Ji Kang composed four musical pieces: "Chang Qing", "Duan Qing", "Chang Side", and "Duan Side", which were collectively called "Ji's Four Nongs" by later generations, together with Cai Yong The "Cai's Five Nongs" were collectively called the "Nine Nongs" and were highly praised in the history of Chinese music. Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty made playing the "Nine Nongs" one of the conditions for being a scholar. Yang Zan of the Song Dynasty searched for the four music scores among the people, and found more than ten kinds of music scores, which shows its wide spread. "Xuan Mo" and "The Wind into the Pine" are also said to be his works. "Xuan Mo" reflects the thoughts of Lao and Zhuang. These works are found in the collections of genealogy published in the Ming Dynasty, but they are not necessarily original works.

His work on his musical thoughts, "Soundless Music Theory", is my country's first music theory work. The book concentrates his musical aesthetic thoughts and still has high research value until now. In the article, he discussed issues such as music and emotion, creation and performance, performance and musical instruments, appreciation, appreciation and habits. Through repeated arguments between "Qin Ke" and "Higong Ye Master", he proposed the concept of "Soundless Sad Music". This is the earliest typical expression of the aesthetics of "self-discipline" in the history of Chinese music. Many musical aesthetic issues mentioned in "Soundless Music Theory" have founding significance. Lu Xun once pointed out: "Ji Kang's essays are better than those of Ruan Ji, with novel ideas and often contradicting the ancient theories."

"Qin Fu" is also one of his music criticism articles, in which he The role of music is affirmed: "It can guide the spirit, express and harmonize emotions, and make people who are poor and lonely but not bored, nothing better than sound." "Qin Fu" mentions many qin music, including the legendary "White Snow" and "Qingjiao" played by Shi Kuang, as well as the ancient "Lushui", "Qingzheng" and other pieces. He also divided the popular works at that time into " There are two types of elegant music, which are "suitable for the introduction of music" and popular music that is "Xiatao ballads and customs". In addition, he also analyzed the development process and performance characteristics of Qin music from the beginning to the end in detail.

Ji Kang is another representative of metaphysical emotion theory. According to his theory of music without emotion, the beauty of music has no emotional connotation. It is just "peace". However, it can enable listeners of music with different virtues to enhance their respective virtues. He calls this comprehensive effect on virtue "the same thing leads to the same thing, the same thing leads to different paths" ("Qin Fu"), and its nature is aesthetic. The difference between Ji Kang and Zhuangzi is that he talks about goodness, but this goodness is not a universal ethical concept, but the individual virtue of each individual, which is embodied in a particular universal or a personalized universal. Ji Kang's theory is also different from Wang Bi's. Ji Kang does not unify beauty with goodness as the dominant factor, but unifies goodness with beauty as the dominant factor. The emotions under this unity are not simply aesthetic emotions, but the so-called "same destination but different paths". The different paths are the respective virtues of different individuals, and the common destination is the aesthetic experience that unifies those different virtues. Enhanced, they appear as different aesthetic emotions that integrate individual virtues.

On the Aesthetic Thoughts of Ji Kang's "Soundless Sadness and Music"

Author: Ma Qinzhong

In China, a cultural country where tradition and prejudice are particularly important Here, Ji Kang should be said to be a special case. From his life behavior to his philosophical and aesthetic thoughts, on the surface, they all appear to be incompatible with Chinese cultural traditions. As some scholars have pointed out, he still attaches great importance to traditional moral standards in his bones; for example, on the one hand, he "speaks licentiously, not to destroy the classics" ("Jin Shu·Ji Kang Biography"), "scornfully despises Tang Yu and laughs at it" "Dayu", "not Tang Wu but Zhou Kong" ("Book of Severing Diplomacy with Shan Juyuan"); but on the other hand, he insisted on not being an official for life, maintained his reputation as a scholar, and even prepared to He participated in Tian Qiujian's uprising and tried to take back the political power from the Sima family and return it to the Cao Wei clan. If this contradiction persisted throughout his life, then "Soundless Sadness and Music" is an aesthetic construction that he tried to free himself from his limited life. For this reason, this paper on the philosophy of music is of special significance.

