What is the attitude of Confucianism, Mohism and Taoism towards music?

Confucian music theory fully affirmed the role of music in social life. Xunzi believes that in turbulent times, music can inspire the soldiers in front to be brave and good at fighting, and in a peaceful environment, music can make people do it by courtesy.

In terms of music content and artistic form, Confucian music theory puts "goodness" and "harmony" in the first place, and the beauty of artistic form in the second place. China's traditional music aesthetics takes "harmony" as its core, which has a far-reaching influence on the development of China musicians. Confucian music theory also regards musicians' art as a way to know the truth.

Taoism:

Laozi's Tao Te Ching is a famous argument of China's ancient music theory. He believes that the most beautiful music should make people feel harmonious and calm, and this kind of calm can make people unconsciously cultivate and sublimate.

Representative figure

(1) Lao Tzu (about 57 BC1-47 BC1):

Laozi is an ancient philosopher. He believes that the contradictory changes of things are dominated by a natural law called "Tao". Laozi's attitude towards life is positive. In music thought, he thinks that beauty and ugliness exist in contrast, and their voices complement each other. "Everyone in the sky knows that beauty is beauty and evil is evil: everyone knows that good is good and bad is bad-my husband only lives in the house: so he can't go."

(2) Zhuangzi (about 369 BC-286 BC)

Based on the idea of sublime nature, Zhuangzi thinks that the essence of musical beauty is human's natural emotion. The principle of musical beauty is natural and unpretentious, with simple aesthetic feeling. Music gets rid of the bondage of ceremony, which conforms to nature and humanity.

Zhuangzi thinks that there are three kinds of sounds: "human voice" (artificial music), "earth sound" (the sound of trouble) and "the sound of nature". This kind of music "can't be heard, it depends on the shape without a front, all over the sky, wrapped in six poles."

Mohist school:

Mohism is a school of music opposite to Confucianism. Born in Shandong, Mozi was a great thinker, scholar and political activist. Musically, he strongly opposes the Confucian idea of "ruling the world with rites and music", and his attitude towards life is too negative, only seeking to meet the minimum living requirements. The social function of music has not been fully understood.

Mozi believes that since music art can't "promote the benefits of the world, except for the harm of the world, it will also enrich the people", it can only increase the burden on workers; Not only can music not rule the world, but "people who enjoy more than complexity can rule more people than widows."

Extended data:

China's Definition of Traditional Aesthetics

(1) Beauty lies in images, and aesthetic activity is to construct an image world outside the material world;

(2) The image world illuminates the real world, which is what China's aesthetics calls "nature". It is not a logical "truth", but an existing "truth", which is a world full of life and interest;

(3) Aesthetic activities are people's super-rational spiritual activities.

China's traditional aesthetics gives us important enlightenment:

First, beauty lies in images, and aesthetic activity is to build an image world outside the material world;

Secondly, the image world illuminates the real world, which is what China's aesthetics calls "nature". It is not a logical "truth", but an existing "truth", which is a world full of life and interest;

Thirdly, aesthetic activities are people's super-rational spiritual activities. In a word, we can't leave China's traditional aesthetics when building truly international modern aesthetics and creating new theories. For us, China's traditional aesthetics is still a treasure house that has not been fully opened.

Baidu Encyclopedia-China Traditional Aesthetics