Music is an indispensable language for human beings, and it is also the sublimation of human soul. From primitive people's constant resistance to the threat of nature and long hard work to the earliest music, to the colorful music system in the world today, it is a miracle of civilization.
in the long historical process of 5, years, the history of China's civilization has shown an extremely brilliant page. China is one of the earliest ancient civilizations in the world, and its music has a long history. As early as before the invention of writing, when our ancestors evolved from apes to humans, in order to make individual life exist and race continue, in the two most basic production activities that human beings must engage in: labor and reproduction, along with the use of tools and the production of language, music was born. In fact, walking on one's left and right feet, and the beating of the heart and pulse are the simplest rhythms. As long as the monotonous language of primitive people has high and low intonation changes, it also contains melody factors. In the Spring and Autumn Period, the wave of a hundred schools of thought contended in China collided with brilliant sparks, while Europe was in a wild state at the same time. When China music greeted the dawn, European music was still wandering in the long night.
during the Zhou dynasty, the government department set up a music institution headed by "da si le". The teaching courses mainly include music morality, music language and music and dance. The so-called virtue is the ethical concept of "neutralization, mediocrity and filial piety"; Music language is the ethical code of conduct such as "promoting Tao, satirizing and speaking"; Music and dance include music theories such as big dance and small dance, the chanting of music poems, dance and the performance of six generations of music and dance.
Six generations of music and dance are said to be six epic music and dances handed down from ancient times, including Yunmen Dajuan in the Yellow Emperor, Xianchi in the Yao Dynasty, Dashao in the Shun Dynasty, Daxia in the Yu Dynasty, Dayong in the Shang Tang Dynasty, and Dawu, which narrates the whole process of Zhou Wuwang's war activities. In the Zhou Dynasty, they were used in the court to offer sacrifices to heaven and earth, mountains and rivers, ancestors and other important ceremonial activities. Among them, Dawu and Dayun, which are regarded as the theme of praising morality, are often performed in ceremonies such as the sacrifice of the emperor, the study of etiquette, and the pension. Like "feather dance", "imperial dance" and "Jing dance", they are small entertainment dances in the court.
In addition to music and dance, there were other grand ceremonies and songs in the court of the Zhou Dynasty, such as ode and elegance, which were used for the emperor's ancestor worship, shooting, learning and meeting the two kings. And the music in the room sung by the empresses in the inner palace, without bells and chins, only accompanied by harps and harps. This shows that music has been differentiated from the original music and dance. In the court of the Zhou Dynasty, there were also performances of four foreigners' music in Qin, Chu, Wu, Yue and other places, which showed that there was a certain exchange of folk songs and dances among all ethnic groups at that time.
From the above literature, we can know that the music culture of Zhou and Qin Dynasties is an important coordinate for the high development of China music. This series of achievements also lay a theoretical foundation for the study of ancient Chinese music.
The Qin Dynasty, which unified China in 221 BC, was a centralized country. In order to meet the needs of political unification and cultural management integration, Yuefu, an official office dedicated to managing music, was set up. The Western Han regime established by Liu Bang also expanded the organization and functions of Yuefu. At that time, the government attached great importance to folk and folk music, and made Yuefu collect "the legacy of Zhao, Dai, Qin and Chu" and absorb the music of remote ethnic groups such as the Western Regions and Beidi. On the basis of extensive collection of folk songs from all over the country, Li Yannian, a musician, was chosen as the assistant commander, and dozens of people, including Sima Xiangru, were selected to arrange, process and write lyrics for the palace sacrifices and feasts. According to Hanshu? According to the Records of Arts and Literature, there were 134 folk songs collected at that time, and there were 75 pieces of "Zhou Folk Songs and Poems with Twists and Twists" and 75 pieces of "Henan Zhou Folk Songs and Poems with Twists and Twists" which may be accompanied by music scores.
during the Han and Wei dynasties, the court introduced many folk songs and dances and hundreds of operas. Among them, Emperor Gaozu ordered musicians to work? Ba Yu Dance, which is known as "fierce and sharp"; At first, the story of "Xiangzhuang Dance Sword" at the Hongmen Banquet was performed, and Xiang Bo protected the Emperor Gaozu with his sleeves. Later, it evolved into a "towel dance" symbolizing Xiang Bo's sleeves with a towel. Women wear white? Cloth dance clothes dance with long sleeves "white?" Dance "; And holding it? Drum, singing and dancing? Dance "; Dancers dance on and beside the drum, and so on. Baiju is a general term for all kinds of juggling skills, including "Dragon Dance" and various acrobatic magic.
During the Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, wars were frequent and dynasties changed. With the social turmoil and ethnic migration, the music culture of foreigners and outlands had extensive exchanges with the music culture of the Central Plains, which became an important period in the history of music. Among them, Qing Shang music is the remnant of traditional music in Qin and Han dynasties. The Qing Shang department was established in Cao Wei regime, which is actually a variant of Yuefu. After the Jin Dynasty's eastward journey, these "old songs of the Central Plains" interacted with southern music, making Qing Shang music a general term including harmony songs and advocacy songs handed down from the previous dynasty, as well as the western sounds of Wu Ge and Jingchu in the south of the Yangtze River, which was the representative of southern Yuefu folk songs at that time. The lyrics of the northern folk songs are mostly preserved in Yuefu poetry anthology "Across the Drum and Beam", which has a much wider theme than the southern folk songs, and most of them reflect the war and people's suffering, and are written for the northern Wu, Xianbei and Han people. Mulan Ci is the most outstanding work in northern folk songs, which enthusiastically sang the heroine Hua Mulan who joined the army instead of her father. In the Northern Wei Dynasty, the rulers of Xianbei people often ordered maids in the palace to sing "songs by real people", also known as "northern songs". "The reason why the above-mentioned ancestors opened the tomb, and the traces of the ministers' ruin, every 15 chapters, the songs of the morning and dusk" ("Wei Shu? Lezhi "). This kind of folk song, similar to national epic, is accompanied by silk and bamboo, but also with flute and drum, which is a kind of drumming music. Liang Chen was popular in the south and called it "Daibei".
During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the reunification of the north and the south, social stability and economic prosperity created favorable conditions for the development of music art. The rulers of the Tang Dynasty were less conservative in culture, and absorbed foreign music culture extensively, which made music reach a peak of development. In this historical period, among the famous songs in which poetry was sung, the integration of literature and music became a feature of the development of Chinese classical music. Li Bai's Guan Shanyue, Du Fu's Qingming Festival, Liu Yuxi's Zhuzhi Song, Wang Zhihuan's Liangzhou Ci, Wang Wei's Yangguan Song, Long Tou Yin, Liu Zongyuan's Fisherman, etc. Some of them have been circulated among the people for a long time as folk songs, while others have been absorbed by the Qin family and preserved in the form of Qin songs. Among them, the seven-character quatrain "Yangguanqu" written by Wang Wei to send a friend who went to the west to serve in Yangguan became a song that people often sang at that time and in the future because it expressed the sadness of saying goodbye by blending scenes.
in the song dynasty, the urban economy gradually prospered, and the citizen class expanded day by day. The focus of social music activities moves from the palace to the secular. There have been "Goulan" and "Youpeng" venues for citizens' music activities in the Northern Song Dynasty. Music such as tonal music, rap music and traditional Chinese opera, which are suitable for citizens and literati, have developed rapidly.
The Song Dynasty is also an important historical stage of the blending of Chinese music and literature. Song Dynasty is the golden age of ci-style song creation, with more than 8 commonly used ci tunes, some of which come from traditional and contemporary popular folk songs and ditties, such as "Recalling Jiangnan" and "Liu Qingniang". The other part comes from some passages of Tang Dynasty song and dance songs, such as Yangguan Yin, Pour Cup Preface, Water Tune the Song Head, Slow Voice, Teasing Order, etc. As well as ethnic minorities and foreign music, such as "Bodhisattva Man" and "Su Muzhe". There are not only a large number of lyrics and songs created by literati in the Song Dynasty, but also they can be roughly divided into two categories: graceful and unrestrained. Graceful and restrained school's ci content mostly expresses the feelings of lovesickness between men and women. Its style is delicate and gentle, and it pays attention to the coordination of melody and melody, represented by poets Liu Yong and Zhou Bangyan, who are closely related to music. The bold and unconstrained ci and qu opened up the expressive content of ci, broke the strict rhythm bondage, and its style was vigorous and rough. It originated from Su Shi in the Northern Song Dynasty, followed by a group of patriotic ci writers in the Southern Song Dynasty, such as Xin Qiji, Chen Liang, Zhang Shouxiang and Yue Fei. Yu Zhibao, a Song Dynasty poet, made an image comparison between the two schools of ci: "Liu Langzhong (Liu Yong) is composed of only 178 girls, holding a red tooth plate, and singing' Yang Liuan, Xiao Feng and the waning moon'; The word "Bachelor" (Su Shi) must be a big man in Kansai, singing "river of no return" with a brass lute and an iron rake. "
In the Song Dynasty, some poets who knew music often wrote new tunes by themselves, which was called "self-tune". Jiang Kui of Southern Song Dynasty is the most representative author of Zidu Qu. He composed fourteen self-directed songs, such as Yangzhou Slow and Xinghua Tianying, which were recorded in Songs of Baishi Taoist, and were annotated with "Vulgar Character Spectrum" (Gugong Ruler Spectrum), which was a precious legacy of Ci tune music in Song Dynasty. Jiang Kui's self-tune music is integrated, with euphemistic, lyrical, fresh and elegant style. Exquisite and delicate in the handling of techniques such as rotation, structure, mode and modulation; His works mostly use seven tones, and the fourth and seventh tones occupy an important position, and often quote rising Shang, Zheng or Gong. So that the tune is endowed with a unique and far-reaching rhyme.
during the Ming and Qing dynasties, with the outstanding development of industry and commodity economy, citizen music gradually became the main component of music art. Self-entertaining folk songs, folk song and dance music, and commercial rap and opera music all achieved unprecedented artistic achievements in this period.
Zhuo Keyue in Ming Dynasty compared the folk song ditty at that time with Tang poetry, Song ci and Yuan qu, calling it "a unique skill for me" (Cold Night Record by Chen Hongzhu). It is precisely because the literati have improved their understanding of folk literature and art that the atmosphere of collecting folk songs has gradually formed. For example, Feng Menglong in the Ming Dynasty compiled and published two collections of folk songs, Guizhi Er and Folk Songs, and collected more than 8 lyrics. In the Qing Dynasty, more than 1, kinds of folk songs were published successively, among which "Guangdong Style" collected by Li Diaoyuan also included folk songs of southern minorities.
The folk songs and dances in the Ming and Qing Dynasties are also very rich. The folk songs and dances of the Han nationality are yangko, flower drum, tea picking, lantern playing, boating, bamboo and horse lanterns and so on. Among the folk songs and dances of ethnic minorities, there is Muqam of Uygur nationality; Tibetan pot village and nangma; Miao people's jumping on the moon; There are many kinds of Dong people's playing with mountains.
In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the development of Beijing Opera Quyi also presented a brilliant historical stage.
After the mid-Ming Dynasty, it was Yi and Kun operas that competed for the legendary drama for a long time. Yiyang cavity, which originated in Yiyang, Jiangxi, is high-pitched and tall, and is called Gao Qiang. It is accompanied by gongs and drums without orchestral strings, and adopts the common folk form of help, which has played a unique dramatic effect in describing and rendering the atmosphere of the stage environment and helping to portray the inner activities of the characters, and has been enduring for its popular and easy-to-understand lyrics and free and flexible singing. Kunshan cavity originated in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, and was not widely spread before Jiajing of Ming Dynasty. Later, it was improved by Wei Liangfu and Zhang Yetang. On the basis of the original Kunshan cavity, it widely absorbed the advantages of various cavities of Northern Opera and Southern Opera, and formed a new cavity of "exquisite water grinding, one word turning, clear and soft, mellow and smooth". The new Kunshan cavity is delicate and slow in singing, and its voice is silky; In rhythm, the use of "giving the board" makes the tune of one board and three eyes slow down by one time, which has the characteristics of "slow voice"; Melody creation requires "speaking according to the word" and pays attention to the harmony between melody and tone; In the aspect of accompaniment, a band with flute-based sheng, xiao, pipa, sanxian, yueqin, drum board and other musical instruments has been formed. After the reform, Kunshan dialect has become a national drama of "Quartet songs must belong to Wumen", and many famous works have emerged, such as Peony Pavilion by Tang Xianzu, Palace of Immortality by Hong Sheng in Qing Dynasty, Peach Blossom Fan by Kong Shangren and so on. Xu Dachun's Yuefu Biography in Qing Dynasty summarized the achievements of Kunqu opera singing, which was an important work on opera vocal music at that time. After the early Qing Dynasty, Kunshan dialect gradually declined from prosperity to decline because of its overly carved lyrics and elegant and indifferent music, and was gradually replaced by random play after Jiaqing.
Randomly playing has been widely popular in Qin area since the late Ming Dynasty, and its sound cavity is the earliest in Shaanxi and Gansu areas, so it is also called "Bangzi cavity" because it is struck with a bangzi. Bangzi music creation board cavity combination system; The tune is high and intense, with "joyful sound" and "bitter sound" expressing different emotions. It is simple and popular, especially good at portraying characters and expressing dramatic conflicts. Moreover, it quoted an accompaniment band composed mainly of Erxian and Huhula stringed instruments, and percussion instruments such as bangdi, yueqin and gongs and drums. Most of the plays were historical stories, so they quickly spread. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, Bangzi operas with roughly the same singing system had been produced in various places, such as Shanxi Bangzi (now Shanxi Opera), Henan Bangzi (now Henan Opera), Hebei Bangzi, Shandong Bangzi, Sichuan Bangzi (that is, Tanxi Opera) and Shaoxing Taipan (or Luantan Opera).
Pi Huangqiang was another important vocal cavity of random play. Pi Huangqiang includes two accents: Xipi and Erhuang. The former originated in Hubei, which is the product of the combination of Shaanxi opera and local Chinese tune, and its tone is intense and desolate; The latter originated in Anhui, and developed from the local blowing cavity, with a euphemistic and warm tone. In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, after the four Hui classes went to Beijing, they cooperated with the artists of Han Opera from Hubei, widely absorbed the repertoires, tunes and performance methods of Kunqu Opera and Qin Opera, and accommodated folk tunes, and created a new opera-Pi Huangqiang with Xipi and Erhuang as the mainstay, which initially established the pattern of Beijing Opera. Peking Opera plays are mainly about historical themes, and later, new plays with anti-feudalism, democratic and patriotic tendencies, closer to people's life and suitable for the requirements of the times, such as "Fishing to Kill the Family" and "Li Lingbei", have been compiled one after another. The melody of Pihuang music is high-pitched and simple, which not only further develops and perfects the stereotyped structure, but also solves the problem of male and female separation, so that each profession can play a better dramatic role in singing; At the same time, a relatively complete system has been formed in accompaniment, including a "literary field" composed of Hu string pipes, a "martial field" composed of drums, gongs and cymbals, and a "scene" in which the two are combined to complement each other, closely cooperating with the actors' singing and playing. Because of this, Peking Opera has become the largest drama in China by the end of Qing Dynasty. Pi Huangqiang is also juxtaposed with Bangzi Opera, Gaoqiang Opera and Kunqiang Opera, and has become the representative vocal cavity of the emerging modern Chinese opera music.
Peking Opera, which had entered its heyday during Guangxu period, faced the crisis of being seized and monopolized by feudal rulers in the late Qing Dynasty, and gradually divorced from people and real life. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, the innovative Shanghai-style Peking Opera rose in Shanghai. Wang Xiaonong, its earliest representative, was dissatisfied with the Qing government's fatuity, corruption, humiliation and flattery. He wrote and performed new plays such as Dangren Monument, Crying at the Ancestral Temple, and Scolding Yamaraja, in order to attack current politics, publicize patriotism, and express his deep concern for the country and the people. According to his own voice, he absorbed the strengths of Wang Guifen and Sun Juxian, and created a new vigorous, tragic and powerful expression. After the Revolution of 1911, he also presided over the Second Drama Reform Society and launched the drama reform movement. Inspired by the drama reform movement and the "civilized drama", Shanghai's Xia Yueshan, Xia Yue Run and Pan Yueqiao also edited and performed new dramas of patriotism, anti-imperialism and advocating revolution, such as "Pan Martyr Throwing into the Sea" and "Black Slave Calling Heaven", which further shaped Shanghai-style Peking Opera. The opera reform activities in the early years of the Republic of China promoted the connection between opera art and social reality and people's life. Many new plays have exposed the darkness of society to varying degrees, showing the people's desire to get rid of feudal shackles; Some beneficial innovations have been made in singing, performance, stage equipment and clothing. Zhou Xinfang, who followed, carried forward the spirit of "Shanghai Peking Opera" and was determined to reform, and edited and performed Song Jiaoren and other new fashion plays around the May 4th Movement.
Before and after the May 4th Movement, Mei Lanfang and others made outstanding achievements in innovation and reform of Peking Opera. Mei Lanfang, together with Wang Yaoqing and others, combined the strengths of Tsing Yi, Hua Dan and peking opera blues, sang, performed, read and played together, and created a "flower shirt" business, which made the art of Beijing opera perfect.