Author: Dong Wei (Associate Professor, Hangzhou Normal University, Vice Chairman of Hangzhou Literary and Art Critics Association)
In the traditional Chinese music culture with a long history and vast forms, there is an important form of music - Gagaku. From the palace temple, elegant and pure, harmonious and solemn, "music teaching" In China has lasted for thousands of years, shaping the Chinese liturgical civilization and entering the history of world cultural development. The culture of liturgy has created a broad atmosphere of Chinese civilization, shaped a state of etiquette that reveres religion and culture, observes etiquette and nobility, and cultivates the Chinese spirit of unremitting self-improvement and generous morality. "Etiquette is not fun, and pleasure is not polite." Chinese lilly culture exudes a brilliant dazzling brilliance, conveying the value of the times and the eternal charm.
Zeng Houyi Chimes Information picture
Inner Mongolia and Linger Han tomb mural "Eastern Han Music and Dance Hundred Plays" data picture
Mogao Grottoes copy of the mural "Dance Music" information picture
Make ceremonies and make music, govern the country and the country
Gagaku originated from the Zhou Dynasty. Time travels back in time to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, in the palace of the Zhou royal princely state Zengguo, the bells are ringing, and the guests are listening to a different kind of "symphony", the music is long, and the aftersound is around the beams... With the passage of time and historical changes, more than two thousand years later, the world's largest and heaviest Zenghou Yi chimes composed of bronze chimes and chimes presented to the world, fully reproducing the solemn scene of ancient rituals and reflecting the brilliant light of the lile civilization created by chinese ancestors. Although Gagaku is blocked by the high walls of the palace, occasionally the "heavenly music" will float to the homes of the people. The so-called "pear garden disciples steal music scores, and the head white people teach singing and dancing" "This song should only be in heaven, how many times can the world hear it?" ”
The Book of Rites and Music has clouds: "The musician, the sum of heaven and earth; the liturgy, the order of heaven and earth." And, so all things are transformed; order, so the group of things are different. Ji Dan, the founding father of the Western Zhou Dynasty, was honored by later Generations of Confucians as the Duke of Zhou, and was known as a saint who "made rituals and made music". The Zhou Dynasty implemented a political system of sub-feudalism, in which the monarch rewarded the land to the children of the royal family, and used patriarchal blood as a link to form princely states or domains to build a central and local political structure. In order to consolidate his rule and declare the legitimacy and legitimacy of the regime, the Duke of Zhou created the original "ritual music system" - "Zhou Li" on the basis of the "ancient rites" produced by the ancient sages, and used the "ritual" method to formulate codes of conduct and strengthen the sense of hierarchy. In the construction of liturgical music culture, Zhou Gong also transformed ancient witchcraft and ritual sacrifices, and closely linked "song, music, and dance" with "ritual", that is, "introducing rituals into music", which was used to symbolize the order of dignity and inferiority and ethics and morality. For example, the specifications and forms of "music" in ceremonial activities such as sacrifices, rituals, shooting ceremonies, swallow ceremonies, welcomes, and sending guests must be carried out in accordance with the name of "the law is small and big, and it is better than the order of the beginning, and it is done in an elephant manner." Let the principles of intimacy, nobility, old age, male and female be seen in pleasure." At the same time, music and dance, music, movements, etc., must also reflect the connotation of artistic performance of "singing merit and praise". Bells, drums, chimes and other gagaku musical instruments must be placed according to the standards of "king, palace hanging; princes, Xuan suspension; Qing Dafu, judgment suspension; soldier, special suspension", building a strict hierarchy, complete system, outstanding political and religious characteristics of the liturgical music civilization.
During the Spring and Autumn Period, with the evolution of social forms and changes in political patterns, a situation of "bad manners and bad music collapse" gradually appeared. Confucius accused the violation of etiquette and the destruction of etiquette as "tolerable, but intolerable", so he took "self-denial and restoration of etiquette" as his responsibility, and on the basis of Zhou Gong's "system of rituals and music", gradually established a Confucian ideological system with "etiquette" and "music" as the core, and promoted the culture of ritual music that "the use of etiquette is precious". Since then, Mencius, Xunzi and other pre-Qin Confucians have consciously inherited the rituals, learned rituals, resumed rituals, and passed on the rituals, and used "ritual music" as the carrier of ethics and morality to construct Confucian political thought and social ethical thought. The ancient concept of "liturgical music" has gradually sublimated into a social ideology generally accepted and recognized by the whole society, and has become the main content of traditional Chinese culture, which has had a profound impact on the political life and cultural development of future generations.
