Taoist music: traditional music of feeling based on Tao
2021-11-22
Suzhou Xian orchestra plays "green peach flower". China has been a country of rites and music since ancient times. Rites and music culture occupies an important position in traditional culture. Music plays an important role and significance in all kinds of important sacrifices in ancient China. In the book of rites and music, it is said that "there are rites and music in the Ming Dynasty and ghosts and gods in the quiet". Ancient ritual activities are often to celebrate major festivals or pray to heaven for important events. Music is an important part of these activities. It not only enriches the content and form of activities, but also conveys the cultural spirit of ancient people and becomes a part of traditional culture. Taoist music, abbreviated as Taoist music, is an artistic means for Taoism to express its religious beliefs and promote religious doctrines. It is also an important way for practitioners to cultivate their self-cultivation. In the activities of fasting, preaching and self-cultivation, we can not lack Taoist music. Among them, zhaijiao music, also known as "Taoist music" or "Dharma music", is the music used by Taoism in zhaijiao ceremony, and it is also the most important and common type of Taoist music. Zhaijiao music expresses the spiritual characteristics of Taoist music, so there is also a folk saying that Taoist music is zhaijiao music. Taoist music, like Taoism, has a long history. In ancient times, "Witches subdued gods by singing and dancing". When praying to the gods, wizards often greeted and entertained the gods in the form of music and dance, so as to pray for the blessing of the gods. At that time, witch dance and witch wind were popular, and Taoist music also formed the source in the sacrificial music and dance of ancient witch culture. Taoist Dharma activities were inherited and developed from the ancient ritual of offering sacrifices to gods. In the early stage, they just recited the Scriptures directly without sound cavity. Until the Wei, Jin, southern and Northern Dynasties, there were Taoist tunes and rhythms such as "Ode to Hua Xia" and "Bu Xu Sheng". There is a record in Wei Shu Shi Lao Zhi: in the second year of Shenrui, Emperor Ming of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the supreme old gentleman rode the cloud and rode the dragon to visit Mount Song, granted Kou Qian the "position of heavenly teacher" and gave him 20 volumes of yunzhongyin chanting new science scriptures and precepts. Through the summary and transformation of primitive Taoism since the Eastern Han Dynasty, Kou Qianzhi formulated the first music score of Taoism, the new law of movement chanting and precepts, and changed the direct chanting of Scriptures into music chanting, which is the earliest written Jingyun movement. After that, Lu Xiujing, a Taoist of Lushan Mountain, compiled the rites of fasting and sacrificial rites by sorting out the three hole scriptures, which laid the foundation for the formal formation of Taoist music. The Tang Dynasty was a prosperous period for the development of Taoism and music. In the Tang Dynasty, not only did Xuanzong write the song of neon clothes and feather clothes, but also a group of literati left many famous Taoist music pieces, such as the song of XuanZhen Taoism and the song of Dalao heaven by Taoist Sima Chengzhen and Li Huiyuan, as well as the song of Ziqing Taoism and the song of shangsheng Taoism by he Zhizhang, then a waiter of the Ministry of work. Song Dynasty and Ming Dynasty are also important periods in the development history of Taoist music. The collection of Taoist music scores in the Northern Song Dynasty, Yuyin FA Shi, not only compiles the 50 first Taoist music scores in the Tang and Song Dynasties, but also describes the history and basic common sense of Taoist music. It is an important document in the history of Taoist music. In the Ming Dynasty, Taoist music was further standardized, with the emergence of the movement of xuanjiao made by the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, which recorded 14 Taoist songs with rich content. In its long development process, Taoist music has finally become the essence of China's traditional music culture. Taoism is a native religion bred by China's traditional culture. In terms of music cognition, Taoist culture inherits the ancient tradition of entertaining, pleasing and subduing gods in the form of song, dance and music. Taoism promotes music and believes that music can communicate with gods. Therefore, Taoist music has the spiritual significance of "getting its meaning and enjoying its body, and getting its meaning and enjoying its gods". Nanzhi nunnery of the Yuan Dynasty said in the theory of singing: Taoist singing emotion, monk singing nature and Confucian singing theory. The uniqueness of Taoist music is that it is closely related to the content of belief and has its inherent Taoist attribute, namely "Taoist emotion". The joys and sorrows in Taoist music are expressed through music, but its fundamental basis is still the doctrines of Taoism. Taoism's life attitude of attaching importance to ecology, advocating nature, pursuing inaction and leisure has deeply affected its musical character. Therefore, Taoist music always shows a simple, elegant and elegant charm. Because of its function of "preaching and serving God", it gives people a mysterious, clear and extraordinary sense of sanctity. When doing things, Taoists connect singing, Yu steps and playing music. The performer solemnly makes an image, and his body, mouth and mind are consistent. When facing the gods, he pays homage with an open mind. He believes that only in this way can he move the gods and obtain the due effect. The instruments playing Taoist music are mainly "magic instruments" and "musical instruments" are supplemented. Most of the crisp and ethereal sounds in Taoist music come from cymbals, bells, chimes and other magic instruments. In the view of Taoism, these magic instruments have their special functions and significance. The Taiping Sutra first recorded the Taoist music theory system, and its volumes 115 to 116 said: "However, if you move first, it is Yin and Yang. If you move, there is sound. Therefore, if you move happily, it is easy to be consistent with sound. If you move Yang, there is sound, so there is one palace, three micro, five feathers, seven Shang and nine horns, and 2468 is not known as sound. If you punish Taiyin, you do it without sound, so you rarely harm people with Yin. If you do it without sound, it is also called" in addition: "Moving sound, all the spirits of all things come to the Dynasty first, but then move to occupy their body. However, if they are more than spring, they move first, the big horn string moves the armor, the armor will move the year star on the armor day, and the heart star will move the Dongyue. Qi will shake the Shaoyang, sound will shake the wooden line, God will shake the hook awn, birds will move the black dragon, position will lead the green emperor, and God will send the jade girl in green clothes. When they go up to the cave, they will come to the dynasty with a kind of music and sound." From the description of these theoretical systems of Taoist music, regardless of its musical form or musical connotation, Taoist music is derived from "Tao", which forms an infinite broad sound, mysterious and holy. The scale of Taoist music is crisp and elegant, the melody is tortuous, the audio is gentle, the rhythm is free, and the music is harmonious and ethereal, forming a fairy music different from the common. Taoist sentiment is the soul of Taoist music. The highest level of Taoist cultivation is emptiness and stillness. It is described in volumes 137 to 153 of the Taiping Sutra: "The sound of the husband is not empty, so that the truth can be achieved by the emptiness, and the invisible body can summon the law of the visible body. The music of the husband can summon things by the sound. If a person speaks out, there are good and evil, the good will bring good luck, and the evil will bring evil. The sound of the music can correct the language of Yin, Yang and five elements of heaven and earth. Listen to its sound, you can know the situation of heaven and earth, and the Qi of the four seasons and five elements and whether or not you know it." This is the way that Taoist music follows the natural way of heaven and earth, pursues the realm of everything clear and bright, and there is no wave outside the heart, which is consistent with the spiritual connotation pursued by Taoism. Emptiness, constant silence and inaction are the aesthetic standards of Taoist music. Therefore, the tone of chanting CI chapters during Taoist fasting Festival presents a high, far and empty state. The most representative of this style is the "sound of walking emptiness", which is said in scriptures "After Tai Chi is divided into high levels, it is light and belongs to heaven." "Bu Xu sound" is considered to be the singing sound of immortals wandering in the void. It is named because its rhyme is like the sound of immortals singing in the void. "Bu Xu" is "Fa Fu" The first Sutra rhyme sung at the beginning of Keyi program is the first chapter to lay the tone of the music. When singing this sutra, Dharma practitioners should adjust their physical and mental state and enter the realm of emptiness, so as to express this sutra rhyme. As Chuang Tzu said, "there are gods and people living in the mountain where people shoot at them. The skin is like ice and snow, and the skin is like a virgin. They don't eat grain, absorb wind and drink dew; ride the clouds, resist flying dragons, and travel beyond the four seas; their spirit condenses, so that things are free of defects and memory, and the valley is ripe. It's God!" although this describes the state of gods, it also tells the subtlety of Taoism and music. (outlook new era)
Edit：Yuanqi Tang Responsible editor：Xiao Yu
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