What are the main features of China's ancient music aesthetics?

In the long history of China, Confucianism, Mohism, Legalism, Taoism, Yinyang and Zaji all put forward their own musical aesthetic thoughts, and Buddhist musical aesthetic thoughts appeared after the Han Dynasty. However, the musical aesthetic thoughts of Mohist, Legalist and Miscellaneous Notes did not have a great influence on later generations. The musical aesthetic thoughts of Yin and Yang were once rampant in the Han Dynasty, but they have existed for a long time since then, only being absorbed and melted by Confucianism and Taoism. And lost the value of independent existence. Buddhist music aesthetics existed for a long time after Wei and Jin Dynasties, but it was influenced by Confucianism and Taoism, but it didn't have much influence on them. The musical aesthetic thoughts of Confucianism and Taoism originated in the pre-Qin period and influenced the later generations, running through the history of more than 2,000 years, and their important routes were far above those of other schools. Key words: text: In the long history, Confucianism and Taoism both struggled with each other and absorbed and blended with each other. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Ji Kang denied the expression and image of virtue in Yue Ji with the theory of "sound without sorrow and joy". After the middle of Ming Dynasty, Li Zhi and others denied the theories of "Emotion from Nature" and "Simple Harmony" with the theory of "Emotion from Nature". Their absorption and blending have been shown in Lv's Spring and Autumn Annals in the pre-Qin period, with the outstanding performance that Huainanzi absorbed the Confucian musical aesthetic thought dominated by Taoism and Yue Ji absorbed the Confucian musical aesthetic thought in the Western Han Dynasty. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Ruan Ji's theory of music reconciled Confucianism, and Taoism was naturally pasted as Confucian rites and music. Ji Kang's "Sound without Sorrow and Music" not only criticized the Confucian thought of rites and music with the natural music theory of the family, but also affirmed some components of the thought of rites and music from the family's point of view. After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Li Zhi integrated Confucianism and Taoism, and based on the spirit of "respecting and valuing nature" of Taoism, he transformed Confucian speech as the subjectivity of lamb music. Xu Shangying integrated Confucianism and Taoism, took Confucianism as the center, and based on Confucianism's thought of elegant rejection of Zheng and ancient and modern times, reformed the theory of "looking loudly and looking big" and made it home. The musical aesthetic thoughts of Confucianism and Taoism are also constantly developing and changing. After Confucius laid the foundation of Confucian music aesthetics, Mencius emphasized benevolence, both as a musician and as a musician (benevolence and righteousness), while Xunzi emphasized ceremony, controlled desires with Taoism, and emphasized "paying more attention to ceremony than music", which was different. Since then, it's definitely different. From affirming the desire for music to denying it (from Yue Ji to Jing Yue Lu Tongjie), Lao Zi put forward the aesthetic thought of Taoist music. After Zhuangzi's transformation, the memorandum changed from denying all music to only denying rites and music, from denying all functions of music to denying enlightenment and affirming entertainment. After Ji Kang's transformation, he changed from denying the joy of sound to affirming the joy of sound. After Li Zhi's transformation, he changed from advocating "malicious" to denying "malicious" to being beautiful, and from denying Zheng Wei's voice to affirming Zheng Wei's voice. After more than 2,000 years of history, the two musical aesthetic thoughts of Confucianism and Taoism have gone to their own opposites, and the fundamental reason is that Confucianism emphasizes the restriction of ceremony. Taoism advocates nature, which is bound to pursue both human freedom and music liberation, so it can gradually abandon the unreasonable factors in its own thoughts. The musical aesthetic thoughts of Confucianism and Taoism complement each other. China's ancient music aesthetic thought is composed of Confucianism and Taoism. Its main body (obedience to ceremony, emphasizing the relationship between music and social politics, ethics and morality, emphasizing that education is more important than entertainment, truth, goodness and beauty are subordinate to goodness, etc. ) is Confucian, and its part (emphasizing meaning and gentleness, pursuing ". Emphasis on "harmony between man and nature", self-entertainment with music, health preservation with music, etc. ) is Taoist, and its aesthetic principles (peace and calmness are the beauty) are consistent. Therefore, in a sense, a history of China's music aesthetics is a history of struggle, integration and complementarity between Confucianism and Taoism. On the basis of the above introduction, we can see that China's ancient music aesthetics has the following main features: since then, Confucius affirmed that "thought is innocent" and demanded that music's thoughts and feelings conform to etiquette and be pure and innocent; Xunzi clearly put forward the category of "ritual and music", demanding the unity of music and ceremony to become "ritual and music", and the thought of ritual and music has matured to this day. Yue Ji is a master of the thought of rites and music. Since the Book of Music was incorporated into the Book of Rites and became a classic, the thought of rites and music has been stereotyped and become the dominant thought. Since then, most of the musical aesthetic thoughts have failed to jump out of its category. Therefore, the mainstream of China's ancient music aesthetic thought is the thought of rites and music. In ancient China, the reason why the feelings in music were always required to stop at propriety and righteousness, and the sound