Chinese traditional culture is profound and has historical origins. It is an important part of the history of human culture. Traditional culture respects personality, nature is the unity of life, and humans and nature are inseparable. The aesthetic approach pursues spiritual experience and emphasizes understanding. Chinese traditional music, influenced by traditional cultural thoughts, has infiltrated aesthetic thoughts into it and further developed it into a unique aesthetic theory, which has a profound impact on later generations. The following is a brief analysis of music and aesthetics, represented by Confucianism, Taoism, and Mohism.

(1): Confucian music aesthetics

1: Confucian music theory system

Confucian music theory gives a clear understanding of the role of music in social life Fully affirmative. Xunzi believed that music can inspire soldiers on the front line to fight bravely in turbulent times, and it can also make people behave politely in a peaceful environment.

In terms of music content and art form, Confucian music theory puts the "goodness" and "harmony" of the content first, while the beauty of the art form comes second. Traditional Chinese music aesthetics centers on "harmony" and has a profound influence on the development of musicians in our country. Confucian music theory also regards the musician's art as a way to understand the truth.

2: Representative works

"Legends of Music" "Records of Music" is a representative work of Confucian aesthetics of musicians.

"Legends of Music" discusses the origin of music: "The origin of the world is the human heart: the movement of the human heart is caused by the use of things. It is moved by the things, so it is shaped by sound." Music. It is composed of time, and its root is that people's thoughts and feelings are excited by external things. The "animal mentality" is the viewpoint of the original materialist reflection theory.

"Music Records" raises many issues related to music art, such as: the causes and characteristics of music, the relationship between music and national politics, the relationship between music and real life, the aesthetic role of music, and music education. role, social function of music, etc.

"Legends of Music" puts forward its own thoughts on music aesthetics. For example, it is written in the book: "Therefore, morality comes first, art comes next, actions come first, and deeds come last."-- ("Le Qing Chapter"). That is to say, the ideological content of the work is primary, the skills are secondary, the cultivation of moral character is primary, and the completion of the work is secondary. This gives us a revelation: in contemporary music teaching, professional music talents are certainly needed, but it is more important to cultivate and expand musical quality through music education and have certain artistic accomplishments.

3: Representative figures

(1) Representative figure Confucius (511 BC-479 BC)

Confucius was a great thinker and politician in the Spring and Autumn Period. A scholar and educator, as the founder of Confucianism, Confucius is one of the important representatives in the history of Chinese music and culture. His musical thoughts are mainly concentrated in "The Analects of Confucius".

Confucius advocated "politics with virtue" in politics, advocated "rule by etiquette", emphasized the political role of etiquette and music, and emphasized that music can influence people morally. He once said: "There is no need to be good at music when changing customs, and there is no need to care about etiquette when it comes to governing the people." Confucius believed that the ideological and artistic nature of music are "goodness" and "beauty". Those who conform to the so-called benevolence are considered good, and those who express peace and moderation are considered beautiful. This formed one of the earliest musical aesthetic standards in human history. He praised "Shao", which was about praising Shun's literary virtues, as a perfect art, and "Dawu", which showed King Wu's defeat of Zhou, as a perfect but not perfect art. Confucius believed that musicians should be restrained in reflecting people's pain and joy, and should not exceed the theoretical principles of the golden mean. Emphasis on the unity of form and content, admiring the elegant music that is "happy but not obscene, decaying but not hurtful", and does not like the passionate or rebellious folk music "Zheng and Wei's sound", and "dislikes the chaotic elegance of Zheng's sound", which leads to There is the political prejudice of the feudal ruling class.

(2) Representative figure Xunzi (approximately 313 BC - 238 AD)

Xunzi advocated the "theory of evil nature" in philosophy, believing that people are born with bad habits. Education can lead to change, because it is an inevitable need for people to emphasize the importance of etiquette and music education. He advocated that music should be based on reality and develop and change with the progress of the times, but there was still a tendency to admire elegance and despise vulgarity in music thought.

(2) Taoist musical aesthetics

1: Representative work "Tao Te Ching"

Laozi's "Tao Te Ching" "Great Sound and Sound" It is a famous argument in ancient Chinese music theory. He believes that the most beautiful music should bring harmony and tranquility to people's hearts, and this kind of tranquility can cultivate and sublimate people unconsciously.

