YUELUN: the CONFUCIAN FOUNDATION the Warring
CHAPTER TWO YUELUN: THE CONFUCIAN FOUNDATION Music harmonizes the people’s voices (Yueji, c1st century b.c.) The Warring States period of the late Zhou dynasty (5th–3rd centuries b.c.) was marked by great civil unrest. During this pre-unifi cation period, many small kingdoms battled for power and, ultimately, new concepts of governance emerged. The social theories attributed to Confucius (551–479 b.c.), which stressed the regulatory principles of proper behav- ior and use of music in promoting social harmony, provided this new sense of stability. These ideas were taken up by his followers and, over the next few centuries, became widely accepted throughout China. The Confucian foundation of Chinese music is the focus of this chapter, with some thoughts at the end on Daoist and other infl u- ences. In this and later chapters, I will demonstrate that elements of Confucian (and Daoist) ideology are still embraced by musicians in the conservative cultures of South China, most notably among the Chaozhou, Minnan and Hakka. Confucian Ideology The socio-political institution of Confucianism became well established during the Han dynasty (206 b.c.–220 a.d.), several centuries after Confucius (Kong Zi) had been active. Because of his fundamental infl u- ence on the educational and philosophical direction of Chinese culture, titles such as ‘grand master’ and ‘supreme teacher’ were conferred upon him posthumously by various imperial decrees. The collected writings of this teacher, real or ascribed, and of his disciples—especially the Liji and Lunyu—over time became a cornerstone of Chinese civilization. These, and other texts, are collectively known as ‘the Classics’.1 1 The “Five Classics”, collected in the 2nd century b.c., include the Shijing (“Classic of Songs”), Shujing (“Classic of Documents”), Yijing (“Classic of Changes”), Chunqiu (“Spring and Autumn Annals”), and Liji (“Record of Rituals”).
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