in music was "harmonious" rather than "lewd", and the theory of "debauchery and national subjugation" was always advocated, with little breakthrough. The idea of "light harmony" comes from Confucianism and Taoism respectively, and the category of "light harmony" was put forward by Zhou Dunyi. The idea of taking "neutralization"-"light harmony" as the criterion and taking peace and tranquility as the beauty has a long history and spread throughout the family. Confucianism and Taoism take "harmony"-"light harmony" as the criterion, and peace and tranquility as the beauty, so do Yin and Yang schools, miscellaneous schools and Buddhism. There is nothing wrong with calling for "Sino-British peace"; Require "controlling desire with Tao" and deny "gaining desire" with "gaining Tao"; Deny sadness and happiness, and deny that sadness is beautiful; Exaggerate the function of music and preach the theory of "debauchery and national subjugation"; Advocating elegance, rejecting the ancient zither and opposing change: all these aspects can be summed up in one sentence, that is, asking music to be "harmonious" rather than "obscene", in line with the principle of "neutralization" Therefore, "harmony without lewdness" has two meanings: in a narrow sense, it is about the relationship between sound and degree, and in a broad sense, it is about content and form, creation and performance, appreciation and effect. Peace and tranquility are also the basic features of China's ancient musical aesthetics. 3. Pursuing the unity of man and nature, pursuing the harmonious unity of interpersonal relationship and the relationship between man and nature, the idea that happiness can make man and nature harmonious and the relationship between man and nature unified appeared as early as the Spring and Autumn Period. During the Warring States Period, Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals emphasized that joy comes from nature with five elements and five tones, twelve methods and December. We should be as peaceful and gentle as nature, and govern the body and the country with peaceful and gentle music. Developed the musical aesthetic thought of "harmony between man and nature". As for Yue Ji, it is believed that music can communicate with people through Qi, make people feel each other, directly change the natural state and directly determine social politics. The musical aesthetic thought of "harmony between man and nature"-"harmony between man and nature" has matured. It became an absurd and mysterious divination. After Wei and Jin Dynasties, the situation has changed, but the musical aesthetic thought is still branded with the theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements. "The unity of heaven and man" and the unity of interpersonal relationship and the relationship between heaven and man have always been the pursuit of people, such as Ruan Ji and Ji Kang. The same is true of Confucianism and Taoism, and so is Buddhism. 4. Discuss music from the angles of philosophy, ethics and politics, pay attention to the external relationship of music, emphasize the connection between music and politics, emphasize the social function and educational function of music, and pay little attention to the law, particularity, aesthetic function and entertainment function of music itself. The same is true of Confucianism, Mohism, Legalism, Taoism (mainly Laozi), Yin-Yang School and Miscellaneous School. Although Yue Ji discusses the relationship between the essence of music and ethics, only a few works are different, such as Elegance and Vulgarity in Vocal Music, Music Beyond Virtual Fu and Xishan Paradise. We should go deep into music and pay attention to its own characteristics and laws. As early as the Warring States Period, hundred schools of thought contended, and his thoughts were as rich and profound as those of ancient Greece, even more so. In the Western Han Dynasty, that is, in the 2nd century BC, a self-contained monograph Ji Le appeared, which pushed China's music aesthetics and the world's music aesthetics to a peak. In the Wei and Jin Dynasties, that is, in the 3rd century, there was even a discussion about the particularity of music. It is 16 centuries earlier than the representative works of western self-talk music aesthetics. However, after Ji Kang, the idea of musical beauty was confined to Yue Ji without great breakthrough and development, and it became more and more conservative and trite. Although the mainstream emotional thought represented by Li Zhi has influenced it, it is not only the former. Just as courtesy is the norm, virtue is more important than affection, goodness is more important than beauty, Tao is more important than desire, and ancient times are more important than today. It is inevitable to ask the content to be happy without lasciviousness, to be sad without harm, to complain without anger, to be gentle and sincere, to be peaceful in form, to surpass it, it is inevitable to take "neutralization" as beauty, and the development of "neutralization" is "light harmony". That is, the aesthetic characteristics of music in agricultural society. Feudal society was based on small-scale mode of production, and China society was in this state for a long time (which is unique in the world), which brought about stubborn closedness, conservatism, attaching importance to family and restraining business, and opposing economic development. Clear hierarchy, maintaining absolute monarchy; Take righteousness as benefit and deny material desire; The past is the present, which inhibits creativity and innovation. Therefore, we should regard the idea of opposing the bondage of etiquette, denying the criterion of "neutralization"-"indifference" and advocating reform and innovation as heresy, and spare no effort to repel and combat it. This is the characteristic of agricultural culture and its musical aesthetics, and so is Confucianism. Although Taoism advocates nature, opposes bondage, and contains positive factors of liberating humanity and art, it also advocates ruthlessness and calmness.