Listen to the singing of "Red white peach and plum blossom": the Tang Dynasty spring music and dance seen in Japanese literature

Author: Wu Zhen (Professor, School of Liberal Arts, Chinese Min University)

The music and dance that carries the "memories of the Sheng Tang Dynasty" are mostly represented by the "Neon Dress Feather Song", but in the Tang Dynasty, it is also famous with "Red White Peach and Plum Flower". This song is not found in the Music House of the Six Dynasties of the Han and Jin Dynasties, and seems to be a new music of the Tang Dynasty, and Zheng Qiao believes that it is "the song of Tang Gaozu". In the thirteenth year of Tianbao (754), Emperor Xuanzong of Tang restructured it into a legal song, and the Tang HuiJiao records that the title of the song enshrined by the Taile Bureau includes "Red White Peach and Plum Flower", which is in the ring of the forest bell. In the pen of the poets of the middle and late Tang Dynasties, this is a court piece of music marked with the "Ming Emperor's Time Song". Yuan Shu's "Fa Qu" records: "The Ming Emperor's music is more than new, and it is easy to be immersed in it. "Red White Peach and Plum" takes the name of the flower, and "Neon Dress Feather" falls in the sky. Li Yi's "Listen to the Singing of 'Red White Peach and Plum Flower]" poem Yun: "Red white peach and plum flower, the former emperor is in the song." To sing to Nishinomiya, Nishinomiya tree green. The Western Palace refers to the Taiji Palace where Emperor Xuanzong of Tang migrated after the Anshi Rebellion, and Li Yi was triggered by this Ming Emperor's Fa Song to remember the "Kaiyuan Prosperous Era".

In the early 8th century, Japan imitated the ritual music system of the Tang Dynasty and absorbed and adapted mainland music and dance on a large scale. Although "Red White Peach and Plum Flower" was founded in Middle-earth, it is still used in Japan as the left tang music of Gagaku, and there are flute scores, kite scores and pipa scores from the 10th to 12th centuries. The oldest surviving score of "Red White Peach and Plum Blossom" is found in the "Boya Flute Score" compiled by Yuan Boya in 966, which records the overture of "Red and White Peach and Plum Flower" and the flute playing fingering of the broken piece. Part of the score of the Boya Flute Score comes from prince Zhenbao of Nangong's "New Horizontal Flute Score" (921), and Prince Zhenbao was a senior disciple of Fujiwara Sadatoshi, an envoy of the Tang Dynasty who had studied pipa in Yangzhou.

According to the Compilation of Zither Scores compiled by Master Fujiwara in 1171, "The Nangong Horizontal Flute Score" Cloud, the Tang Dynasty March Song Water Feast must dance this song. The Scribe of Lessons, a music book written in 1233, also says: "The Peach and Plum Blossoms, also known as the Red White, and the Spectrum of Prince Zhenbao, according to Ise Xingfangyun, the Tang Dynasty Peach Blossom Feast, was played on the third of March. Two records quote the long-lost Prince Zhenbao's "New Horizontal Flute Score", which clearly explains the performance occasion of the song. In contrast, in the Chinese Tang and Song Dynasties, musical literature such as "Jiaofang Record", "Karma Drum Record", "Biji Manzhi", "Lefu Poetry Collection", "Music Book", etc., only the last two Northern Song Dynasty literature mentions the name of "Red White Peach and Plum Flower", but also does not mention the season or occasion when these music and dance are applied. So, is the special music and dance of "Red White Peach and Plum Flower" regarded as the March Mikami Festival, or is it a change that occurred after Tang Ledong spread to Japan?

The "Teachings" mention that the "New Horizontal Flute Score" received this knowledge from Ise Xingfang, a minister who knew Tang language and had experience in Tang Dynasty. In the third year of Xiantong (862), Prince Zhenru (also known as "Prince Touto"), one of the ten great disciples of Kukai and former crown prince, crossed the sea to Tang to seek the Dharma, and Ise Xingfang, as Zhenru's attendant, disembarked in Mingzhou (present-day Ningbo), and then reached Luoyang via the Grand Canal, and then to Chang'an, xiantong returned from Fuzhou for seven years. Ise Xingfang's book "The Book of the Prince of Touto Entering the Tang Dynasty" records what he saw and heard about this entry into the Tang Dynasty, and on the obscure day of February in the fifth year of Xiantong (864), Ise accompanied Zhenru to Luoyang, "drowning for five days, looking for a teacher to listen to and read".