1. The realm of human consciousness and aesthetic freedom

Lu Xun said in the article "The Relationship between Style and Articles, Medicine and Wine in the Wei and Jin Dynasties" that during the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the consciousness of literature was period. This "literary consciousness" is first guided by human consciousness.

Of course, this "person" is not the practical subject of today's history, nor is it one of the static structural elements of structuralism, but a person who pursues self-improvement and lives in an ever-changing cycle of life and death. "People" seek the pure land of their souls in the process of impermanent transformation and transformation between blessings and misfortunes, power and destruction, prisoners and dignitaries.

This pursuit is inseparable from the era in which Ji Kang lived. Years of war have left the entire society in a state of desolation. Cao Cao had the following description in his "Hao Li Xing":

The armor is infested with lice, and thousands of people die.

White bones are exposed in the wild, and there is no rooster crow for thousands of miles.

One of the hundreds of things left by the people will be heart-breaking if you think about it.

Wang Can's "Seven Sorrows" also depicts such a tragic scene:

There is nothing to see when I go out, the plain is covered with white bones.

There is a hungry woman on the road, holding her child in the grass.

When Gu heard the cry, he shed tears but refused to return them.

This is simply a "picture of refugees" after the war. The desolate and tragic social situation and the instant disillusionment of personal life have caused a sense of desolation in life in this era and a slow and heavy realization of the difficulty of survival. The strong beating of the desire for survival originating from the depths of the soul casts a desolate and solemn and tragic color on the hearts of people in this era. Longing for peace, longing for the broken rivers and mountains to be reunited. But when this unified situation is realized, what follows is strife between people and intrigues for power. In this kind of political strife, the so-called wise people can only live alone, resorting to poetry, wine, and medicine, visiting famous mountains and rivers, and indulging in the pleasures of sex and pleasure to relieve the worries of their limited lives. Ruan Ji's "Poetry of Ode to Love" can be said to be a typical representative of this aspect: "Under the beautiful trees, there are peaches and plums in the east garden. The autumn wind blows the flying lotus seeds, and they start to fall apart. There is haggardness in the prosperity, and thorns and berries grow in the hall. Drive the horse shed away, go Go up to the west mountain. You can't protect yourself, let alone love your wife." This depicts the helplessness of decay and death. In this era of frequent alternations of life and death, individuals are even more like a piece of grass. "Day after night, night after day. The color changes from normal, and the spirit is self-destructive. There is a fire in the chest, and the change leads to each other. Everything is extremely difficult in advance, and you know that you will not be spared if you plan. But I am afraid that in a moment, the soul will be destroyed. Drifting in the wind. Walking on thin ice all my life, who knows that I am anxious."

In such adversity, I can only return to my inner world and find the place where my soul can rest. This is the social foundation and social background of Ji Kang’s “health theory”. The "theory of health preservation" is also the philosophical basis of his musical aesthetic thought of "sound without sorrow and joy". He has the following words in "The Treatise on Health Preservation":

Quiet, quiet and peaceful, with few selfish desires. It is well-known that position harms morality, so it is not necessary to camp suddenly, and it is not a desire but a forced ban. I am sorry for the harmful nature of thick taste, so I abandon it and ignore it. It is not greed and then suppress it. The external things are exhausted and the mind does not exist, the spirit is pure and pure, and it is free from worries and thoughts. It is also kept in one, nourished with harmony, and harmonious and rational. It is the same as great prosperity. Then steam it with Ganoderma lucidum, moisten it with sweet wine spring, sing it with the morning sun, and wear it with five strings. Forget joy and then be happy, leave life behind and then survive.

The key points of health care proposed here are: first, be pure in heart and have few desires; second, do not harm your virtue for fame, position, wealth and wealth - the characteristics of natural life; third, do not be greedy for delicious food; fourth, do not Tired of external objects. From this, you can return to your own spiritual world and reach the "blissful" state of existence that is "free from worries, silent and without thoughts." In the refutation of "Answers to Problems and Preservation of Health", Ji Kang also argued from the negative side that health preservation requires purification, that is, "fame and wealth are not destroyed", "happiness and anger are not eliminated", "sense and color are not eliminated", and "the taste is not exhausted" , "God considers forwarding". In fact, judging from Ji Kang's own confession, he has indeed achieved the above-mentioned "health maintenance" criteria, but it is difficult to prove whether he can realize these principles from the inner world and enjoy it. But as an outstanding musician, there is no doubt that he realizes Na Mei's absolute own state of mind based on the music melody during the music performance. In his "Qin Fu", he profoundly and meticulously describes the liberation of the soul when listening to the piano.

