Linhai Ci Diao, also known as Taizhou Ci Diao and Caizi Ci Diao, is a unique flower in Taizhou folk art. It is gradually evolved from the vocal and music of Nanci, Kunqu Opera and folk songs, combined with local dialects. The tune is mainly "Ci Diao", with scattered board, medium board, flowing board, etc. The language used in the lyrics is all Taizhou written language. The instruments used are erhu, dongxiao, bamboo flute, sanxian, pipa, yangqin, sandalwood board, and touch bell, with erhu as the main instrument. The performance rhythm is mainly gentle and peaceful. The music is soft and graceful, beautiful and pleasant, the voice is pleasant and refreshing, and it is a kind of folk art that is appreciated by both the refined and the popular. In addition to Linhai, it is also spread in Huangyan, Jiaojiang, Wenling, Tiantai, Xianju and other places. The main production place of Linhai Ci Diao is Linhai, and it has been spread for nearly 500 years. There are different opinions on the origin of Linhai Ci Diao. According to the book "Cultural History of Linhai" written by Xiang Shiyuan (1989-1959), a famous modern scholar and a native of the county, "Ci tune originated from Haiyan tune created by the Southern Song Dynasty musician Zhang Heng, which was organized and developed by Yang Zi, a playwright in the early Yuan Dynasty. Haiyan tune was popular in Jiaxing, Wenzhou and Taizhou in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, and evolved into Ci tune in the late Ming Dynasty." Another theory is that Ci tune evolved from Kunqu Opera. There is even a theory that Ci tune originated in the Tang Dynasty. When Ci tune originated remains to be investigated and studied. In the Song Dynasty, a group of poets represented by the famous poet Chen Ke produced many excellent works with high-quality lyrics. Their works were often composed into lyrics and music by artists and widely sung, which greatly promoted the development of Linhai's Ci tune art. In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, Ci tune was quite popular in Linhai. In the 14th year of Emperor Daoguang’s reign (1835), Lin Xinpei (also known as Jingxin), an excellent ci tune artist, was good at composing music. When the county magistrate Hu Jipei left Taiwan, Lin Xinpei specially wrote a song called “Liu Lan Ya Jian” as a gift. Dong Lin (Chen Wei), Hong Zhensou (Xilin) and others of the same period were famous for their ability to play and sing. During the reign of Emperor Guangxu (1875-1808), Song Shulan, Yang Yuewu, Zhou Xinfu, Qin Yuebo and others in Taizhou all had a deep attainment in ci tune. Yuewu and Yuebo were good at stringed instruments and music, and Shulan was particularly good at adapting plays. Among the artists, Gao Xingji and Yu Qiusheng were the most famous. In the late Qing Dynasty, Linhai Ci tune was in its heyday. Xiang Shiyuan recorded in "Ciyuan Music Trivia": "The Wutai Music Group has two societies, 'Chengwen' and 'Jinsheng'. The organization of Chengwen Society began in the Daoguang and Xianfeng years of the Qing Dynasty. It was named after Ci tune, and its learning was passed on to Tiantai." Since the Qianlong and Jiaqing years of the Qing Dynasty, the societies that sang Ci tune in Linhai include: "Zhaode Society" initiated by Yang Yuewu, "Chengwen Society" of Yang Wusheng, "Jinsheng Society" of Chen Jianhua, "Fengyun Society" of Ye Tongfa, and "Daoyao Society", "Xunfeng Society", "Yifeng Society" and other seven societies. There are nearly 100 members in the society, mostly composed of literati and scholars, and leisurely children, called "Long Shi Pie", so it has the elegant name of "Talented Ci Tune". And those who joined the society in the later period were poor low-level workers, so they were called "Short Fighting Pie". Form Linhai Ci tune is a form of sitting and singing folk art. When singing and playing, the number of participants can be more or less, more than ten people, or as few as three or five people. Everyone sits in a circle, holding various musical instruments and singing by themselves. Artists gather to sing for their own entertainment on a clear and moonlit night. During festivals, members take turns to sing at home to relieve the worries and boredom of the literati and scholars. Sometimes they are invited to congratulate the rich and powerful after birthday celebrations, and they only sing one or two plays each time, and refuse more; they do not take a penny after singing, but they must be entertained by a banquet to show their elegance. The folk "fighting meeting" is also one of the activity venues of the Ci Tune Collection Society. The tune Linhai Ci Tune is beautiful, gentle, lingering and beautiful, and is deeply loved by the people of Linhai and Taizhou. The voice of the Ci Tune is rich and colorful, the melody is lyrical and smooth, elegant and quiet; the rhythm is varied, and the tune is beautiful. There are about 30 kinds of relatively stable board tunes with different speeds and emotions. The main tunes are: male worker, female worker, peaceful, etc. These tunes can not only narrate twists and turns in the story, but also adapt to the needs of the plot and express the emotions of joy, anger, sorrow and happiness. The tunes of the vocal tunes are very particular about the eight words "clear words, round tunes, accurate pitch and steady rhythm". Emphasis is placed on "every sentence has spirit and every word has merit", and the tunes are natural, smooth and expressive. In the "Hunting" scene in "The Story of the White Rabbit", in a tune in which Li Sanma expresses her miserable life and her longing for Zhiyuan, the lyrics of just a dozen words were sung 51 times in a gentle manner. It sounds hearty and full of