According to records, the ancient court music in China has always been famous for its scale and grandeur. In the Spring and Autumn Period, the situation that the royal family monopolized music culture is gone forever. Musicians from all over the world have adapted to the hedonic needs of the rulers of various vassal States, and opened up a music world with a larger development and a wider scope than the previous generation.
Palace musicians in the Spring and Autumn Period generally have two characteristics; One is to add "teacher" before their names, such as Shi Kuang and Shi Juan, to show their higher social status at that time. Secondly, musicians are often blind. Because the blind have a strong musical memory.
1。 Shi Kuang is a famous musician in the Jin State of Shi Kuang (572-532 BC). He is good at depicting flying cranes' soaring, chirping and graceful posture with the sound of piano, and he can also express the shocking sounds of nature, such as wind and rain, thunder and lightning. The piano music he played was called "Shang Qing" and "Qingzhi". He has extraordinary musical talent and superb playing skills.
His hearing is much more sensitive than that of musicians who play bells in Jin State. He is a musician who attaches importance to art and dares to give advice directly. He also plays the piano very well, and his skills are quite exquisite.
Allusion: "Ten Past Events in Historical Records" records that "Shi Kuang played the piano and drums once, and there were 28 episodes of Xuanhe on the porch door; Play it again, craning your neck to sing and relaxing your wings to dance. " Gong Ping was overjoyed, sat back and asked, "What is the saddest thing without this?" Shi Kuang said, "Yes. In the past, the Yellow Emperor relied on harmony with ghosts and gods. Today, your virtue and righteousness are too thin to listen to. After listening, I lost. " Gong Ping didn't believe it, so he had to smell it. Shi Kuang had to play it. In a play, there are white clouds from the northwest; Second, the wind caused the rain to follow, flying over the eaves and running around. Fair people are afraid and huddle in the corridors. There was a drought in Jin, and it was bare for three years. "
2. Wei Guo (534-492 BC) musician Shi Juan is also famous for being good at playing the piano and collecting and playing folk music. In Historical Records of Le Shu, it is recorded that Shi Juan went to the State of Jin with him: "Make him the marquis of Jin. In the middle of the night, he heard the sound of drums and pianos and said,' I don't smell it'. I hired my teacher Juan to write it for me. Shi Juan wrote it because he sat on the piano and listened. After Shi Juan saw Jin Pinggong, Gong Ling wanted to hear a new voice. Gong Ping asked Shi Juan to sit next to Shi Kuang and help him play the piano and drums ... "At the end of the song, Shi Kuang held down the piano and refused to play again, saying that it was the voice of national subjugation and could not listen. When asked about the reason, it is said that this is the "decadent joy" made by musician Yan Zai. This story shows the rich folk music, Shi Juan's understanding of music and his extensive collection of folk music in the areas inhabited by merchants in Weiguo.
3. The outstanding master of guzheng studied under him, and he is known as "clearing the horn". Zou Yan's playing method is not as good as that of others. Lu's Notes on the Spring and Autumn Annals records that when I was a 25-year-old banjo teacher, I played banjo all day, and even muttered to myself in front of the piano: I am good for my children, and I am not poor. "This shows that Shi Wen has an extremely rich inner world of music. He is an outstanding representative of the court musicians of the State of Zheng. Shi Wen is very serious about learning music. It is said that he hasn't learned the piano for three years. The teacher mistakenly thought he was clumsy and asked him to go home. Shi Wen told a philosophical story. He said that the person who saved the song is not on the string, and the person who is determined is not on the sound, so he is not in his heart and should not be on the musical instrument, so he dare not move the string. This is also the origin of the idiom "handy", which has become an important aesthetic principle in China ancient music performance.
The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period is an important period for the development of Chinese classical music. Due to the great opening-up of the ideological field, the music thought in this period presented a gorgeous scene, and the music theory was unprecedentedly active. In the aspect of music aesthetics, Kong Qiu, Xun Qing and Gongsunni of Confucianism attach importance to utility and rationality; Taoism employs old people, and Zhuang Zhou values art and spirit. Their views have a far-reaching impact on the future development of China music. Contemporary research on musical thoughts in this period mainly focuses on the debate among Mohism, Taoism and Confucianism, and aesthetic thoughts are the focus of this debate.
Mohism advocates "non-happiness"
Mo Zhai, the founder of Mohism, believes that music is not only a waste of money, but also can't relieve the "three evils" of people's "hunger can't eat, cold can't clothe, and laborers can't rest". It can only make mistakes to the country and people, so it should be banned. Mo Zhai thinks that music-"the sound of big bells, drums, harps and gongs" can arouse people's sense of beauty and make them happy. However, its existence is harmful to the country's governance in the world and is not beneficial to the interests of all people. He believes that listening to songs by "farmers" and "women" will definitely hinder farming and textile; Listening to music will definitely affect the reader's energy and intelligence; After listening to the music, the "princes" must never "leave early and listen to the prison administration", and the result will inevitably be "national chaos and national danger". In Mo Zhai's view, the more advanced and developed music is, the more difficult it is for a country to govern. Those who prefer music to complicated things will manage the country better than widows. He believes that "music is not the reason to rule the world", that is to say, music is useless for governing the country and leveling the world. Mo Zhai's opinion, from its sympathy for the lower classes and opposition to the excessive music enjoyment of the "princes", has certain progressive significance, but it is pure fantasy after all, and it is totally unworkable. It is also unrealistic for him to simply emphasize politics and production, completely deny the social function of music and oppose the progress and development of music. Therefore, it has not had a great impact on society. After Qin unified the six countries, this school disappeared.