Finally, he sighed and said:

At this time, the sound of metal and stone sleeping, holding the breath of bamboo,... I feel that the heaven and earth are harmonious, and the people who are walking in different ways, the graceful utensils are flourishing, chanting poems to comfort themselves, Always obey the emperor and never tire of it, and believe in the value of the past and the present. Luan said: The virtues of music and music are immeasurable! The body is pure and the heart is far away, but it is extremely difficult! Good quality and beautiful hands meet in this world! They play the sound one after another, and they are crowned with art! Those who know the music are rare, who can cherish it! As elegant as the harp, it is only as good as the human being!

In the existence of the absolute autonomy of musical beauty, he felt the unity of soul and heaven and earth. But these do not exist for those who always associate music with sorrow. Therefore, the only way to understand the "unfathomable" nature of "Qin" is to have a "perfect person" like Ji Kang. Of course, this "perfect person" is not Confucius or Mencius, but the Zhuangzi-style "perfect person" who "picks herbs from the mountains and rivers, gets what he wants, and suddenly forgets to rebel." "A gentleman is called a gentleman because his mind is at a loss as to what is right and wrong, but his actions are not contrary to the Tao. Why do you say this? If your spirit is calm and your mind is empty, your heart is not noble; if your body is bright and your heart is clear, your emotions are not tied to what you are doing. Desire. Sincerity does not exist in the heart, it can transcend the moral principles and let nature take its course; emotions are not tied to desires, so it can understand the emotions of things.

So, we see, Ji Kang. The relationship between music and sorrow is viewed from the perspective of his own pursuit of freedom from the constraints of material desires and various utilitarian purposes. Only by purifying all kinds of "desires" can the formal beauty of music better reflect the spirit that fits the universe.

If we add the prefix "aesthetic" to Ji Kang's above-mentioned "health maintenance" issue about the free realm of life, it seems that it can be regarded as Kant's psychological feeling about aesthetic appreciation. Determination:

The relationship that stipulates an object as beautiful is now combined with pleasure; but the judgment of taste declares that this pleasure is valid for everyone; so it is by no means an accompanying representation. nor is it the representation of the object, nor is it the determining ground contained in the concept of good. So there is nothing but subjective purposiveness without any purpose (neither objective nor subjective purpose) in the representation of an object. (Volume 1 of "Critique of Judgment", Chinese translation, page 59)

Kant's discussion is based on the nature of psychological feelings produced by the time specificity of aesthetics. The core of this quality is the freedom of the mind from external restrictions, which is the purposefulness without any purpose. Just as Ji Kang said, "The heart is confused about right and wrong, but the actions are not contrary to the Tao." Comparing the two, we can see that Kant's discussion and Ji Kang's discussion both run through the same thought and aesthetic pursuit: no desire, no action, indifference and inaction. But this also reveals the fundamental difference between Chinese and Western aesthetics in life issues. In Ji Kang's case, this aesthetic quality constitutes the supreme pursuit of life and the purpose of survival. The key is the way people realize it and transform it into their personal state of existence. In Kant's view, this state of mind is just a characteristic of one of many human states of mind. As for whether it will be transformed into an individual's actual state of existence, that is another question entirely.

Ji Kang had already solved this secret when he wrote "Answers to Problems and Health Preservation": "There is a master in the middle, and he enjoys the inner and outer music. Although there are no bells and drums, the music is already there. Therefore, those who have achieved the goal, It is not a crowning glory; the person who has the highest happiness is not full of suffering; the ears are full of gains and losses!" The characteristic of Kant's aesthetic appreciation of "purposeless purposiveness" is here transformed into Ji Kang's idea of ??"the highest happiness". " sign.

Here, it is necessary to add that: before this, ancient Chinese music theory always emphasized the meaning of "harmony" in music. That is to say, the fundamental purpose of music is to "assist teaching and create a pure human relationship", but Ji Kang moved from this "harmony" of "group" to "harmony" of "individuals". This "harmony" is the completion and end of the self as a social individual. This can be said to be Ji Kang's new development of Chinese music philosophy.

