The Gelao wedding song is a custom in which Gelao girls bid farewell to their parents and relatives by singing and crying three to five days before getting married, expressing their feelings of parting. It is popular in Daozhen Gelao and Miao Autonomous County. Daozhen Gelao and Miao Autonomous County is located in the northernmost part of Guizhou Province, on the slope from the Guizhou Plateau to the Sichuan Basin. It borders Nanchuan City, Wulong County, Pengshui Tujia and Miao Autonomous County under the jurisdiction of Chongqing, and Zheng'an County and Wuchuan Gelao and Miao Autonomous County in this province. It is known as the "Gateway to Guizhou and Sichuan" in history. The total population of the county is 337,176, and the minority population is 260,957, including 151,929 Gelao people. Daozhen originally belonged to the northeastern region of Zheng'an County and was separated in 1941. In order to commemorate Yin Zhen, a famous scholar in the southwest of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the county was named after his character. Historically, the Ba Prefecture in the Qin Dynasty, the Zangke Prefecture in the Han Dynasty, the Mingyang Prefecture in the Sui Dynasty, the Yelang Prefecture in the Tang Dynasty, the Huguang Province in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, and the Sichuan Provincial Administration Commission all had jurisdiction over or most of the Daozhen area. In the early Qing Dynasty, it was incorporated into Guizhou from Sichuan. The custom of crying at weddings is a cultural phenomenon shared by many regions and ethnic groups in China. More than 2,000 years ago, the "Book of Rites" recorded that "the family of a married daughter kept candles burning for three nights, thinking of the separation"; Zhou Qufei's "Lingwai Daida" in the Song Dynasty described the wedding songs of the southern ethnic groups. In the Daozhen area, Neolithic stone axes were unearthed; Mr. Yin Daozhen, the founder of Guizhou education, once set up a school here to teach; and there were official schools in the Tang Dynasty: all of which indicate that the Daozhen area was developed and civilized earlier. Daozhen must have been influenced by the outside world early, and the custom of crying at weddings emerged. The reason why Daozhen's custom of crying at weddings is spread: the marriage of young men and women in Gelao relies on the orders of their parents and the words of matchmakers, and the man does not personally welcome the bride when she gets married, which makes the woman feel unfair about the marriage; the Gelao custom of "a woman three years older than her husband will bring gold bricks" makes the woman feel the psychological burden of carrying the family burden alone after marriage; the folks use whether she is good at crying at weddings as an important criterion to measure whether she has talent, which also prompts girls to pay attention to experience and perception; after marriage, she will leave her hometown, parents and relatives, and realize the role change. Many emotions will inevitably come one after another, and it is natural to sing and cry. Because there is a tradition of crying at weddings in the local area, rural ethnic minority girls in the country often go in and out of weddings when they are young, and consciously or unconsciously accept its influence; or secretly discuss and inherit it with older relatives and friends (commonly known as "learning to talk"). In the first half of the year or one or two months before the wedding, women would make shoemaking and embroidery and learn to cry at the wedding as an important matter. Seven or eight days before the wedding or three or five days before the wedding, women would not eat or drink, and would concentrate on "crying at the wedding" under the guidance of their mothers, aunts, and aunts. The "open voice" is for their biological parents, brothers, sisters, and other close relatives. This is to train their voices so that the voices they cry at the wedding are mellow and pleasant. The day before the wedding, brothers and sisters, relatives, neighbors, childhood friends, chefs, carpenters, etc. are all included in the scope of singing and crying. The house is even more lively, and the crying at the wedding also reaches its climax. The objects of singing and crying are expanded to all adults who come to congratulate. The lyrics of the crying are mainly improvised by the weeping bride based on their past learning and understanding, combined with themselves and the objects of crying or the gifts given by the objects. The content mainly expresses the attachment and farewell between each other, as well as the lament for their "unfortunate" fate and the worry about the future. The tune is relatively simple and concise, and it is basically one song from beginning to end. It incorporates a lot of dialects, colloquialisms, and local customs, and uses many metaphors and allusions. It is simple and vivid, and the emotions are sincere and natural. "Crying Wedding Song" is a typical folk tune of the Gejia people, which can be sung at will. The tune is simple and the lyrics are rich. The content involves a lot of knowledge in history, folklore, production, etc., and contains rich information in folklore, sociology, art, psychology, linguistics, etc. It also uses a lot of literary and rhetorical techniques such as fu, bi, and allusions. The emotions are delicate and sincere, the emotions are warm and sincere, the language is simple and simple, and it is full of local characteristics. The phonology is harmonious and catchy, which is a true expression of human affection. As the most real, natural, concentrated and unique expression of the female soul and emotional world, it undoubtedly provides vivid materials for the study of the spiritual and emotional world of ethnic minority rural women. The "crying" in "crying at a wedding" is different from the "singing and crying" of ordinary crying. It can only be produced in the solemn and sacred wedding customs that have been passed down from generation to generation, in the special atmosphere of gathering of clan members and bright red candles. Now, influenced by new concepts and new lifestyles, people's wedding locations and wedding ceremonies are more diverse, and their attitudes towards marriage have also changed greatly. At the same time, due to the improvement of economic level, improved transportation conditions, and the pursuit of practical benefits, family relationships have lost their former heavy colors, and whether a girl is good at "crying at a wedding" is no longer regarded as a standard for whether she is educated or talented. Therefore, the new "crying at a wedding" has lost or lacks new breeding ground. Now, most of those who can sing crying at a wedding are women who got married before the 1970s. They are at least 50 years old, and their listening and memory abilities are gradually weakening, which seriously restricts the excavation of "crying at a wedding". Naturally, "crying at a wedding" songs are facing a crisis of inheritance. (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.) (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.)