Tujia folk culture has a long history and rich cultural heritage. For thousands of years, the Tujia people have created a large number of vivid national cultures with strong artistic characteristics and a strong sense of life through their diligence and wisdom. The Tujia hand-waving song is one of the unique flowers and is also one of the outstanding cultural heritages in the splendid culture of the Chinese nation. In 2008, the Tujia hand-waving song was identified as a project in the second batch of intangible cultural heritage list of Hunan Province. The hand-waving song, also known as the Sheba song, is an ancient song sung by the Tujia shaman "Tima" and the head of the hand-waving hall during sacrificial activities. The hand-waving dance was born with the song and got its name with the dance. The hand-waving song originated in ancient times and was quite popular during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The "Yongshun Prefecture Chronicles Magazine" during the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty stated: "From the third to the seventeenth day of the first lunar month every year, men and women gather together to beat gongs and drums, dance and sing, which is called waving hands." Peng Shiduo, a tribute student in the Qing Dynasty, wrote in "Bamboo Branch Poems": "In the Fushi City, there is a nest of brocade, and beside the Tuwang Palace, there are waves of water. There are thousands of red lanterns and thousands of people, and there is a lingering waving hand song." It can be seen that the waving hand activity had become the largest festival song and dance activity of the Tujia people at that time. The traditional waving hand activity was hosted by the Tima, and first of all, a sacrifice was held. During the sacrifice, the Tima narrated the ancient songs of the origin of mankind, ethnic migration, and heroes, which were recited as classics. After the sacrifice, everyone danced the waving hand dance and sang the waving hand song, praying for good weather and good harvests. As a folk literature, the waving hand song is a free verse song sung entirely in the Tujia language. Each part can be a separate article or a chapter as a whole, reflecting the characteristics of the song's integrity and diversity. The waving hand song records the historical origins of the Tujia people, ethnic migration, heroes, and production labor and social life in different eras. With extensive content, voluminous content and strong ethnic characteristics, it is an encyclopedia of Tujia history and a historical treasure of Tujia literature. It plays an important role in the study of Tujia literature itself and has extremely precious value for the study of history, ethnology and linguistics. Tujia hand-waving songs are popular in the Tujia area of Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, especially in Longshan County and Guzhang County. Tujia people are good at singing and dancing, and Longshan is famous for Tujia hand-waving dance. Before the 1950s, there were 5 large Tujia hand-waving halls in the whole prefecture, of which, except for one in Guzhang Tianjiadong, the other 4 were all in Longshan, namely Nongche, Mati Village, Xiche Bina, and Liye Changtan. Tujia small hand-waving halls are scattered all over the place. According to a survey conducted by Longshan County Cultural Center in 1983, there were 152 in the Xiche River Basin alone. In 1995, Nongche Township was awarded the title of "Hometown of Mass Culture and Art in Hunan Province and Hometown of Tujia Hand-waving Songs and Dances" by the Provincial Department of Culture. The Tujia people's waving hand songs have a long history. The Tujia settlement area belonged to the Qianzhong area of Chu before the Qin Dynasty, and belonged to Qianzhong County in the Qin Dynasty. It was changed to Wuling County in the Han Dynasty, Chenzhou in the Sui Dynasty, and Xizhou in the Tang Dynasty. The Tusi Dynasty lasted for more than 800 years from the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the "reform of Tusi and Liu" in the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty. During this period, the folk culture of the Tujia people developed relatively stably, and until the prosperous period of the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, it left a rich national cultural heritage for the Tujia people. The Tujia people worship witches and natural gods. In history, the Tima had a prominent status and could "reach the will of heaven and communicate with the gods". In the activities of worshiping gods and ancestors, "Tima God Song" was used as the divine words, accompanied by ritual performances to entertain gods and ghosts. In the mass sacrificial activities of the Tujia Sheba Festival, the masses used the "waving hand dance" to entertain gods and ghosts. The songs for entertaining gods sung by the Tima and the waving hand hall are called "waving hand songs". The "Hand-Waving Song" accompanies the hand-waving dance of the Tima ritual. It is accompanied by songs and dances, and the gongs and drums are used to keep the beat, to show the good wishes of the people to worship the gods, respect the heaven and the earth, offer songs and dances, and pray for the blessings of the gods and good weather and good harvests. Therefore, the hand-waving song and the Tima God Song were produced, enriched and developed at the same time. Later, it was separated from the Tima God Song and became the ritual song for praying for the gods in mass sacrificial activities such as the Tujia people's prayer for the new year and the Sheba Festival. The hand-waving song is a unique ethnic cultural form of the Tujia people, which is born from dance and accompanied by songs. There are sacrificial songs, songs of heaven and earth