峨山彝族花鼓舞具体源与何时出现和产生，无史书记载。据调查了解，有关其起源和产生主要有民间传说和外来文化影响两种说法。

  民间传说：古时，有个能歌善舞的彝族美丽姑娘，有一天，她在洗瓦罐，无意间拍打了罐口，瓦罐便发出了咚咚的声音。她觉得很好听，在上山砍柴时便取回了一根空心树，蒙上羊皮，用木棍一敲，其声音特别悦耳动听。从此以后，彝族人民就有了自己的鼓和跳花鼓的活动，彝族后人为纪念花鼓的发明者，就做了一个牌位，上书“有感花鼓娘娘之牌位”，每在跳花鼓是须杀鸡献牌位，举行仪式，并成立“花鼓会”，这个有关峨山彝族花鼓舞起源来历的美丽传说，虽然没有确切的史书记载和可以证明其真实性的有力证据，但从中体现出了彝族人民的一种精神依托和崇敬祖先的意识愿望。也说明峨山彝族人民是一个崇尚劳动、崇尚智慧、崇尚创新的民族。

  受外来文化的影响。据考证和现在普查结果表明，峨山彝族花鼓舞最有可能是与安徽“凤阳花鼓”结合的一种彝族文化艺术形式。两者所使用的道具鼓几平同辙，鼓都是以悬挂腰际为主。另外，从彝族花鼓舞中的汉语唱词和花灯曲调来看，如：“听唱凤阳花鼓”、“听唱云南鼓”、“唱灯满来红似火，唱灯丑来包含些”、“金童玉女两边站，一对白鹤摆面前”、“鲁班师傅来瞟梁”等等，都是彝族花鼓舞吸纳汉文化的表现。从彝族花鼓舞本身的舞蹈语汇特征来看，主要以彝族的另一种民间舞蹈“跳乐”动作为主，如“左右打花”、“左右前后跺脚”、“翻身点脚”、“对脚”等许多基本的舞蹈动作和语汇。由此看来，峨山彝族花鼓舞中有着不可分割的汉文化艺术成分。从这个意义上，我们可以说峨山彝族花鼓舞是汉彝文化交融的结晶。这也说明，某种民族民间文化艺术的产生不是偶然和孤立的，它是多种文化互相交融、相互渗透和相互促进的过程中，经过本族人民长期的继承和发展创新的结果。各民族文化相互交融、包含和发展是某种民族民间文化艺术的产生所不可缺少的因素和结合形式。正因为这样，勤劳聪明、正直开朗、热情奔放的峨山彝族人民，用他们的智慧和对生产生活、社会自然的理解与热爱以及表达内心的热情和需要，才创造出了如此富有魅力的、丰富多姿的彝族花鼓舞艺术。

The origin and come-into-being of Eshan Yi people’s flower-drum-dance

   There is no record of the specific time of origin, emergence and come-into-being of Eshan Yi people’s flower-drum-dance in history books. According to investigations, there are two explanations for its origin and emergence. One relates to a folk tale and the other the influence of external culture.

Folk tale

   Long long ago, there was a beautiful Yi girl who was good at singing and dancing. One day, when she was washing an urn, she tapped the mouth of urn accidentally and found the urn produced the sound of beating a drum. She felt that the sound was very pleasing to the ear, so she brought back a hollow tree by the way when she cut woods in the mountain. She coated the hollow wood with sheepskin, tapped it with a stick, and found its sound especially pleasing to the ear. From then on, the Yi people have had their own drums and drum dance activities. In order to commemorate the inventor of the drum, the Yi people made a memorial tablet with the words “the tablet in honor of Goddess Drum” on it. Each time the Yi people perform the flower-drum-dance, they will kill chickens and offer them to the tablet, hold a ceremony and establish a “flower-drum-dance society”. Although there is no precise record in history books nor convincing evidence that can prove the authenticity of this folk tale, the beautiful legend about the origin of the Eshan Yi people’s flower-drum-dance reflects vividly the Yi people’s spiritual sustenance and worship of ancestors, and shows that the Eshan Yi people advocate diligence, wisdom and innovation.

   The influence of external culture

Textual research and current survey show that Eshan Yi people’s flower-drum-dance is most likely to be an art form that combines the Yi culture with Anhui’s Fengyang drum dance. Both art forms almost use the same drums as their props, and in both art forms the drums are suspended at the waist of the performers. Besides, both the Chinese librettos and the tunes of Yi people’s flower-drum-dance embody its absorption of the Han culture, for instance, “Listen to me singing Fengyang drum”, “Listen to me singing Yunnan drum”, “if you are pleased by my song, please give me more applause; if you are not, please forgive me”, “Golden Boy and Jade Maiden stand on the two sides with a couple of white cranes placed in the front”, “Lu Ban comes to take a sidelong glance at the girder”, etc. Viewed from its own dance and vocabulary features, Yi people’s flower-drum-dance is mainly dominated by the movements in “tiao-yue”, another folk dance of the Yi people, for instance, “make flowery tapping on the left and right sides of the drum” “stamp in four directions”, “turn around and touch the ground with the tiptoe”, “foot to foot” and many other basic dance movements and vocabulary. This shows that the artistic components of the Han Culture are integral to Yi people’s flower-drum-dance. In this sense, it is safe to say that Eshan Yi people’s drum dance is the crystallization of the Han culture and the Yi culture. It also shows that the emergence of an ethnic group’s folk culture and art is not accidental or isolated. Instead it is the fruit of its people’ commitment to carry it on, develop it and innovate it during the process of mutual integration, penetration and promotion among various cultures. The mutual integration, containing, and development among different national cultures are a factor and a form of combination essential to the emergence of an ethnic group’s folk culture and art. It is just in this way that the Yi people create such a charming and varied art form of flower-drum-dance with their wisdom, their understanding of and love for production, life, society and Nature as well as their enthusiasm and need to express the inner world.