Hunan is a developed cultural area in ancient china. It has a long history of human and the tradition of culture . It holds rich resources of culture and art, and thousands of forms culture and art are active.
　　 At the Old Stone Age, there were people there; there are over 100 places of the relics of New Stone Age. The range of relics was wider in Shang and Zhou, and the inside meaning of the culture is deeper. There are 300 pieces of bronze wares of Shang Dynasty. The cultural relics over or under the earth of other period are countless.
　　 Hunan was the south of Jinzhou in ancient time, and it belonged to Chu during Chunqiu and Zhanguo Period. The traditional culture of Chu in Chunqiu Period is the representative of the southern culture for the country at that time. The people in Chu believed in ghost and favored in scarify, and the wizard was strong. In the long history, the culture of Chu and the local culture of Hunan mixed together and made the colorful styles of culture and art, and formed the wonderful tradition culture and art.
　　 The people from Chu, between Yuan and Xiang in Chunqiu Period, believed in ghost, and they liked to hold different kinds of sacrificial ceremony. In the ceremonies, they were blessing for happy mainly through songs and dances. So there are many folk stories, which promoted the forming and development of music, dancing and drawing. "The Songs of the South" is the representative of the culture in Chu at that time. The Nine Songs by patriotism poet, Quyuan was the sacrificial song imitated from the folk sacrificial songs when he was driven to the place between Yuan and Xiang. The flourishing of songs and dances can be seen from it.
　　The tradition of sacrifice god with songs and dances was been kept on from Han to Tang, and never died. With the development of the city and the influence of the Variety Play in the Yuan Dynasty ,the opera of Hunan began and formed. Melodies which originated in Kunshan and other opera tunes came into Hunan, and connected with local language, folk music and certain religious music to form 19 local operas with different characteristic.
　　The style of literature, music, dancing and drawing of Hunan has a long history and bore the tradition of the culture of Chu, and showed the characteristic of it. It is not only rich in style and works, but also with strong characteristic.
　　 After the founding of People’s Republic of China, the government supported to the original culture and made them shows a current beauty. With the development of science and technology, some new art styles-film, TV are appeared in Hunan and gain great development. The culture career in Hunan shows a flourishing view.