emotion. It is not difficult to see that the old artists have a deep foundation and touching charm in the use of vocal tunes. Before the 1930s Before the 1930s, all the participants in the singing and performance of the lyrics were men, and they were divided into Sheng, Dan, Jing, Mo and Chou according to the roles of the characters in the drama. Men who sang female roles also imitated Kunqu Opera and Peking Opera to sing with falsetto. The language used in the lyrics is Taizhou's written language, that is, Taizhou Mandarin. The instruments used include erhu, dongxiao, bamboo flute, sanxian, pipa, yangqin, sandalwood board, and pengzhong, with erhu as the main instrument. The rhythm of the performance is mainly gentle and peaceful. In 1934, the six counties of Taiwan jointly established a simple normal school in Ziyang Building, Ziyang Street, and absorbed a few female students such as Jiang Guiqing to participate. Rehearsed "Daqing Shou", "Legend of the White Snake", "Hunting and Meeting Mother", "Ma Rong Sending Bride" and other plays, and performed them for four nights in the county government auditorium at that time. From then on, Linhai pioneered the precedent of women performing on stage, playing male roles, and bringing the lyrics to the stage for a relatively complete performance. In the 1950s, under the attention of the Linhai Municipal Government, the lyrics were established as the "Linhai Chengguan Amateur Lyrics Troupe". In order to facilitate the convenience of many teachers and learners, the gongche notation of the lyrics was copied into simplified notation. By the 1960s, Linhai Cidiao reached its peak. In 1962, the Linhai Bureau of Culture and Education organized a Cidiao singing team to participate in the "Tanci Book Club" held by the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture in Ningbo. They sang three programs, including "Small Banquet", "Broken Bridge" and "Worship the Moon", in a sitting singing form, and won praise and awards. In 1964, they rehearsed major dramas such as "Feng Yi Pavilion", "Ma Rong Sending Relatives", "Fisherman's Joy" and a number of short plays such as "Monk and Nun Meeting" and "Peony Conversation". At the same time, they created a number of modern short plays such as "Returning the Pig", "A Rope" and "Red Butler", among which "Returning the Pig" won the second prize in the music performance of Taizhou Regional Art Festival. During the "Cultural Revolution", Linhai Cidiao, like other folk arts, was suppressed as a decadent and declining product and was put into the "cold palace". After the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Party in the 1990s, Linhai Cidiao received the care of the leaders of the Linhai Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government. After excavation, collection and sorting by some folk artists, Cidiao has been reborn, walked among the people and returned to the stage. Especially in January 1994, after Linhai City was approved by the State Council as a national historical and cultural city, the leaders of the municipal party committee and government attached great importance to it and listed Ci tune as an important part of the historical and cultural city. The cultural department also strengthened the excavation and protection of Ci tune, provided a lot of specific guidance, and helped solve practical problems. A large number of Ci tune enthusiasts overcame various difficulties and actively and wholeheartedly collected a number of lost traditional repertoires and tunes. Among them, Lu Sanjun wrote the lyrics, Song Zhiren and Shao Zhigen composed the music, boldly breaking through the traditional composition rules of Ci tune, using the lead singing, chorus two-part complex lyrics and other techniques, and wrote "The Eternal Monument of the Jiangnan Great Wall", which was sung in Linhai. This work won the Outstanding Creation Award in the Zhejiang Province Quyi Essay Competition. In August 2000, Luo Lianxing and others spontaneously organized 35 performers and staff to establish the Linhai Ci tune troupe, rehearsing the excerpts "Kao Hong", "Dui Ke", the drama "Zhu Maichen" and other programs. Over the past few years, they have performed more than 50 shows in various places in Linhai, covering urban and rural areas of Linhai, with an audience of more than 70,000 people. In 2004, they participated in the Second Folk Drama Exhibition of Taizhou City, and "Lü Bu and Diao Chan" won three awards: the silver medal for performance, the actor award, and the organization award. At the same time, since 1989, Linhai City has successively held six "China Jiangnan Great Wall Festivals". As an excellent local repertoire, Linhai Ci Diao has become the highlight of each Great Wall Festival and participated in the performance. In 2004, the Provincial Department of Culture allocated 100,000 yuan of art protection funds to support and rescue Linhai Ci Diao. In May 2005, Linhai Ci Diao was included in the first batch of Zhejiang Province's intangible cultural heritage masterpieces by the Provincial People's Government, and together with the Yellow Sand Lion, as an excellent folk art with outstanding preservation value, it was also declared as the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage masterpieces. In the past few years, traditional plays such as "Lü Bu and Diao Chan", "Meeting at the Broken Bridge", "Peony's Conversation", "Meeting of Monks and Nuns", "Zhu Maichen", "Ma Rong Sending His Bride", and "Torturing Hong" have been staged one after another and have been well received and welcomed by the masses. The lyrics have become a popular local opera for the people of Linhai and Taizhou, and have become the spiritual food of the people of Linhai.