The Origin and Characteristics of the Songs

The Origin and Flow of Songs and Their Characteristics

Among the various disciplines of Chinese literature, the study of songs is one of the later disciplines to be formed. Poetry came into being in the pre-Qin period, lyrics came into being in the late Tang period, and loose songs did not come into being until the Jin and Yuan periods in the 13th century AD. At that time, a kind of popular song was popular in northern China, which was loved by people from all walks of life due to its refreshing style. The literati copied it in large numbers, and it became a fashion, a new trend in the literary world, and a new poetic style different from the traditional poetic style flourished. This new poetic style is the prose song. At that time, according to the popular tunes and songs in the north, people called the "northern song". From the north to the south, it became popular all over China. At the same time, music songs with southern characteristics were also popular in southern China, which were called "southern songs". When the Yuan Dynasty Northern Song was spreading to the south, the Southern Song was also spreading to the north, and at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, there was a trend of combining the Northern and Southern Songs. The north tune is strong and majestic, the south tune is soft and charming, after the unification of the Ming Dynasty, the upper social class is more like the south tune, the literati imitated the creation of loose music gradually more based on the south tune, after the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the south tune overpowered the trend of the north tune, the situation has been extended to the Qing Dynasty. Regardless of the Northern Quartet and Southern Quartet, their lyrics are a new poetic form - prose quartet. Prose is a new milestone in the history of ancient Chinese poetry, and it is the last peak that emerged in the history of ancient poetry.

The title of "loose song" was gradually established after the middle of the Ming Dynasty. Jin Yuan era, people on the form of the different institutions of the loose song were called "small order" (also called "Ye'er"), "sets of numbers". The so-called "small order" is a single song, the so-called "sets of numbers" is according to a certain tone of several songs united, plus the "end" constitute a set of songs. If the generalization is called "music", then there is no "loose song" a word. The term "yuefu" meant that it could be sung to music. In order to distinguish from the ancient music poetry, the Yuan people often call their own era of loose music for "now music", "northern music", "Yuan music" and so on. Today's extant collection of Yuan's loose music also more than the title of "Lefu". Such as "Zhang Xiaoshan North Qu Lian Lefu", "Yunzhuang Huuju comfortable small Lefu", "Lefu new edition of Yangchunbaixue", "the new sound of the dynasty and the peace of Lefu", "Classes gather the famous sages of Lefu Qunyu" and so on. The first person to use the title of "loose music" in ancient literature today was Zhu Youzhuang, a composer of loose music in the early Ming Dynasty. He titled the first volume of his collection of loose songs, Chengzhai Lefu, as "Loose Songs" and the second volume as "Sets". His concept of "loose songs" referred only to small orders, not sets. At the same time with Zhu Youzhuang, another composer Zhu Quan called "sets" as "loose sets" to distinguish it from the sets sung in popular operas at that time. "Scattered songs", "scattered sets" are intended to highlight a "scattered" word. Used to distinguish from the opera. After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the meaning of the term "loose song" developed to refer to both small orders and sets, and was recognized by the critics of the song world. Wang Shizhen used the term "loose song" in his masterpiece of music theory, "Artistic Gobbler", as opposed to the term "miscellaneous operas". Wang Ji De, in his theoretical monograph on music theory, called the collection of loose songs made by the people of the time as "loose songs". However, because of the loose songs and operas are tunes, the Ming and Qing dynasty tunesmiths and researchers tend to discuss the tunes will be compatible with the two, generalized as "tunes". Their writings, such as "Qu Pin", "Qu Theory", "Qu Law", and so on, mostly discuss both opera and opera, which has been inherited until modern times. Wu Mei's General Theory of Songs is still not about loose songs and operas, but about all of them. The founders of the study of loose music, independent of the study of opera and opera, are contemporary scholars such as Ren Zhongmin, Liang Yizhen and Zheng Zhenduo. Ren Zhongmin explained clearly in his "Introduction to Scattered Quotations" that "sets and small orders are collectively known as 'scattered quotes'" and that "the word 'scattered quotes' has been used since the beginning of time to refer to operas and songs." This establishes the scope of research for the study of loose songs. Liang Yizhen, Zheng Zhenduo, respectively, outlined the history of the development of the loose song, so that the loose song finally developed independently as a new discipline.

