The Music Thought of Ancient China's Pre-Qin Dynasty

The process of composing Narcissus Exercises is explained in the "Ancient Questions of the Lefu", "Boya learned the qin from Chenglian, and became the qin player in three years. As for the spirit of silence

Loneliness, the love of concentration, failed to get also. Chenglian said: 'My learning cannot move people's feelings, my teacher has Fang Zi Chun in the East China Sea'. Is

Laid food from the, to Mount Penglai, stayed Boya said: 'I will meet my teacher', rowing and go, ten days do not return. Bo Ya heart sad, extended neck four

look, but heard the sea water bubbling, the mountains and forests in the dark, the birds sad. Sighing up to the sky, he said: 'Mr. will move my feelings! Is to aid the drill and composed a song: '

Cataracts Dongting Ruosi protection, oars and oars pass away, Xian not yet. The first thing I want to do is to move to Mount Penglai, and the second thing I want to do is to return to the Palace of Immortality. So Bo Ya became the world's most marvelous artist."

This is a profound insight that "empathy" means to change one's emotions and transform one's spirit, and that the creation of art can only be accomplished on the basis of the transformation of one's whole personality, and that it is not possible to achieve this through the study of technique alone.

Tang Lang Shiyuan's "Listening to the Neighbor's Sheng Blowing" said: "The sound of the phoenix blowing is like a colorful haze, I don't know whose house is beyond the wall. The heavy door is y locked and nowhere to be found, and it is suspected that there are blue

peaches and a thousand trees of flowers." This is the average person's feelings, subjective fictional imagery is often superficial, "know the voice" to grasp the musical structure

and melody in the meaning of the latent." In the case of "Aspire to the mountains, aspire to the flowing water", the composer does not simulate the sound of the flowing water and the shape of the mountains

but creates a melody that expresses the sentiments and profound thoughts evoked by the mountains and the flowing water. Therefore, when we feel the music and art, our emotions will be transformed, purified, deepened and sublimated.

Tang Changjian's "River Qin Xing" Yun: "The river tunes the jade qin, a string a clear heart, sounding seven strings all over the ten thousand trees to clarify the yin. I can make the river moon

white, but also make the river deep, and then I realized that the sycamore branches, can emblem gold." This is the gradual deepening and purification of the listener's conscious experience. Ming Shi Hang

"Listening to the Pipa at Night" Yun: "The graceful young woman is not sad, and the pipa goes up to the small building at night. The lute was heard on a small building in the early evening. The moon and the river were white, and the blue clouds flew up to the four mountains in the fall!

"This is also from listening to music to get the feeling, it makes us feel things increase the depth. Just as we leave the surface of nature through a high degree of abstract thinking in scientific research, and penetrate into the core of nature to grasp the innermost mathematical laws and laws of motion of natural phenomena, music leads us to grasp the deepest rhythmic ups and downs in the thousands of images of life in the world. Zhuangzi said, "There is no sound

in the middle of the world, only heard and in the middle of the world." That is why the use of musical accompaniment in opera allows for a deeper portrayal of the plot and action. Greek tragedy was also born in music

.

Music makes us visualize the image of nature in our mind, and thus enriches the content of musical feelings. Painters and poets, however, realize the musical realm in natural

phenomena and add depth to the natural image. Sixth Dynasty painter Zong Bing loved to travel to the landscape, returned to the famous

mountains seen painted on the wall, "sitting and lying down to the. He said, "I want to make all the mountains sound by playing the zither." Tang Shen interpreted the period of "Fan Shanshui painting landscape

song" cloud: "mountain lofty, the water is clear, diffuse sweat a pen plowing, a grass and a tree perched on the gods. Suddenly, there is something in the air, something in the sound,

Repeatedly, as far away as looking for home, dreaming of mountains and rivers body can not." This is the realm of music, which is due to the fact that "there is something in the air, and there is a sound in it.

These are the musical ideas and musical imagery of ancient China.

Music aesthetics

The Middle Ages is a period of great change in Chinese history, but also a period of philosophical emancipation, active thinking, and a lot of problems since the pre-Qin period, which was a very fruitful harvest. Since the Eastern Han Dynasty, the manor economy in this period has been increasingly consolidated and promoted, the landlord class of the clergy, the gate occupies this historical stage, and began to cite the doctrine of Taoism to explain the Confucian classics - "Zhouyi", which breaks since the Han Dynasty Confucianism ruled by the reign of the monarchy. Therefore, the Wei and Jin "metaphysics" in line with the development of the times, it breaks through hundreds of years of Han Confucian domination of the consciousness, is a re-search and the establishment of the feudal theory of thinking a new historical period.

