What does traditional Chinese music refer to?...

Traditional Chinese music was formed and developed through the exchanges and fusions between the music of the Central Plains, centered on the Dian River Valley, and the music of the Four Regions, as well as the music of foreign countries. Therefore, it can be said that the music of the Central Plains, the music of the Four Regions, and the music of foreign countries are the three major sources of traditional Chinese music.

The music of the Central Plains refers to the music developed in the Yellow River basin. During the long process of historical development, the music culture of the Yellow River Valley with the Han people as the main body was formed. Among them, the music culture of the Yin Shang and Western Zhou periods is of representative significance. In addition to the development and organization of music and dance of the Six Dynasties and other kinds of music and dance, the classification and hierarchization of the ritual and music system, the setting up of the Da Shi Le institution, and the application of the three-part law of gain and loss, etc., which had an important influence on the whole generation, especially in the classification of the "eight tones" musical instruments, the "qin" (seven-stringed zither) and its music appeared, laying the foundation for the development of China's musical culture and the development of its music. In particular, the appearance of the qin (seven-stringed zither) in the classification of the "eight notes" and its music laid down the basic pattern of traditional Chinese musical instruments and instrumental music.

The music of the four domains refers to the music cultures of various ethnic groups in China, except for the music culture of the Yellow River Valley, which was created mainly by the Chinese people in the Central Plains. Among them, the Yangtze River Basin, Pearl River Basin and other areas, and the Yellow River Basin as the cultural birthplace of the Chinese nation. The Chu culture in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River is colorful and unique, and the music of the Central Plains is an example of traditional music in ancient China, reflecting each other, competing with each other, blending, and then deriving and developing. The Cantonese culture of the Pearl River Basin, the music culture of the ethnic minorities in the southwest, the role of the Northwest as the ancient Silk Road in the dissemination and blending of music cultures through the route, and the music culture of the ethnic minorities in the Northeast have all made important contributions to the formation and development of Chinese traditional music. Among them, in terms of musical instruments, as a representative example of the mingling of Han Chinese musical culture with that of ethnic minorities, various forms of stringed instruments from the Xiqin to the Huqin can be cited.

The exchange of Chinese music with the music of the country has a long history. According to the biography of Mu Tian Zi, it is said that at the beginning of the Western Zhou Dynasty, King Mu of the Zhou Dynasty once took a rather large-scale band to the Western countries to support the implementation and exchange of music. Thereafter, during the Han Dynasty, along with the introduction of Buddhism, Hindu music and dharma music were also introduced into China; during the Sui and Tang dynasties, a large amount of foreign music was imported, which not only brought in foreign music, but also introduced musical instruments, music laws and scales. The pipa, which was introduced to China as a foreign instrument and later transformed into a traditional Chinese instrument, is quite representative.

Three Periods of Development of Chinese Folk Music

1. The Formative Period of Chinese Traditional Music (about 21st century B.C. to the 3rd century A.D.)

This period includes from Xia, Shang, and Western Zhou to the Spring and Autumn Period, the Warring States Period, and the Zao Han Period. In terms of musical genres, it experienced an evolution from primitive music and dance to court music and dance. In the melodic tone, scale form, experienced by the primitive music emphasis on small intervals of three degrees of tone, to the Spring and Autumn and Warring States emphasized the Gong, Shang, Zheng, Feather on the bottom of the large 3 degrees of the "(Fupe), Zeng" system, "three points of the law of loss and gain" phases of the five tones, the seven voices, With the "three-point loss and gain method", five tones, seven tones and twelve rhythms were generated, which initially established the five-tone character of traditional Chinese music melody. In terms of music aesthetics, the debates among the various pre-Qin sages and the hundred schools of thought established the theoretical endpoints of our doctrines. In this period, the most representative musical art form is the bell and drum orchestra.