The Han and Tang Dynasties were the heyday of Gagaku. During the Western Han Dynasty, the purpose of yale use underwent major changes, no longer only as a "right act" to declare the legitimacy and legitimacy of the Son of Heaven, to play the function of educating subjects to calm their desires and obey the hierarchical system, but to focus on establishing the authority of the Son of Heaven, and through the ritual activities of Yale, the people of the people were convinced and obeyed by the Son of Heaven and the state system with the Son of Heaven as the core. As recorded in the "Records of History", when the ministers of the early Western Han Dynasty went to the court or feasted with the emperor, they did not have the courtesy of the monarch, and they were still loud and noisy as when they were fighting. Uncle Sun Tong formulated a banquet ceremony for Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao. In the course of a series of ceremonies, the warriors all had solemn expressions and were respectful, and the chaotic court of the past became dignified and orderly and orderly. Liu Bang was very happy, "I am known today as the emperor's nobles", so he rewarded His uncle Sun Tong and awarded Taichang an official position, five hundred catties of gold. Through the ritual of Yale, the generals changed their previous unfettered habits, standardized the way of the monarch, and the absolute authority of the emperor was established.
In the Tang Dynasty, the national style was strong, the eight parties came to the dynasty, the world was proud, the degree of economic development was high, the society, culture and art were brilliant, and the artistic attainment and aesthetic value reached the highest level of feudal society. Historical records record that the emperors of the Tang Dynasty had a tradition of love and good music, and the emperors created nearly a hundred songs and dances, song and dance plays, instrumental music, suburban temple music and other musical works. In particular, Tang Xuanzong Li Longji, who was extremely talented in music, was especially good at hitting karma drums, and just practicing the drumsticks of karma drums broke several boxes. Song Jing praised his drumming as "head like a green mountain peak, hands like white raindrops". Li Longji was also very proficient in composing, conducting and arranging, personally participating in music creation, directing the performance of works, and even personally checking the performance costumes, forming a prosperous scene of "Shangle" in the Tang court. At the same time, the Tang court set up music and dance institutions such as Taichang Temple, Jiaofang, and Pear Garden, which exercised the functions of ceremonial music, performed song and dance acrobatics, cultivated specialized musical talents, and launched cultural projects such as "Ji Li", "Bin Li", "Military Ceremony", "Jia Li", "Murder Ceremony", "Xianqing Li", and "Tang Kaiyuan Ceremony". During the Tang Dynasty, the country developed and flourished, which promoted the unprecedented development and prosperity of the ceremonial music system and the court music, and created a "court order", "monarchy and subjects" and "soldiers and people's courage". However, after the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, due to frequent changes in ruling power, Yaraku entered a period of decline.
In the more than three hundred years since the founding of the Song Dynasty, the country was troubled by internal and external troubles, the regime was overturned twice, and it was deeply trapped in the "Jingkang Rebellion" and the dilemma of the Song-Jin War, in which many defeats were won and few victories, and faced a serious social crisis of "disobedience to the four yi and disrespect in China". Under the severe political situation and the oppression of powerful external forces, the Song Dynasty pinned its hopes on seeking the blessing and protection of the gods and ancestors. After the Song and Jin dynasties, the country was given a rare opportunity for peaceful development, and the economy and society developed rapidly, so the court became more and more convinced of the power of the gods, and more revered the Confucian ontological cultural consciousness and retro style of "honoring the king and the king", taking "retro" and "zhengya" as the starting point, inheriting and developing the governing tradition of Chinese ritual music and indoctrination, abiding by the words of the previous kings, severely rebuking Hu Yi's voice, and closely integrating the production of gagaku with the Confucian gangchang ethics and the five elements of yin and yang. Emperor Gaozong of the Southern Song Dynasty, Emperor Zhao Zhuo, paid special attention to the construction of Gagaku, and invested huge sums of money to change music six times before and after, "Li le is a heavy matter, it must be three or four emperors, and the sound and text are fixed", praying for the prosperity of the country, smooth wind and rain, and peace in the world. With the revival of the country's economy and culture, the social values of the Southern Song Dynasty have undergone great changes, and the performance of Gagaku has been fully professionalized, developing in the direction of diversification and artistry. Song Dynasty gagaku inherits Zhou Qin, Han Tang Gagaku, Xiaqi Ming and Qing, Matsuri Kong Gagaku, far-reaching influence, flourished for a time, Gagaku's musical works and performance forms spread overseas, in Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Laos, etc., have been preserved and continued to this day.
