Bamboo Branch Songs were originally folk songs from around Chongqing.
Tips
culture
The best-known one has a girl hearing her young man sing on the river: 东边日出西边雨，道是无晴却有晴。 'Sun in the east, rain in the west: you'd say it isn't clear, yet it is.' 晴 'clear sky' puns on 情 'love'.
history
Each song is a 七言绝句, four lines of seven characters in plain, folk-like language. After Liu Yuxi, poets down to the Qing used the form for local customs and street life, and many cities have their own 竹枝词.
