Trackers’ Work Song

Introduction to Trackers' Work Song

In Three Gorges, due to the overlapping mountains and rivers, so the traffic is extremely inconvenient. The flow of goods and passengers transportation are to be carried by the cargo vessel, and because of this, cypress sailboats became the main means of transportation. There are only several boatmen on a small sailboat; on a big sailboat, you may find twenty or thirty people. Shaoweng is the captain of the sailboat; he is the commander of the sailors. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, Shaoweng beat the drum to command the boat. Trackers' work song was about to rise in the mid-Qing Dynasty gradually and the professional work song leader came into being.

According to the different situation of water, the work song leader composing different work songs. For example, when the sailboat downstream, they sing the peaceful work song to relax the trackers; when they upstream or meet some turbulence, they sing the furious work song to cheer the trackers up.
 

Lyrics of Trackers' Work Song

The lyrics of the work song are also very rich, usually they choose the name of the place, products, history, places of historic figures and cultural heritage to compose the work song. Because of the old captain of the sailboat can remember all the details of Yangtze River like:

When is the tide? Where is the reef? What is the speed of water? By remember all the details of Yangtze River, the captains of sailboat were hired by the Shipment Company to be a sailor, guide or captain of a ship in the past time.

With the passage of time, the coming and going white sail wooden boats were replaced by motor boats or large steamship. Trackers' work song as a miracle of Chinese folk song receiving a wild praise and applause from home and abroad. Many music composers have composed many paeans by using the work song as the compositional material.

If you have a fortune to visit Zigui or standing on the edge of the surging of Xiling Goege. You probably will be enwork songed by the resounding trackers‘ work song or even pondering the miserable and tragic life of the trackers.