My Opinion on Zhuangzi's Music Aesthetics Thought

Laozi advocates the beauty of nature, rejects man-made music, advocates "insipid" music style, and advocates "big sound and great hope" that is natural, inaction and embodies the spirit of Taoism. Zhuangzi inherited Laozi's view of nature, advocated that "law is more important than truth", and mercilessly criticized the Confucian thought of rites and music that bound human nature and violated nature (see Pianmu and horseshoe, etc.). However, Zhuangzi did not completely deny the joy of sound, but put forward the proposition that "pure reality is contrary to emotion, and music is also interesting", demanding that music express people's natural feelings and should not be limited to artificial manners. Based on this, "Zhuangzi? Master Sang Zi's "Father is evil, mother is evil? "The elegy of" Feeling between Heaven and Man "not only realizes the affirmation of feelings, but also realizes the affirmation of sadness and joy in Guqin aesthetics." Zhuangzi? The proposition that "Qin is enough for self-entertainment" put forward by King Qin emphasizes the entertainment function and aesthetic function of Guqin music.

The above thoughts of Laozi and Zhuangzi permeate all aspects of Guqin aesthetic thought. Ruan Ji, Ji Kang, Bai Juyi, Zhou Dunyi and Xu Shangying absorbed and developed the idea of "insipid" in Laozi. It has formed the worship of "plain harmony" in music aesthetics, limited the diversity of guqin's music style and had a great negative impact on the development of guqin. Tao Yuanming, Bai Juyi, Xue and others inherited the idea of "Loudness and Music" in Laozi, making advocating "Music" the goal pursued by many Qin people. Zhuangzi's thought of "getting carried away" has been inherited by many musicians such as Tao Yuanming, making the pursuit of implication an important feature of Guqin music aesthetics. Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi's admiration for the beauty of nature was inherited by Ji Kang, Tao Yuanming, Li Zhi and others, which made Guqin's aesthetic thought attach importance to the connection between man and nature and pursue the unity of man and nature. Ji Kang and Li Zhi further developed Zhuangzi's thought that freedom is beauty and music can express feelings freely. They argued that music should be an art for people to express their feelings, not a tool for feudal rule. In addition, Lao He and Zhuang Mingzhe's thought of keeping in good health and seclusion also had a certain influence on Guqin's aesthetic thought.

Laozi's views of "insipid and tasteless" and "looking at the sound when it is loud" have won unanimous praise from Qin people and have had a great influence on the aesthetics of Guqin music. "Light" comes from "Lao Zi? Chapter 35 "Words of the Tao are insipid". Literature shows that the category of "lightness" put forward by Laozi did not cause great repercussions before the Han Dynasty. After Wei and Jin Dynasties, Confucian classics were damaged, metaphysics prevailed, and "light" aesthetics was emphasized. Therefore, Ruan Ji said that "morality is dull, so the five tones are tasteless", advocating quiet music and rejecting bel canto and funeral music. In the Tang Dynasty, "light" began to be used to describe Qin Le's style. Qin's poems, such as "clear spirit, quiet and obedient to people's hearts", "the melody is light and quiet", "the ancient sound is tasteless, which is not called today's human feelings", "the peace of mind is dull, and there is no ancient and modern sound", are all expressed in the Tang Dynasty. On the basis of Confucianism, Song and Zhou Dunyi absorbed and integrated Laozi's thoughts and put forward the theory of "light harmony", making "light harmony" a musical aesthetic advocated by Confucianism and Taoism. The aesthetic view of "light harmony" accords with both the Taoist thought of light harmony and the Confucian thought of neutralization, so it is accepted by many piano players. In Song Dynasty, Zhen highly praised the style of guqin in Preface to Xiao Changfu, thinking that guqin was "rare" and "rare". Yan Mingchi also said: "Only the guqin can separate the palace merchants, and the jade and silk can communicate morality and meaning. If you want to make it even, you can release it rashly" (Biography of Qinchuan). Xu Shangying, on the other hand, thinks that "the vowel of the piano is light" and "the light sound of the piano is beneficial to the taste", and says that "light" means "making the listener wander around and entertain himself, and don't know where to go" (the land of Xishan piano). Wang Qing? He even developed "light harmony" to the extreme, thinking that "the joy of the former king is only light harmony." Light, so I want to be calm; Harmony makes you impatient "(Zhai Qinpu), which regards" lightness "as an important aesthetic standard higher than" harmony ". He defined the standard of "lightness" as "moderation, order-keeping, non-rhyming, non-complicated sound and non-pleasing to the ear", based on Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism: "moderation and order-keeping" is the "tenor" advocated by Confucianism; "No rhyme and no noise" is obviously consistent with the Confucian idea of prohibiting "annoying masturbation"; Nothing is pleasant to the ear "is the joy of advocating" three sighs "and refusing? The thought of "the voice of the heart, the voice of the ear" completely negates the artistry of guqin music. Compared with "neutralization" and "peace", "light harmony" emphasizes that music should stifle people's desires, release people's impatience, and exclude the artistry and emotional expression of music, so it has a greater negative effect on the free development of guqin. The combination of "insipid" thought and Confucianism in Laozi forms a "light and harmonious" aesthetic view, which is not only the result of Confucianism, but also the limitation of Taoism itself. The purpose of Laozi is to deny the joy of sound by doing nothing, and to deny the joy of sound by "loud voice and music", so it will eventually develop from "insipid and tasteless" to "insipid and harmonious", which will have a negative impact on music aesthetics.