Taoism advocates "loud but small"
Taoism, like Mohism, opposes and denies music. Taoism, represented by Laozi and Zhuangzi, advocates nature and denies all man-made music. Taoist music aesthetics is explained in Laozi. In the eighty-one chapter of Laozi, there are only four discourses on music, namely, harmonious melody, five-tone deafness, music and bait, passing by, and loud cierre. Among them, the phrase "big voice, happy voice" can be regarded as the core of Laozi's whole music aesthetic thought, which directly influenced the formation of Zhuangzi and others' music aesthetic thought and occupied an important position in the history of ancient music aesthetics in China. Based on the philosophy of Tao in Laozi, this paper analyzes and summarizes his musical aesthetic thoughts, and finds that Laozi divides music into two categories: one is the joy of Tao, that is, the joy of inaction; The other is secular music, that is, artificial and unnatural music. The music of Tao accords with the characteristics of Tao, which is the foundation of all artificial music, ubiquitous and all-encompassing. It is the most beautiful, silent and the highest realm of music. Man-made music sounds good, so it will stop passers-by, but the beauty of this kind of music with sound is secular and temporary, which will make people deaf, so it is not advisable to advocate it. For a saint, when governing the people, he should "serve the stomach, not the purpose". Therefore, we should abolish the enjoyment of eyes and ears and all cultures, including music, to govern the world and achieve the realm of "doing nothing without doing anything" that Laozi hopes. On the surface, Taoism seems to hold a negative attitude towards music and beauty. On the contrary, it attaches more importance to the art of music than any school. Pay more attention to beauty-inner beauty and spiritual beauty are higher than formal beauty. In other words, it emphasizes the non-cognitive law of artistic creation, that is, the aesthetic law. This is exactly what other schools have not noticed.
Confucianism regards "goodness" and "harmony" as beauty.
Confucian music theory fully affirmed the role of music in social life. 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. As the founder of Confucianism, Confucius is one of the important representatives of China's music culture history. His musical thoughts are mainly concentrated in The Analects of Confucius. Politically, Confucius advocated "rule by virtue" and "rule by courtesy", emphasizing the political role of rites and music and the moral influence of music. He once said: "It is not good to be happy and change customs, and it is not good to be polite to the people." Confucius thinks that the ideological content and art of music are "goodness" and "beauty". It is one of the earliest musical aesthetic standards in human history, which conforms to the so-called benevolence as goodness and the expression of peace and moderation as beauty. Later, Gong Sunni, a disciple of Confucius, inherited and developed the Confucian music theory, and his opinions were preserved in the music treatise Yue Ji compiled by scholars in the Han Dynasty. Gongsunni opposed the view that some people regarded music as a luxury or pastime at that time, and also opposed the view that music was denied. It is believed that music is a subjective reflection of the objective world, and "music" is that people's hearts are influenced by external things, and when they are excited, they produce certain thoughts and feelings, and then they are vividly reproduced by sounds and dance movements organized according to certain laws. Secondly, the author clearly discusses the relationship between music and life and politics, and thinks that music must express social politics and serve politics, which means that music and politics are interlinked. Therefore, the music in the Taiping era must be full of happiness, and politics is also civilized and beautiful; Music in troubled times must be full of resentment, and politics is also perverse; The music of the era when the country will die must be full of sadness and the people's livelihood is miserable.
Gong Xunni believes that music must emphasize its political and moral standards in order to give full play to its educational function. The so-called "morality is the highest", that is to say, "morality" is a first-class work with thoughts and feelings that conform to "etiquette" (feudal ruling order and moral norms). In this sense, the artistic standard is secondary, and the so-called "art is success". However, the author does not think that "art" is irrelevant. It is pointed out that music is the flower of virtue. If it is to attract people's love, it can't be without beauty and fragrance. So music must be artistic; It should be "decorated", that is, it should be expressed in the form of beauty. It is necessary to make melody ("sound"), lyrics ("text") and various forms and expressions of beauty ("straightness, complexity, vulgarity and rhythm") meet the requirements of content and can touch people's hearts for goodness. In the view of Yue Ji, all works with the unity of ideology and artistry should be "virtuous sound" and "harmonious sound", otherwise, they should be "drowned sound" and "obscene sound". It can be seen that what Confucianism emphasizes is the connection between music and real life, the unity of emotion and reason, and the practical effect of music serving social politics, which is not discussed by other schools. However, "Confucianism regarded music as a tool for' nourishing the heart and nature' from the beginning. Without the concept of independent art, everything is benign. Such music can make the listener become a saint or an animal. According to Confucianism, it is reasonable to control the development of music.
Throughout the debate on music thought in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Confucianism has the most positive view on music. It denies the traditional idea that music belongs to "God" and all kinds of opinions denying the existence of music since Shang and Zhou Dynasties, affirms the connection between music and real life, and lays the realistic tradition of China music. However, overemphasizing the practical utility of music will often hinder the development of art and aesthetics and make music lose its sense of beauty and motivation. In this respect, the Taoist thought of "whether there is mutual learning or not" becomes its opposition and supplement. With its transcendental power (imagination, emotion, beauty, and later vividness, artistic conception, etc.), it provided a new impetus for the development of China music. In a word, Confucianism and Taoism in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period initially laid the ideological system of China's music aesthetics and produced the development of China's music in feudal society for thousands of years.