In March of spring, the tea-picking girl sang among evergreen trees, because it was handed down from the late Ming and early Qing dynasties: "A tea tree on Nanshan sprouted before the birds crowed. Both sisters picked it this year, and who will be the younger sister next year. " Over the years, a tea song has been formed. Tea songs are rich in content, lively and euphemistic. In the thirty-first year of Qing Qianlong (AD 1776), Chen Fengci, a scholar, wrote in Xunyang Music: "Lights shine on the Longjiang River, and the dragons and dragons are mixed and continue to lead the way, leaning to Daughter Lane and picking tea songs all the way." This shows that tea songs appeared in the Lantern Festival more than 200 years ago. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were many tea houses, teahouses and tea shops in the county town, which were engaged in tea purchasing, baking and marketing, and hired rural laborers to pick and make tea. When picking and making tea, especially when picking tea, tea farmers will sing tea songs at will to relieve boredom. With a large population and strong accent, it gradually formed a ditty with story lines and narrative aria, and began to have copies of songs, which were circulated among tea pickers, such as Tea Picking in December and Tea Picking by Sister-in-law. Some people collect songbooks with folk tunes, and after practicing singing, they go to teahouses to sell songs for a living. One person sings two or more roles, and the masses call it bench play. Later, it developed into Xiao Dan and The Clown, two short dramas with vivid movements, with a little rudiment of tea-picking drama.

In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, two kinds of operas mixed into the team of tea lanterns in the first month and evolved into lantern operas. The form of the performance is that four people each hold a tea lamp and stand at the four corners to form a venue. Once, an ugly man sang tea picking tunes or performed a traditional Chinese opera in the center of the venue. Up to now, there are still lantern performances in Wuning, commonly known as tea drum lanterns, and most of the performances are modern themes. Later, he joined Xiao Sheng, known as the Tripod Class or Tripod Drama, and the performance form and content gradually enriched. After the formation of Wuning tea-picking drama, it was performed on the grass platform, mostly for folk artists to extract and create small dramas from their lives, which inevitably led to the story of flirting and love between men and women. Artists are mostly poor people who have been enslaved for a long time, and their nature does not make them sing praises for feudal rulers, thus angering those officials and gentry who seem to be benevolent and moral and full of thieves and prostitutes. In the first year of Qianlong in Qing Dynasty (A.D. 1736), Yu, the governor of Jiangxi Province, took lust as the leading role, and Wuning tea-picking drama was banned. Under the high-pressure policy of the feudal ruling class, tea opera was in a slump and in trouble. On the eve of liberation, it was in a state of half-life.

/kloc-in the winter of 0/952, Shi Linghe, director of Jiangxi Provincial Bureau of Culture and veteran of literary and art circles, proposed at the first working conference of cultural centers in the province that we should implement the policy of "letting a hundred flowers blossom and bring forth the new" and vigorously explore folk art. Shi Lao emphasized that Wuning Tea-picking Opera is one of the four major local operas in Jiangxi with a long history and must be inherited and carried forward. And repeatedly stressed that we must do everything possible to organize the old artists scattered among the people and make great efforts to rescue them. Shi Lao said earnestly that the traditional art, which has gone through twists and turns and injected the painstaking efforts of the folk world team, will be an irreparable loss if it is lost in the hands of this generation.

According to Shi Lao's instructions, Wuning county leaders went through many twists and turns to mobilize Liu Tanlian, an influential figure among tea opera artists. After a short period of preparation, Wuning Tea-picking Troupe officially performed in the Spring Festival of 1953 after the establishment of the county seat, and made preliminary reforms in makeup, clothing, performance techniques and other aspects, retaining the traditional custom of still accompanying with gongs and drums. There are adaptations of the traditional drama Seven Sisters Descent and the modern drama Child Marriage. Shanghe

With Xiahe two schools to eliminate barriers, they performed on the same stage, with a strong lineup. They performed for two months in a row, and the venue was full and unprecedented. At the request of the masses, the troupe went to the countryside to perform, and the masses helped the old and took care of the young, climbing mountains and watching, and Wuning tea-picking drama was reborn.

1June, 953, Jiujiang District accepted this troupe, renamed it Jiujiang Tea Picking Troupe, and moved to Jiujiang. The cultural department of the Special Zone intends to develop a new kind of drama on the basis of Wuning Tea Opera, so it invited a group of actors from other places to mobilize the old artists who joined the group to excavate and sort out the traditional repertoires and musical vocals. The pace of reform is both big and fast. When the troupe was in full swing, a storm subsided. In the years of singing model operas, the tea-picking troupe was shocked and dissolved. After being criticized, the actors were decentralized, and the rural amateur tea troupe was replaced by the propaganda team. Wuning tea-picking drama fell to a low point. 1984, in order to make Wuning tea-picking drama survive, Wuning tea-picking class of Jiangxi Literature and Art School came into being and was formally established in September. Recruit 62 students twice. After four years of hard training,1987 65438+participated in Jiujiang Drama Festival in February. The students performed "Incorrect Things" and won the first prize of performance, screenwriter, director, art design and composition, and nine students won the excellent new seedling award. 1988 1 1 wuning tea-picking troupe was formally established and insisted on performing for farmers in the countryside. Plays include Poverty in Cui Hua, Collection of Wujin, Private Visit to Yu Chenglong, etc. Enriched the cultural life of Shanxiang, Wuning tea-picking drama once again entered a period of revival and development.

Affected by the general depression of Chinese opera, 1993 tea-picking troupe was abolished and employees were assigned to various units, and Wuning tea opera fell into a trough again.

The ups and downs of Wuning tea-picking drama profoundly reflect the changes of the times and the people's demand for cultural life. Although accomplished old tea opera artists have died one after another, in the vast rural areas, there are many people who can sing and perform tea operas, and amateur troupes still perform on the grass platform.

In September, 2004, Wuning County Senior Sports Association set up a tea-picking troupe to tour to promote the amateur tea drama activities of local people. In the activity center of the sunset red elderly project, a small theater with a capacity of 300 to 500 people was designed for the tea-picking troupe to perform. The county cultural propaganda department also put the development of ancient tea drama on the agenda. This wonderful flower in the garden has experienced wind, frost, snow and ice, but it is deeply rooted and nourished by fertile soil, sunshine and rain, and the care of the masses. It will bloom more and more brilliantly at the foot of the Shogunate Mountain.