"Speaking about spring" is a folk custom passed down from generation to generation by the Dong people in Shiqian. It is mainly spread in Pobei Village, Huaqiao Town, Shiqian County, and the scope of activities radiates to all parts of the county. Shiqian, located in the northeast of Guizhou Province, belongs to Tongren City. It is adjacent to Jiangkou and Cengong in the east, Zhenyuan and Shibing in the south, Fenggang and Yuqing in the west, and Sinan and Yinjiang in the north. It is a mountainous county deep in the hinterland of northeastern Guizhou. Shiqian has complex terrain and diverse landforms, with many mountains and few flat lands. The southern branch of the Wuling Mountains runs diagonally through the entire territory. Shiqian has many underground hot springs and is known as the "hometown of hot springs". Speaking of spring, the ancient name is "whipping spring", and its custom has a very ancient origin. To this day, around the "beginning of spring" every year, there are about a hundred "spring officials" in the county, holding "spring cattle" in their hands, walking through villages and villages, or entering the county town, and talking about spring from door to door. People who talk about spring are called "spring officials". According to research, "Chunguan" is an official title that existed in my country more than 2,000 years ago, responsible for managing the etiquette of the state. According to "Zhou Li", "Zongbo is Chunguan, in charge of state etiquette". In the Tang Dynasty, the head of the Ministry of Rites was also called "Chunguan". From then on, "Chunguan" was used as a synonym for the Ministry of Rites. From the Tang and Song Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, "Sitianguan" had "Chunguanzheng" and "Xiaguanzheng" under him. Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty established four officials, namely, Chun, Xia, Qiu and Dong, which were called "Four Assistants". The earliest written records of the custom of "saying spring" were found in the Song Dynasty. Meng Yuanlao (Song Dynasty) said in "Dongjing Menghualu Lichun": "The day before the beginning of spring, Kaifeng Prefecture presented the spring ox to the Forbidden City to whip the spring. Kaifeng and Xiangfu counties placed the spring ox in front of the prefecture. It was very early in the day, and the officials of the prefecture beat the spring, just like the prefecture ceremony." Kaifeng was the capital of the Song Dynasty. The so-called "just like the prefecture ceremony" means to follow the local customs and go to the royal palace to perform the ceremony of whipping the spring. This shows that the custom of talking about spring was already popular in various prefectures at that time. According to the old "Ming History An Ran Biography": During the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty, An Ran, the chief official of the Shiqian Chief Official Department, was responsible for managing the "welcoming spring" affairs. The Qing Dynasty inherited the Ming Dynasty system. The "welcoming spring" rituals recorded in Qianlong's "Fuzhi" were already popular in the Ming Dynasty. According to the "Shiqian Prefecture (County) Chronicles": During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, at the beginning of spring every year, the officials of Shiqian Prefecture had to dress up and assemble, tie "grass gods and paper cows", "welcome spring in the eastern suburbs", ride horses in the streets, arrange banquets, "perform whip spring rituals", and then go to the "Quannong Hall" in the south of the city. The Shiqian prefecture had to "persuade farmers to farm" and take the lead in plowing the fields. During the Republic of China, the surname Feng also went to the provincial government to apply for a "license" to talk about spring according to the region. The "Spring Official" talked about spring within the prescribed range. After the "Beginning of Spring" festival, the "Spring Ox" was placed in the family of the village where he was talking about, and the next year he went to the family to talk about it again. From the late Qing Dynasty to the early Ming Dynasty until the eve of liberation, it was the heyday of the development of "Shuochun". The scope of "Shuochun" was no longer divided by region. Every year around the beginning of spring, artists were spread all over the towns and villages of the county, active in the villages and villages of the Gelao, Dong, Miao, Tujia and other ethnic groups, for dozens of days. The "Spring Officials" of Shuochun in Shiqian County are divided into "Shuozhengchun" and "Shuoyechun", all of whom are farmers. According to legend, the Feng family in Pobei Village, Huaqiao Township was a "Spring Official" conferred during the founding of the Tang Dynasty, belonging to "Shuozhengchun". According to Feng, the origin of their "Shuozhengchun" is: According to legend, in the early years of the founding of the Tang Dynasty, the meritorious officials were conferred. Feng brothers Feng Fuxing and Feng Fuxian made military exploits. The emperor asked them what official they wanted to be conferred, and the two said in unison that they wanted to be "officials of descendants". In ancient times, the princes and kings who were conferred to other places dominated one side, and their descendants were all hereditary. So the Tang emperor conferred them "Spring Officials". He also explained that the "Spring Official" was in charge of the etiquette of a place. Every year, he would tell the people in the fiefdom about the farming season. The plan for the year lies in spring, and it is enough to not violate the farming season. The two brothers thought: such an official would be held by their descendants. So they "thanked the Lord for his grace" and were granted the title of Feng in Guizhou, which has been passed down to this day. The scope of the Feng family's talk about spring is: Zhenyuan, Shibing, Tianzhu, Bagong (Sansui), Jianhe County. The Pobei Feng family only talked about Zhenyuan and Sansui County. At that time, the "Spring Official" did not talk about spring, nor was it called "talking about spring" but "dispatching spring". That is, after the "Spring Post" was printed, it was handed over to the government to distribute, and the money and grain were collected and uniformly handed over to the Feng family. After the change of dynasties, some officials did not follow the old etiquette and said to the Feng family: "Since you Feng family are the Spring Officials, you know etiquette and spring, you should tell the people, and you can't just sit and collect money and grain." Feng thought: The Emperor of the Tang Dynasty also gave it this way. So he said: "You can go to talk about spring, but you officials who eat grains and rely on the people for your livelihood should also take the lead in plowing the fields and persuading farmers to work." Regarding the identification of the "Spring Officials" in ancient times, most of them were farmers who had talents and interests in this area. Its inheritance is mainly natural inheritance and spontaneous inheritance. The main representative inheritors are: Feng Fuzhi, Feng Jianian, Feng Fuyuan, Bao Zhengqiao, Feng Wanming, Feng Xiangshou, etc. As an ethnic tradition of the Dong people, "Talking about Spring" preserves the original cultural circle of unique folk music art and folk rap art. It not only absorbs the cultural elements of other ethnic groups, but also spreads among other ethnic groups, showing the unique farming consciousness of the Shiqian Dong people. It has many Dong language factors left, which is of great value to the study of the Dong ethnic language and its evolution. At the same time, the singing of "Talking about Spring" and "Spring Lyrics" adopts folk tunes of Dong, Tujia, Miao, Gelao and other ethnic groups, which is the main example of studying the folk music of various ethnic groups and their integration. In the early days of liberation, there were 20 to 30 Feng clan spring officials and hundreds of wild spring officials in the county, and the range of spring telling was all over Hunan, Sansui, Zhenyuan and other places. Until now, young people have gone out to work and are unwilling to personally participate in spring telling, resulting in a gap in inheritance and no successor, making it more difficult to organize "spring telling". Currently, only the 74-year-old Feng family spring official is still continuing to tell spring, and there are only a dozen wild spring officials in the county who are still active in a small area. Spring telling has shown an endangered state of survival of the fittest. (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.) (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.)