Why did loose music flourish in the Jin and Yuan dynasties, and where did it originate, scholars from the Ming and Qing dynasties to the present day have been exploring. Wang Shizhen, "Art Gobo" said: "The song, the word of change. Since the Jin Yuan into China, the use of hu music, noisy and poignant, slow and urgent, the word can not be pressed, is more new sound to charm." Xu Wei, "the southern word narrative" said: "today's northern song, cover the Liao Jin northern mean killing sound, magnificent and ruthless, martial arts horse song, into the central plains, so for the folk of the day. Song lyrics can not be orchestra, the South also then Shang this." Wang Gide "song law" said: "into the song and the word began to revitalize, said 'poetry', in today's song is close to, ...... but single double rhyme, song stops a section, and not all of its changes. And Jin Zhangzong when more northern words, such as the world of Dong Jieyuan "West Wing", its sound is not pure. Into the Yuan and more diffuse its system, pectinally than the sound, the northern song is then excelled in a generation." These discussions of the Ming people expressed their understanding of the origin and formation of loose songs: that is, loose songs originated from Song lyrics, from Hu music, and from the palace tunes. Most of the theses of the Qing and recent people followed the Ming's view. For example, Wu Mei, "Quology" said: "While Hu Yuan into the Lord of China, the use of Hu music, noisy slow and urgent, the old words can not be pressed, is more to create a new sound, and the northern song is very prepared." Ren Zhongmin's Introduction to Prose Songs said, "The song began in the Yuan Dynasty and originated from Song lyrics." However, with the establishment of the recent contemporary loose music, the research of the deep development, people have a new understanding of the origins of the loose music and the reasons for the prosperity of the song. As early as in the Ming Dynasty, Xu Wei pointed out that the nine palaces and twenty-one tunes "are like the legacy of the Tang and Song," and Hu Yinglin said, "Song lyrics and Yuan dynasty compositions are imitated at the end of the Tang Dynasty, but the Chen and Sui dynasties have their own." Therefore, Ren Zhongmin in the "record of the book of the book of the book" that the tunes used in the Northern Quartet "is beyond the Song lyrics, straight ancestral Tang music. What is the reason for this? It can be studied." His disciple, Li Changji, in his book "History of Ancient Chinese Songs", asserted that: Beiqu, in terms of the origin of its tunes, from the span of time, its source can be traced back to the Tang songs. He thought that the Song literati's words had no substantial influence on the formation of the Northern Song, and that it could not be simply generalized that "the Northern Song is a variation of the words." He believed that the northern songs "are in essence the product of the undercurrent (folk songs) that extends and develops the history of the Tang songs." That is to say, he thought that the Song lyrics and the loose songs were "of the same origin and different streams". Contemporary scholar Yang Chunqiu in his "General Introduction to Prose Songs" said that the rise of prose songs was due to the decline of words, the introduction of foreign music, the influence of popular songs and the development of language. He believed that the change from "Qiyan" to "miscellaneous language" in ancient Chinese poetry was the result of the adaptation of poetry to the rich and colorful real life and the development of literary language. He cited Ling Mengchu "Tanqu Miscellaneous Notes" said: "Yuanqu was originally based on the ancient music of the body, so the dialect, often language, and Tou and chapter, with not a millimeter of the real", said that the prose song liner notes is precisely to reflect the complexity of the life of the rich feelings of the lyrics required, so that "you can turn the dead sentence into a living, you can be a difficult words and phrases of popularization, colloquialization". and colloquialize the difficult words and phrases". In this regard, Wang Jisi, Hong Bozhao in their "Yuan prose notes - Preface" has also said: "Liao destroyed the Jin Xing, Jin died Yuan, Beijing in more than three centuries, became the center of the northern political and cultural. Beijing popular language, with the development of the political situation, and gradually with the two rivers, shandong region of the language fusion, the formation of a new language system, and shen yao sisheng, lu fayan rhyming part of the distance, which for the creation of jin yuan song provides a new language material." Contemporary scholars have recognized the rise of loose songs, the source of which is certainly mainly from the folk popular songs, but also closely related to the change of the times and the fusion of the musical songs of the ethnic minorities with the traditional culture of the Central Plains ethnic groups. On this basis, the Northern Songs absorbed some of the tunes of the Great Songs, Tang and Song lyrics, and the Palace Tunes, and formed a huge vocal system. In this regard, Hong Bozhao in the "Yuan, Ming and Qing loose song selection - Preface" said: "Yan and Zhao since ancient times, more generous and sad people, the Khitan, the female genitals, the Mongolians have a more rugged style, their tunes also has a very different from the Song lyrics of the music of the stylistic characteristics; even if it is absorbed into the words of the tunes, but also after the transformation of a unified vocal system. With these tunes to create the lyrics, in addition to the constraints of the musical style, but also by the North and South people's lives, language, aesthetic psychology and other aspects of the impact of differences, the appearance of its performance, naturally, with the Song lyrics is very different."

Scattered songs to the formation of the geographical points of the northern song, the southern song of the name. Although the southern song flourished after the northern song, but the origin is not later than the northern song. It is only that it is not as much influenced by the minority music as the northern song, and is more influenced by the words of the Tang and Song dynasties than the northern song. The name of the Southern Song was later than that of the Northern Song. Due to the confrontation between Liao Jin and Song, China is divided into north and south, after the unification of the Yuan Dynasty, the ethnic groups under its rule were divided into four classes, and the fourth class is the original Southern Song Dynasty, called "South People", the North Song flourished at that time, comparatively speaking, people said that the South is inherently popular song that is known as the "South Song". The term "Nanqu" was first seen in the late Yuan Dynasty Zhong Sucheng's "Recorded Ghost Book", which Xiao Dexiang Yun: "Where the ancients, are summarized as Nanqu, the market prevails." There are obvious differences in the musical and linguistic styles of the Southern Song and the Northern Song, which is more gentle, elegant and delicate, and closer to the traditional style of words. However, in terms of institutional structure, it was not very different from the northern opera. North song into the south, the south of the cavity song, can be "South Song"; South Song into the north, to the north of the cavity song, can also be "North Song", so the North and South Song can be combined cavity, combined set. Regardless of the northern and southern songs, the basic system is a small order and sets of two forms. The origin of the small order can be traced back to the Tang Quzi words, through the development of Liao, Jin, Song words and folk songs, to the loose song is the formation of a series of rhymes and chapter system (i.e., group song). The number of sets originated from the Tang and Song songs, through the singing of the fusion of the Palace, the Palace tunes. However, researchers have different opinions. For example, Zhao Yishan in the "Yuan loose song" that is: "the formation of sets of systems with the big song, the Gong tune has nothing to do, at least no direct relationship." "The set number one is directly borrowed from the word 'earn' body, so fundamentally speaking, the Northern Song did not produce any new style." " 'Earned' is 'set', 'set' is 'earned', and not develop any other 'set' from 'earn'." Li Changji thought that the Tang and Song dynasties are the forerunner of the set, the first ancient tune with the nature of the 'set'. He thinks that singing earns an important role in the history of the formation of the Northern Quartet's sets. "It can be said that the winding order is the number of sets", and "the winding order 'created' a pure way of 'joining different tunes'. This way opened up a broader way for the Beiqiu to construct 'chapters' than the tangled da, thus making a leap in the style of 'sets'." He believed that "from 'a song with a tail' to a different song 'with a pass', and from the different song with a pass to the 'earning' of tangled da and tangled order, and then further perfecting it into the northern set - this process is then for the northern sets - this process constitutes a complete history of the sets from conception, occurrence to formation." Zhao and Li both thought that the Gong tunes were of no significance to the formation of the Northern Song sets. Kong Fanxin, on the other hand, said in his article "An Experimental Study of the Transmutation Trajectory and Trend of the Northern Songs" that "the Gong tunes had the most direct influence on the formation of the suites, and it can be said that they were transmuted from it." Contemporary scholars are still exploring this issue. Although the north and south song almost at the same time, but the development of the north song before the south song, an earlier step on the literary world. This is because in the land of Jin and Yuan, both from the ruling class and the literati class are a large number of people to create the northern song, the northern song writers are the earliest writers of loose songs. Literati created the southern song is after the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and even to the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the song world is still the northern song. Until after the middle of the Ming Dynasty, a large number of writers of southern songs, especially after the popularity of the Kunqu opera, southern songs became popular throughout the country. After the Qianlong Qing Dynasty, loose song gradually changed into a poem without song, although the production is still labeled as the north of the southern song, but there is no singing significance.

As a new poetic form, the prose song has its own distinctive features compared with traditional poetry.

From the point of view of rhyme, the rhyme of the small order of the loose song, a rhyme to the end, and the traditional poems usually rhyme every other line of the form is different. People call this feature "dense rhyme, word rhyme sparse". The number of rhymes used in loose songs is also the same as that of small orders, in which many songs are set in a row, and each of them has the same rhyme scheme. The rhymes used in the opera are divided into nineteen parts, one of which is "Zhongyuan Yinyun". The Chinese rhymes are divided into nineteen parts, with the entry tone canceled and the flat and upper three tones assigned to it. The flat tones are divided into yin and yang tones. The songs are characterized by "wide rhyme and strict sound". The so-called "wide rhyme", i.e., can be four through the rhyme, which is very different from the poetry more than a hundred rhyme, fine and separate. The so-called "sound strict", that is, the composition must be "flat discernment of yin and yang, oblique don't go up", in order to exhaust the sound of the wonderful.

In terms of syntax, prose compositions are more flexible than traditional poems. The sentence pattern of the word is fixed, and the number of words in the sentence is also fixed. But the song can increase the amount of "liner notes", or even "liner sentences". The "liner notes" and "liner sentences" are needed for singing, in order to make the lyrics more popular and vivid. Lyricist original only for the harmony of the song, in the ear, and does not have the concept of "liner notes". The distinction between "positive" and "lining" is a matter for later researchers. For a specific piece of work, what word for "positive", what word for "lining", commentators often have different opinions. Therefore, some commentators also said that the words of the original loose song has no "positive", "lining" of the word. Contemporary young scholars Li Changji even said: "Strictly speaking, the northern song does not matter 'liner notes'. But unlike the northern song, the southern song is 'lining' obvious. Because of its board to determine, is the frame distinct. But the liner notes of the southern opera generally do not exceed three words, so there is the saying 'liner but three'." North song is natural, all in one, it is difficult to separate the positive lining in the words and phrases, which is not the same as no lining words. With the lining word without lining word composition, Zhou Deqing in his "Central Plains rhyme" that there are comments, so the "lining word" is a distinctive feature of the loose song sentence, which has been recognized by scholars.

In terms of language, there are poems, words, and songs. The so-called "qu vulgar" refers to the loose culture and colloquialization of the language of prose songs, which has greatly exceeded the traditional poetry, and its language is a kind of vulgar and simple language and colloquialisms closely combined with a kind of qu style language. It is more fluid and lively than traditional poems, which makes this kind of song become the most flexible, open and popular language in ancient rhyme. In the mode of expression, it is mostly in the form of speech, and the simulation of objects is more diversified, and focuses on the performance of character and psychological characteristics. It is the self-talking prose music, which is more unrestrained and unrestrained than the traditional poetry. Ren Zhongmin, in his "Introduction to Prose Song", compared the words and songs: words can only express emotions and write scenes, but not remember the facts and reasoning; the song can not be described or written. Can be deep, can be shallow, can be thick, can be light, can be ideal, can be factual, and then the tolerance is since wide. He also said: words should be sad, should not be happy; song is sad and happy savory. Words can be elegant, can not be vulgar, can be pure and not mixed; song is elegant and vulgar suitable, pure and mixed can be. The word is suitable for Zhuang not harmonic, the song is a mixture of Zhuang and harmonic, humor, laughing and cursing everything.

