A Study Of Confucian Music Theory In Pre-Qin Dynasty

As an important part of Chinese ideological history,the pre-Qin Confucian music theory has influenced the later Chinese culture for more than two thousand years,and is the essence of Chinese rites and music civilization.There are many monographs and articles on Pre-Qin Confucian music theory,but most of them are on one aspect such as music education,Confucius,Xunzi’s music theory,yueji and so on,and few studies on Pre-Qin Confucian music theory from a macro perspective.This paper focuses on the interpretation of the pre-Qin Confucian music theory from a macro perspective,and tries to grasp the Pre-Qin Confucian music theory more comprehensively and systematically on the basis of the previous research results.Based on this,the research ideas and structure of this paper are as follows.From the point of view of the document compilation of the pre-Qin Confucian music theory,the literature materials of the pre-Qin Confucian music theory mainly consist of unearthed documents and handed down documents.From the point of view of the number,the number of handed down documents is much more than that of unearthed documents,but in terms of the common points of the two documents,they are rather complex,few articles on "yue".From the perspective of time development,the development of Confucian music theory in the pre-Qin period can be divided into three stages.The first stage is the creation of Confucius,the second stage is the inheritance and development of Mencius,and the third stage is the canonization of Xunzi.The detailed elaboration of Confucian music theory in later works will be carried out based on this clue.Confucius was the originator of the Confucian music theory in the pre-Qin period.His theory originated from the prehistoric music,the music culture of Xia,Shang and Zhou Dynasties,and more from the music teaching culture of ritual and music made by the Duke of Zhou.The music education of the Western Zhou Dynasty laid a solid theoretical and practical foundation for the creation of the pre-Qin Confucian music theory.Moreover,the historical background of "the collapse of rites and the collapse of music" and the historical situation of "the flourishing of private schools" made Confucius’ music theory more widely spread.Confucius’ s music theory explained music and rites,music and education,music and politics,as well as the aesthetic review of music and so on,holding that "yue" has the function of education and politics.Based on this,Confucius also took music as the standard to judge music,and believed that perfect and neutral music is the best music.Mencius inherited and developed Confucius’ music theory.He affirmed the educational function of Confucius’ music and put forward the view of "benevolence sound good teaching".He believed that music conforming to "benevolence" is "yue".At the same time,he also had an innovative aspect of Confucius’ music theory,namely "sharing music with the people".Mencius used the good music of King Xuan of Qi to advise him to share music with the people in the state of peace,but his starting point was also "benevolence".Xunzi summarized the pre-Qin Confucian music theory on the basis of Confucius and Meng,and his article yuelun marked the canonization of the Pre-Qin Confucian music theory.Based on Xunzi’s human nature view of "Nature evil theory" and the philosophical understanding foundation of "heaven and man separate,clear division to make the group" view,he comprehensively criticizes Mozi’s feiyue from four aspects:the touching kindness of music,the cultivation of the gentleman’s personality,the knowledge of politics,and the music and the rites.In terms of the evaluation criteria of music,"perfection" and "neutralization" are the core concepts of traditional Confucian aesthetics.Xunzi also inherited the thoughts of the previous generation of Confucius,and followed through on the aesthetics of music theory of Confucius.Because of the integration of poetry,music and dance in the Spring and Autumn Period,poetry theory and music theory were often mixed together,and Confucian scholars in the Spring and Autumn Period were proficient in the "six arts",both literature and music,so the pre-Qin Confucian literature and music had a conscious and extensive integration in the creation of the subject,content and form.In this kind of integration,the pre-Qin Confucian music theory was closely related to the literary theory,which was consistent in the essence of "honesty",the function of education,the creation of polite and gentle,and the aesthetic harmony.At the same time,as music theory,it also has some influence on later music theory,ji Kang’s sheng wu ai le lun,Wang Yangming’s musical thought and Xu Qingshan’s xi shan qin kuang are all influenced by it.