1 Jikang's "sound without music"

In this period, Ruan Ji and Jikang as the representative of the scholar-monarchist music aesthetics is particularly important, and Jikang's "sound without music" is more representative of the "scholar-monarchist" landlord class of the concept of music and the outlook on life.

Jikang (223--262) was a famous thinker, writer and musician at the end of the Wei Dynasty, and one of the representatives of "metaphysics" in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. When the Cao Wei group gained the leadership of China, he married a member of the Wei clan as the son-in-law of the master of the Changle Pavilion in the same township, moved to Langzhong, and then paid his respects as the middle-ranking doctor. When Sima's group usurped the leadership of the central group, he formed the "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove" with Ruan Ji, Xiang Xiu, Shan Tao, Liu Ling, Ruan Xian and Wang Rong as the opposition, and lived in Shanyang, Hebei, where Cao Wei's clansmen lived, to fight against Sima's group. Among the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, Jikang's attack on Sima's group was particularly fierce. He not only opposed Sima's group through his light thoughts, but also through his sharp words and deeds. Sima's boast to rule the world with filial piety, he was in mourning drinking and eating meat; Sima's group through the use of force to seize power, but also want to seize power through the Zen, but he mentioned in the "and Shan Juyuan's book" in the "non-Tangwu and thin zhoukong"; Sima's want to draw in the celebrities, in order to call, he avoided living in the Hedong, and because of the Shan Tao (one of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove) Because of Shan Tao (one of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove) recommended him to Sima's group and "cut off friendship" with him, as a symbol of his severance of friendship with Sima's group, and thus was killed by Sima's group.

Jikang is not only a thinker, writer, but also a musician, and can play a handful of good zither, he played the "Guangling San" "sound tone is excellent", in China's "zither history" has an important position.

The theory of sound and music is a work of music aesthetics. The whole text is written in the form of a dialog in which the "Qin Guest" asks the "Master of the East Field".

In this article, Jikang first put forward the basic idea of "sound without music". That is to say, music is the objective existence of sound, music is people are touched by the feelings produced, there is no causal relationship between the two. Jikang that music is the natural sound, itself does not contain "sad" and "happy" feelings, so the music can not make the listener to produce sad and happy emotions, in his words, "five colors have good and ugly, five sounds have good and bad, the nature of this thing also". In his words, "The five colors are good and ugly, and the five tones are good and evil, and this is the nature of things. Therefore, he came to the conclusion that "the heart and the sound are two things", that is to say, there is only the difference between good and evil in natural sound, that is, the difference between good and bad sound, and the emotion of "sorrow" and "joy" has nothing to do with it. The first is that the sound of nature has nothing to do with the emotion of "sorrow" and "joy".

In ancient Chinese music aesthetics thought, "and" is of great significance and great influence. In Confucian music aesthetics, "harmony" is regarded as an important criterion for evaluating music. "He" was originally the name of a musical instrument, a kind of musical instrument that combines some different pitch pipes together to sound, similar to the sheng, which itself has the meaning of unifying the differences together. Jikang believes that the essence of music is "and". This "and" is the size, single Jo, high, good and bad (i.e., beauty and unattractive) of the total, that is, the form of music, the means of expression and the unity of the United States, which can only be appreciated by the role of the person to feel excited and quiet, the spirit of concentration and distraction. The changes in music and its beauty and unattractiveness have nothing to do with the emotional joy of people. That is to say, "If sound is to be dominated by good and evil, then it is not about sorrow and music; if sorrow and music are to be followed by emotion, then it is not tied to sound."