In Luoyang at the same time, Luobin was a major event in Shangwei, as Bai Juyi's "He Chun Shen" said: "Where the spring is deep, the spring is deep in the family." The orchid pavilion is served with wine, and the flowers on the shore of Quluo are flowers. In the second year of Kaicheng (837), Pei Du, who stayed in Dongdu, invited Bai Juyi, Liu Yuxi, and fifteen other famous scholars to feast and drink in Luoshui, and Bai Juyi wrote a chronicle poem of "March 3, Qiyi Luobin", and the preface of the poem said", "Before the water frolicks and then the prostitutes, the left pen is yan and the right pot is coveted, looking like a fairy, the viewer is like a block". In the fifth year of Xiantong (864), during Ise's visit to Luo, it coincided with the Shangwei Festival and personally experienced the grand events in the city where the feasts and drinks were held. After returning to Japan, Ise was obsessed with the scene when Luobin listened to Tang music such as "Red White Peach and Plum Flower", and told it to Prince Zhenbao and other noble children, so he had this inscription in Prince Zhenbao's "New Horizontal Flute Score". Under the candlelight of Japanese literature, we can look back at the generative context of "Red and White Peach and Plum Flower" and find the intrinsic relationship between this song and the Tang Dynasty Shangwei Festival.

According to the phenology of the Central Plains, the Shangwei Festival coincides with the time of Tao Li Fangfei, so the figure of Peach and Plum is common in poems related to the prayer and qu water. The Southern Dynasty Chen Hou Lord's "Spring Color Zen ChenQuan Qu Feast Each Endowed with Ten Rhyme Poems" said: "Yu Chun Shang Fang Fei, The Middle Garden Flying Peach plum." It is the season of the month, and the sun is on the leaves. "The ancients believed that peach wood has the function of warding off evil spirits, and peach blossoms fit the festive connotation of the Shangwei Festival to avoid evil and avoid evil. Under the article "On the third day of March, the soldiers and the people went out of the river and the pond swamp to drink from the flowing cup of curved water", and Du Gongzhan of the Sui Dynasty quoted the "Biography of Han Poetry": "This March, the peach blossoms are under the water, in order to summon the soul to continue to be revived, and the atmosphere is removed." ”

Different from the sad spring mood of the "Qiyi Song", the Tang Dynasty poems that describe the customs of the Shangwei Festival generally carry the bright tone of praising the taiping music. "The weather on March 3 is new, and there are many beautiful people by the water in Chang'an", as Du Fu wrote in "Li Ren Xing", Tang Dynasty society prevailed on the spring tour of March 3. During the Kaiyuan Tianbao period, the imperial court repeatedly issued edicts to encourage officials and people to travel to the Spring Feast, and built the Shangwei Festival into a festival for all people to travel together and enjoy the whole world. The Tang HuiJiao records that in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth years of the new century, the imperial court issued an edict for three consecutive years: "Since the end of spring, every holiday, the hundred divisions and the envoys of the dynasty have been pursued and rewarded." In February of the nineteenth year of the new century, the "Collection of Decrees on the Order of Giving Hundred Officials money to win the feast" said: "Xian Yi invites The moon to rejoice, follow the spring breeze, and stay in the public at night, both with the principle of Xian Yi, the feast of the Mu style, and the happiness of the common ascension." Zhongshu Menxia... More than three products, by the end of spring has come, every time there is a day, it is advisable to approve the edict on the twenty-ninth day of the first month of last year, give money to make food, and reward it one after another. The feast and drinking were naturally accompanied by the spread of Chen Le dance, and Kang's "Drama Discussion Record" recorded the March event in Chang'an Qujiangchi in the Kaiyuan period: "Shangwei is to give the banquet to the courtiers, the Great Chen Feast of Jingzhao Province, the two counties of Chang'an and Wannian are compared with their magnificence, splendid embroidery, and everything is done." The Hundred Festivals will be held in the mountain pavilion, and the gifts are too often and the vocal music of the church is taught. ”

At the end of the riverbank where peach and plum are full of peach and plum, officials drink and chant poems, and dress up as kabuki dancers to accompany the banquet, this scene of "ShangmiQu Water Music" was seen by ishi Kobo and other Tang Dynasty people, remembered in their hearts, word of mouth, shaped into the pen, became the memory of the Tang Dynasty of Japanese culture. When introducing the "Red White Peach and Plum Flower", the music book "Lesson Copy" once again quoted Ise Yukibo's words at the end of the article ——

"The Customs of the Tang Family, every third day of the third month, play this song, stab Shi, Sima and so on, and return drunk."

Li Yi's "Listening to and Singing "Red White Peach and Plum Flower"" is the only Chinese Tang Dynasty document that records the performance of this song, so did he also listen to this song at the Water Feast of the Shangwei Festival in a certain year, just like Ise Xingfang? The poem says: "If you want to sing to the West Palace, the Trees of the West Palace are green." "When the palace trees of the Taiji Palace in Chang'an City were green, it was also about the time before and after the cold food of Shangwei, and the Yuan Shu "Lianchang Palace Words" "At the beginning of the cold food one hundred and six, the shophouse smokeless palace tree green" can be corroborated. Li Yizhi's poems often render the mood from specific music such as listening to the flute and listening to the sound of the horns, and the songs listened to are all well-known songs in the Tang Dynasty, such as "Xiao Shan Yu", "Liangzhou Song", "Difficult to Walk", and "Red White Peach and Plum Flower" are obviously also popular songs that are familiar to the contemporaries.

