The Chishui River is located in the northwest corner of Guizhou Province. It originates in Zhenxiong, Yunnan, and runs through ten counties and cities in three provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan. Since the sixth year of Jianyuan in the Han Dynasty, the boatmen on the Chishui River have created boatmen's songs to unify their pace and save time and effort when pulling or paddling, and to relieve fatigue, pain and loneliness on the way. The boatmen's songs on the Chishui River lead the others, with a sonorous and powerful rhythm, loud and clear singing, rich content, diverse forms, and cheerful rhythm. Regardless of whether it is downstream or upstream, the size of the ship, the shoal is dangerous or slow, the shoal is large or small, the number of boatmen, and the weight of the cargo, the songs are all different. Most of the lyrics are based on the real life experiences of the boatmen, and are randomly composed and sung by the boatmen in their daily work and life, with local characteristics. In the 1970s, the rise of a large number of motor ships gradually replaced the wooden boats that relied entirely on manpower to pull the boats upstream in history. In the late 1980s, the boatmen who had made great contributions to the history of shipping in the past completely bid farewell to the career of pulling the boats. The river boatmen's songs also bid farewell to the Chishui River towpath. Today, most of the boatmen have died of old age or illness, and the few remaining boatmen are already over 70 or 80 years old. Therefore, the boatmen's songs are in danger of extinction.