2: Representative figures

(1) Laozi (about 571 BC - 471 BC):

Laozi is an ancient philosopher. He believes that things The contradictory changes are governed by a natural law called "Tao". Lao Tzu's attitude towards life is negative. In terms of musical thought, he believes that beauty and ugliness exist in comparison, and sounds are opposite and complementary. "Everyone in the sky knows that the beautiful is beautiful, but this is evil; everyone knows that the good is good, but this is not good - I only know that it is not good."

(2) Zhuangzi (about BC) 369--286 BC)

Zhuangzi started from the idea of ??sublime nature and believed that the essence of musical beauty is expressed in human natural temperament. The criterion of musical beauty is that it is natural and not artificial, with a simple beauty.

Music breaks away from the shackles of etiquette and is in line with nature and human nature. Zhuangzi believes that there are three types of sounds: "human sounds" (man-made music), "earth sounds" (the sound of wind and grass), and "natural sounds" (completely natural sounds). This kind of music "cannot hear its sound and ignore it" Its shape fills the sky and the earth, and covers the six poles. (3) Mohist music aesthetics

1: Representative figures

(1) Mohism. Zi (about 468 BC - 376 BC)

Moism is a music school that is opposed to Confucian music thought. Mozi was born in the state of Lu and was a great thinker, erudite scholar and political activist.

He strongly opposed the Confucian idea of ??"ruling the world with ritual and music" in music. His attitude towards life was too negative and he only strived to meet the minimum life requirements. The understanding of the social role of music is not comprehensive enough. Mozi believed that since the art of music cannot "bring benefit to the world, eliminate harm to the world, and will surely bring prosperity to all people", it can only increase the burden on workers; music is not only impossible to govern the world, but also "those whose pleasure exceeds complexity will It governs the minority. "

Representatives of traditional Chinese aesthetics

(1): Traditional Chinese aesthetic thought

1: Introduction to traditional Chinese aesthetic thought

Chinese art, including painting, poetry, and music, pays attention to a kind of "artistic conception" and takes this as the highest aesthetic criterion. The word artistic conception was first cited by Wang Guowei in "Human Words": "The personality of ancient and modern poets is as high as that of Bai Shi. I don't put any effort into the artistic conception, so I feel that there is no meaning beyond words, and the sound outside the strings cannot be compared with that of Bai Shi." For the first-class author, "Artistic conception" includes "meaning" (the expression of the artist's subjective emotions) and "jing" (the reflection and reproduction of the external social environment or natural environment). This state of blending situations contains endless charm, which is called "taste beyond words" and "sound beyond strings", reaching a spiritual realm that transcends the materialized level and is not fettered by reality. To put it simply: artistic conception is the perfect unity of mind and object, subject and object, connotation and form. It focuses more on using virtuality to comprehend reality and seeing virtuality in reality. It has infinite and far-reaching characteristics. Artistic conception is actually a unique aesthetic category with rich national characteristics in China.

China’s traditional aesthetic thought is based on reality, unifying content and form, and has certain practicality. Musical art must be subject to certain ethical and aesthetic norms. The word "harmony" is emphasized in music, such as: "five tones, six rhythms, seven tones, eight winds" and "clear and turbid, big and small, short and long, quick and complex, sad and happy, hard and soft".

China’s music aesthetics originates from tradition, and traditional music aesthetics has had a profound impact on the development of Chinese music. In the modern era, it is useless to stick to tradition. Only by removing the essence and discarding the dross and opening up new aesthetic ideas can we meet the needs of the development of the times. Western aesthetics is also an integral part of world culture. The integration of Chinese and Western aesthetic cultures, based on traditional national music, uses excellent Chinese and Western musical methods to establish China's new musical aesthetics and enrich the world's culture and art.

2: Introduction to Guqin Aesthetic Thoughts

Chinese music spans three thousand years, from ancient times to the end of the Tang Dynasty, and direct sound materials (music scores) are extremely scarce. Guqin is one of the Chinese musical instruments that retains a lot of sound data. Guqin music has established its own complete system of aesthetics, temperament, notation, playing methods, fingering, etc. Therefore, there has always been a Qin Dao or The name of piano science. If you want to understand the ancient and traditional music style of China, Guqin is a rare instrument.