2. The New Sound Period of Chinese Traditional Music (4th to 10th centuries)

This period covers the period from the Wei, Jin, and North and South Dynasties to the Sui and Tang dynasties. The political turmoil of the Wei, Jin, and North and South Dynasties and the migration of people from the north to the south and the inward movement of ethnic minorities constituted an impact on Chinese traditional music: firstly, the impact of esotericism on Confucianism, which led to a change in musical thought; secondly, the importation of ethnic minority music and foreign music, which introduced new factors in musical instruments, musical rhythm, musical composition, and music theory. As a result of this impact, traditional Chinese music changed, creating a new generation of internationalized music. On the one hand, there was the Sinicization of world music, including the Sinicization of foreign compositions, the use of foreign instruments, the introduction of foreign tunes, the nationalization of foreign orchestras, and the contribution of foreign musicians to the development of Chinese music. On the other hand, there is the globalization of Chinese music, i.e., Chinese music has given an important influence to many countries in the world (especially harsh countries, such as Korea and Japan) with its brilliant achievements.

3. The period of finishing Chinese traditional music (about 10th century to 19th century AD)

Including Liao, Song, Jin, Ming and Qing. Its political livestock is: from strife and division to relative unity, and from the North-South confrontation to the establishment of a unified regime of multi-ethnic state, and its relative stability in a fairly long period of time. Music and culture are characterized by secularity and sociality. The so-called secularity means that it maintained a close association with the common people. The traditional music of this period had a broader social base in terms of performers and audiences. In terms of music theory, it showed a tendency to inherit and clean up the previous period. The characteristics of music forms were gradually solidified and stereotyped. The representative musical art form was opera and its music. This art form, inherited from the previous generation, connected with the next generation, and widely absorbed the new achievements of contemporary music, became a treasure house of ancient and modern music. Chinese traditional dance was born in a special era and environment, so the ceremonial characteristics are very obvious. The art of dance later as a highly aesthetic appreciation of art, has a variety of artistic characteristics such as entertainment, aesthetic and so on, but these characteristics are gradually derived from the earliest existence of the ceremonial nature of the dance.

I. Traditional Chinese dances are mostly produced in the needs of witchcraft and religious ceremonies of the ancestors

From the point of view of the production of dances, they are adapted to the needs of witchcraft and primitive religious ceremonies. This can be understood from the original meaning of the word "dance". In the early oracle bone inscriptions, the shapes of "dance" and "witch" are very similar. In early societies, "dance" and "witch" referred to the same thing, i.e., the witchcraft rituals of female witches and the gestures of witches when praying to the gods. Later, the meaning of the word "dance" was gradually separated from the word "witch" to refer to the gestures of witches, and the word "witch" to refer to the category of witches. It can be seen that this gesture is the original form of "dance". Although the "dance" gesture was separated from "wu," early dances in fact served sorcery directly, as can be seen from the relationship between the words "dance" and "summer" and "dance" and the word "summer". This can be seen in the relationship between the words "dance" and "summer". There is a record in the oracle bone inscriptions of "Xin Si Bu Bing Huo Dance with Rain". This is actually a record of a ritual for rain, in which there is the ritual act of dancing. "Shuowen Jiezi" interpretation of "summer rain" said: "summer rain, summer festival music in the red emperor to pray for sweet rain also. From rain, in sound. The summer sacrifice is also a dance of feathers." Therefore, the first meaning of "dance" is "雩", which refers to the "feather dance" in the witchcraft ritual of praying for rain. The Zhou Rites - Spring Officials - Musicians" said: "All dances have a plucking dance, a feather dance, a royal dance, a banner dance, a dry dance, and a human dance." That is, the so-called six small dances of the Zhou Dynasty. These dances are ritual dances in the Zhou dynasty sacrificial activities. The Zhou Officials - Dancing Master" reads, "Teach the Bing Dance and dance the mountain and river rituals; teach the Bui Dance and dance the Sakura rituals; teach the Feather Dance and dance the four directions rituals; teach the Emperor Dance and dance the drought tak thing." Both the Feather Dance and the Imperial Dance were ceremonial dances to pray for rain. Later, the "Yong Dance", "Zao Dance", "Dragon Dance" and so on are all witchcraft ritual dances of drought sacrifices to seek rain, of which the "Dragon Dance" has not failed to this day.