Jikang think that human emotion is a reflection of the human "heart" by the external objective things, specifically by the political influence of the results (i.e., "since the mourning and music since the matter will be, the first遘于心, but because of the sound of the harmony to the self-expression of the hair."). He argued that the heart of man is the first place where sorrow and music are found. He argues that sorrow and music are first present in the human heart, and that music ("harmony") plays a role in inducing and mediating their expression. He disagreed with the view that "rule and disorder are in politics, and sound responds to them", and thought that music did not reflect changes in social life. Therefore, he also proposed that "the sound of the work, as if the odor is between heaven and earth. Its good and bad, although encountered turbulence and chaos, its body from the same and unchanged". That people have existed in the heart of the feelings are different, for the understanding of music and feelings will be different from person to person, was triggered up the emotions will be different, that is, "Mrs. Love is different, each division of its understanding, then send its own feelings". So Jikang that although music can make people love to listen to, but can not play a "change the customs" of the educational role, that is, "music is the body, to the heart of the main"; "to the eight tones will harmonize, the people's pleasure, but also always referred to as music, but change the customs, this is not in this also". The first is that the music is a form of music for the heart," he said.

On the "sadness and music since the event will be, the first遘于心, but because of the harmony to self-expression" point of view, is not Jikang's original, from the point of view of the music as the objective material world and its changes in the performance of the movement, from the pre-Qin period, "yin and yang and five elements" school of music, and holds the view of the music of the pre-Qin period, "yin and yang and five elements" school of music. School of music view, and hold the actual is similar to the "sound without mourning" point of view, a little earlier there have been like Yongmen Zhou like people. The Han Dynasty Huan Tan's "new theory - the piano Road chapter" contains a period of the Warring States period musician Yongmen Zhou for Meng Changjun play the piano story can be given to Jikang's above paragraph under the footnote, more explains the "sound without music" theory has been, but this theory is Jikang determine and develop it.

Jikang also affirmed the position of the general public in the musical life, and put forward the theory of "the laborer sings about his work, and the musician dances about his work", and "the king's work for music" of the ruling class monopoly of music theory to confront. He believed that folk music should be recognized, and put forward the theory that "the sound of Zheng is the most wonderful sound", etc. However, he also felt that folk music should be recognized. But he also felt that folk music should be controlled and harmonized. This shows that he is still standing on the position of Confucianism, which is related to his class position and has its class and historical limitations.

On the above issues, Jikang boldly opposed the two Han since the music simply equated with politics, and even to play a role in divination, while completely ignoring the music of the artistic view of music, has a very important progressive significance. But Jikang's major contribution is mainly in that it puts forward the proposition of "sound without mourning", which provides a theoretical basis for the protection of the people's progressive music. His main contribution lies in the fact that he has touched upon some of the contradictions contained in the art of music itself when he repeatedly argued his point of view, i.e., the relationship between music creation, performance and appreciation; the relationship between the diversity of emotional expression and the diversity of musical expression; and the relationship between music appreciation and conditioned reflexive association, etc., which have not been touched upon in the Confucian thinking on music. His exploration in this area has greatly exceeded the boundaries of music aesthetics, which until then had emphasized the relationship between music and morality and politics, and has gone deeper into the inner workings of the art of music. Although he repeatedly said, "Laozi and Zhuangzhou are my teachers," he did not denounce music as "five tones that make the ears deaf," nor did he advocate, as Laozi and Zhuang did, that "one should not be addicted to music and music. ". His ideas have not completely beyond the mantle of Confucianism, but the ruler of the use of Confucianism for the rule of opposition, which is the Wei and Jin period of Chinese feudal society from the formation of the development of the transitional period of the "Shi" this class of contradictory psychology, the formation of this mentality for the Sui and Tang dynasties, Chinese feudal society towards prosperity laid the ideological and theoretical

Early

The music aesthetics of ancient China in the early stage was mainly the speech of politicians and thinkers, and then it gradually developed into the speech and thoughts of musicians. Jikang's music aesthetics can be said to be a prominent representative of the study of the relationship between music and the outside, and the relationship between music and the inside (foreign countries called "self-discipline theory" and "other law theory"). In addition to his "Theory of Sound and Music", he also wrote a "Zither Fugue", which is a descriptive literary work, but still reflects his aesthetic thought in many aspects.

The Theory of Sound and Sorrowless Music argues that music does not cause changes in human feelings, and that the reason why people feel happy or sad from music is only because they already have happiness or sadness in their minds, etc. It ignores and obliterates the social nature of music, and even more so, it ignores the subjective and active role of human beings, and thus it is one-sided and mechanical in nature.

All in all, Jikang's music practice and music aesthetics thought, in the Chinese feudal society is in the rising period is undoubtedly its progress, positive significance, "sound without mourning music theory" for the later musicians to study the music of their own laws and characteristics laid a good foundation.

