Hunan is a developed cultural area in ancient
china. It has a long history of human and the tradition of culture . It holds
rich resources of culture and art, and thousands of forms culture and art
are active.
At the Old Stone Age, there were people there;
there are over 100 places of the relics of New Stone Age. The range of relics
was wider in Shang and Zhou, and the inside meaning of the culture is deeper.
There are 300 pieces of bronze wares of Shang Dynasty. The cultural relics
over or under the earth of other period are countless.
Hunan was the south of Jinzhou in ancient
time, and it belonged to Chu during Chunqiu and Zhanguo Period. The traditional
culture of Chu in Chunqiu Period is the representative of the southern culture
for the country at that time. The people in Chu believed in ghost and favored
in scarify, and the wizard was strong. In the long history, the culture of
Chu and the local culture of Hunan mixed together and made the colorful styles
of culture and art, and formed the wonderful tradition culture and art.
The people from Chu, between Yuan and Xiang
in Chunqiu Period, believed in ghost, and they liked to hold different kinds
of sacrificial ceremony. In the ceremonies, they were blessing for happy mainly
through songs and dances. So there are many folk stories, which promoted the
forming and development of music, dancing and drawing. "The Songs of the South"
is the representative of the culture in Chu at that time. The Nine Songs by
patriotism poet, Quyuan was the sacrificial song imitated from the folk sacrificial
songs when he was driven to the place between Yuan and Xiang. The flourishing
of songs and dances can be seen from it.
The tradition of sacrifice god with songs and
dances was been kept on from Han to Tang, and never died. With the development
of the city and the influence of the Variety Play in the Yuan Dynasty ,the
opera of Hunan began and formed. Melodies which originated in Kunshan and
other opera tunes came into Hunan, and connected with local language, folk
music and certain religious music to form 19 local operas with different characteristic.
The style of literature, music, dancing and
drawing of Hunan has a long history and bore the tradition of the culture
of Chu, and showed the characteristic of it. It is not only rich in style
and works, but also with strong characteristic.
After the founding of People¨s Republic of
China, the government supported to the original culture and made them shows
a current beauty. With the development of science and technology, some new
art styles-film, TV are appeared in Hunan and gain great development. The
culture career in Hunan shows a flourishing view.