Lao Zi and Sheng fully affirmed the eternal beauty of silent music by referring to the music of sound, and were later included in the guqin theory by Zhuangzi, saying, "Gains and losses make Zhao Zhi guqin also; Nothing is lost, so Zhao doesn't beat drums "("The Theory of Everything "). This idea is highly praised by scholars and has a great influence on the traditional Guqin aesthetic thought. Qin people in all previous dynasties regarded "Xi Sheng" as the best place to play, in order to pursue the implicit beauty of Qin Le. Xu Shangying gave a detailed description of Xi Sheng from the perspective of performance aesthetics, and gave a brand-new interpretation to the thought of Lao Zi. For example, in the case of Jing, he said that "the so-called look is extremely quiet, close to ethereal, and wandering souls are above the emperor", and in the case of Late, he added ". If it is too old, you can swim on the string, save its climate, wait for it and learn from it, which is the beginning of this hope; Or chapters and sentences are relaxed, or urgent, or intermittent, or distant, because of waiting for the opportunity, adjusting the ancient sound, gradually entering the source, and the mind is endless, this hope is also extended; Re-exploring its evening fun, if the mountains are quiet and autumn, the moon is high and the forest is high, the wind is far away, the stone is cold, and I don't know what to eat during the day, but I don't know it at night. This hope is also in the environment. It is worth noting that Xu Shangying's explanation of "Xi sound" here is based on the musicality of sound, which is different from the original intention of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi. Xu's words represent most views of Qin theory. In the classical Qin theory, the word "Wang" is mostly sparse, that is, "playing slowly, ten Yu Sheng in the middle of the night" (Bai Juyi's "Night Qin"), "Music is to save less sound" (Bai Juyi's "Banjo"), while Laozi is the music of sound. The positive influence of "big sound and happy sound" on guqin aesthetics is as follows: people pursue the implicit beauty of "light and bright", demand to create far-reaching musical artistic conception and pursue the charm outside the musical strings; Its negative influence is manifested in the fact that Qin people take the "sound of hope" as the standard and reject the "annoying masturbation sound" and "boring sound" in guqin performance. Chen Youci, Zhu and others all have similar piano theories.

Zhuangzi put forward that "the speaker worries too much and forgets his words" (external things), and also put forward "mind-breaking"-"Listen attentively but don't listen, listen attentively but don't listen" (on earth), and put forward "sit and forget"-"You are a fool if you break your limbs. This has also had a far-reaching impact on the aesthetics of guqin, so Tao Yuanming put forward that "knowing that the piano is interesting, why bother to sing on the strings", thinking that the true meaning of music lies not in the sound itself, but outside the sound, and playing the piano is to obtain interesting meaning outside the strings. Since then, Qin theory has also attached importance to the relationship between sound and meaning, with the ultimate goal of forgetting everything, returning to nature and integrating man with nature, which embodies the pursuit of overtones from many angles and levels such as creation, performance and appreciation. For example, the music creation of "Zhuang Zhou Meng Die" and "Sit Forgotten" shows this pursuit of selflessness and turns it into a piece of jade? On Qin, Ouyang Xiu, Su Shi and Zhuang Zhenfeng. It shows that Qin people especially pursue implicit expression and aesthetic experience beyond implication in performance and appreciation. They think that when playing, meaning is more important than sound, and when appreciating, the heart is more important than the ear, and the mind is fixed and the body is forgotten. Liu Ji said: "When a thing sounds, it is imagined as a song. The mountains and rivers are hidden, the moon is in the strings, and the wind is blowing. ",penetration refers to the breeze" ("Qin Yi"); Xu Shangying said, "Reflected in the mountains, but reflected in the shadows; Melt with the water phase, but the ocean is like a dream; The summer heat can also be changed, and the virtual hall is suspicious of snow; Cold can return, grass pavilion flows in spring "("Xishan Qin situation "); Zhu Feng said: "I am proficient in mystery. I want to stop, but I don't want to be alone. Forgetting the string and fingers, the sound is ethereal, and it is tantamount to a fairy "(music is supplemented with the ancient Zhai). What they described is such a perfect situation, so Yan Yuan simply listed "forgetting the heart, hand and string" as one of the important criteria for playing the piano.

Li Zhi inherited and developed Zhuangzi's spirit of "attaching importance to the truth of nature", opposing bondage and pursuing freedom. Based on the theory of "childlike innocence", Li Zhi sharply criticized the proposition that "the piano player is forbidden" which represents the typical Confucian aesthetic thought, and put forward that "the piano player, the heart is also, the piano player, the heart is also, so the heart is also". This proposition comes from Fu Qin, Volume 5 of Book Burning, and its aesthetic significance is threefold: First, Qin Le is regarded as an art to express people's inner feelings, which breaks through the shackles of the thought of "Qin Zhe, Xin Ye". Confucianism regards guqin as a tool for a gentleman to cultivate himself and govern the country, and advocates the aesthetic view of "harmony without difference" and "light harmony", which has seriously hampered the development of guqin art from rejecting the change of musical melody rhythm to denying the entertainment function of music until it prohibits music lyric. Due to the dominant position of Confucian music thoughts in traditional music thoughts, these thoughts have always become the mainstream of Guqin aesthetic thoughts and are highly respected by feudal literati. Li Zhi is the first thinker who explicitly challenged this point in history, and Qin Zhe Xinye is the only article that boldly expresses the non-mainstream thoughts nurtured for thousands of years. Secondly, when discussing the proposition of "Qin Zhe", Li Zhi broke through the traditional thought that "silk is not as good as bamboo, and bamboo is not as good as meat, and it is getting closer and closer to nature" and put forward "concentric" and "concentric, natural". Different hearts, different hands. Hands can't sing, but they can't. Mencius once said that "benevolence is not as deep as benevolence". Although the starting point of their argument is different, they all agree that music is more touching than language. Thirdly, the proposal of "the pianist has a heart" is based on "taking nature as beauty", that is, taking nature as beauty is the most beautiful recently, which is the embodiment of Li Zhi's "childlike innocence" theory in the field of guqin aesthetics. Li Zhi believes that "a childlike innocence is absolutely false, pure, and the initial intention of thinking first is also true." If you lose your childlike innocence, you lose your sincerity and you lose your truth "("burning books? " Childlike heart). This childlike innocence is the natural heart at the beginning of life. Without childlike innocence, you are not a real person. Starting from this point, Li Zhi particularly emphasized the natural affection of human beings, and put forward that "the cover of sound and emotion is based on emotion, and naturally it can be combined with righteousness." Therefore, naturally there is affection, and naturally it stops at ceremony, and if it doesn't, it stops at ceremony. But being too strong is a loss, so nature is bel canto, not the so-called nature beyond emotion. Therefore, the tone of a person with a clear personality is naturally clear, the tone of a person with a relaxed personality is naturally slow, the broad-minded person is naturally mighty, the hero is naturally heroic, the depressed person is naturally sad, and the eccentric person is naturally fantastic. If there is a case, there is a tone, and all feelings are natural. "("burning books? "Reading"). Since music originates from emotion and depends on nature, it should express people's natural feelings and should not be bound by artificial rituals, because "beyond non-emotion, rituals can stop." This view of taking nature as beauty and pursuing guqin to express people's feelings freely is the inheritance and development of Taoist thought of "respecting nature and emphasizing truth" and a breakthrough of Confucian ethical thought.

"Qin Zhe, the heart is also" is an important proposition of Taoist guqin aesthetic thought, which makes Taoist guqin aesthetic thought enter a more reasonable stage. This proposition holds that music is the art of freely expressing people's thoughts and feelings, and its fundamental value is the expression of feelings, not the tool of feudal rule. Since music can express itself freely, it should not be restricted. It only takes "peace" and "indifference" as beauty and excludes other music. Instead, we should freely express "emotional excitement" and complain about "crazy shouting and crying". There is a sharp opposition between "Qin Zhe, Xin Ye" and Confucian "Qin Zhe, Ban Ye", which is a fierce collision between Confucianism and Taoism in Guqin Forum and is of great significance to the free development of Guqin music. Influenced by Li Zhi, some propositions such as "sound is based on emotion" appeared in Guqin aesthetics. Li Yu, a man of A Qing Dynasty, also said in "Casual Love" that "wives get along well, like playing the harp" and "My Fair Lady is the friend of the harp". The harp is not his, but the man and woman who are United in the glue paint, who connect feelings and make them inseparable. "Although these thoughts didn't get the attention they deserved at that time, and some of them were even besieged by feudal guardians, their emphasis on emotional value is of great significance to the development of Guqin music.

Music history story

Chapter One The Origin of Music

The origin of music in human society can be traced back to the very old wilderness era. Before language came into being, human beings already knew how to express their meaning and feelings by using the level and strength of sound. With the development of human labor, the chant of unifying labor rhythm and the cry of transmitting information to each other have gradually appeared, which is the most primitive musical prototype; When people celebrate the harvest and share the fruits of labor, they often beat stone tools and wood to express their joy and joy. This is the embryonic form of the original musical instrument.

First, the legend of the origin of stringed instruments

Mercury is the messenger of the gods in Greek mythology. One day he was walking along the Nile River, and he accidentally stepped on something and made a wonderful sound. He picked it up and saw that it was an empty turtle shell with a dry tendon inside. So Mercury got inspiration from it and invented stringed instruments. Later generations verified that stringed instruments appeared before Mercury, but the invention of stringed instruments may be inspired by this.

B, the legend of the origin of wind instruments

In ancient China, in the era of the Yellow Emperor five thousand years ago, there was a musician named Ling Lun. According to legend, he once entered Kunlun Mountain in the west to collect bamboo as a flute. At that time, there happened to be five phoenixes flying in the air, and he was in tune with the law. Although this legend is not completely credible, it makes sense to regard it as the origin of wind instruments. People in primitive times, their working life, can be said to be accompanied by music and development, the two are closely linked. In this sense, music is directly produced from human labor and life.

Chapter II Music of Primitive Man

The ancient two river basins (Tigris River and Euphrates River) are one of the important cradles of human culture. At that time, the rich Mesopotamia (now Iran and Iraq) had developed music in 4000 BC. Sumerians living in this area at that time already had harp-like instruments and several orchestral instruments. At that time, professional singers and larger bands had been produced in the court. Later, these advanced music cultures gradually spread to ancient countries such as Egypt, Greece, India and China, and further developed in different forms and with national characteristics in these areas. Although the development of music in different nationalities and regions is different, its basic development direction is from secular music to religious music.

Chapter III Music in the Middle Ages

First, the ancient music of China.

The Yellow Emperor is the earliest king in the history of China. He created calendars and Chinese characters five thousand years ago. At that time, in addition to Ling Lun mentioned above, there was also a musician named Fuxi. It is said that Fuxi is a snake with a head, and she was pregnant in her mother's womb for twelve years. The piano he played originally had fifty strings, but because the tone was too sad, the Yellow Emperor cut off half of his piano and changed it to twenty-five strings.

In the legend of the Yellow Emperor, there is also a musician named Shennong, who is said to be a snake with a cow head. Shennong once taught people to grow grain, tasted herbs, discovered medicines and created banjo. So it can be assumed that the music at that time used a pentatonic scale.

In ancient China, there were more than 300 kinds of books about music. Confucius was a famous educator and musician in the Spring and Autumn Period. He wrote many articles about music, and we can see some of his comments on music in The Analects. Confucius has high attainments in guqin. He can create his own music and integrate sadness and happiness into the rhythm. Confucius personally taught the piano skills to his disciples. Among his 3000 disciples, 72 were proficient in the Six Arts. His teaching content can be called "Poetry, Books, Rites and Music". "Rite" means managing the order of Yin and Yang in heaven and earth, and "Music" means achieving harmony. In Confucius' philosophy, morality and music occupy the same position, and he advocates music to improve moral quality. On the other hand, the court music in ancient China was mostly dance music, which was a combination of poetry, dance and music, which was completely different from today's dance.

Second, the ancient music of Egypt and Arabia

Ancient Egyptian civilization is one of the oldest civilizations in the world. The ranks of musicians can be seen on the carvings of the stone walls in the pyramids, thus imagining the grand occasion of playing music at that time. There are harp-shaped stringed instruments played with fingers in the sculpture, as well as various flute instruments. The instrumental music in Arabia and other regions is also quite developed. A long time ago, they began to use a special scale, which was divided into 17 tones between an octave.

Third, ancient Greek and Roman music.

The origin of Greek music is also shrouded in mystery. Legend has it that Apollo is in charge of music and has nine muses, so music is also called music or Musik. Among the Greek musical instruments, there is a V-shaped double-tube flute called Aouros, which is a lyra, and a guitar-like stringed instrument Zittel, both of which were imported from Egypt or Arabia. Music played a very important role in the life of ancient Greeks. On the basis of oriental music from Egypt and Arabia, they gradually developed and changed and formed their own music. Music in ancient Greece was closely related to poetry and drama. In their two fascinating homer epics and many famous plays, the significance of music has been reflected. The songs performed by some famous folk singers in the society at that time were also of great significance to the formation and development of ancient Greek music.

Ancient Greek music has made great achievements in many aspects. In the 6th century BC, Pythagoras, a great philosopher and mathematician in ancient Greece, first explained the theory of pure law with a single stringed instrument called a single stringed instrument, and calculated all the intervals used at that time according to the length of the strings. The invention and application of Pythagoras temperament is a major breakthrough in music theory. Secondly, the ancient Greeks also invented alphabet notation. There are also many bold innovations and creations in the production of musical instruments, and a number of unprecedented musical instruments have been invented. Ancient Greek music includes not only lyric solo accompanied by instrumental music, but also drama music and dance music. Generally, these kinds of music are mainly monophonic music, and most of them are religious themes.

The music of ancient Rome mainly followed the great achievements of ancient Greek music. At that time, this kind of music was mainly played at sacrifices, wedding banquets and military triumphs. From the third century A.D., ancient Rome expanded its forces and brutally invaded and plundered the surrounding city-states. Many outstanding musicians and singers in ancient Greece became slaves of the ancient Roman emperors, nobles and slave owners, so music became a special entertainment tool for the ruling class. However, the music culture of ancient Rome did not follow the stagnation of ancient Greece, and some folk songs, wedding songs, soldiers' songs and music and dance all developed to a certain extent. In the process of continuous development, ancient dramas sung in Latin appeared. In addition, the appearance of brass instruments in the army is also one of the main features of ancient Roman music.

Chapter IV Music in the Middle Ages

First of all, Christianity and medieval music

In medieval Europe, the power of the church was higher than that of the state and other social groups. At that time, all social ideologies, including all kinds of arts and philosophies, had to serve the church, so medieval music developed supernormally with the help of Christianity. It can be said that all music theories, notation, chorus and ensemble, the rise and teaching of keyboard instruments in the Middle Ages are closely related to the church. Today's symphonies and operas are mostly secular in content, but they are also inextricably linked with the medieval church. Church music, originally adopted the form from the Jewish kingdom intact, that is, singing hymns and reciting the Bible, is pure vocal music. Religious music has always been dominated by vocal music because vocal music has lyrics. On the contrary, instrumental music mainly developed as secular music.

The transition from original monophonic music to polyphonic music is an important feature of medieval music. In addition, medieval music also made great progress in theory, completing the counterpoint method and the line spectrum method. The invention and production of musical instruments have also made great progress. Trombone, trumpet and horn were widely popular at that time, and bowstring instruments (such as violins) were also widely used.

Second, the Roman style

The word "Roman style" comes from the architectural language at that time. Romanesque music is one of the greatest commemorative heritages in the history of world art, which has neither harmony nor accompaniment. It is characterized by chorus, which produces a solemn sense of harmony through the echo of the church patio. Its quaint and beautiful religious feelings are exactly the same as those of Roman-style church buildings. Romanesque music is one of the important musical forms in the Middle Ages, and its representative is Gregorian chant, which is a typical Catholic music and a pure single melody singing. In the long Middle Ages, Gregorian hymns made an important contribution to music. In Gregorian chant, there are four church modes and their variant styles: Dorian mode, Phrygia mode, Lydia mode and mixed Lydia mode. /kloc-Ionian mode and Dorian mode appeared in the 0/6th century, and then evolved into today's major and minor scales. In Gregory I's time, Rome established a school called "Singing Class", which was one of the earliest music schools in the world. Ambrosius (340-397) collected songs sung in churches, formulated four church mode scales composed of seven tones for church music, and also created duets and other forms. In hymns, lyrics are perfectly combined with language situation, tone and rhythm, which perfectly expresses religious feelings and can be used as a summary of music art in this era.

Third, the secular music in the Middle Ages.

Music in the Middle Ages was dominated by religious music. At that time, music activities were limited to the church, while popular secular music was banned. Nevertheless, there are still many wandering singers and bards among the people. These poor folk artists with extremely low social status are very dissatisfied with the bondage of religious music to music art, and they use various ways to widely spread secular music among the people. This kind of music (including hymns, love songs, pastoral songs and satirical songs) is close to folk customs in form and content and full of folk feelings. At that time, this kind of folk secular music began to brew into a potential music trend. In the Renaissance, this music trend gradually replaced religious music and became the mainstream of music art with the development and change of social form.