2. Theoretical problems of "The Theory of Sound without Sorrow and Music" and the theoretical purpose of "Sound has nothing to do with sorrow and music"

Since the pre-Qin Dynasty, objects can sense the heartbeat, which is expressed by sound, and the ratio of sound To become happy, it is precisely because of this saying that "music and politics are connected" and "no one is good at music when changing customs", there is almost no room for doubt.

As Liu Xiang said in "Shuo Yuan·Xiu Wen":

Happiness is what people enjoy, and it can be good to the people. It is deeply moving and changes customs, so the ancient kings taught it. Therefore, the music of gratitude and haggardness makes the people worried; the music of slow running, easy redundancy and simplicity, and the people are happy; the music of vigorous and vigorous work, but the people are resolute; the music of honesty, strength, solemnity, and sincerity, the people Reverent; rich and fleshy, good at harmonious music, and the people are kind;... Therefore, the original temperament of the former king, the measure of judgment, the etiquette and meaning of judgment, the harmony of vitality, and the bamboo with the five constants... are all They should keep their positions and not compete with each other.

This view of music that equates sounds with "sad music" and then equates them with "sad music" has always been considered an unchanging truth. In response to this point of view, Ji Kang proposed "Sound without Sadness and Joy", which not only required great theoretical courage, but also faced a series of pressures from cultural traditions. At the same time, the logical unity of his theory itself also faced severe challenges. Here, there are two interrelated propositions: First, "sound" does not have the meaning of "sorrow and music" because sound and sadness and music are not corresponding. What kind of "sound" there is does not necessarily have a corresponding "sorrow" and music. "Music", but this does not mean that "sound" does not contain some kind of emotion; secondly, the lack of "sorrow and music" in "sound" means that the sound itself does not have the meaning of sadness and joy. The so-called "sound" has what emotion, etc., it is entirely a matter of listening. The subjective attachment of the person. I call the former a weak proof and the latter a strong proof.

Let’s talk about weak proofs here.

Ji Kang correctly pointed out that the correspondence between the sound and the virtues of ancient sages and other issues not only exaggerates the facts, but also blindly believes in the ancients. However, it is not easy to completely overturn this conclusion from this "exaggeration" and "blindness" theoretically. In other words, it is easy to overturn the argument that "things feel the heartbeat" and instead argue that "when you hear the sound of cows and know the sacrifice of three calves," it is much more difficult to go one step further and prove that sound has nothing to do with sorrow and joy.

There are many different views on the philosophical basis of Ji Kang’s argument that there is no sorrow or joy. The "History of Chinese Aesthetics" edited by Li Zehou and Liu Gangji, about Ji Kang, said that he constructed the ontology of music from the perspective of vitality theory, and regarded the "harmony" of music that has nothing to do with sorrow and music as external nature. The natural extension of the sum. There is no clear proof as to how this extension is related to the purposeful creative activities of the "sound ratio" people. Ji Liankang said in his annotated pamphlet about "The Theory of Sound Without Sorrow and Music" that Ji Kang used a dualistic approach to demonstrate that Sound without Sorrow and Music is a unit, and the relationship between the number and ratio of the sound itself is one. constitute another element. This is completely different from the philosophical dualism that views spiritual and material issues. "The Rise and Fall of Ancient Music" (Shandong Literature and Art Publishing House, 1989) written by Xiu Hailin said that Ji Kang demonstrated the existence of music's autonomy based on the philosophical thought of materialism. The explanation here seems even more far-fetched. If music is regarded as an existence independent of human beings, it is obviously difficult to explain why nature has never provided any music. Moreover, Ji Kang only started to explain from the natural evolution that the numerical ratio of "harmony" in music inherits the nature of "harmony" in nature, but he did not say that the nature of "harmony" directly became music.

I believe that the theoretical explanation of Ji Kang's "Soundless Sadness and Joy" should be based on the standpoint of life theory, which is the principle that is consistent with Chinese aesthetic issues.

