What is the origin of Nanchang tea-picking drama with singing and dancing?

In the Song Dynasty, Song Renzong's minister of military and political affairs, Zhao Zhen, made a southern tour and passed by Nanchang, Jiangxi.

On this day, the sun is like fire, and the air seems to flow like fire, which makes people feel hot as soon as they inhale. Injong Zhao Zhen couldn't walk in this scorching sun, so the team stopped at the side of the road with their backs to the mountain and found a cool place to rest.

Zhao Zhen in Song Renzong is thirsty and hot. How I wish I could drink a bowl of green tea to drive away the summer heat.

At this time, there was a melodious song on Rest Mountain in Song Renzong:

It's raining, son. Play, much cry and little rain!

There is no water at the bottom of the stream, and there are fish. This mess is bumps!

Where do you love, girl? No, dare not say Iraq!

There is no distance to find the matchmaker, this distance is empty!

What a big water cowboy! What a thin one! Soybeans!

Big boy, Han, Li, Niang, Xiao, this Han, ah, ah!

Dude, where are you, mom? No, I know Baoyi!

Good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good.

The song is crisp and loud, and it is extremely cheerful. Although it was sung in the local dialect, the brisk rhythm and cheerful melody made Song Renzong and others attracted by the song and temporarily forgot the heat.

When the song stopped, Song Renzong asked the minister around him, "Who knows what this little song is about?"

Song Renzong was accompanied by a minister from Jiangxi. He said to Song Renzong, "Long live, this is a ditty sung by tea pickers in Jiangxi."

When Song Renzong heard the word tea, he immediately felt a fire in his throat. The hunger he just forgot swept through like the tide in Qiantang, and it was out of control.

Song Renzong quickly said to the imperial commander around him, "Find me a tea-picking girl. My thirsty throat is smoking. I need to drink water to quench my thirst. "

The commander-in-chief of the imperial army immediately sent a team of imperial soldiers into the mountains to look for tea pickers when he heard Renzong's order. In a short time, a tea-picking woman with a delicate face came to Renzong with half a basket of tea on her back.

After seeing Song Renzong, the tea pickers shouted for a long time. I will take the freshly fried tea I am going to sell in Nanchang and send it to Renzong.

Song Renzong had the tea boiled. As a few pieces of tea were put into the water, the air was immediately filled with the fragrance of tea, and people around the tea stove were drooling.

Song Renzong smelled the tea and couldn't wait to put it in front of him and put it in his mouth. When the tea entered Song Renzong's mouth, Song Renzong felt a faint fragrance gathering under the root of his tongue, and then the fragrance quickly spread and quickly overflowed the whole mouth.

Song Renzong was fascinated by the smell of tea. He couldn't help but close his eyes and put all his attention into the taste of tea.

Song Renzong swallowed his tea slowly, and the attractive fragrance between his lips and teeth was still unforgettable. After a long time, Song Renzong opened his eyes and said appreciatively, "Good tea, good tea. I've never drunk such fragrant tea. Tell Nanchang prefect that this kind of tea will be used as a tribute from this year. "

Song Renzong and others left after drinking tea, and the Nanchang magistrate received an imperial edict from Song Renzong to collect tea all over Nanchang. At that time, the news of tribute tea from Nanchang spread all over Jiangxi, and more and more businessmen gathered in Nanchang to spend money to taste the tribute tea praised by Song Renzong.

The tea was finally ready, and the prefect of Nanchang called tea farmers to hold a warm celebration. Tea farmers play, sing, sing and dance in this activity.

With the appearance of tribute tea, the annual celebration has become a fixed schedule, and some artists have switched to performing tea-picking songs as their main business. Later, these artists combined traditional tea-picking songs with folk dances to form a tea-picking lantern exhibition.

With the popularity of the tea-picking lantern festival, it appears more and more in various folk festivals, especially during the Spring Festival. Various folk lanterns are used to perform in rural areas, forming the performance form of the tea-picking lantern festival.