Cultural Functions And Literary Acticities Of Musical Officers In Zhou Dynasty

Musical Officer is one of the most important elements in the officials of ZhouDynasty, and plays a significant role in laying a foundation for the ritual music cultureof pre-Qin period. This dissertation will focus on the cultural functions and literaryactivities of musical officers in Zhou Dynasty, and discuss the related issues to findthe forming, developing and deconstructive process of “civilization of rite and music”in Zhou Dynasty. They will be shown as follows: exploring the historical constructionand developing process of musical officer system to seek formation of the court musicin the Western Zhou Dynasty; investigating the staff composition and operatingmechanism of musical officer system to reveal the production basis of literaryactivities in Zhou Dynasty; studying the cultural functions of musical officers indetails to reflect the various aspects of the civilization of rite and music in ZhouDynasty; examining the daily duties of some particular musical officers to find thetime dimension of the music education and music administration in Zhou Dynasty;discussing the compilations of Book of Songs and Classic of Music to unfold thecooperative achievement of musical officers and other officers.The main body of this dissertation can be divided into seven chapters.Chapter one mainly discusses the musical officer system and the establishment ofcourt music system in the Western Zhou Dynasty. In the early years of the WesternZhou Dynasty, the country was united and reformed the music system. For one thing,the music system of the former dynasties provided the important resources for makingthe music system; for another, the musical officers in Yin dynasty betrayed and wentto Zhou to seek refuge, which not only brought in the advanced music culture system,but also established a blind-wizard-GuMeng-oriented musical officer system. Afterthe establishment of court music system in the Western Zhou Dynasty, the people ofZhou Dynasty carried out the system of gifting others by music, which made Zhouroyal court and vassal states all accessed to the standard of ruling by the civilizationof rite and music, but left behind some destabilizing factors which led into the futureritual collapse. Besides, this chapter also investigates Shao music which is regarded asthe canon of court music by Confucius, and studies its inheritance situation in thethree former dynasties to restore how the primitive musical dance were integrated intothe music system in Zhou Dynasty. Chapter two mainly studies the musical officer system of Rites of Zhou fromthree aspects: functional attributes, staff composition and administrative mechanism.In terms of the functional attributes, every musical officer has ritual attributes,teaching attributes, and professional attributes; In terms of the staff composition, themusical officers in Rites of Zhou are composed two classes: musical officer class andmusical executor class, and the two have much difference in roles, responsibilities,and courteous reception; In terms of the administrative mechanism, the managementof musical officers not only follows the method of supervising officers in Rites ofZhou, but also possesses its own particularity.Chapter three mainly discusses educational function of musical master system fornoble in Zhou Dynasty. This chapter studies music education system from threeperspectives: teaching of musical language, teaching of musical rite, and teaching ofmusical dance. With the teaching of musical language, the noblemen’s abilities ofcomposing, versifying and interpreting verses are fostered, so the noblemen’sadministrative, diplomatic and other means of discourse are all strengthened; With theteaching of musical rite, the noblemen’s impressive and dignified manners are built up,so they possess honorable spirits inside and outside and become the modal of thenationals; With the teaching of musical dance, the noblemen of Zhou acquire reservedmusical dance of the former six dynasties, and have the access to various ritualceremonies and to running the country.Chapter four mainly studies the professional cultural function of theblind-wizard-GuMeng-oriented musical officer system. Firstly, GuMeng possesses thefunction of collecting folk songs. The musical officer GuMeng, who has possessed theexcellent hearing and a good knowledge of everything since ancient times, is honoredas Saint, and then gradually become the musical worker with reduction of theirfunction of collecting folk songs; Secondly, GuMeng possesses the function of writinghistory. Cooperating with the historical officers, GuMeng plays an important role inemperor lineage and epic creation; Thirdly, GuMeng possesses the function ofpresenting music. As the professional musical worker, GuMeng additionally isresponsible for providing tune for the verse. Fu, Bi and Xing in “Six Skills of Poems”are not only the narrative form of poem, but also become three significant measuresfor Tai master’s providing tune for the verse.Chapter five mainly examines the daily duties of the musical officers from theperspective of time. As for music education, on the one hand the musical officers setthe different teaching contents for the noblemen with the changing of seasons, on the other hand the musical officers arrange teaching plan in terms of age or specificphysical quality; As for the music administration,“Yue Ling” in The Book of Ritesrecords the one-year schedule of musical officers, in which the preparing music andadopting music of ceremony process are recorded. Besides, the pre-Zhou officialposition Yue Officer was reserved in Zhou Dynasty. They are responsible for theadopting music of some festival activities, such as for changing seasons, praying for agood harvest, offering sacrifices and so on.Chapter six mainly studies the musical cultural functions of various officersexcept the musical officers, in which the focus is put on the discussion of diplomaticofficer system and national history system. The diplomatic officer system is not onlythe prime operator of collecting The Book of Songs, but also the executor of versifyingdiplomatic situation, and this system has the most significant impact on thecanonization turn from secularization. The national history system serves as thetrimmer and recorder of text The Book of Songs. The emergence of new finishingTsinghua Bamboo Slips “lyre music of Zhou Gong” provides the case in point fordescendants’ understanding textual forms of The Book of Songs before forminganthology.Chapter seven mainly studies the finishing of Classic of Music and its nature. Theformation of Classic of Music draws a conclusion for the court music system in Shangand Zhou Dynasties. And its musical pattern matches The Book of Songs. However,with the decline of Zhou royal court in East Zhou Dynasty, the playing of court musicgradually reduced. Till the end of Spring and Autumn Period, the playing of courtmusic was rarely seen. Confucius and his students all valued realistic significance andneglected playing techniques, and their idea urged the formation of Confucian musicaltheory, such as The Book of Music, and finally become the main pattern of discussingmusic for the descendents. After the loss of Classic of Music,“the music master” inRites of Zhou and “The Book of Music” in The Book of Rites become the onlyresources of Yue Wei. According to the reserved materials, the interpretation of YueWei to the above two works mainly focus on the pentatonic scale theory, eight soundstheory and ancient music theory, so some contents of the ancient Classic of Music canbe restored.