The purpose of Ji Kang's "Sound without Sadness and Music" argument is obvious, that is: if any kind of sound is related to a certain social content, people will not have any sense of music at all. It is possible to have a free state of mind, and the finitude of life is so miserable that even a piece of pure land cannot be found. This is obviously impossible. Ji Kang deeply felt this from his personal music practice. Examples of this can be found in his "Qin Fu". This has been quoted before and will not be repeated here.

It is from this personal experience that Ji Kang expounded his proposition from the height of metaphysical speculation of his time:

First of all, as far as music is concerned, it It is an autonomous text composed of the relationship between different numerical ratios of music.

But how to explain phenomena like this? For example, Boya and Zhong Ziqi's mutual spiritual connection through music. People who are good at listening to music and people who are not good at listening to music will naturally have different understandings of the beauty of music. Don’t these all prove that music itself has sadness and joy?

Ji Kang’s proof is divided into two aspects. On the one hand, we must resolutely abandon these vulgar and Confucian views and rely on the understanding of our own psychological feelings, that is, "get it from the heart." He said:

However, the harmony is as touching as the brewing wine is humane. Wine is mainly about sweetness and bitterness, while drunkenness is about happiness and anger. He sees joy and sorrow as sounds, and says that sounds contain sadness and joy, but he cannot see that joy and anger are caused by wine, and says that wine has the reason for joy and anger.

Obviously, this objection is very powerful. From this, on the other hand, let’s return to the music itself:

Although the sounds are violent and quiet, each has its own harmony, and the feeling of harmony is always spontaneous. How can it be understood? The hall is filled with guests, drinking and playing the harp, and some are angry and happy, or sad and weeping. Instead of mourning for others, Tao is happy here. The sound has not changed from the past, but joy and sadness are used together. This is not the case. 'Chui Wan Tong' is wrong? I have no master in joy and anger, and I should have no master in sorrow and joy, so we can see both joy and sorrow. ... From this point of view, the sound is based on peace and impermanence; the mind is based on what is urgent, and it is issued in response to the feeling. However, if the sound and the heart are in different directions, how can they be dyed in harmony with joy and sorrow, and be falsely named in sorrow and joy?

As far as music itself is concerned, "it is like a stench." Between heaven and earth. Although it is good and bad, its body is calm and unchanging. "As for musical instruments, instruments made of different materials also have a natural "harmony":

The good or evil of a cry does not depend on the child's mouth, just as the purity or turbidity of a harp does not depend on the clumsiness of the operator. The mind is good at discerning principles but cannot adjust the sharpness of the fence, just as the blind person can be good at bending the instrument but cannot make the instrument pure and harmonious. The instrument does not pretend to be wonderful, but the instrument is good, and the fence does not adjust the instrument due to the wisdom of the mind. However, the heart and the sound are clearly two things. .

Ji Kang proves that there is no sorrow or joy in sound from two aspects: the characteristics of the music itself and the subjective differences in the listener's response to the music. As far as the formal characteristics of music itself are concerned, a certain kind of clear or voiced music, no matter what the conditions, does not change its basic nature due to whether the performance is good or bad. From the listener's point of view, the same piece of music will have huge differences in whether it is sad or happy due to the different "aesthetic relationship" with oneself. Here, music is like an opportunity to combine sorrow and joy, so there will be "everything different and make it yourself".

If we compare Ji Kang's above point of view with the 19th century Compared with the musical form beauty proposed by Hanslick's "On the Beauty of Music", a classic work of music aesthetics, it is even more obvious that the Chinese had a profound understanding of this point more than a thousand years before the Europeans. Chapter 2 of the book says:

Musical beauty is a unique beauty that is unique to music. This is a beauty that is not attached and does not require external content. It exists in music and the art of music. In the combination. The ingenious relationship between the beautiful and pleasant sounds, the coordination and confrontation between them, the pursuit and encounter, the leap and disappearance - these things are presented to our intuitive mind in a free form, and make us feel it. The joy of beauty.

