Linxiang Flower Drum Opera developed from Yueyang Flower Drum Opera, and was later influenced by Changsha Flower Drum Opera, forming a Flower Drum Opera singing style with Yueyang Flower Drum Opera as the main body, and Changsha Flower Drum Opera and Linxiang local minor tunes. Because it is mainly spread in the Taolin River Basin in Linxiang City, and the stage language used is Linxiang dialect, it is also called Linxiang Flower Drum Opera locally. Because one of the main instruments played is called humming qin, the local people also call it "humming qin opera". In 2006, Linxiang Flower Drum Opera was identified as the first batch of intangible cultural heritage list items in Hunan Province. The Taolin River Basin under Longjiao Mountain in Linxiang City, Hunan Province is the origin of Linxiang Flower Drum Opera. In addition to being spread within the city, it is also spread in Chongyang, Tongcheng, Chibi, Honghu in Hubei Province, Xiushui, Tonggu in Jiangxi Province, Yueyang (including Yunxi District), Pingjiang, Miluo, Huarong and other counties and cities in Hunan Province, forming a large cultural circle with Linxiang as the center, affecting Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi. Linxiang Flower Drum Opera had taken shape from the "two small" (xiaodan and clown) during the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, and developed into the "three small" (xiaodan, xiaosheng, clown) during the Xianfeng and Tongzhi periods of the Qing Dynasty, and gradually formed a multi-role performance troupe, such as the famous "Sanqiu Troupe", "Santang Troupe", "Wufanmen Troupe", "Jin Shaoye Troupe" and so on. The owner of the "Sanqiu Troupe" also learned opera from the drama master Mei Lanfang. During the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, Linxiang Flower Drum Opera reached its heyday. Linxiang Flower Drum Opera was born out of the local folk songs, mountain songs, night songs, love songs, local flower drums, local tunes, etc. in Linxiang, and absorbed a small amount of singing characteristics of Han Opera, Sichuan Opera, Hubei Jingzhou Flower Drum Opera and other operas, forming a unique local opera with gong and piano tunes as the main tunes, and five kinds of tunes, including blowing tunes, set songs, and local tunes. Luo tunes are the main tunes of Linxiang Flower Drum Opera at the beginning. It is divided into two routes, south and north, and belongs to the board tune. The southern route is mostly used for times of sorrow and resentment, while the northern route is mostly used for joy. The number of boards in the southern and northern routes are mostly used for longer narrative passages. They can be switched to each other, which is called south to north or north to south. The miscellaneous tunes in the gongqiang are mostly used in small plays. They are humorous and lively. They are mostly in the zhi and shang modes, and there are also yu modes, but they always emphasize the shang tone or zhi tone. The northern route of the gongqiang is single sentence, double sentence, double sentence, single sentence, number board, double sentence or single sentence, and there is also a sad head and inverted board, which is inserted as the plot develops. The southern route of the gongqiang is double start (or single start) number board, ox turn (or single tail and double tail). Qinqiang is a combination of the banqiang style and the qupai style. Qinqiang appeared after the gongqiang style, which may have been grafted from the buzzing qin in the hands of the blind (fortune teller). Qinqiang is divided into the main tune (or main tune), the secondary tune (or secondary tune), and the scattered tune. The main tune of Qinqiang was developed from the "Yaoshan Love Song" of Linxiang and the northern route of Luoqiang. The male and female roles are mostly sung in falsetto, which is slightly different from the melody of Luoqiang. The accompaniment melody of Qinqiang and the melody of the singing naturally form a primitive polyphonic color. The interlude to the singing is sung in the top board, which is very interesting. The end of the tune is changed from the human voice and tune of Luoqiang to the suona and tune (also known as suona). Qinqiang has a complete set of banqiang, such as sad head, inverted board, main tune, slow board, original board, two beats (also known as two-pick), fast board, quick board and tune. However, the secondary tune and Sanqu in Qinqiang belong to the qupai body. Therefore, Qinqiang is both a banqiang body and a comprehensive form of qupai body. Sometimes "Shuban" is sung in Qinqiang, but it is borrowed from "Shuban" in the southern and northern routes of Luoqiang. The secondary tune and Sanqu in Qinqiang have all kinds of joy, anger, sorrow and happiness. The secondary tune is mostly used in drama, and the sanqu is mostly used in small plays and plays. The Qinqiang tune is divided into Shangzhi and Gongzhi alternating, and a few are single Yudiao and Zhengdiao colors. There are three forms of blowing tunes. The first type: suona accompanies the singing tune, or the whole singing tune is blown, or the tune is connected at the end of the song. The second type: the flute accompanies the singing tune, or the whole singing tune is blown, or the tune is connected at the end of the song. The third type: playing in the form of folk wind and percussion music. The tunes played vary from play to play, and the emotions are happy, angry, sad, and happy. The suite is a special tune for many small and medium-sized dramas. In each set, the mode and tonality are relatively unified, and the color is relatively consistent. Most of them are composed of reverse board, normal board, number board, fast board, and quick board. The colors vary depending on the plot. Ditty music can be divided into: gong tunes are warm and rough; qin tunes are elegant and delicate; string tunes are sweet and tender; folk (lantern) tunes are lively and quiet, good at expressing various emotions, and are