Although neither Chinese nor Japanese literature records the lyrics of the Tang Dynasty's "Red White Peach and Plum Flower", it is impossible to glimpse the original appearance of its music and dance, but the "listening to the singing of the "Red White Peach and Plum Flower" written by "listening to the singing of the Red White Peach and Plum Flower" written by "lyricist" Li Yi and the "Songwriter" Li Yi's "Zen Song", the similarity in the emotional tone of the two has hinted at the relevance of each other. In the early Tang Dynasty, Liu Xiyi's famous article "Xianghe Song Lyrics , Bai Tou Yin" wrote that the Luoyang woman was sentimental and fell flowers: "Luoyang City East Peach plum flowers, flying around and landing whose house." Luoyang's daughter cherished the color, and sighed long when the flowers fell. This year's flowers fall color change, next year's flowers bloom back to who is in. Kaiyuan Prime Minister Su Yong's "Miscellaneous Songs and Lyrics Sauvignon Blanc": "Jun does not see the east flowing water under the Tianjin Bridge, and looks east to the north of Longmen." The willows are green and green, and the peach and plum white flowers are jagged. The flowers are jagged, the willows are knotted, and at this time, the heart of the king is broken. The so-called "peach red plum white flowers" are actually "red and white peach and plum flowers", these lefu words sung in the tone of "Luoyang women", borrowing the peach and plum flowers that bloom in spring, aria red face is easy to grow old. It can be inferred from this that "Red White Peach and Plum Blossom" was once also a song in this kind of music house.

After the introduction of "Red White Peach and Plum Blossom" to Japan, it became the "fixed dance" of the annual imperial court qushui banquet, and the dance crown of the female dancer was covered with peach blossoms and danced. From the 12th century onwards, four poems, including Michimasa Sugawara, Masaki Sugawara, Toshige Shigeru Sugawara, and Yu Kichoya, collected in the "March 3rd" entry of the "Waka Han lang wing collection", were orchestrated by the musicians and became the lyrics of the music and dance "Red White Peach and Plum Blossom". According to the 1171 Renzhi Zhilu , the dance of the Red White Peach and Plum Blossom has been lost , so it was replaced by the Yanggong Music dance , and the dancers were replaced by four males. The score of the Japanese legend "Red White Peach and Plum Flower" has six posts after the prologue is broken, and the song "Yanggong Music" is longer, because the number of beats of the two songs is different, so although the Gagaku performance "Red White Peach and Plum Blossom" dances with "Yanggong Music", it does not take the eighth to eleventh beat of the latter. The lyrics of The native Japanese poets, coupled with the male dancer's "Yanggong Music" - Tang Le's "Red White Peach and Plum Blossom" have thus completed the "transfiguration" of Japan's localization.

The Japaneseized "Red White Peach and Plum Blossom", which uses the poems of the Heian Dynasty poets such as Sugawara Michimasa and other Heian Dynasty poets such as Yong Peach Blossom Qushui as lyrics, was once transmitted back to China. The Northern Song Dynasty Chen Yang's "Music Book and Four Yi Songs" records: "The State of Japan, the Kingdom of Benwunu, has repeatedly sent tribute envoys since the Tang Dynasty. On March 3, there is a peach blossom song water feast, and on August 15, the release party is a hundred plays, and the music is Chinese and Goryeo. Although the lyrics of the Ranyi people are very sculpted, they are superficial and insufficient. Here the peach blossom song water feast as a characteristic of Japanese swallow music is introduced, and the lyrics of the music and dance are commented on, and from the tone of the inference, Chen Yang may have read the lyrics of the Japanese song water feast such as "Red White Peach and Plum Blossom".

In the Tang Dynasty, the song "Red white peach and plum flower" was also recorded in the Song Dynasty. He Zhu wrote in the "Chen Liu Dao" in the second year of the Yuan Dynasty (1087): "The strong half-spring wind covers the house, and when you go out, you can only see Mai Qingqing." I have never sung peach and plum in red white, and I have been drunk with whom. In the second year of Shaoxing (1132), Cheng Ju's "Fuyang Chengdong (Part I) on February 2": "At that time, the red and white peach and plum flowers hated the song of no beauty." Nothing is easy to get to the flowers, and what will happen if there is wine without drinking. The two poems are written about spring feasts, beautiful songs, and drunken drinking on flowers, so it can be seen that the "red white peach plum" in the poem does not refer to the "beautiful red face" sung in the song, but refers to the song "Red White Peach and Plum Flower" heard at the spring banquet.

"Yanxia should be near and far in the same household, peach and plum shallow and deep like a cup of persuasion", as a spring song and water feast to help the music and dance, "Red white peach and plum flower" in Tang Tu, Dongying have left literary and musical imprints. Mountains and rivers are exotic, the wind and moon are the same day, originating from the Tang Dynasty, "Red and White Peach and Plum Blossom" as a seasonal music and dance, in the spring of more than a thousand years, singing and dancing, this historical picture, more reflects the diversity and rich depth of field of Chinese culture.

Guangming Daily ( 2022-05-02 06 edition)

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily