The Four Great Drums of China

? ? The Four Great Drums of China

The Quanzhou Nanyin is known as one of the "Four Great Ancient Music Systems of China" along with the drums of the Xi'an Chenghuang Temple, the music of the Qinghuang Temple on Shanxi's Wutai Mountain, and the music of the Zhihua Temple in Beijing.

Quanzhou Nanyin

? The Nanyin, also known as the stringed pipe, Jinqu, and Nanpipe, is an ancient type of music from the Central Plains culture with a long history, and has been called the "living fossil of Chinese music" by the world today.

? Quanzhou Nanyin, with its long musical history and diversified cultural characteristics, is one of the oldest music in China and even in the world. Nanyin was conceived in the Jin and Tang dynasties, formed in the Tang and Song dynasties, and developed to the Ming and Qing dynasties has been very prosperous. Historical records show that during the Yongjia Rebellion of the Western Jin Dynasty in the fourth century A.D., a large number of Jin people fled the war and entered Fujian Province from the Central Plains, and lived along the river in Nan'an, from which Jin River got its name. After the North and South Dynasties, the Sui and Tang dynasties, and even the Southern Song Dynasty, several large-scale "clothing southward", the culture of the Central Plains (including language and music and other arts), which then flowed into Quanzhou, Fujian Province, which includes the predecessor of the Nanyin art form.

? The Nanyin is a collection of the ancient music of the Central Plains since the Jin and Tang dynasties, and the folk music of the southern Fujian Province has become a style of its own, with elegant rhythms and beautiful melodies. During the Song and Yuan dynasties, Quanzhou was historically a port for foreign trade, at a time when the Maritime Silk Road was flourishing, and there were frequent cultural exchanges, which led to the mutual influence and infiltration of various forms of art, and the Nanyin music in Quanzhou was further perfected and developed, and became widely popular in Quanzhou, Xiamen, Zhangzhou and other areas in Fujian. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the spread of Quanzhou Nanyin has further expanded to Taiwan and spread to Southeast Asia along with the footprints of the overseas Chinese in southern Fujian, as well as to Europe and other countries.

? During the Kangxi period, Quanzhou Nanyin artists have twice to Beijing to perform in the imperial court, highly appreciated, generous gifts and return. When Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom ascended the throne, Singapore sent the South Music Orchestra to play, and was awarded a gold-plated crown. The United States, Canada, Britain, France, Japan, Korea and other countries, musicians heard the reputation of the South Sound, has also visited Quanzhou. The Quanzhou Orchestra has traveled to Western Europe, Japan and South Korea to play many times.

In 1982, Taiwan Tainan Nanyin National Music Society was invited to visit France, and the French National Radio broadcasted live the Nanyin performance in Paris, which was listened to by about 3 million people. The wonderful music of the Orient once overwhelmed Paris. The concert was called "the longest concert in the history of European music", and was well received in Europe. In recent years, the Quanzhou Nan Yin Music Orchestra has frequently visited and performed abroad, and has been well received and praised by overseas compatriots. Nan Yin has matured into a set of clear songs and instrumental scores, which have been handed down to the present day.

Xi'an Drum Music

? Xi'an Drum Music, also known as Shaanxi Drum Music, is a large-scale blowing and beating music popular in the area of Xi'an, and is one of the most complete large-scale folk music types found and preserved in China so far. It was born from the Yan Music of the Tang Dynasty, and then blended into the court music, and then flowed into the folk music during the Anshi Rebellion along with the exodus of the court musicians. Tracing its historical origin, analyzing from the aspects of structure, music score, song name, and instruments used, it is inextricably linked with the big songs of Tang Dynasty Yan Music. According to the analysis and investigation of the data, Xi'an Drum Music may have originated from Tang Dynasty, and started from Song Dynasty, and then prospered in Yuan Dynasty, Ming Dynasty, and flourished in Qing Dynasty, and after thousands of years of practice and development, especially the influences of the music of operas in Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, it has gradually formed a set of complete large-scale folk classical music forms.

? Xi'an Drum Music is a kind of large-scale music played by a mixture of percussion and wind instruments, with rich content, large orchestra, numerous repertoire and complex structure, which is a miracle in the history of the development of ancient Chinese music and even the world's folk music. Chang'an drum music is divided into three schools, namely, monks, Taoists and laymen, and each school has different styles. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the drum music society was very active. At that time, there were hundreds of temples in Xi'an, and almost every temple had a drumming society around its activities. Temple fairs were held one after another, and the sound of drums and music was heard throughout the ancient city of Chang'an. At present, there are still about a hundred books of Chang'an drum music scores preserved, with more than 3,000 pieces of repertoire, more than 1,200 song names, more than 1,200 song plates, and more than 40 suites, containing an extremely rich variety of folk songs, operas, raps, as well as music of the court and religion.

Xi'an's drum music uses bamboo flutes as the main instrument, and is divided into two forms of performance: "sitting music" and "marching music", which is indoor music, with flutes, shengs and pipes as wind instruments. The percussion instruments include sitting drums, war drums, music drums, solo drums, and big cymbals, small cymbals, big cymbals, small cymbals, big gongs, horse gongs, guiding gongs, hinges, big clappers, hand clappers, and other percussion instruments, and sometimes cloud gongs are also added. Xi'an drum music is mostly played at the time of summer and autumn every year (from the end of May to the end of July in the lunar calendar), in order to celebrate the harvest in the township meetings and temple fairs held in various places, and the performers are the "Drum Society" organized by villages and townships, as well as drum bands of large monasteries and temples. Due to the erosion of modern strong culture, the original Xi'an drum music depends on the survival of the folk humanities environment, such as folk temples are gradually dying, the soil is disappearing, coupled with the old artists have died, the lack of successors, Xi'an drum music on the verge of extinction, urgently need to be rescued and protected.

Wutaishan Qinghuangmiao music

Wutaishan is located in the northeast of Shanxi Province, Xinzhou region, known as the "Roof of North China", is a blend of natural scenery, historical relics, ancient art, Buddhist culture, folklore, summer recreation as one of the tourist areas. Wutai Mountain is the Buddhist Manjushri, one of the four holy places of Buddhism in China.

? Buddhist Wutai Mountain, both the yellow temple (yellow religious temple, monks wearing yellow hats, wearing yellow clothes, that is, the lama resides), and there are green temple (monks wear towards three Fu color, also known as the monk temple). Originally, all the temples in Wutai Mountain had bands. Green temple team to sheng main, to pipe, flute auxiliary; yellow temple team is to pipe main, sheng, flute for auxiliary. Green and yellow temples because the playing instruments are different, the pitch is different, the tone style of the music will have different effects. Temple music has a variety of functions, one is to accompany the scriptures, one is to accompany the dance, one is an instrumental ensemble.

Music of Zhihua Temple in Beijing

? Zhihua Temple, located in Lumicang Hutong, Beijing, is one of the centers for the dissemination of ancient Chinese music, as it has preserved Beijing music that has been passed down for nearly 500 years.

? Zhihua Temple was built in 1446 as the family temple of Wang Zhen, a power-tripping eunuch of Emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty. Wang Zhen was a firm believer in Buddhism, and brought the court music of the Ming Dynasty out of the high walls of the palace, and drew on the essence of the folk music of the time, and hired a large number of artists and monks with deep musical attainments to play and sing in the temple, which gradually evolved into the ancient and unique form of music in Beijing. As an ancient form of music in China, the music of Zhihua Temple is still taught and sung using the traditional Gongscale Score, and the instruments used include the nine cloud gongs, pipes, sheng, flutes, drums, and so on.