particularly suitable for small plays. Instrumental music can be divided into: string music is delicate, lyrical, compact, fearful, sad, etc.; wind music is festive and joyful, sad and crying, etc.; wind and percussion music is mostly used in celebrations and marches, and can also be used in sad places; percussion music has the functions of light, heavy, slow, fast, happy, angry, sad, happy, sad, fearful, and startled; all instrumental music has its own strengths in expressiveness, which can be said to be colorful and can fully adapt to the needs of Sheng, Dan, Jing, Chou and various styles of plots. Instrumental music can be played by the band to support the tune, protect the tune, set off the character's personality in the play, and render the changing plot. The main instruments of Linxiang Flower Drum Opera include: humming qin, suona, flute, and later developed into plucked instruments such as yangqin and guzheng. The martial arts scenes include: small hall drum, large hall drum, ban drum, kezi or cloud board, big Han gong, middle Han gong, middle tiger gong, high tiger gong, big Han cymbal, small Han cymbal, small Han gong, cloud gong, horse gong. The humming qin (also called fat tong in some places) is generally made by Linxiang Flower Drum Opera artists. It is specially made, with a long tube and a short pole, without a thousand gold in the middle. The axis is similar to the banhu, but the two axes are installed on both sides of the pole, symmetrically. The bow is the same as the erhu bow, and the tube is covered with snake skin. There are 76 representative plays in Linxiang Flower Drum Opera, including traditional plays such as "Wang Meizi Returns Home", "Meng Shi Cuts Her Thigh", "Dong Yong Sells Himself", "Han Xiangzi Begs for Food", "Meng Jiangnu", "Xuemei Teaches Her Son", "Zhang Guangda Pays Birthday Celebration", and modern plays such as "Daxing and Lanlan", "The Poverty Alleviation Funds Allocated by Tangke", and "The Village Official is a Laborer". The main features of Linxiang Flower Drum Opera are: 1. The diversity of vocal tunes can better reflect its artistic charm. Linxiang, located at the junction of Hunan and Hubei, is influenced by the Hunan and Chu culture and the Hunan and Xiang culture, forming the soil of folk music such as folk songs, mountain songs, ground flower drums, and drum rap, so there are five vocal tunes of Linxiang Flower Drum Opera (gong tune, piano tune, set, blowing tune, and minor tune). The diversity of vocal tune expression forms is the charm of this type of opera. 2. The vocal tunes are unique, especially the piano tune, blowing tune and local minor tunes among the five vocal tunes, which fully reflect the original ecological beauty of national music. The main tunes of Huagu Opera are gong and qin. Most of the vocal tunes are impromptu, and most of them are slightly modified colloquial tones. They have more narrative functions than lyrical functions, and are completely consistent with the backbone sounds of folk songs, mountain songs, local flower drums and other national music in the origin area. This allows the audience to understand the charm of national folk music from Huagu Opera and seek the enjoyment of its original ecological beauty. 3. The method of vocalization is special and needs to be inherited and developed. The traditional method of vocalization with false voice is also found in some other operas in my country, but the method of vocalization in Linxiang Huagu Opera is somewhat unique. It does not distinguish between men and women, young and old, elegant and rough in character, or joy, anger, sorrow and happiness. It is sung with false voice (there are exceptions for some professions). On the basis of the original melody, it is sung in false voice with an octave higher, and the sound is not continuous. 4. The melody is rich and full of the flavor of Linxiang folk songs and mountain songs. Linxiang's folk songs and folk songs are rich and colorful. Linxiang's Yao folk songs are beautiful and melodious. Linxiang Huagu Opera has absorbed their essence, forming a unique and distinctive style, which adds to the musical beauty of Huagu Opera. 5. Melody color and function It is good at performing tragedies. The tragedies performed by Linxiang Huagu Opera, such as "Qin Xuemei Teaching Her Son", "Qin Xuemei Mourning", and "Meng Jiangnu Crying at the Great Wall", have been performed for hundreds of years. This is related to its vocal style characteristics. Its "sad head" is like crying, its falsetto is delicate and weak like crying, and its board style only has changes in speed, without dramatic development, and expresses single-minded emotions. 6. The singing and speaking adapt to and are close to the audience at the performance location, changing with the changes in the local dialect, and are closer to the audience. Because Linxiang is located at the junction of Hunan and Hubei, the language is very complex. In addition to using the Xiangbei language system accompanied by Han accent, the comedy characters of "two small" and "three small" are mainly in Linxiang Taolin dialect. In addition, the local dialect is flexibly used according to the content of the script and the birthplace of the characters in the play. Especially the clowns, they use the dialect of the place where they perform. Linxiang Flower Drum Opera, with a history of more than 500 years, is an artistic wonder that blooms in the adjacent areas of Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi. It has a strong local flavor and is deeply loved by the people in northern Hunan. Linxiang Flower Drum Opera carries a lot of traditional cultural information in northern Hunan. Its evolution process truly reflects the social conditions, folk art, local customs and other activities of a period at that time. It is a living fossil for studying the cultural relics of the Yao people. In 2006, Linxiang Flower Drum Opera was identified as the first batch of intangible cultural heritage list items in Hunan Province.