The Joy of The Golden Stone
The "Golden Stone Music", composed of drums, bells, chimes and other instruments, is known as the "symphony orchestra" of ancient China. From the Beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, drums were known as the first of the "eight tones", and a special system of drum music was formulated, and a special official position of "drummer" was set up, responsible for making drums, drumming and other affairs. The drum music is powerful and mysterious, and in the major ceremonial activities between the son of heaven, the princes and the nobles, the drum music is used to reflect the mighty authority of the royal family, giving it special political and cultural meanings. The "bell" is also an extremely important musical instrument, and the "golden song" music must be used in temple sacrifices, wedding crowns and funeral sacrifices, military wars, banquets and other occasions. For the national ceremony, "Ding food" must have "bell ringing", the bell and the ding are the most important ceremonial instruments, but also a symbol of national power. The "chime" is made of jade and has a crisp and bright sound. The chimes and chimes resonate with each other, and the sound "near is the bell is bright, and the far is the chime sound", which can be described as the sound of gold and stone in unison, the sound of gold and jade, the clear sound of Yale, and the pleasant sound, which opened the "music of golden stones" recorded in the annals of history, which has lasted for three thousand years in history.
The world-famous ZengHouyi chimes reflect the brilliant achievements of the mainland in musical acoustics, music law, metallurgical casting, mechanical engineering and other aspects during the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States Period. A full set of 65 chimes, through the sound measurement, each chime can be on different parts of the bell can strike two tones three degrees smaller or three degrees larger. The chimes range spans five and a half octaves, which is comparable to that of pianos in the Mozart period more than two hundred years ago in the West. And its scale structure is exactly the same as today's common C major seven-tone scale, the center tone of the full set of chimes, which happens to be the central C tone on today's piano. From its excavation in 1978 to the present, the Zenghou Yi chime, which has been sleeping for more than 2400 years, has been played three times in total. The first time was three months after the chimes were unearthed, coinciding with the Founding Day, and successfully auditioned "Oriental Red". Listening to the "Golden Stone Music" from the ancient bells and chimes echoed in the ears again, moving the musicians present to tears. The second time was in 1979, during the National Day of the 30th anniversary of the founding of New China, the Hubei Provincial Museum and the China History Museum jointly held the "Exhibition of Cultural Relics Excavated from the Tomb of Zeng Houyi in Suixian County, Hubei Province" in Beijing, and the original chimes of Zeng Houyi were exhibited and played on the spot. In 1997, Tam Dun created a large-scale symphony "1997: Heaven, Earth, And People" to celebrate the return of Hong Kong, and the chimes made a historic sound for the third time.