2 Bai Juyi's music aesthetics

China's Tang Dynasty was the heyday of feudal society, and Bai Juyi's music aesthetics was especially prominent.

Bai Juyi (772--846) was born in Zhenghe Xinxian County, Henan Province, to a family of small bureaucrats. He began to learn to write poetry at the age of five or six, and by the age of eight or nine he knew the sound and rhyme, and had taken refuge in Wu and Yue. At the age of sixteen (787 AD), he arrived in Chang'an from the south of the Yangtze River, and attracted the attention of the famous scholars in Kyoto with his poem, "Wildfire cannot be eliminated, and the spring breeze blows and grows again". At the age of twenty-nine, he entered the civil service, and served as a minister of Hanlin and left picker. At that time, the Li Tang dynasty was in decline, the powerful and rich were in power, and the people were living in hardship. Because of his repeated opinions on the government, he was relegated to the post of Secretary of Jiangzhou in 815 AD. Later on, he went to Zhongzhou, Hangzhou, Suzhou, as an assassin, minister of the Ministry of Justice, Henan Yin, guest division, the crown prince, etc. After reaching the third rank, he did not speak out for the affairs of the state, and lived a retired life. Tang "Huichang" 6 years (846 AD) died at the age of 75.

Bai Juyi was a poet, but he was also a famous music critic. He himself once said, "Bai Juyi, a minor minister of Yuanhe, knew pleasure in watching dances and listening to songs." (The Seven Virtues Dance, Volume 3) In fact, he was not only "happy to know", but also his comments on music and the aesthetics of music, which is of great significance in the history of music aesthetics in ancient China.

Bai Juyi believed that music was a reflection of real politics, and he said in "Cailin-64" that "music is rooted in sound, sound in emotion, and emotion in politics". In the "Cailin - sixty-nine" and said: "Where people feel in the matter, it must be moved by emotion, and then rise in contempt, and the shape of the poetry carry on". That is to say, the song (music) is the result of "things" that stimulate human emotions. The "matter" is the social events related to the people of the country, but also the concrete embodiment of the realpolitik. If this kind of "matter" is connected with what he said in "Sending Poems to Tang Sheng" that "only songs are the cause of people's illnesses", we can know that he advocated that songs should be written about people's sufferings and blamed for the real political malpractices. He not only advocated this, but also did it himself. For example, in his poem "Hua Yuan Chime", he used the fact that the traditional Sibin chime was abandoned in favor of the Hua Yuan chime to insinuate that the king emphasized the use of eunuchs and refused to listen to the advice of loyal ministers, and believed that the key lay in the improvement of the politics, and in his poem "Cailin - Sixty-four", he added, "When the politics is peaceful, the sentiments will be harmonious, and when the sentiments are harmonious, the voices will be harmonious, and the sound of peace and joy will be created from this." He advocated the abolition of folk music to restore the "ancient music and ancient music" of the extreme retro school had bitterly refuted: "I thought that the sound of Zheng Wei, Zheng Shi voice, care about the good government, and its feelings. I do not care to change their instruments, easy song."

Bai Juyi believes that folk songs and ballads express the people's thoughts, wills, demands, aspirations and people's lives, and represent the voice of the people. Therefore, he had proposed to listen to the people's voices, understand the people's hardships, and listen to the opinions of the lower class, so as to improve politics. But he did not agree with Tang Xuanzong as the head of the supreme ruler, regardless of the people's suffering desperately to engage in folk music, he said, "so I thought that the harmony of the gods and people and customs, care about the good governance, its heart, do not care to change its sound, extremely sound. He said in the "Cailin - sixty-two", "the country inherited Qi, Liang, Chen, Sui's ills, the legacy of the wind has not been eliminated, so the rituals are slightly out of killing, music is slightly out of luxury." Therefore, he thought it was necessary to "less suppress the Zheng sound", so that the music "together and not flow." On this issue, his emphasis on improving politics, against the fallacy of extreme retrofuturists, against the ruling class excessive musical enjoyment at that time is in the interests of the people, to a certain extent, also conducive to the development of folk music.

As we mentioned earlier, since the Zhou Dynasty, China has established a system of "collecting wind". Bai Juyi supported the establishment of the system of wind collection by the rulers. He thought that the king could understand the people's feelings through the "wind poetry" to achieve the political purpose of "downstream and upstream through the upper and lower Thai". Therefore, he hoped that the ruler of Li Tang would restore this "wind collection" system, so he wrote "Poetry Collection Official":

Poetry collection official, collects poems, listens to songs and guides people's speech.