Guqin music, as traditional Chinese music, can often move people’s hearts. From then on, there was a kind of aesthetic consciousness that is gentle, tranquil, quiet and ancient. The music is "solitary and silent", "light and understanding", with implicit beauty and profound artistic conception. Only after a long period of cultivation can one realize its artistic conception - the emptiness and ups and downs coincide with the direct expression of Zen. The highest state of Zen is the absence of words and immediate understanding. This is actually the most imaginary and spiritual state of transformation. The music itself does not need the help of written explanations to understand the nature of the mind. The depth, distance, and tranquility of the artistic conception pursued by piano music must be coordinated with the emptiness and tranquility of the heart. To achieve this, it can be said to have reached the realm of Zen. This is why Qin is also known as Qin Dao and Qin Zen. The reason why the art of Guqin music is called Qindao is because the appreciation and understanding of Guqin requires not only understanding its musical tunes, but also the spiritual reflection of the music. All of this is reflected in the selection of themes, the pursuit of artistic conception, and moral norms, which represent the ideal style and aesthetic standards of Qin music.

Due to the shape, timbre, music theme, connotation, structure and other factors of the guqin, its music style tends to be static, simple, implicit, ancient, feminine, lyrical and elegant. The beauty. The ancients also said that the guqin is "difficult to learn, easy to forget, and unpleasant to listen to" and "it only works when no one is listening." "No one listens", "No one listens". Guqin music has a static beauty of tranquility, emptiness, and secludedness. It is most suitable to be played in the dead of night when the crowd is quiet, and the quiet environment matches the deep and quiet wind of the piano.

Guqin music is mainly influenced by the Confucian ideas of peace, gentleness and honesty, and the Taoist ideas of conformity to nature, loud sounds, quiet sounds, clear and distant ideas.

Traditional qin music mainly uses the pentatonic scale, that is, the five right tones. This can be said to be the implementation of Confucian harmony and elegance in music, while the quiet and quiet style and artistic conception of qin music are mainly based on Taoist thought. reflect. Confucianism's philosophy of joining the world emphasizes moderation, elegance, and morality, which is reflected in music by admiring elegant music and virtuous music and denouncing vulgar music, obscene sounds, and indulgent sounds.

The characteristic of elegant music is that it is gentle, upright, gentle and implicit, so it can change customs and lead people to be good. Its style is implicit and calm, which is opposite to the so-called vulgar music that is full of masturbation sounds and pursues complex and changeable sound effects. Therefore, it is called "Great happiness must be easy". This is to intervene in the aesthetic standards of music with moral constraints, so it has a moderate requirement for music and opposes extremes and "excessive changes". The Taoist transcendental thought emphasizes nature, freedom and detachment from the world, which is reflected in music as Laozi's thought of "great sound and sound", music that pursues the so-called "realm of Tao". Therefore, Taoism is only positive about the spiritual level of music, but basically adopts a negative and opposing attitude towards the sound level of music (that is, the materialized and metaphysical level). (This is still very similar to the Confucian view of the moral aspect of music and the restriction of the "technical" aspect of the change and development of the sound itself, but the former is based on the artistic conception of the overtones. , the latter is based on morality, but both of them also reject the excessive development of the materialized level of sound, and the Taoist transcendental thought forms an aesthetic that pursues artistic conception, values ??"meaning", and emphasizes the meaning behind the strings. Ideal. The outline of Qing Wei Yuan also includes Taoist variations and variations such as Qing and Elegance, Ancient Light and Elegance, Qing Jing and Yuan, Chun Jing Si Si, Xiao San Si Yuan, Tranquility Qing Yi, Jing Yuan Dan Yi and so on. He looks at the universe with his eyes, so it has a profound influence on artistic practice. Regardless of the different aspects of the guqin's repertoire, timbre, musical structure, and playing posture, it all reflects a style that is gentle, gentle, and quiet. "He. "Elegance" and "lightness" can be said to be the aesthetic taste and ideal style that Qin music has always advertised. Here we can also see the reflection of Confucian and Taoist philosophy in music aesthetics. The artistic conception pursued by this style is naturally a kind of comfort and leisure. , the realm of emptiness, tranquility and remoteness. Because it can be emptied and still, it can be deep and far-reaching at the same time. It can be seen that the realm emphasized by Qin Yue is an infinite and profound realm. The most important aesthetic treatise on guqin is "The Sound Beyond the Strings", "The Purpose Beyond the Rhyme" and "The Purpose Beyond the Taste". "Xishan Qin Kuang" describes this state as: "Its endless treasures are incredible."; "There is infinite flavor in the piano, and you can play it endlessly"; "Twists and turns, sparse and dense, ups and downs, broken and connected again" , all of which are based on the essence of sound and the depth of meaning. "The implementation of this realm is a foreign realm that is free from the hustle and bustle of the world and independent of the world, such as: "Deep mountains and deep valleys, old trees and cold springs." ; "The mountains are quiet and the autumn sounds, the moon is high in the forest"; "The wind blows in the pines far away, and the stone streams are cold"; "The mountains are deep and quiet, and the trees are supporting the suspense"

The realm of Qin music is "endless". "Infinite", "profound" and "inexhaustible" use the least sound material to express the richest spiritual connotation. Therefore, the sound of the piano is light and sparse, and the meaning of the piano can be found outside the strings, which is exactly what it says. The meaning is endless. Tao Yuanming's "If you only know the inner meaning of the qin, why worry about the sound on the strings?" This is the philosophical thinking that pushed the idea of ????the emphasis on the meaning of qin music and the emphasis on the sounds outside the strings to the extreme. Shen Kuo commented on Yihai, a qin monk in the Northern Song Dynasty: "The art of the sea does not lie in the sound, but the calmness of the meaning is found outside the sound." Guqin is an art that favors static beauty. Therefore, playing the guqin requires the combination of a quiet external environment and a leisurely inner state of mind, so as to pursue the harmony of the center of the music. , the artistic realm of harmony between subject and object.

Qin music emphasizes both meaning and artistic conception, and it is also high in quietness and profoundness. Its expression techniques mainly use scenes to express emotions and express objects. Yang Zongji, a qin master, calls the artistic expression techniques of qin music into three categories: "onomatopoeia, pictography, and understanding." Understanding governs onomatopoeia and pictography, because the latter two are still not separated from the surface materialization of music and must be elevated to understanding. In the final stage, "meaning" is an abstract subjective spiritual realm, so the infinite and ethereal music does not focus on direct onomatopoeia and indirect pictograms but focuses on the lyrical expression of scenes and scenes, which is the unity of the virtual and the real in Chinese art. The use of techniques is the embodiment of the natural cosmology of "merging reality into virtuality" and "containing virtuality and reality". Only when the scenes are blended can reality and reality be unified, and only by using limited matter can the ethereal and remote feeling be expressed. "The essence of the sound can correspond to the depth of the meaning." Listening to it makes people feel leisurely and distant. Most of the onomatopoeic works in Qin music only take their meaning to express the admiration for nature, but there are few actual imitations.

Qin music attaches great importance to meaning, so in musical practice it is rich in characteristics such as loose board, slow rise and slow entrance. It also uses sentences as units to match people's natural breathing, reflecting the rhythm and time changes of people's inner emotions. . In Qin music, the weak vibrations of chanting are often used to express the deep emotions and physiological basis of people's hearts. Most of what is reflected in Qin music is to imitate the vitality and changes of the sounds of nature, such as: "Flowing Water", "Pingsha Luoyan", "Ai Nai", or lyrical works such as "Yangguan Sandie", "Remembering Old Friends", etc. , There is emotion in the multiple scenes or scenes in the emotion, so that people's spirit can be conveyed and wandered, and their thoughts can be understood.

In order to pursue and express a noble and profound artistic conception, Qin music emphasizes the realm of "the sound is far away and the scenery is foreign". This realm is exactly opposite to the numerous sounds and tunes of "vulgar music". On the contrary, the beauty of qin music is that it is pure and ancient, so the characteristics of qin music are often "light music, few festivals, few sounds".

3: Representative Works

The Chinese guqin is mainly an instrument for literati and elegant people. It is an indoor elegant music for self-entertainment, so what is pursued is the profound artistic conception of the overtones. The application of the concept of "yi" in qin studies probably began in the Han Dynasty. "Huainanzi" says: "Master Gu lets his mind wander to the objects, and writes that God is Yuewu, and the shapes are on the strings. The elder brother cannot be compared to the younger brother."

""Customs of Customs" also said: "Bo Ya played the harp and Zhong Ziqi listened to it, but his intention was in the mountains... among the mountains, and his intention was in the flowing water." Express your intention. "The intention is in the mountains", "the intention is in the flowing water", and "the expression of its meaning", it can be seen that the qin is used as a spiritual realm to convey meaning.

Few Chinese musical instruments have the same characteristics as the guqin A complete set of aesthetic principles for Qin playing style. The aesthetics of Guqin music had been initially formed when Qu Zhan in the Six Dynasties put forward the requirements for scattered tones, overtones and fretted tones. Liu Jiao in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties also wrote in his "Qin Discussion". "Beautiful but not flashy, sad but not sad, quality but literary, discerning but not deceitful, gentle and smooth, clear and mysterious, melodious and tortuous, and a solitary sound" as the standard for the virtues of the piano. . In fact, there are a few articles discussing the guqin playing style throughout the ages, some of which can be found in qin articles, special qin books, and qin music scores. The most complete and important articles on the crystallization of aesthetic experience and judgment of aesthetic principles are "Sixteen Methods of Qin Sound" by Leng Qian in the Ming Dynasty and "Xishan Qin Kuang" by Xu Shangying in the Ming Dynasty.

(1) ) Leng Qian's "Sixteen Methods of Qin Sound"

Leng Qian, nicknamed Long Yangzi, was a native of Qiantang. He participated in the formulation of Yayue and wrote his book "Taikou Yiyin". "Leng Xian's Sixteen Methods of Qin Sound" can be found in Xiang Yuanbian's "Jiu Chuang Jiu Lu" of the Ming Dynasty.

Leng Qian's Sixteen Methods of Qin Sound actually proposed sixteen aesthetic categories. The methods are: light, loose, crisp, smooth, high, clean, clear, empty, quiet, strange, ancient, dull, medium, harmonious, quick, and slow. Under each aesthetic category, Leng Qian discusses it in more detail. Its connotation and denotation hope to guide readers to grasp the sound beauty of Guqin from different essences, phenomena and aesthetic characteristics.

The outline and connotation of the Sixteen Methods:

(1) Lightness - On the moderation and purity of sound (the relationship between technical control and expression of interest);

(2) Song - On the beauty of the turbulence of chanting (technique theory);

(3) Brittle - on the flexibility and elasticity of the fingers and wrists (technique theory);

(4) Slippery - on the difficulty of fingering techniques in expressing slipperiness and astringency (technique theory) Theory);

(5) Gao--On the profoundness and ancientness of the music's artistic conception (Method of artistic conception);

(6) Jie--On the coordination between the quality of the piano and the character of the person (Moral Theory);

(7) Qing - On the importance of a peaceful and clean environment, state of mind, musical instruments and other conditions when practicing wood (Artistic Concept Theory);

(8) Xu - On the importance of the coordination of internal and external factors of "quiet mind" and "sound emptiness" (theory of artistic conception);

(9) You - On the elegance of the piano sound due to the elegant and leisurely character of the qin player (moral character) Theory);

(10) Strangeness--On the uniqueness of elegant and light piano music lies in the decorative fingering such as chanting and the treatment of changes in the succession and transition of musical phrases (expression theory);

< p>(11) Ancient - On the ancient and simple style of qin music coming from the gentle and broad-mindedness (style theory);

(12) Dan - On the essence of elegant and bland qin music (style theory); < /p>

(13)中--discussing the disadvantages of partiality and the beauty of sound in words (expression theory);

(14)和--discussing the essence of harmony lies in the perfection of technique (Essential Theory);

(15) Disease--On the treatment of disease in fingering techniques (also on skills and artistic conception);

(16) Elimination--On the treatment of disease in fingering techniques changes (essentialism).

Describing the content of these sixteen outlines in different combinations, it can be seen that the focus is on style, artistic conception, morality and skills. Descriptors belonging to the more abstract artistic conception include high, clear, empty, etc.; when discussing the performance skills of the piano, there are crisp, loose, light, slippery, etc.; when discussing the quality of the piano and character, there are clean, clear, empty, quiet, etc.; The styles include ancient, light and so on.

The sixteen methods can also be composed into four groups: easy and crisp, high and pure, quiet and ancient, and neutralizing the disease. The first group is a description of the external performance style, the second and third groups are descriptions of the inner artistic conception and rhyme expression during performance, and the fourth group is the requirements for the overall rhythm and speed balance of the music during performance. The first group of "easy, crisp and smooth" is not only a skill here, but also a "wonderful" content of one of the nine virtues of piano material. The characteristics it contains are light, crisp and smooth, light means the lightness of the material, loose means the sound is transparent, crisp means the sound is old (old, Paulownia), and slippery means the sound is moist, close to wood.

(2) Xu Shangying's "Xishan Qin Condition"

Xu Shangying, an important figure in the Qin world in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, also known as Qingshan, was a native of Dongcang, Lou County. He was influenced by the Song Dynasty. Influenced by Cui Zundu's (953-1020) "Qin Jian" thought of "clear and quiet, harmonious and distant", he wrote the most important treatise on Qin studies, "Xishan Qin Kuang". "Xishan Qin Kuang" can be found in "Da Huan Ge Qin Pu".

The outline and connotation of the twenty-four conditions in "Xishan Qin Kuang" are as follows:

(1) Harmony--On the sum of tuning, chanting and rubbing, sound and meaning, etc. (also On the essence and skills);

(2) Quietness-On the simplicity and tranquility of the piano sound, it lies in regulating the breath and practicing the fingers (also on the coordination of character cultivation and style);

(3 ) Qing - Putting forward the connotation of pure, quiet, grand and far-reaching musical instruments, and pointing out the importance of climate in performance (also discussing wood and technique);

(4) Yuan - Discussing the artistic conception of imagination and overtones (Theory of artistic conception);

(5) Ancient - On the distinction between elegance and vulgarity in the sound of the piano (theory of form and style);

(6) Dan - On the solitary silence of the vowels of the piano (On Interest);

(7) Tian - On Tian as the quality and virtue of a gentleman (On Interest);

(8) Yi - On the sound of the piano The transcendence of the piano actually comes from the transcendence of the player's character (theory of moral character and cultivation);

(9) Elegance--the elegance of the piano comes from being quiet, far away and not vulgar (theory of style);

(10) Beauty - On the difference between the beauty and charm of the piano sound lies in the simplicity and coquettishness (style theory):

(11) Brightness - on the brightness of the piano sound comes from the purity of the left and right hands The sound of metal and stone (Tone Color Theory);

(12) Picking - On the picking of the sound of the piano due to the spirit of the fingers after several exercises (Tone Color Theory);

(13) ) Clean--On the meaning and interest of the piano sound, which can be obtained from the purity of the fingers (realm theory);

(14) Run--On the warmth and warmth of the piano sound (tone color theory);

(15) Circle - On how to handle the mellow and turbulent transitions between chanting, playing, and turning phrases without hindrance (technique theory);

(16) Firmness - On the firmness of using fingers The sound of metal and stone must be clear and powerless without being aware of it (technical theory);

(17) Macro---On the piano sound, it must be sharp and elegant, and the lower finger must be generous and simple, so that it can conform to the ancient tune. (Theory of Realm);

(18) Details - On the handling and grasp of rhythm, turning points of chapters and sentences, linking of fingers and the details of the whole text (Theory of Skills and Interest);

(19) ) Liu - On the proficiency of skills without stagnation, which can be obtained from the solidity and flexibility of the fingers (theory of skills);

(20) Jianyiyi discusses the coordination of the flexibility and strength of the fingers with Qin Chong and Xianya (theory of skills) ;

(21) Lightness--discussing the changes in the lightness and severity of the sound are all inseparable from the purpose of neutrality (discussing volume and interest);

(22) Heavy--discussing the importance of playing the piano as heavy as light. The combination of the method of production and emotion (theory of volume and technique);

(23) Chi - On the relationship between the sound and the late interest (theory of taste and artistic conception);

(24)Speed--Discussing the meaning of small speed and interesting and large speed (theory of skills, interest and artistic conception).

The structure of the twenty-four conditions in "Xishan Qin Kuang" and the "Sixteen Methods of Qin Sound" are all organized in the same series of aesthetic categories. Some of the contents of the Twenty-Four Conditions are the same as those of the Sixteenth Dharma, such as the harmony, purity, ancientness, dullness, purity, and lightness of the two. The tranquility of the Twenty-Four Conditions and the emptiness of the Sixteenth Dharma; the elegance of the Twenty-Four Conditions. and among the sixteen dharmas; the roundness of the twenty-four conditions and the looseness of the sixteen dharmas; the health of the twenty-four conditions and the brittleness of the sixteen dharmas; the delay of the twenty-four conditions and the slowness of the sixteen dharmas; and the twenty-four The speed of Kuang and the disease of Sixteen Methods.

The twenty-four conditions are mainly requirements for the inner artistic conception and external style, aesthetic value and standards of guqin music, and are the aesthetic principles proposed for guqin art.

The content involved in the Twenty-four Conditions is still mainly permeated with the concepts of Confucianism and Taoism. The influence of these two schools can be summarized in two sentences: "Zhongzheng Heping" and "Qingwei Danyuan". The former is the musical embodiment of Confucian concepts such as elegance and righteousness and the golden mean; the latter is the musical implementation of Taoist ideas and outlook on life such as advocating nature, seclusion, indifference and clarity of ambition, and emptiness and tranquility.