According to legend, the tea-picking opera sprouted very early. In the past, most old artists said that there was a tea-picking drama in the Tang Dynasty. According to the ancestor Tian Shifu who was worshipped in the tea-picking drama class, he was a court musician in the Tang Dynasty. His original surname was Lei Guanghua. Because he fell in love with the singer, he broke the palace ban, so he escaped from the palace and went to Anyuan Jiulong Mountain to grow tea for a living. After farming, he did not forget his hobby, taught farmers to sing tea songs and play with tea lanterns, and compiled the play "Tea Picking in Jiulong Mountain", which is Gannan. Of course, the tea-picking drama can't have been invented by someone. It is generally believed that tea-picking opera became popular among the people in the middle of Ming Dynasty. This point is reflected in the poems and writings of scholars in the Ming Dynasty. For example, Tang Xianzu, a master of drama in the Ming Dynasty, sang "picking tea in the spring breeze in the lonely dock" in one of his poems. It can be seen that at that time, in remote villages, "tea picking" was already sung. He also wrote a farewell poem, which can better explain the development of "tea picking" at that time:

"The pink building looks at the west with tears in its eyes, fearing to see the river boat move and sunset; In April, Xiangzhong made tea and recalled heather before the court. "

The title of the poem "Seeing the Tea Pickers Farewell" shows that the "tea pickers" given away are not people who are engaged in tea picking, but professional artists who are engaged in singing "tea picking". This artist may have achieved considerable accomplishments in the singing art of "picking tea", and he may be deeply concerned by contemporary celebrities such as Tang Xianzu. It can be seen that tea picking had a deep foundation among the people at that time, otherwise, it would be impossible to have such a professional artist. In addition to the poems quoted above, Tang Xianzu's "Peony Pavilion" is a play of "Persuading Farmers", in which there is a performance of tea-picking songs and dances:

.....

[A woman sings well again.

[ Lao Dan and Chou hold baskets to pick tea, and sing:

[ filial piety song]: Take Grain Rain to pick new tea, with one flag and half a gun.

(Bai): Ah, what immortal is here?

(singing): The bachelor cooks him in snow, and the scholar misses him, making a new tile out of bamboo smoke.

(Waibai): The song is good. Speaking of him, it's not a bachelor of postal service or an envious scholar. It's my uncle who advised agriculture. Seeing that you women pick mulberry and tea is better than cauliflower, there is a poem to prove it: "Just because there are few tea stars in the sky, a hundred herbs will bloom first in the ground, and a dull girl will fight for grass, and the scenery is not as clear as a cup of tea." Arrange flowers.

[ Clean and Ugly Flower Arrangement and Drinking] Singing:

Drunk in the official office, laughing at flower arrangement before the wind, picking tea is not handsome.

......

This scene is about Du Bao, the prefect of Nan 'an Prefecture, who went out of the city for a spring outing, and came to Qingle Township, a suburb of Nan 'an (now Dayu County) to persuade farmers, and the elders of Qingle Township led the villagers to meet him at the Jieguan Pavilion. This ceremony of "persuading farmers" is a routine for local officials of past dynasties to show concern for farmers; It is also a means for officials to understand people's feelings and collect folk customs. The elders in Qingle Township prepared songs and dances reflecting the local folk customs and presented them to the Taishou. The song and dance quoted above was performed by a pair of tea-picking women. Tang Xianzu was born in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty. Before he wrote Peony Pavilion, he visited Nan 'an twice, wrote poems, and had a good understanding of local folk customs. The story of "Peony Pavilion" is set in Nan 'an Prefecture. When choosing songs and dances that reflect local folk customs, they must be circulated by the people to show the local characteristics of the plot. It can be seen that this kind of tea-picking song and dance chosen by Tang has long been popular among local people at that time. It has songs and dances, subjects and eyes, as well as characters and stories, and it has already possessed the elements of drama in which songs and dances are used to perform stories. This is enough to prove that in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Gannan tea-picking drama became popular among the people. The most prosperous time of tea-picking drama in southern Jiangxi was during the reign of Kang and Gan in Qing Dynasty, when Chen Wenrui (a native of Qianlong) wrote a poem "Nan 'an Zhuzhi Ci", which reflected the grand occasion of tea-picking in folk performances at that time:

Before singing a few songs, Qiu pretended to be a beautiful young man; Play a triangle play for a long time, pick tea songs to try tea days.

before the camp, it was in Shangyou County today, which belonged to Nan 'an Prefecture at that time. It was a small mountain town. It is also very difficult for a triangular class to start with tea picking and perform for a long time until the end of tea tasting in such a small town. It shows that the triangular class of tea picking at that time had a considerable foundation and was so attractive. Otherwise, it is impossible to maintain such a long performance in one place.

regarding the enthusiasm of the masses when watching tea picking at that time, there is a poem "Nan 'an Yin" in Xinfeng County Chronicle, which describes it in great detail:

"Tea picking songs, village children dressed as evil moths. Looking for Yao in Zhou Li's village, I looked back and smiled. Dude's children compete for lottery, holding cups and teasing waves. Poor stone swallow sobbed, killing people's livelihood and falling into the coal pit. His face was covered with soot and his fingers were black, and he was fascinated by tea picking. Hard-earned money is sprinkled with joy, and the bag is empty, and you learn' A-mei'? 。”

This poem "Ode to Nan 'an" was written by a missionary named Xie Zhaozhen in the county. The Oracle is a scholar, and his views represent the views of the ruling class in feudal society on tea-picking opera. Although it is full of derogatory meanings, on the other hand, it just shows that the masses were fascinated by tea-picking opera at that time, especially those coal miners who lived at the bottom of society (the stone mouth is full of coal), and they were even more fascinated by "tea-picking". Even if all the hard-earned money was sprinkled, they also took "learning" Return to the happy mood. Gannan tea-picking drama was respected by the society in the era of "self-entertainment class" in Ming Dynasty. Because at that time, the lantern show "Tea Picking in Jiulong Mountain" was performed, most of the content was to celebrate the peace. For example, the lantern in the play had the performance of "Peace in the World", so it was appreciated by feudal rulers. In the triangle class era of performing miscellaneous plays, because of the content of the plays, most of them are based on the love between men and women, and the views and ways of expressing love are often contrary to feudal ethics. Such as "Anti-Emotion" and "The Same Year". Some even satirize, expose and criticize the real life of the society in the form of comedy, such as "Da Quan Fu" and "Man Mei Hershey", etc., which is not tolerated by feudal rulers and is considered immoral and immoral. Since Qianlong, successive dynasties have repeatedly banned performances. For example, Daoguang's four-year "Chronicle of Ningdu Zhili Prefecture and Customs Chronicle" says:

"Tea-picking is also known as the triangle class, which is evil and immoral, leading to the most local harm. ..... Recently, there have been people who have been allowed to move their performances. They should be arrested and punished to stop this wind. "

Similar records are found in the county annals of counties in southern Jiangxi. The ban is not only written on official notices, but also carved monuments and stones, standing in rural markets and towns. For example, before 1949, there was a ban on tea picking, smoking, gambling, whoring and stealing next to Xiaojiang Zhenjun Temple in Xinfeng.

After the tea-picking opera in southern Jiangxi was banned, it was bad luck. It was no longer allowed to enter the village square and ancestral temple, so it had to set up an open-air performance in the corner of Weiwei Temple to survive tenaciously in the bitter wind and rain.

At its peak, Gannan tea-picking drama developed to more than 3 groups, and then gradually declined. On the eve of liberation, there were only five or six groups left in Gannan, hiding in the corner of the mountains and sneaking off and on. It was really dying, and only one remained. Apart from music, it can best show the characteristics of Gannan tea-picking drama. When its performance starts, it pays equal attention to song, dance and drama. Its performance characteristics can be summarized as "three wonders and three wonders". The three wonders are: the traditional tea-picking drama shows all the love and labor coveted by the lower working people, and there is no palace dance and talented person and beautiful woman dance, which is a surprise; A large number of performance figures imitate animal movements and are named after animal movements, which is the second wonder; Song and dance dramas go hand in hand, so that some people think it is a local song and dance drama, which is three wonders.

the three unique skills are: short step, single sleeve and fan flower.

