Cross-regional comparative study on sacrificial music of Chinese popular belief systems

Rites using music or dance as part of the behavior involving etiquette and custom have their roots in the antiquity of Chinese history and have assumed an important position in Chinese culture. This tradition is still preserved and practiced widely in many rural regions today.; While sacrificial ritual worshiping deities is a common ritual theme in Chinese popular belief systems, there are many different regional variants in terms of ritual practice and music styles. This study focuses on the relationship between social structures and ritual and musical styles. Through comparing patterns of social structure and ritual musical styles from different regions and ritual groups, this thesis aims to sort out typical patterns of sacrificial ritual music in Chinese popular belief systems.; In the first part of this dissertation, I proposed a theoretical and methodological framework in terms of the main factors of ritual structure such as cognition of belief, ritual behavior, and musical sound. Although this framework has its basis in theories from anthropology and ethnomusicology, new points will be offered in the discussion.; In the second part of my dissertation, I first describe fieldwork examples of ritual and music traditions from five geographical regions (including the June Fair of tribal communities in Tongren county, Qinghai of northwest China; the Gods Worship Ritual among clan communities of Chaozhou, Guangdong of southeast China; the Altar Sacrifice in villages of central Hebei in North China; the Peace Rite of a clan community in the New Territories of Hong Kong; and the Temple Fairs in Quanzhou and Yixian, south and north China). This is followed by the application of the earlier proposed theoretical framework, with analyses of the five patterns of sacrificial music, in terms of social structures, belief systems, ritual practices and musical styles.; While there is a large amount of research done by ethnomusicologists in the area of Chinese ritual music, cross-regional comparative studies are still few to be found. This study will hopefully be one of the first steps towards filling in this gap.