People often sing about historic events or figures, ranging from the most remote emperors to influential local figures. Sometimes the ballads are even sung in the form of quiz.

Many regionally or nationally well known legends are handed down in this way, such as "The Story ofMengJiangnu", "The Cowherd and the Weaving Fairy", "White Snake" and "The Butterfly Lovers (Liang Shanbo andZhu Tingtai)". Influential figures in a region or an ethnic community are often portrayed in folk ballads too. Ballads of this kind can be historically based, or word-of-mouth legends.

The length of historical or legendary songs varies: some have three or four lines; some have dozens of lines or hundreds of lines. They are very popular, entertaining and instructive for they contain many criticisms or eulogies to historical figures or events.