Archaeological discovery of China's early music and dance map, many with strong religious colors and witchcraft nature, is the record of witchcraft ritual activities of the ancestors. Such as the dances in the colored pottery pots unearthed in Sunjiazhai, Datong County, Qinghai, the primitive rock paintings in Wolf Mountain, Inner Mongolia, the primitive rock paintings in Jiayuguan Mountain, Gansu, the primitive rock paintings in Guangxi Huashanya primitive murals in the dance scene, researched by experts have a very strong sorcery nature and ritual characteristics.

Why did early Chinese dance have such obvious ritual characteristics? In fact, this has something to do with the social function of dance at that time. Early dance arose from the witchcraft totem activities of the early ancestors, was part of the witchcraft ritual activities, and was a product of the witchcraft totem culture, which inevitably had the cultural attributes of witchcraft. From the early dance, its direct function is to realize its witchcraft purpose of communicating with people and gods, praying for blessings and avoiding disasters, and having a good harvest.

In this sense, it can be said that utility and ritual are the first attributes of the early dance, and the entertainment of the dance is derived from the entertainment purpose of sorcery activities, from entertaining the gods to entertaining the people and then to self-entertainment, which is an important stage in the development of the dance. Although later dances may not have been used for rituals, the ritualistic traditions that have existed in Chinese dance since its inception have been accumulated and have permeated the dance's movements, structure, and unique lyricism, among other things.

Second, Chinese traditional dance is used in all kinds of ceremonial occasions

From the perspective of performance occasions, Chinese traditional dance is mostly used in all kinds of ceremonial occasions. As big as the country's rituals, court meetings, war, celebrations, royal turnover, as small as the people's wedding, funeral, hiring, sowing and harvesting and so on have a number of ceremonial content. Summarized can be divided into social ceremonies, religious ceremonies, production ceremonies, life growth ceremonies and other categories. Ancient China according to the use of dance occasions and social functions of the court dance is divided into elegant dance, miscellaneous dance two categories. The elegant dance was the most important dance in the court of the later dynasties, although the emperors of each generation produced their own dances with different names to show that they did not copy each other, but only the lyrics were changed and the dance music remained the same, and the ritual function of the rituals remained unchanged. As the saying goes, "Since the Zhou Dynasty, only the words have been changed, but not the dances". This part of the dance is used in national ceremonial occasions, and obviously has a strong ceremonial character.

The ceremonial features of the dance can be seen from the "Lefu Poetry Collection", which has recorded in detail the historical facts that the folk dances have flowed into the court since the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, as well as the performances at important gatherings such as the court banquets. From this, we can see that in the traditional dances of ancient China, even though some of them did not directly serve sorcery and national sacrificial activities, they were often used by the rulers to perform in other ceremonial activities as an important part of the ceremonial activities, and thus gave them a strong ceremonial character.

The traditional dances that did not enter the palace were circulated in the folklore. From the point of view of its performance, it is also mostly performed during major festivals. Such as the Spring Festival, March 3, Torch Festival, Water Festival, Sowing Festival and so on, constituting a strong ceremonial character of these dances. Such as the Tujia every year in the first month of the lunar calendar to worship the founder of the "eight great king" jumping hand dance, Maogus dance, the Tibetan every year on February 29 of the Tibetan calendar, "Jumping God Festival" to jump "Qiangm", Qinghai Huangnan Tongren area Tibetan every year, "June meeting" to worship the mountains, the "June meeting" to worship the mountains, the "June meeting" to worship the mountains, the "June meeting" to worship the mountain. June meeting" to worship the mountain god, Erlang god, jump ((dragon drum dance) and so on. These dances have strong ceremonial characteristics. On the one hand, this ceremonial feature is that these dances have their own, when they are produced, they are for the service of the ceremony; on the other hand, the dances performed on these ceremonial occasions may not have strong ceremonial content, and some of them are just entertaining dances, but once they are performed on some ceremonial occasions, they have strong ceremonial features. Therefore, it can be said that the ritual occasions of traditional Chinese dance performances are also an important aspect in the formation of its ritual characteristics.

