The Book Of Music

As an important part of early civilization, music has been saved by all kinds of ancient books and literatures. The Book of History, one of the Thirteen Classics, is China’s most ancient compilation of the pre-Qin literature. It mainly records the speeches and proclamations of the supreme rulers since Yao and Shun, to Xia, Shang and Zhou in the military, political and cultural activities, which also contains a certain amount of historical materials of music, so it is an important ancient literature to study China’s pre-Qin history. This thesis attempts to aid the “new history” research perspective and method, chooses the Book of History as the research object, and combs the music history information contained in the Book of History. By gathering the related records in ancient literatures, explanatory notes and contemporary research results, the thesis tries to interpret these music history materials and the historical issues reflected by these materials.By analyzing each specific music issue, the thesis considers that:As for the aspect of musicians, the musicians recorded in the Book of History, from Shun whose clan has musical tradition, Yuezheng Kui in the ruling of Shun, the law-officer Gao Yao in the ruling of Yao and Shun, minister Yi Yin of Shang Dynasty, to the senior minister Duke Zhou of Zhou Dynasty, are all leaders or important ministers who assist the ruler in governing a country of each dynasty, except for Kui, who is a Yuezheng. However, if the musicians are putted in the background of witchcraft culture, these tribal leaders or senior ministers are also wizards with the function of music. Overall, the identities of musicians reflect the ambiguity of the concept of “musician” in ancient times. Specifically, from the records of musicians in the Book of History, the musicians in ancient times show the characteristics of family hereditary, blind musician group, assimilation of the roles of wizards and musicians.In the aspect of songs, “Jiu Ge” contained in the Book of History, considered as “songs of nine morality” by ancient annotators, already has a strong sense of Confucian. Compared with the Jiu Ge with ritual nature traced to the period of Xia Qi, it has different properties. “Jiu Ge” recorded in the Book of History should be the music for ritual with religious and political nature, which is evolved from the ancient Jiu Ge of Xia. The other two “Geng Ge” and “Wu Zi Zhi Ge” are both ancient songs with long history. From the law of development, rhyme, verse and other aspects of the entire poetry, these two ancient songs fit the development context of original poetry, reflecting the development situation of ancient poetry.In the aspect of dance, Wan Dance is a ritual dance which produced during the ruling of Xia and Yu. The shape of “Wan” in Oracle is like a scorpion, and “Wan” is often closely related to rain, so Wan Dance is presumably used in ritual, praying for rain and other activities, and later it has developed into a dance with ritual, military, entertainment and other multiple functions. The record in “Dayu Mo” in the Book of History that Wan Dance makes Hmong surrender is an expression of the military function of Wan Dance. “Xiao Shao” should be derived from a totem dance with religious consciousness in the ancient period of Yao and Shun. From the records of “Yi Ji” in the Book of History, the dance “Xiao Shao” is used for ancestor worship activities, with theme images of birds and animals.In the aspect of musical instrument, this thesis selects three musical instruments of chime, Qin and panpipe, whose history can be traced back to three generations ago. Chime is a production tool originated from the Stone Age to meet the survival needs, then it gradually developed into musical, ritual and ceremonial instrument which can also meet the spiritual needs. The record in the Book of History that “hit rock and pat stone, dance with beasts” is an expression of chime’s function of accompanying and exaggerating atmosphere. The history of Qin perhaps can be pushed forward to the Huangdi period, and such stringed musical instruments continue to develop in the later ages, which has a relatively close relationship with Shun, one of the Five Emperors, and occupies a unique position. The origin of panpipe should be traced back to the late primitive society, later formed in the Xia and Shang Dynasties and mature in the Western Zhou Dynasty. In ancient times, panpipe is not only an instrument used for accompaniment and performances for music and dance, but also a symbol of power and identity, a vessel for ritual.Through the analysis and comparison of the cases of music history materials recorded in the Book of History, the thesis finds that the producing time of these songs, dance and instruments can be traced back to the time before Zhou Dynasty, reflecting the grand development of music in ancient times. In term of social development background, the development of music from Yao and Shun to Xia, Shang and Zhou has close contact with the totem worship, ancestor worship and witchcraft culture.