has always been praised by the world. Therefore, Hengzhou Flower Drum Opera, which was born in such a peaceful place, has had the innate advantages of broad vision and tolerance since its birth, which is not something that can be achieved by local small plays with the performance form of "three small" (small male, small female, and clown). The rich and colorful performance techniques, the performance content that keeps pace with the times, the rich and humorous local colors, and the constantly innovative performance techniques make Hengzhou Flower Drum Opera full of permanent youthful vitality. In 2008, Hengzhou Huagu Opera was included in the second batch of intangible cultural heritage list of Hunan Province. The Hengyang Huagu Opera Troupe, Yongxing County Huagu Opera Troupe, Anren County Huagu Opera Troupe and Zixing City Huagu Opera Troupe are the main protectors of this project.