These statements are exactly what Ji Kang said in "Soundless Sadness and Music": "The official and businessmen gather together to compare, and the sound overcomes the harmonious" and "the sound is like a stench between heaven and earth." However, Hanslick did not say that "sound has no sorrow and music". He believed that sound, sorrow and emotion are not corresponding, and because music is like the decorative beauty of art, different lines have different expression characteristics, such as "some arcs" Sometimes they fall gently, sometimes they rise sharply, sometimes they meet, sometimes they separate. These large and small arcs echo each other, as if they cannot merge, but they are well-proportioned. "The formal beauty of music is exactly this broad and ambiguous expression characteristic. Ji Kang also talked about this. He said: "However, the harmony of sound and contrast is the most touching. The laborers sing about their work, and the musicians dance about their achievements. "In the past, most scholars believed that this was the flaw in Ji Kang's theory of silent sorrow and music. In fact, this is also divided into two parts based on the expressive function of music, that is, the symbolic function of the music itself and the feeling of sorrow and joy of the listener. .

Therefore, "Sounds have natural harmony and have nothing to do with people: emotions, harmonious sounds, are formed in gold and stone, and harmonious sounds are obtained from orchestras."

In this way, Ji Kang basically Completed his theoretical goal, interpreting "sound without sorrow and music" as "sound" does not correspond to "sorrow and music", and then publicizing the individual's "self-disciplined form of listening to music" from the differences in personal psychological perception of musical beauty. The free state of mind that makes everything different and makes it your own.

Freeing the beauty of music from the shackles of traditional morality and transforming it into a medium for spiritual freedom of individual personality is the central content of Ji Kang's masterpiece "On Music without Sound".

3. "Sound" has nothing to do with the social endowment of "sorrow and music" and music education

I said before that proving that music has nothing to do with sorrow and music is far better than proving that music does not correspond to Sadness and joy are much more difficult.

There are two points to be made clear here: first, Ji Kang does not deny the educational role of music; second, what is Ji Kang’s purpose in separating the traditional direct correspondence between music and sorrow? .

The logical clues that run through "Theory of Soundless Sadness and Music" are discussed by mixing the "weak proof" and "strong proof" I mentioned earlier. In other words, in Ji Kang's view, saying "the sound has no sorrow or joy" means that the music itself does not contain any social content. Unfortunately, Ji Kang's proof was not entirely successful.

First, Ji Kang used the differences in musical instruments to prove that sound has nothing to do with sorrow and music. So, the question here is: How do different sounds differ from each other? On the one hand, it is the difference in form, which is the so-called "ratio of sounds" that becomes the problem of "music"; on the other hand, it is the broad expressive characteristics problem. Although different sounds have been refined and purified, the characteristics of any sound have a certain degree of expressiveness, and this expressiveness is also the basis for the listener to associate it with specific sorrow and music. Otherwise, if we only rely on experiencing music from a purely formal perspective, then music can only be a "solitary" art form. Besides, musicians and music connoisseurs do not think and feel the beauty of music through purely formal "number ratio" relationships. On the other hand, pure numerical ratio does not matter whether it is beautiful or not. The numerical ratio of music lies in how it touches people's senses. The question of whether it is beautiful or not is beautiful. That is to say, as far as Ji Kang's own feeling of the beauty of free state of mind expressed by the sound of the piano is concerned, it is precisely the medium of "autonomy" that is isolated from life that is enclosed by the numerical ratio of the sound. For this reason, it fits his Insights into life. Of course, this kind of "sentiment" cannot be explained by traditional sorrow and music.

Secondly, Ji Kang secretly changed the concept when he transitioned from saying that "sound and sorrow and music are non-corresponding" to the strong proof that "sound and sorrow and music have nothing to do with each other". For example: On the one hand, he said, "Jade and silk are not a sign of courtesy, and singing and crying are not the cause of sorrow." The proof is: there are different customs, singing and crying are different, and if you use them incorrectly, you may cry and be happy, or you may listen to the song and be happy. Qi; however, he has both sorrow and joy. That is to say, jade and silk are not the ritual itself, but only the medium through which the content of the ritual is expressed. The same goes for music. If this kind of crying or joy is regarded as the characteristic of music itself, wouldn't it mean to say: "Today, using the same emotion to produce thousands of different sounds is not the impermanence of sound?" Ji Kang here draws from two To carry out his proof: first he describes the characteristics of the composition of music, such as the series of formal characteristics mentioned by Hanslick, that is, focusing on the work itself, and then he ignores the explanation of the music ontology. Skip to the explanation of the axiology of music. In other words, Ji Kang started from the assumption of the autonomous existence of music ontology, and then jumped to the differences in music evaluation under specific conditions of social history to reach the conclusion that "sound" has nothing to do with "sadness and music".

