Huaiyin Canal Boatman's Song is a traditional music project in the sixth batch of Huai'an City's representative projects of municipal intangible cultural heritage. Historical evolution and distribution Huaiyin Canal Boatman's Song is a kind of folk song genre song created naturally by boatmen and trackers in Huai'an area to cooperate with the labor process of shipping and ship affairs and improve labor efficiency. Huai'an area has a long history of grain transport. Since the Sui Dynasty, the court has set up a special grain transport agency in Huai'an, and the Song Dynasty set up a Jianghuai Transport Commissioner. The grain from the six southeastern routes all entered Bian from Huaihe and arrived at the capital. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Governor's Grain Transport Department was set up here to supervise and urge grain transport matters, and to be in charge of the transportation of grain from the south to the north and salt from the north to the south. The main means of transportation were wooden boats, all of which were driven by sails, oars, and paddles. To get through the Qingjiang Lock and Yue Lock, boats had to be pulled by boat trackers or "twisted gates". The "Huai'an Prefecture Chronicle" written during the Guangxu period recorded: "In the autumn, the water is slippery, and it is as difficult as climbing to the sky for the boats to pass the locks. Each boat has three or four hundred boat trackers, but it still cannot pass. If they use too much force, the ropes will break and the boats will sink." Accompanying the mighty fleet of the canal transport was the majestic calls of the boatmen and boat trackers. It was not until the 1950s that shipping began to be wheeled and towed, and with the power system, boatmen's calls to support the boats and row the oars together gradually faded out of people's sight. By the 1980s, wooden ships had basically disappeared, and boatmen's calls were only circulated among old boatmen. Basic content and value The boatman's songs in Huaiyin area are closely related to the boatman's work. According to the work content, they can be divided into rowing songs, lock songs, anchor songs, sail raising songs, pole songs, towing songs, etc. Any form of work involving boatman activities is aimed at everyone working together to overcome difficulties during the sailing process. Therefore, boatman's songs pay more attention to the spiritual encouragement of singing content. According to actual needs, these contents are improvised. For example, when it is almost noon and the cargo ship just catches up with the rapids, the leader will sing "Everyone work harder, the boat lady has prepared the meal" to achieve the purpose of unifying the pace and encouraging together. As a folk culture, boatman's songs also have obvious local characteristics. According to Zhang Dahai, an old boatman, the canal is divided into sections from Xuyi to the west into Anhui, which is called the "Nanhe Gang", and the section from Huai'an to Xuzhou in the north is collectively called the "Huaihe Gang". The boatmen's songs of the "Huaihe Gang" are based on Huai Opera, which are gentle and have obvious Huai'an characteristics, while the "Nanhe Gang" are more simple and masculine. In addition, the difference can also be seen from the tools used for sailing. The oars used by the "Nanhe Gang" are mainly plank oars, while the "Huaihe Gang" mostly use pipa oars as the main tool for rowing. The boatmen's songs of the Huaiyin Canal are a vivid historical memory of the current Huai'an area, and are also one of the important cultural symbols of the canal culture and Huai'an culture. Today, the boatmen's songs of the canal have lost their living space, and there is a lack of successors in the inheritance. At the same time, there is a lack of sufficient understanding and in-depth research on them. It is urgent to carry out rescue records, preservation, inheritance and dissemination.