Poetry and lyrics are all about couples, in order to form the beauty of the sound and form of the genre. Poetry couples need to be flat and oblique, the rhyme must be flat and oblique to each other; and the song can not be constrained by this sound, can be flat to flat, oblique to oblique, rhyme is not necessary to flat and oblique to each other, but can be flat and oblique through. Poetry couplets and couplets need to avoid repeating words, while the song allows repeating words. In terms of the number of words in the couplet, poetry requires that the number of words in the next line must be equal, while the song can add liner notes to the couplet. In the form of couplets on the song than the poem more development, a variety of rich, only the "Central Plains rhyme" and "Taihe Zhengyin spectrum" listed that is, the fan face pair (sentence pairs), overlapping pairs, to save the end of the pair (tripod pairs), Lianbi pairs, the pearl pairs, luanfenghu and singing pairs, swallow by flying flowers, such as the combination of pairs, in addition to the combination of pairs of poems for the common, tripod pairs, fan pairs for the words of the occasional, the other pairs of more than the song for the sole use.

The spirit of the loose song lies in self-sufficiency and release. Traditional poetry can be used to visit the fame and fortune, but the only loose song has never become the door to the imperial examinations. Ming people have discussed the Yuan dynasty to the song to open section to get a scholar, but only a kind of speculation. In all the documents of the Yuan Dynasty, there is not a single case of evidence of obtaining a scholar by music. Prose music has never been used by the rulers as a tool and means to consolidate their dominance and to enlist intellectuals. Therefore, all the compositions were written by authors for their own amusement. Authenticity, naturalness and naturalness were the distinctive aesthetic features of the compositions. Prose music has not assumed many political functions like poems, and there is no need to be as low as the words, it is a true portrayal of human emotions and spirit, true rate, pain, fire, and even reached the point of unbridled catharsis. The same writer's poetry and literature and its prose works are often read simply can not believe is out of the same person's hand, the reason is that its prose creation was originally written for self-sufficiency: where the anger, joy, sadness, hatred and resentment are not free to speak. Prose in the laziness, wild, hooting, lamenting, mocking, light all kinds of emotions, feelings of the lyrics, in the traditional poetry is rarely seen. This is so because from the beginning of the prose song into the literary world is the song of the repressed. In the early years of the Yuan Dynasty, the imperial examinations were stopped, and the policy of racial domination was implemented, and a large number of intellectuals had no way to get a job, and they were sent to the end of the sound and song with their useful talents, and the prose song became a tool for them to express their grievances and discontent. One of the important reasons for the flourishing of prose music at the time of Jin and Yuan also lies in this. Repressed people full of trauma and writing, so that the beginning of the loose song has become a kind of "traumatic literature", the form of its expression is not grief and sorrow, but without fear to indulge in song, express their inequality and indignation, and try to make the most out of the pain, in order to comfort their trauma. This will set up a kind of wild and unrestrained style for the future generation of prose songs. Its spirit was inherited by the Ming and Qing dynasty. Negative avoidance of the world is the tone of the loose song, cynicism is the dominant spirit of the loose song, this is still a shallow understanding; deeper, we should see that the loose song is China's specific era, a specific society - that is, the product of the late feudal society. Its negative and wild, fit to play the world is a form of criticism of social reality. It is the tone and spirit of loose songs to be dissatisfied with the social reality, to doubt the rationality of the existence of the real society, and to take the attitude of not cooperating with it and not flowing with it.