The attitude of traditional Confucianism towards music

The combination of "beauty" (the most important essence of which is "music") and "goodness" (that is, in line with Confucius' political thought of "benevolence") is the basic understanding and requirement of music put forward by Confucius based on his experience of music. "Rites and Music" said: "The musician is happy (happy). A gentleman delights in his way, while a villain delights in his desire. "

Music can first bring people a sense of pleasure, which is the basis of musical beauty. Confucius attached great importance to this and fully affirmed it, because it was also the basis for Confucius to use music as an educational means. However, as Le Shu said in Historical Records, those who have fun should abstain from it. A gentleman takes modesty as a gift, takes loss as a pleasure, and so on.

The so-called "harmony" actually refers to the harmonious unity of all kinds of heterogeneity and the dissolution of all kinds of opposites. The function of music lies in harmony with people's minds. Of course, only when "beauty" and "goodness" are unified can music with "benevolence" and "music" have such a function. Emphasizing the harmony and unity of "beauty" and "goodness", "benevolence" and "joy" is the most important basis for Confucius' art of life.

Confucianism, as the embodiment of China's inherent value system, is not an academic or school in the usual sense. Generally speaking, especially in the pre-Qin period, although Confucianism was the most influential school, it was only one of the hundred schools and had no affiliation with other hundred schools.

Confucianism has a profound influence on China culture. In the feudal society for thousands of years, China people only taught the Four Books and Five Classics from generation to generation. In China's genes, ideas such as responsibility (taking the world as one's duty), loyalty and filial piety (benevolence, courtesy, wisdom and faith), forgiveness (don't do to others what you don't want others), and ethics (self-cultivation, keeping the family in order, governing the country and calming the world) are all the results of the combination of Confucianism and autocratic rule.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Confucianism