Haozi

In about the sixth century BC, there appeared the first collection of poems and songs in Chinese history ?the Book of Songs. Of the 305 items in this work, 165 are folk songs and poems, know collectively as "feng". They are also called "the feng of the 15 states", as they are folk compositions handed down over a period of about 500 years (1006-570 BC)from 15 states or territories. The socio-historical aspect of these poems is not only wide-ranging but also a model of incisiveness worthy of being called a "Book of Genesis" which reveals the social life of 500 years of the Zhou people through poetry and song. Worthy of special mention is the fact that most of the poems and songs use the four-words-to-a-line format. This stable and widespread pattern laid an important foundation for the progress and diversification of later Chinese folk songs. The opening work in the Book of Songs: "By the riverside are cooing/A pair of turtledoves/A good young man is wooing/A maiden fair he loves." displays a fresh and lucid style; moreover, it has all the ingredients of a full-fledged song.

Forestry workers' haozi were sung to accompany the operations of lumbering, transporting timber, piling timber, etc. These songs originate mainly in Changbai Mountains area of Northeast China, the Greater and Lesser Xing'an Mountains, and forested regions of northwest and south China. The songs were different depending on the different natures of the jobs they accompanied. For instance, in the Changbai Mountains, the haozi sung when transporting timber were divided into Mushroom Head, Lifting, Rope Hauling, All Clear, Wakang and Floating the Logs songs. The forested areas of central and south China produced songs sung when transporting rafts of logs down rivers. These songs are raucous, rough and vigorous, reflecting the heavy and dangerous nature of the work.

The songs sung by men working on construction sites or building dikes included one to accompany tamping work done by teams of men hauling on ropes to move huge stone or iron weights rhythmically. This type of folksong was also found all over China, but thrived especially on the lower reaches of the Yellow River, where the dikes had to be reinforced twice a year, in spring and autumn. At those times, thousands of miles of dikes would echo to the sounds of tamping songs.

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