The Ritual And Musical Functions And Literary Significance Of Qin And Se In The Pre-Qin And Han Dynasties

In the pre-Qin period,there is an inseparable relationship between the rites and music culture and the instrumental music culture.In a sense,instrumental music is one of the important carriers of the rites and music culture.In fact the evolution and development of the two are related to the political background and social thought at that time,even affect the form of early literature.Although various works have done a lot of textual research on the culture and instruments,but they are still in a relatively vague stage,lacking of special research and collation works.Especially about the specific situation of ritual,music and literature on Qin and Se.Based on the above situation,this paper limits the discussion of Qin and Se to the Pre-Qin and Han Dynasties,mainly to solve the following problems:Chapter One:Research on the origins of Qin and Se.Qin and Se have a lot of similarities such as font,instrument structure,and written records,maybe they are homologous,but Se should be older than Qin.Although the legend about Qin and Se has some archival materials,but the sources and records of the materials are very uncertain,so it’s difficult to draw a more accurate and credible conclusion.In addition,because the instruments are made of silk and wood,they are extremely difficult to preserve,which also aggravates the difficulties in the study of bamboo and wood instruments in the pre-Qin period.There is a mixed use of Qin and Se in the literature,but according to the unearthed relics,Qin and Se were already two different instruments in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.Tracing back to the Western Zhou Dynasty,Qin and Se were already different from each other,which is not difficult to prove.Therefore,it can be inferred that Qin and Se are not the same objects either in ancient books or in archaeological discoveriesChapter Two:Qin and Se in the Important Documents of Pre-Qin Dynasty.Represented by Yi Li,The Book of Songs,The Analects,The Book of Rites,and The Zuo Commentary,Qin and Se appear in different documents with different frequencies.Generally speaking,the above documents can be divided into two categories based on whether the Qin or Se play a solo.This may be related to the spreading regions.For example,the cultural relics unearthed in Chu are mainly Se But it may also be related to the time of literature.For example,after the late Warring States period,Qin became the main body of string music.Among the pre-Qin literature,the records of Se are mainly kept in Yi Li,The Book of Songs and The Analects.In these three books,the two instruments of Qin and Se are mainly mentioned.Se can either play a solo or in concert with Qin,but there is no record of Qin solo.However,in The Book of Rites and The Zuo Commentary,Qin is the main musical instrument.In these two books,Qin can be played solo or in combination with Se,but there is no record of Se solo.In other pre-Qin historical materials,there are some articles called " Qin and Se",and there are also some articles only called"Se" or "Qin".These books have many flaws,such as the items were scattered,the words were not accurate enough,and the books borrowed from each other.Therefore,only a brief description is given.Chapter Three:The ritual and musical functions of Qin and Se.As the main functional musical instruments in the society of rites and music,Qin and Se not only play the role of rites and music performance,but also carry the cultural significance of"music education".This "music education" covers a very wide range of cultures,not only in the study of instrumental music by The Book of Songs,but also in various aspects such as behavior,self-cultivation,politics and so on.Confucianism’s inheritance and development of traditional rites and music may have influenced the cultural status of Qin and Se to a certain extent.For the literati,it’s not only necessary to listen to the string music and think about it,but also need to carry Qin and se to represent morality constantly.Chapter Four:The literary significance of Qin and Se.The creation of Qin and Se is highly related to the legends of sages such as Shen Nong,Fu Xi and Shun.Although the records are rather vague,later generations continue to quote and explain them.These legends have formed literary allusions to a certain extent.The image of Qin and Se gradually developed and was often cited in later generations of literature.Therefore,this chapter takes The Book of Songs as a clue,and discusses the specific literary meaning of the ancient books such as Chu Ci,The Book of Rites and Qin Cao.Chapter Five:The evolution of the status of Qin and Se.Since the Han Dynasty,Qin has gradually become the representative of refined music,and once took hold,which directly affected the development of Qin study and literature.At that time,the position of Qin servant even appeared among music officials.Unfortunately,Se disappeared in the history little by little,which was closely related to the development of politics,economy and culture.Refined music and common music,meanwhile,went their separate ways.In addition,the rise of other stringed instruments such as Zheng and Konghou also impacted the status of SeThis paper starts from the historical background of the pre-Qin Dynasty,and puts the two Musical Instruments,Qin and Se,into the historical context,involving all aspects of music,culture and literature.Therefore,the study of Qin and Se in the Pre-Qin and Han Dynasties can not only restore the ritual and music environment at that time,but also be helpful to the content of music,culture,literature and other aspects.