Da Huo Pao

Da Huo Pao is a type of folk music performance generally played on festive occasions and often amid fierce firecrackers. The musical instruments include the suona horn, drum, cymbal and different kinds of gongs.

The custom of Da Huo Pao started from the Tang Dynasty. Legend has it that when Xue Gang stationed troops in Shennongjia in an uprising against the imperial court of the Tang Dynasty, his soldiers reclaimed a lot of wasteland for the supply of army provisions. In order to lift the morale of his troops and dispel the fatigue, the soldiers would beat the gongs and drums and sing songs.

In Shennongjia, the old custom of Da Huo Pao continues to exist today. There are such folk troupes in all towns and villages now. Da Huo Pao, an artistic form loved by the masses, comes from the life of the working people. It is simple but interesting. As the inheritance of the national cultural tradition, it plays a positive role in enriching the cultural life in rural areas. 

Nowadays, people will engage a troupe to perform Da Huo Pao whenever they celebrate the occasions like the wedding, birthday dinner and rounding off the construction of a building. The piping and drumming performers are often outstanding folk singers. They can sing while piping and drumming, which is called the “songs of Huo Pao”. The “songs of Huo Pao” are divided into four-sentence stanza, five-sentence stanza and four-and-a half-sentence stanza as well as the Liuban and Shuban (two kinds of singing styles) alternating long and short sentences. The singing matches perfectly with the change of percussion music and tunes of suona horn in lively and cheerful rhythms. Tunes of suona horn are mostly the folk melodies like Ping Qiang, Tao Qiang, Man Diao, Siping Diao, lyrical Wen Tune and dramatic Wu Tune.