By the second Song Dynasty, the orchestra was well organized and the scale was even larger, reaching a historical peak. The shape of the musical instrument follows the tradition of ancient music, made of gold, stone, silk, bamboo, leather, wood, dagger, earth eight kinds of materials, called "eight-tone instrument", that is, eight "voice parts", each "part" of the instruments are Jing Bell, Bell, Chime Bell, Gold Hammer, Gold Bracelet, Golden Duo; Special Gong, Weaving Gong; One String Qin, Three StringEd Qin, Five StringEd Qin, Seven StringEd Qin, Nine StringEd Qin, Ser; Long 篴、篪、箫;竽笙、巢笙、和笙、闰余匏、九星匏、七星匏;埙;晋鼓、建鼓、鼗鼓、靁鼓、靁鼗、靈鼗、靈鼗、 There are 38 kinds of road drums, road drums, ya drums, phase drums, and beats; 柷, 敔 and so on. The orchestra has an elaborate layout and a scientific timbre ratio, comparable to the current "symphony orchestra". Jiang Kui expressed in the "Great Music Discussion": "Gold wants to respond to the stone, stone wants to respond to the silk, silk wants to respond to the bamboo", pointing out the balance and coordination between the voice parts, just like the principle of today's "orchestra instrumentation method", also like the "orchestra conducting method", guiding the sound balance, force control and other precautions in the practice of rehearsal performance, reaching a high level. "Those who strike the bell do not know the sound, those who blow bamboo do not know the hole, those who play the piano do not know the strings, the same play is uneven, and the overlapping is not the sound." The problem of inconsistencies in the beat points during the ensemble is described beautifully. It pointed out that "music knows seven laws and one tone", "knows to match one word with one word", "flat, in, up, go" lyric tone, "heavy, turbid, light, clear" composition principles, etc. are close to today's composition methods and other musical expertise.
Dance
The ancients believed that "music" is different from "sound", "music" refers to the performance without dance, "music" is a comprehensive performance that integrates singing and dancing, and is the highest level of performance. Only a gentleman is able to know happiness." Zhou Metric's ritual music created a gagaku system, and the form of music and dance performances has also developed rapidly. Music and dance have become tools for "ritual rule" and "music rule", "dance with elephant gong" and "dance with elephant morality", which are used to discipline merit, worship gods, become indoctrinated, and help people. From the time of Shanggu Yao and Shun to the end of the Qing Dynasty, Gagaku dance has accompanied the rise and fall of various dynasties, and has experienced more than thousands of years, always occupying the orthodox position of Chinese music and dance.
The Royal Family of the Zhou Dynasty also set up a special music and dance institution - "Dasi Le", which was responsible for the performance and music and dance education of music and dance, and was known as the earliest dance school in the mainland. The establishment of "Dasi Le" was the earliest and the level of dance education was the highest in the world at that time. The highest level of "music" in the Zhou Dynasty was the six generations of music and dance, also known as "six music". That is, the dance of the emperor Ji Gong of the six dynasties, most of which are representative music and dance of the previous generations of the Zhou Dynasty. The six generations of music and dance are divided into categories and have clear usages, mainly used for the court sacrifice ceremonies of the Zhou Dynasty, the performance occasion is solemn, the number of people is large, the ceremony is solemn and solemn, and the music is harmonious and calm. These include "Cloud Gate" of the Yellow Emperor period, "Da Xian" of Yao Shi, "Da Shao" of Shun Shi, "Da Xia" of Xia Yu, "Da Shu" of Shang Tang, and "Dawu" of the Zhou Dynasty. In later generations, the "Six Music" is known as the "Music of the First King", and its soothing, stable, harmonious and distant music plays an important role in promoting social harmony and maintaining national stability, and has become an important means of governance in China's feudal society for more than 2,000 years.
The Tang Dynasty period was the peak of ancient music and dance creation, and left a strong mark in the history of mainland music. During the Tang Dynasty, the great integration of culture promoted the development of music, and the local musical styles of the Central Plains absorbed and developed the music styles of ethnic minorities and foreign countries, and achieved the Tang Dynasty Yan music with a very high artistic level such as "Neon Dress Feather Song". "Neon Dress Feather Song" is a veritable romantic song and dance masterpiece, it is full of the unique romantic cultural color of the Tang Dynasty, with the neon dress feather dance, a unique business-style elegant and luxurious tune, combined with a light and fluttering dance, like a dazzling pearl in the history of mainland music and dance. As a court Swallow Music, the whole song integrates songs, dances, instrumental performances and other art forms, the composition is large and changeable, the performance time is longer than other pieces, the rhythm is more soothing, giving people the feeling, the music is sonorous and powerful, but without losing the beauty of the soothing and vast structure, as Bai Juyi said, "A thousand songs and dances are uncountable, and the most loved neon dance is the most." The whole song is divided into three parts, the middle sequence and the song break, with a total of thirty-six sections. The scattered sequence is commonly speaking the prelude, there is no dance in the prelude, there is no singing, only the instrument plays rhythm; the middle part adds singing and dancing, generally speaking, it is accompanied by the rhythm of the instrument while singing and dancing; the song break is the climax of the whole piece, at this stage, mainly with dance as the center, the rhythm of singing and instruments gradually accelerates, and at the end it gradually slows down again, until the end of the piece. The design of these three parts is exquisite, relaxed and measured, and the various parts are blended together, fully demonstrating the brilliance of Tang Dynasty court music.