The basic footwork of short step includes short step, high step, short step crossing step, shaking step, startled step, sliding step and shovel step. Short steps are divided into short piles, medium piles and high piles. This is the only short step in the world drama. Single sleeve, this is another must. In general, the sleeves in drama are in pairs, but there is only one left sleeve in tea things, Gannan. But it has created many dance terms. Such as grasping sleeves, draped sleeves, back sleeves, sun-shading sleeves, fan-wound sleeves, underarm sleeves, phoenix-tailed sleeves, needle-threading sleeves, flower basket sleeves, throwing up, throwing down, waist-wrapping, knee-twisting, and side-rolling ...

Beauty is a kind of symmetry, and a single sleeve seems to ignore the law of beauty, but, no, it is appreciated to use the other hand on the stage.

There are many kinds of actions to fan flowers, including throwing fans, installing folding fans, avoiding fans, sheltering from the sun, looking forward to fans, smelling flowers, covering the face, etc., which are very expressive. Among them, there are artistic tricks left by old artists about fan flowers, such as:

Five fingers with flowers facing the sky and four fingers with flowers facing forward. Three-fingered flowers hit four sides, and two-fingered flowers shook their chests. Yun, press, grasp and shake against the belly surface.

The characteristics of the three wonders and three wonders are the products of Hakka people living in the harsh ecological environment in southern Jiangxi for a long time.

For example, the dwarf step, Hakka people live in the mountains, go out to climb mountains, bend over and bend their knees, and tall people become "dwarfs". The clever Hakkas, on the other hand, make the dwarf step a unique basic dance step in the world. Clouds all over the mountain, misty tea all over the mountain, girls carrying tea baskets, singing tea songs, dancing while picking tea, boys carrying tea on their shoulders and stepping on short piles, middle piles and high piles transformed from dwarfs. Dancing with single sleeves and fan flowers, creating a unique Hakka tea things in southern Jiangxi.

For another example, there are many performance figures named after animals, because the Hakka people are used to interacting with birds and animals on the long mountain road, and the endless interest in life in the animal world has made the whimsical Hakka people get inexhaustible artistic inspiration. Imitate the actions of animals, and simply name them after the actions of animals, such as: monkeys washing their faces, wolves looking for food, lions opening their mouths, thrush jumping, turtles climbing the sand, leading the phoenix tail, dragonflies playing in the water, dogs wagging their tails, lazy cats scratching, foxes crossing the headland, butterflies picking honey, roosters pecking at rice, monkeys getting scared, and frogs getting too short.

The movements of animals expressing their life consciousness have been captured by Hakkas. It is not hard to imagine that without mountains, there would be no birds and animals, and there would be no observation and refinement of life. How can these numerous stage performances be created? Clowns are divided into two parts: one is "ugly and handsome", which is called "positive and ugly"; The second is "ugliness and ugliness", which is called "anti-ugliness".

Right and ugly: mainly young and middle-aged men among the working people. They are hardworking, simple, hearty, optimistic, witty and brave. When singing, the actor wears a "grab", a "three-flowered dress", a "white hall skirt" at the waist, bloomers at the bottom, a "fan flower" in his right hand and a "long sleeve" in his left hand. Singing and dancing, lively and relaxed. The performance is dominated by "short steps" and "fan flowers", and the combination of high and low steps is lively and distinctive.

Anti-ugliness: most of them are heavy smokers, gamblers, hooligans and philanderers. They often expose each other or mock themselves with some vivid, implicit, humorous and humorous words and actions. His performances often imitate some animal images, such as "monkey washing face", "monkey peeing", "dragonflies", "lazy cat scratching", "chicken pecking rice", "thrush jumping", "dog wagging its tail" and "tortoise climbing sand" and so on. The facial mask, white nose, footwork and fan flower movements are similar to the "positive and ugly" performance.

Xiao Dan: Mainly hardworking, simple and smart rural girls and young women. The performance is vigorous and beautiful, simple and generous. Its "fan flowers" are more abundant than clowns. They can play fan flowers with one hand and with both hands. Its body movements include: dressing and picking curtains, picking tea in the garden, umbrella flowers, opening and closing doors, etc. Its basic steps are eight-character step, step-skipping, step-stepping, step-grinding, step-exploring, step-breaking, etc., which can be described as various.