Yancheng, Jiangsu

Yancheng, formerly known as Yandu, is a prefecture-level city under the jurisdiction of Jiangsu Province and a city in the central area of the Yangtze River Delta. It is located in the eastern coastal area of China, in the eastern part of Jiangsu Province, and borders the Yellow Sea to the east. The entire territory is a plain, with high terrain in the northwest and southeast, and low-lying areas in the middle and northeast, divided into the Huanghuai Plain, the Lixiahe Plain, and the Coastal Plain; it is a transition zone from the North Asian subtropics to the warm temperate climate. Yancheng has been established since the sixth year of Emperor Gao of the Western Han Dynasty (201 BC), and it was originally named Yandu County. In the ninth year of Emperor An of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (413 AD), it was renamed Yancheng County. Yancheng is home to the only World Natural Heritage Site in Jiangsu, the Yellow (Bo) Sea Migratory Bird Habitat. The city has convenient transportation by sea, land, and air, and has basically formed a three-dimensional transportation network integrating highways, railways, aviation, sea transportation, and inland water transportation. Nanyang International Airport, Dafeng Port Area of Yancheng Port, Binhai Port Area, Sheyang Port Area, and Xiangshui Port Area have become national first-class open ports, making it a prefecture-level city with both an airport and a seaport as first-class open ports. It is the intersection of the national coastal development and the Yangtze River Delta integration strategies. The city has hundreds of kilometers of tidal flats and wetlands, with two national nature reserves for red-crowned cranes and elk, and a Chinese sturgeon nature reserve under construction. Topography: The entire territory of Yancheng is a plain, with high terrain in the northwest and southeast, and low-lying areas in the middle and northeast. Most areas are less than 5 meters above sea level, and the maximum relative height is less than 8 meters. It is divided into three plains: the Huanghuai Plain, the Lixiahe Plain, and the Coastal Plain. The Huanghuai Plain is located north of the Subei Irrigation Main Canal, and its terrain gradually decreases to the northeast and southeast, roughly centered on the abandoned Yellow River. Origin of the name: Yancheng was established as Yandu County in the fourth year of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty (119 BC). At that time, there were salt fields everywhere here, and there were salt rivers everywhere. 'Du' means the river for transporting salt. In the seventh year of Emperor An of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (411 AD), it was renamed Yancheng County, and the name 'Yancheng' has been used to the present day. It is named after the 'salt fields around the city'. Customs and folklore: In the rural areas of Yancheng and Funing, there were historical activities of boy servants making incense and performing witchcraft. The content includes: praying for a good harvest and holding a green seedling meeting, an adding seedling meeting; extending blessings and eliminating disasters and holding a peace meeting, a Mars meeting, etc. With the changes of history, the content of these performances has been continuously enriched, and after a long period of evolution, it has gradually developed into a incense play. The incense play is a local small play closely related to folk ghost and god beliefs, also known as Sanhuozi, Sankexi, etc., which was finally formed around the first year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1862). Its singing tune is composed of the 'Incense Tune' popular in the territory and the 'Huai Bounce' from Huaiyin, Baoying and other places. At the same time, incense play artists often team up with door ballad artists, so there are many tunes in the incense play that come from door ballads. Theater art: Huai opera, also known as Jianghuai opera, is popular in Jiangsu Province, Shanghai City, and some areas of Anhui Province. In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, in Yancheng, Funing and other places in Jiangsu, there was a popular form of storytelling developed from farmers' haozi and field songs 'Leilei Tune' and 'Planting Seedlings Tune', which was a single singing or duet singing with only bamboo boards as the rhythm. Later, it was combined with the folk god-offering 'Incense Play' to perform, and it was called 'Jiangbei Small Play'. Later, it was influenced by Huixi and Jingxi, and gradually enriched in singing tunes, performances, and repertoire, forming Huai opera. Early Huai opera mainly used 'Old Huai Tune' and 'Kao Ba Tune', and the singing tune was basically a linked structure of tune cards, and no orchestral instruments were played. Around the 19th year of the Republic of China (1930), Dai Baoyu, Liang Guangyou, Xie Changyu and others, based on the 'Incense Tune', began to create some new tunes accompanied by erhu, because the erhu was played with a bow, so it was called 'La Tune'. This greatly improved the performance art of Huai opera, and the mobile area gradually expanded from Yancheng, Funing, Huaian and other places to Jiangsu Province. In the first year of the Republic of China (1912), Huai opera artists He Kongde, Chen Dasan, etc., brought Huai opera to Shanghai for singing. Later, the famous actor He Jiaotian created the 'Chain Sentence' singing tune, which further enriched the 'Free Tune'. The traditional repertoire of Huai opera includes: early life small plays 'Tongue-to-Tongue', 'Foot Travel', 'Clever Grandma Scolding Cat', etc., big plays 'Nine Lotus Thirteen Heroes' (that is, 'Qin Xianglian', 'Lan Yulian' and other 9 plays with the word 'Lian' and 'Wang Erying', 'Su Diying' and other 13 plays with the word 'Ying') and 'Legend of the White Snake', 'Yue Fei', 'Thousand Miles to Send Jingniang', 'Zhuangyuan Robe', 'Official Ban Min Lamp', etc.