The promotional song of the recent TV series "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an" "Qingping Le. "Forbidden Spring Day" has basically spread all over the ancient wind circle, and its lyrics from Li Bai, the composition of the five full tones, and the elegant accompaniment of national instruments have made the majority of national music lovers praise. Why is traditional Chinese folk music so fascinating? This also starts from the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, which is relatively long away from us.
Since the beginning of the Zhou metric ritual music, the traditional musical rules of our country have been fixed, which is the five full tones of the "Gongshang Jiao Zhengyu" that we often chant, and it is these five full tones that make China's traditional folk music form a light and stable style. Strictly speaking, the origin of traditional Chinese folk music did not begin in the early Western Zhou Dynasty, from the formation of civilizations such as witch culture in Chinese, traditional Chinese folk music began to sprout. A more typical example is the JiaHu bone flute and the labor songs of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors period that appear in the Book of Poetry, but at that time, traditional Chinese folk music did not have rules.
In the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, because of the emergence of such an exploitative relationship as slavery, traditional Chinese folk music formed a privileged system, that is, a certain musical instrument could only be exclusively enjoyed by the slave owners and nobles, in this context, bronze bell instruments such as pendants and chimes appeared, because these instruments were huge and had a majestic sound, and people often praised this instrument as Huang Zhong Da Lu. Later, instruments such as Zeng Houyi gradually shined in the Spring and Autumn Period, and on the basis of chimes, they added instruments such as chimes, which can play relatively light and pleasant music. In the Warring States period, the Zhao clan of the Jin Dynasty continued to improve the bronze bell instruments on the basis of the compilation of chimes, so that a group of bronze bell instruments could have the new function of playing both light and heavy music at the same time.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, as the world has collapsed, but the official positions of musicians such as Taishi Shaoshi and other musicians that have continued since the Western Zhou Dynasty, the eight tones such as the earth leather wood stone golden silk bamboo have not disappeared, on the contrary, the types of musical instruments and the styles of music have become more diverse due to social turmoil. In addition to chimes, the more popular national instruments mainly include guqin, guzheng, ser, sheng, drum and other instruments. The guqin is a traditional gentleman's instrument, and as a plucked instrument, its sound is usually relatively low and elegant, which is more suitable for solo playing. Musicians who are famous for playing the guqin include Jin Guo Shi Kuang, Wei Guo Shi Juan, Zheng Guo Shi Wen and Yu Boya, who we are more familiar with.
Guzheng is the same as the guqin and is also a plucked instrument, but its characteristics are very amazing. Guzheng meteor in the Warring States period of the Qin State, its sound can be brisk into the ear, can also be murderous, so also known as Qin Zheng, Qin State Li Si once in the "Book of Expulsion" of the "Book of Expulsion" of the miao and kite, directly called the voice of true Qin also. However, what is interesting is that the nobles of the Six Kingdoms are very fond of the guzheng because they play light music, which is really a perfect example of how I eat by my true ability, but you like me to sell cuteness.
The Book of History and Music records the deeds of Shi Juan accompanying Wei Linggong on his visit to the Jin Dynasty: "Wei Linggong took the Jin Dynasty, and in the middle of the night, he heard the sound of drums and pianos, asked left and right, and all of them 'didn't hear'. It was the recruiter who ordered him to write it for me to hear. Shi Juan sat upright and listened to it. After another day, when Shi Juan saw Jin Pinggong, Linggong wanted to hear a new sound, and Pinggong ordered Shi Juan to sit next to Shi Kuang and help the qin and drum... "Before the song was over, Shi Kuang held down the piano and did not let him play it again, saying that this was the sound of the subjugation of the country and could not be heard. Ping Gong asked what the reason was, and Shi Kuang said that this was the "pleasure of jing" made by The King of Shang. This story illustrates the richness of folk music and the musical understanding of Shi Juan, as well as the extensive collection of folk music, where the Weiguo Merchants lived.
After the formation of the situation of "liturgical collapse and bad music", many princely states successively claimed the throne, so they overstepped their authority to use the music of tianzi to show their status, which caused the number of instruments playing liturgical music to increase sharply in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, reaching the peak of history. At the same time, various folk music developed one after another, and many new instruments appeared. The variety of musical instruments and the flourishing of styles during the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States Period reached a new historical high.
Ser and Sheng are the best combination of musical instruments in the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, almost every banquet is inseparable from these two, about the spring and autumn Warring States story of Ser, everyone is more familiar with the story of the Qin King's order Zhao Wang GuSer at the Shichi Meeting. Although it is a plucked piece, it is strange that in many historical records, the players have mainly hit it. It turns out that the characteristics of the sheng and the piano with the partner of The Sheng are different, the sound emitted by the Sheng is similar to the Clarinet in the West, and the combination of Sheng Na can basically blow up a funeral, so with the Sheng partner, The Sheng is either heavier or obediently accompanies. The sound of the guqin is really low-key, as an instrument that often attends festive occasions with Ser, if there is no accent of the blow, the whole piece will be very fluttering. You know, the aristocrats at that time paid attention to the harmony of music light and heavy, if it was all light and fluttering light, the whole song would be regarded as the sound of Zheng Wei's subjugation, and the musician should lose his head.
In addition to the above instruments, the Spring and Autumn Warring States period also popular zhen zhen, pipe, drum, chi and other musical instruments. It is a musical instrument created by the ancestors of the Xinjiang people in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and later introduced to the Central Plains court and became part of the court musical instruments. The drum was not originally an instrument, but a military siren tool, until it was later discovered that it was also very beautiful to play, so it joined the small group of traditional Chinese percussion, of which the more common material is brass drums and leather drums. As for the flute and the chite, they are both horizontally blown instruments, which are variants of the flute pipe and are popular in the southern folk, especially in the Chu state.
In addition to the differences in musical instruments, the musical genres of the time were also different. The mo family's non-optimism is the one I dare not agree with, they think that although music is beautiful, it has no use value. Taoists believe that the sound of loud sounds, music should be based on nature, all people for music is secular, perhaps for the representative figures of Taoism, I am afraid that only the babbling of mountains and rivers, the birdsong in the forest can be considered beautiful. The Confucian school of music concept is more positive, they believe that music should praise the good, convey the good, the music changes with the mentality of the player changes, in other words, the music itself is innocent, it is the performance of the evil people and bad people that makes the music become a melancholic voice to teach the bad people.
"I want to take the six dragons, return to the car and hang up the fusang." Today, with the change of dynasties, both the performers and the debaters have completely disappeared, but the folk music that originated thousands of years ago has not disappeared, but has gradually evolved into a new folk music together with the new musical culture. Some people say that the traditional culture and music that were once there have disappeared, but I think that the really beautiful things can only sleep and not die completely.