myths, songs of heroic stories, and songs of production and life sung in ethnic languages. In the gongs and drums of the hand-waving dance and the rhythm of the movements, the hand-waving song keeps the beat, sings the ancient songs left by the old ancestors, narrates the ancient myths, sings the heroic stories, and inherits the seasonal labor songs, educating the descendants not to forget the hardships of their ancestors' entrepreneurship, the hardships of migration and war, and the history of survival and reproduction, take life seriously, and treat their families and fellow villagers well. Therefore, ethnicity has become the main feature of the waving hand song. The waving hand song is an ancient song sung in sacrificial activities. The ancestors of the Tujia people worship witches and believe in Tima. Tima is regarded as the incarnation of the unity of gods and humans who can communicate with all gods. The waving hand song is the best form of Tima's inheritance of Tima's divine songs and waving hand songs. The difference between the waving hand song and the Tima divine song is that the Tima divine song is to drive away ghosts and evil spirits, overcome difficulties, and is mostly based on households, worship ancestors, pray for children, and cure diseases with witch medicine. The procedure is to invite gods, welcome ancestors, set up the hall, offer sacrifices, chant Tima songs, pray for gods and ask for divination according to relevant rituals, burn incense and make wishes and fulfill them. The waving hand song is a sacrificial activity of a village and a clan, and even the surrounding villages jointly worship the community Bodhisattva. It is large-scale, with a large number of participants. The team organization has a clear division of labor, and each performs its duties. Worship the community Bodhisattva and pray for a good harvest and good weather. The Tujia people worship the Bodhisattva as their protector. They sing and dance the waving hand song to entertain the gods and people. Through the singing of the waving hand song, they educate the descendants of the Tujia people not to forget their roots, to work hard, to cultivate in time, to unite and cooperate, to overcome difficulties, and to create a better life with their own hands. The waving hand song is sung in free verse, which can be long or short, improvised, and can be increased or decreased depending on the occasion, the size of the lineup, and is completely controlled by the Tima and the host. The speed, rhythm, dragging tone, and the supporting words are completely interpreted and changed by the Tima and the lead singer. The waving hand song is a precious literary treasure house of the Tujia people and one of the excellent cultural heritages of the Chinese nation. As a carrier for preserving and spreading Tujia culture, the philosophical ballads such as production songs, life songs, current affairs songs, and etiquette songs in the waving hand song have been loved and sung by the majority of Tujia people. They have become the teachings that guide and regulate the behavior of the Tujia people and have been interpreted into folk songs that have been sung from generation to generation. A hand-waving song is an encyclopedia and literary classic of the Tujia people, and it has played an immeasurable role in the development of the history and culture of the Tujia people. The ethnic migration songs in the Tujia hand-waving songs sing many place names along the Youshui River. The whole way is full of dangerous rapids and bad waters, high mountains and steep slopes. For example, some place names such as Fengtan, Citan, Luoyitan, Zhantankoutan, etc., were all swift and high in ancient times, with dense reefs and various lights and shades. The route described in the ancient song is that the ancestors of the Tujia people went up the Youshui River and settled down, survived and multiplied in the land centered on Xiangxi and Wuling Mountain in several branches. The hardships can be imagined, especially in ancient times when science and technology and productivity were low. The difficulties of the great ethnic migration are incomparable and indescribable, providing rare information for the study of Tujia history. Its historical research value is obvious. The production labor songs in the waving hand songs include not only agricultural songs throughout the year, but also narrations of iron forging, plowing, spinning, weaving, and brocade. In ancient times, manual labor content occupied a certain length in the songs, and the waving hand dance simulated the relevant labor movements according to the content of the singing, which played a role in inheriting and enriching the farming culture and the attached manual skills. This cannot but be said to be one of the important values of the waving hand songs. Since the waving hand songs are sung by the Tima and the host in Tujia language, especially the myths and legends such as the origin of mankind and heroic stories, the language is completely sung by the Tima according to the language taught by the master, and a large number of ancient Tujia languages are preserved in them. Tujia languages are inherited and preserved in various sacrificial occasions and waving hand songs and dances. Language is a symbol of a nation. In the inheritance of language, the excellent morals and achievements, knowledge, ideas, beliefs, customs, etc. of the Tujia ancestors are inherited, which is an important value of the waving hand songs. In 2008, the Tujia waving hand songs were identified as the second batch of intangible cultural heritage list projects in Hunan Province. The intangible cultural heritage protection centers of Guzhang County and Longshan County are both the protection subjects of this project.