Thus, we see that Ji Kang opened up a broad world for his explanation of the educational issues of music. That is: he regards the education issue of music as an education issue, which is not a natural extension of the characteristics of music itself, but the function of social value of music from the external aspect. This is the social origin of the so-called "sounds of sorrow and joy".

He said:

...The restraint of speech, the measure of voice, the etiquette of bowing and yielding, the number of movements and stops, advancing and retreating are mutually reinforcing, and they are integrated into one body. The monarch and his ministers use it in the court, and the common people use it in the court. At home, you should get used to it when you are young, and you will not be lazy when you grow up. Your mind will be at peace and your will will be strong, and you will move towards good things over time. Then approach it with respect, keep it unchanged for a long time, and then transform it into something.

Social etiquette and the so-called "change customs, no one is good at music" are exactly the order of the "number ratio" of people comparing music. Comparison from top to bottom becomes a socialized system. Over time, it will become more and more popular. It has deepened into what is called a teaching method.

Another issue of education is viewed from the perspective of the "emotion-inducing" function of music. Music itself has nothing to do with "emotion" or "sadness or music", but through listening and playing it can express people's accumulated emotions, thus making people feel at ease. This is another reason why people give music educational significance from the perspective of social functions. He raised this question: "Those who change customs will inevitably suffer the consequences." The reason is:

Harmony is content within, and harmony is seen outside; therefore, songs are used to describe ambitions, and dances are used to express feelings. , then write it by collecting chapters, illuminating it with elegance, broadcasting it with eight tones, feeling the ethereal harmony, channeling its spirit, cultivating it, welcoming its inertia, making it clear, making the heart and reason consistent, and the breath and sound Correspondence, conformity and understanding, in order to improve its beauty. Therefore, the feeling of joy and happiness can be seen in gold and stone, and it is particularly grand and manifested in sounds.

It should be said that Ji Kang succeeded in proving that music has nothing to do with sorrow and joy and that this sorrow and joy is therefore external to music itself from the perspective of the value given by society to music. Of course, this does not mean that he has thus completed his strong proof that "sound" has nothing to do with "sorrow and music". However, this provides a sociological foundation for his theoretical purpose, that is, the value content of music's sorrow is endowed by social history. Under certain conditions, a certain historical subject is always embodied as an individual. Therefore, as far as a specific piece of music is concerned, it is an independent reviewer. Therefore, it is reasonable for the reviewer to assign his own unique life value to the work. This profound aesthetic thought implicit in Ji Kang's "On Sound without Sadness" is, to a certain extent, in contact with the ear for music appreciation and the significance of musical works proposed by Marx in the "1844 Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts" the internal correlation displayed. This is exactly why Ji Kang had to separate the direct correspondence between the characteristics of music itself and the tradition of sorrow and music as the embodiment of social content.

“Today we don’t seek the realm of contentment, but instead say that Qi and Chu are in mourning without laughter. How can we not know sorrow but not joy?”

“The realm of contentment” is where people are. The formal self felt in music. People also use this form to touch their own freedom. Is it any wonder that when Ji Kang was about to be executed, he played "Guangling San" to touch his final freedom?

Main reference materials

1. Dai Mingyang: "Annotation and Collation of Ji Kang's Collection" ", People's Literature Publishing House.

2. "Book of Jin·Biography of Ji Kang".

3. "Three Kingdoms·Wei Zhi·Wang Can Biography".

4. "Ren Dan", "De Xing", "Zhi Liang" and other remarks about Ji Kang in Shi Shuo Xin Yu.

5. Ji Liankang's translation annotation: "Ji Kang·Soundless Music Theory", People's Music Publishing House.

6. "The Ups and Downs of Ancient Music" written by Xiu Hailin, Shandong Literature and Art Publishing House, including a monograph about Ji Kang.

7. Editors-in-chief Li Zehou and Liu Gangji: "History of Chinese Aesthetics" Volume 2, Volume 1, China Social Sciences Press, including a monograph on Ji Kang.