In the Southern Song Dynasty, the "music and song" and "no music and no song" of Gagaku were iconic changes, and the performance forms were "Dengge", "Second Dance" and "Palace Frame". "Dengge" is a group singing team of more than 40 people, accompanied by a gongjia band. The "Second Dance" is the "Wen Dance" and the "Dance of the Eight Nobles" of 64 people. Dance performances are usually performed amid the music of the noboru and the palace frame. The performance methods of "palace frame" are divided into two types: "music in the hall" and "music under the hall". In accordance with the ancestral system of "silk is not as good as bamboo, bamboo is not as good as meat" and "noble voice", the layout of "Music in the Hall" is set up in the hall, with a small number of instruments such as the piano, the ser and a single yellow bell and bell. However, the scale of "music under the hall" is very large, according to the four directions of east, south, west and north, dozens of chimes, chimes and other musical instruments are placed. The music hall between the various parties is cleverly arranged, "lifting the silk to see the tiles, lifting the bamboo to see the dagger, and lifting the leather to see the wood", which shows the level of song and dance performances, the acoustic level of the band and the level of stage art organization at that time.
Musical score and the yellow bell law
Musical score is an important carrier of music culture and the main basis for defining the level of music art. Mainland music scores have a long history and a variety of genres, including text scores, subtraction scores, ruler scores, Yanle half-character scores, etc., recording the valuable musical works of the dynasties and dynasties. The existing notation style is the Tang Dynasty handwritten volume score, which is now preserved in the Shinko-in Temple in Nishigamo, Kyoto, Japan; the Yanle half-character score such as the Dunhuang Pipa Notation; the Gongzhi notation is the main notation method since the Ming and Qing dynasties; and the subtraction score is such as the guqin score. The Zhongxing Lishu ( Zhongxing Lishu ) , a ritual document compiled by Taichang Temple during the Southern Song Dynasty , is the earliest and most comprehensive surviving ritual book that records the musical scores and rituals of gagaku , containing a total of 428 gagaku songs and instrumental music scores , and making a detailed record of the ritual music used in the Southern Song Dynasty court. The "Book of Rites" was not widely circulated, and few people saw its face, and even the "Four Libraries Complete Book" was not included. The Ming Dynasty Yongle Canon contains this book, but when the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing, a fire burned the Yongle Canon. Fortunately, Xu Song, the editor of the Qing Hanlin Academy, compiled the Zhongxing Lishu from the Yongle Canon and preserved it. Xu Song's manuscripts took several turns, and in April 2002, they were finally officially photocopied at the Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House.
The Book of Zhongxing li is the earliest and largest document found so far in the history of ancient music in mainland China to record the use of Lyra spectrum to record music. Scholars have also tried to translate, but their results have been repeatedly questioned. In addition to technical factors, the difference in musical concepts between ancient and modern times is the main reason. By the 1920s, the mainland had formed a technical theory system with the basic music theory, notation and composition method of Western music as the core, which was very different from the traditional Chinese music concept in terms of the concept of absolute pitch notation, the pursuit of melodic lines, the rhythm of mode rules, and the form. At the beginning of the 21st century, Professor Tian Yaonong of Hangzhou Normal University presided over the restoration project of Yale, absorbed the musical score research results of Qiu Zhishuo, Yang Yinliu, etc., and completed the performance of six masterpieces of Gagaku, from the "Zhongshu Lishu" and "Twelve Poetry Notations of Fengya", seven representative songs were selected for experimental translation and performance, and the Southern Song Dynasty Music, which had been sleeping for nearly a thousand years, was finally restored to Hangzhou, the ancient capital of the Southern Song Dynasty.
Since the Zhou Dynasty, the "national standard" of music law centered on the "music suspension" of the gagaku heavy instrument has been established, making gagaku the "gene" of Chinese music culture. The Zenghou Yi chimes unearthed in 1978 are the most detailed materials and valuable samples for the study of music law in the mainland, and the chimes and chisels on the chimes and chisels, the main drum and the side drum parts are engraved with music law inscriptions, and the bell body related music law inscriptions reach more than 2800 words, and there are corresponding records of zeng, Chu, Qi, Shen, Qin, Jin and other multi-country music laws. Subsequent dynasties and dynasties gradually formed a musical benchmark tone with "bell" as the standard pitch, which basically laid the musical system and paradigm of traditional music in the mainland. During the Han and Wei dynasties, it inherited the "music suspension" as the basis, and also followed the laws of the Zhou Dynasty to further unify the music standards of various music. When Emperor Wen of Sui arrived, he proposed that "Guole is called 'Ya' as the name ... Ya, Zhengye", officially established Gagaku as a national music, forming the concept of "Huaxia Zhengsheng". In the Northern Song Dynasty, the court attached great importance to the standards of gagaku and music, especially the pitch of the yellow bell law, and made six major adjustments. According to the 126th volume of the History of Song, more than 70,000 professional craftsmen were employed in jingyou's second year of changing the high standards of Huang Zhong's rhythm. Among them, there are 153 metal makers, 216 carpenters, 49 leather workers, 16 potters, 91 scrapers and 189 painters. The craftsmen spent nearly five months making and debugging musical instruments to make seven complete sets of Gagaku instruments. However, after less than three years of use, the instrument was remade due to a deviation in pitch. Every change in the high standard of the yellow bell means that chimes, chimes, chimes and blowwind instruments have to be remade and debugged. It can be seen that without the attention and support of the supreme ruler of the Song Dynasty, such a huge and frequent musical instrument production project would be unsustainable.
Living inheritance and conservation restoration
After the Southern Song Dynasty, there were no major changes in Gagaku. Ming and Qing Dynasty Gagaku basically follows the style and value function of the previous generation of Gagaku. As a national-level sacrifice ceremony, Gagaku ended its inheritance with the end of China's last feudal dynasty, but It has important significance of leading and demonstrating traditional Chinese music forms, styles, music laws, norms, etc., laying the overall style of traditional Chinese music. In the 1950s, when the gong yale in Liuyang, Hunan Province, still maintained a living heritage, Mr. Yang Yinliu recorded the performances of that time and recorded the precious performance materials. In the 1980s, the Confucius Temple in Qufu learned from the liuyang festival Kong Yale form and resumed the performance of the Gong Yale. In recent years, Gagaku has been promoted and promoted, such as the restoration of the University Orchestra of Pingdingshan College, and the restoration of the Yanguo Gagaku performance of the China Conservatory of Music. In 2010, nearly 1,000 teachers, students and employees of Hangzhou Normal University spent three years collecting the literature of the Southern Song Dynasty Gagaku, copying the musical instruments, costumes and ceremonial guards of the Southern Song Dynasty Gagaku Band, translating hundreds of Musical Scores and Rare Dance Scores of the Southern Song Dynasty Gagaku, studying and rehearsing some representative works, so that the Southern Song Gagaku in the literature was reproduced in the form of "song, music and dance", presenting the classical charm of the Southern Song Dynasty Gagaku and inheriting the long-standing Chinese liturgical civilization.
The culture of liturgical music epitomizes the profundity of Chinese civilization and the profound connotation of traditional Chinese music. Today, when the Chinese nation is moving towards great rejuvenation, excavating the precious historical and cultural heritage of inheriting and innovating the development of Yale has special epochal value and far-reaching significance for carrying forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture, expanding the influence of Chinese culture, and leading the peaceful development of mankind.
Guangming Daily (2022-03-25 13th edition)
Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily