During the primitive hunting and sacrificial activities of the early people, the earliest Chinese folk songs were produced, and the music history of the five tones was also unveiled. After thousands of years of development and evolution, Chinese music has always opened its mind to the world, always inspired free and genuine shouts, absorbed, learned and integrated, and finally formed a colorful Chinese movement.
The Music of Bells and Drums (16th century BC - 221 BC)
This period of history lasted for about 1,300 years, spanning the Shang Dynasty, Western Zhou Dynasty, Spring and Autumn Period, Warring States Period, until the unification of Qin China. It can be divided into two periods, the early period is the Shang Dynasty, and the later period after the Western Zhou Dynasty. These two periods have both the most similarities, that is, "the music of bells and drums" is the main focus, and there are also obvious differences.
The highly developed music of the Shang Dynasty laid a good foundation for the Zhou Dynasty. Because the culture of the Zhou people was not as good as that of the Shang people, their culture and technology were all derived from the Shang people. After Zhou destroyed Shang, he enfeoffed Wei State in the central area of ??Shang instead of moving his political center to Shang. The music of Zhou Dynasty, that is, the local music of Qi Zhou (now Guanzhong area of ??Shaanxi Province), is its original music. Probably for the purpose of winning over people's hearts and alleviating clan conflicts, Zhou people often called themselves "Xia people". Later, because the two words "Xia" and "Ya" had the same pronunciation at that time, it was customary to call the so-called "Xia people" by Zhou people. It is written as "Ya" (this is at least helpful in distinguishing the two "Xia" that are hundreds of years apart). Therefore, "Yayan" is the language (sound) of the Zhou Dynasty; "Ya Shi" (the major and minor "Ya" in the "Book of Songs") is the poetry of the Zhou Dynasty; "Ya Yue" is actually the music of the Zhou Dynasty (Ya Yue). dance).
Singing and Dancing Songs (221 BC - AD 960)
This period of history lasts for nearly 1,200 years. It can also be divided into two periods. The former period includes Qin, Han, Three Kingdoms, The Jin Dynasty (221 BC - 420 AD), and the later periods were the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Sui Dynasty, Tang Dynasty and Five Dynasties (420 - 960 AD). The most common feature of the two periods is that song and dance songs are the main form of music. The difference between them is that in the former period, Han music was the main musical component, while in the latter period, it reached the pinnacle of song and dance music through unprecedented exchanges of Chinese and foreign music from all ethnic groups in history.
The founding of Qin was very short, only 14 years, but it was not of a transitional nature, but of a pioneering nature. The Han Dynasty only inherited Qin's system. In terms of music, the Han Dynasty inherited the Yuefu institution founded by the Qin Dynasty. There were two major organizations managing music in the Qin Dynasty. One is "Tai Le", which is subordinate to "Feng Chang". "Feng Chang" is responsible for the ceremony, so "Tai Le" is the ceremonial music of Guan. The other is the "Yuefu", which is subordinate to the "Shaofu". The function of the "Shaofu" is to collect items from all over the country for the emperor to spend, so the "Yuefu" is an institution that collects distinctive songs and dances from various places for the emperor's spiritual enjoyment.
During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (140 BC - 87 BC), Yuefu received special attention and developed greatly. It collected "Zhao, Dai, Qin, and Chu" (equivalent to today's Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Hebei , Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Anhui, Jiangsu), and invited the famous literati Sima Xiangru and dozens of other people to compose poems and lyrics, and Li Yannian composed the music. Li Yannian is from Zhongshan, a place rich in musical tradition. His parents and brothers are both musicians. Li Yannian was given the title of "Captain of Xielu" because his sister, who was good at dancing, was favored by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. This was a temporary grant that was not seen in permanent positions, but Li Yannian gave full play to his musical talents in this position. The so-called "associative rhythm" refers to the creation and performance of music. Li Yannian is good at composing music and adapting new songs. People call his music "new voice", "new voice music" and "new changed voice".
Since the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Yuefu has become larger and larger. At first, there were banquets and entertainments, but there were only 70 singers and singers singing, accompanied by a band, so the scale was not large. But later, there were more than 800 people under the Yuefu, so in 7 BC, the Yuefu had to be abolished. However, most of the people who were abolished were singing and performing talents from various places, and the remaining small number were allocated to the "Taiwan Tai" "Happiness" and engaged in elegant music activities instead. However, in the two hundred years, especially the one hundred years after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the influence of Yuefu was huge. Although there was no name of Yuefu in later generations, they basically had corresponding establishments, and later generations recorded songs similar to those collected by Yuefu. The song style is also called "Yuefu".
The most famous song form collected by Yuefu is called "Xianghe Song". "Xianghege" is originally a folk unaccompanied "disciple song". It is often sung by one person, and several people are harmonious. On this basis, silk and bamboo musical instruments are added to the accompaniment, that is, "silk and bamboo are in harmony (alternatingly)", which is called For "Xianghe Song". The accompaniment instruments of silk and bamboo include qin, harp, zither, pipa, flute, sheng, and harp, while the singers beat drums to unify the rhythm. The structure of Xianghe songs is quite diverse. It can be one song to the end without being divided into paragraphs, or it can be divided into two or more paragraphs, and each paragraph is called a "solution". Those with a relatively large structure were later also called "Daqu". "Daqu" sometimes had a "Yan" section in front of it, which was equivalent to the introduction, and a "Trend" or "Chaos" section in the end, which was the end. This kind of structural form can already express more complex content or emotions. Xianghege has made it clear that there are several different pitches, and it is recorded which piece of music belongs to which key. Although we know from musical instruments and literature records before the Qin Dynasty, there has long been a phenomenon of different pitches, but there was no key at that time. name. Establishing the name of the tune is unique to Xianghe songs. The five basic tunes of Xianghe songs are called Ping tune, Qing tune, Se tune, Chu tune and Side tune.
Among them, the first three tunes were exclusively used for Qing and Shang music after the Jin Dynasty, and are also called "Three Qing and Shang tunes".
The formation of new music varieties and the overall development of vocal instrument music (960 AD - 1911 AD)
This period of history includes the Song (Liao, Jin), Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, among which The characteristic is that not only the previously dominant song and dance music continued to develop, but also many new music varieties were produced, which enabled the comprehensive development of vocal and instrumental music and became the foundation of modern Chinese music.
As mentioned before, Chinese music had been locked in high-level mansions before the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Although ordinary civilians were the creators of music and the providers of new music varieties, they were not cannot ultimately enjoy them. This phenomenon finally changed in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. At that time, temple fairs in Buddhist temples and the like became incidental music activities for the common people, and poetry performances were also performed in restaurants from time to time. After the Song Dynasty, further fundamental changes occurred. Due to the development of industry and commerce, the city prospered, and the common people represented by citizens had their own entertainment venues. At that time, they were called "Wa City" and "Goulan". "Wa City" and "Goulan" were in the city, which not only engaged in trade, but also Perform civilian art performances. If the music before the Song Dynasty was almost all represented by palace performances, then the music after the Song Dynasty would be represented by these "tile markets", "goulan", and later "theaters", "teahouses", etc. Performances are representative; for history, court music has become insignificant. Therefore, the history of Chinese music before the Song Dynasty was almost a history of court music, while after the Song Dynasty it was actually a history of music for citizens (or common people).