Third, the ceremonial content of the existing folk dances of various ethnic groups

The booth dance which is still circulating in many places nowadays has a strong ceremonial character. Tan is a kind of cultural thing closely connected with human witch culture. Existing in Guizhou, Hunan and other places, such as the stall play handful of taiji, ground play, stall hall play have a very strong witchcraft ritual nature. The reason why they are called stall operas is that they have the meaning and implication of "banishing stalls" in their manifestations, which include the expulsion of ghosts and gods and the content of plague. According to Mr. Zhou Xingui's investigation, in today's Guizhi area of Anhui Province, there are still stall opera performances from the seventh to the eleventh day of the first month of the lunar calendar every year. The whole ceremony is divided into three parts: the ceremony of initiation, the performance of the stall show, and the ceremony of sending off the gods. In the ceremony of initiation, there is the content of welcoming the god, welcoming the god of halo book (honor guard) to the river water mouth to honor the Erlang god tablet, for the ancestral temple, burn incense, firecrackers, perform the rituals, an elder chanting the rituals. An elder recites the ritual words. Then, the head of the clan gives a ceremonial performance for the god Erlang, dancing with rolling lanterns and sounding gongs and drums. Immediately afterward, several men and the matriarch **** dance the stall dance "Dance Rolling Lanterns" together. The stall dance, performed during the initiation ceremony, is an integral part of the invocation ceremony and has a strong ceremonial character.

Another example is the "Maogus" dance performed by the Tujia people in honor of their ancestors. Every year on the third to seventeenth day of the first month of the lunar calendar, the "transfer of the year" activities to the end of the Gurdwara Dance when added to the dance without Vishnu Dance. At that time, the festival was set up by the representative of the ancestors of the Tujia "Batu Buka" (meaning old man) led the children and grandchildren of the Maugus barefoot and dance. The dancer's head is covered with a thatched bundle with a spike covering the face and neck, with five braids tied on top, and the whole body is covered with straw, thatch, or leaves to symbolize the ancestors. The dances include Yangchun (slash-and-burn farming), bride snatching, hunting, fishing, flinging torches, etc., which vividly reproduce the production and life scenes of the primitive Tujia tribes. Reproduction worship is a theme throughout the dance, and each Maugus actor has a torch around his waist symbolizing the male genitalia, called "rude stick", and the top of the torch is smeared with red soil or wrapped with red cloth. When performing hunting and flinging torches, the dancers should make exaggerated gestures such as "showing the male", "prying the sky", "hitching the shoulders", "turning the hips", "lifting up the shoulders", "turning the hips", "turning the hips", "turning the hips", "turning the hips" and "turning the hips". The dancers have to make exaggerated movements such as "showing the male", "prying the sky", "riding on the shoulders", "turning the hips", "pushing out the belly and sending the hips" and so on to show the phallus. At the climax of the dance, the torch of the Maugus can touch the audience at will, especially the female audience, and those who are touched are regarded as the gift of fertility from the ancestral god. This typically reflects the primitive hunting life of the Tujia forefathers and the sense of male root worship, with a strong sense of ritual.

The ceremonial features of folk dances cited above are only a few cases, in fact, there are still a lot of folk dances retaining a lot of ceremonial content, indicating that the ceremonial features of folk dances are very obvious and prominent.

Fourth, Conclusion

The mark of witchcraft content and totemic beliefs was inevitably burned into the folk dance. The basic kernel of early dances such as dance movements, dance structures, dance expression styles and other ritualistic factors were accumulated through various ways and became the basic genes and materials for later dance production to be digested and penetrated. For example, the virtual nature of movements, the programmed plot structure, and the symbolic nature of lyricism, which are of universal significance in the art of dance, were all more or less influenced by the ritual content of early Chinese dance, and can be regarded as the accumulation of early dance ritual factors in dance. In this sense, ritual is not only the fundamental attribute of early Chinese dance, but also the root of the whole dance art.