Speakers are not guilty of hearing the precepts, downstream and upstream through the upper and lower Tai, Zhou destroyed the Qin Xing to Sui's, ten generations of poetry officer not placed.

Suburban temples and songs to praise the beauty of the king, not the House of colorful words to please the king's will, if you want to seek Xing Oracle rules stabbing words, ten thousand sentences, thousands of chapters without a word.

It is not the case that there are no rules and regulations in the chapters and sentences, and that the court has no satirical comments. The first time I saw this, I was able to get the ball rolling, and I was able to get the ball rolling, and I was able to get the ball rolling.

One of the most important things is that you have to be able to get the best out of the people you are talking to, and you have to be able to get the best out of the people you are talking to. The first thing you need to do is to get your hands on some of the most popular products and services in the world.

The only thing you can hear is what is said in the hall, and the only thing you can't see is what happens in front of your door. The government has no fear of corrupt officials and no fear of treacherous ministers.

Did you not see that at the end of King Li's reign, the ministers were in favor of the king, but not in his favor? The first thing you need to do is to listen to this:

If you want to open the urn and find out how people feel about you, you should first turn to the songs and poems for satire.

(Cai Shi Guan - Volume 4)

What a bold statement, what a profound revelation! As early as a thousand years ago, Bai Juyi put forward the idea that "the one who speaks is not guilty and the one who hears is warned", which is a valuable attitude towards folk songs, ballads and the opinions of the people.

Bai Juyi also believed that musical instruments are only tools for pronunciation, and music is a concrete expression of musical thinking. He opposed the extreme retro school of retro thinking, said: "the word will be this music (elegant music) sense of God and Goddess, desire wind and all the beasts dance, how different from the north will be suitable for the Chu," that is to say, go this way to change the reality of the car as if going north to the south of the Chu to go, is never reached.

Bai Juyi also believed that "sound" has a strong influence on people. He said in the "book with Yuan Jiushu": "feel the heart, not first to the feelings, not the beginning of the call words, not cut to the sound, not deep to the righteousness". He thought that "sound" could play a role in "harmonizing people's hearts and thick customs", and it was also the fundamental purpose of "making music". Therefore, he attached great importance to the ideological content and feelings of the work, that "music, to easy straight Zi understanding for the heart, and filial piety and friendship for the virtue, to the rhythm of the clanging for the decoration, to decorate the Zhao Shu disease for the text. Decorations and texts can be gained or lost, but the heart and virtue cannot be lost". On this kind of issue, he inherited the Confucian viewpoint of emphasizing the educational role of music and the class standard of works. Therefore, in his poem "Ask Yang Qiong", which commented on the art of singing, he proposed that "people sing with both emotion and voice in ancient times, but people sing only with voice today", which clearly put forward the principle of "voice" and "emotion" in the art of singing. He clearly put forward the principle of "voice" and "emotion" in the art of singing. This view of his popularity at the time of detachment from the specific content of the work in isolation to the pursuit of the beauty of the voice of the formalist point of view, has practical significance.

Because of the historical era, Bai Juyi's view of music aesthetics also has certain limitations, all of his views are from the maintenance and consolidation of the feudal system, so he believed that the degree of consolidation of the rule of the people with the ability to understand the people's sentiments have a great deal to do. He said: "the sage to reason also, care about discretionary human words, check the human feelings, and behavioral politics, smooth for the teachings of the person also". Therefore, he also put forward the slogan of "lyrics are made for the sake of the matter" and "only the songs make the people sick", the purpose of which is only to let the ruler rule better, establish the so-called "the abolition of the government is repaired, and the queers are made up", and then reach the goal of "the government is abolished, and the people are made up". The purpose of this slogan was to enable the rulers to rule better, to establish the so-called "repairing what is broken and replacing what is broken", and then to achieve a peaceful world in which "those who are worried are happy and those who are laboring are at ease". Therefore, he opposes the fallacy of the extreme retrofuturists on the one hand; on the other hand, he also vigorously promote the ancient music, demanding "less suppression of Zheng Sheng" to limit the development of folk music, and opposed to the minority music and foreign music and so on. But this does not detract in any way from the glory of his music aesthetics, and some of his views are still of great practical significance to us today.

For more information, see "An Overview of the General History of Chinese Music":