Chapter 14 Section III Xianghe Song, Qing Shang Music and Daqu

The most influential Han Yuefu music is "Xianghe Ge", which has been handed down to later generations.According to the "Book of Jin·Le Zhi": ""Xianghe" is also an old song of the Han Dynasty, and silk and bamboo are more harmonious, and a song for those who hold festivals." It is accompanied by silk and bamboo instruments, and a person holds a percussion instrument called "section" to beat the beat and sing. The Han Dynasty Xianghe song mentioned in the "Book of Jin" was originally "the words of the Han Dynasty Jiemo Ou Yaoyao" ("Yuefu·Ancient Title Explanation"), and its source is also folk songs.In the early days, it was unaccompanied singing, which was called "actual songs" in ancient books.Further development, it became the singing form of "one person singing, three people harmony" ("Book of Jin Lezhi"), which is called "Dange" in ancient books, "Dan" means "single", and "Dange" is also Singing without accompaniment.With further development, it will become the singing form with accompaniment of the aforementioned "silk and bamboo harmony".

The silk and bamboo instruments used to accompany the phase and songs are often used are pan flute, flute, sheng (or yu), qin, se, zither, pipa, konghou, zhu, jie, etc.Usually, two or three or three or four of them are used at a time. For example, a group of figurines of musical instruments unearthed from the Han Tomb No. The orchestra is accompanied by Xianghe songs of two silk and bamboo instruments. During the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, folk music that inherited the tradition of Xianghe songs and integrated folk music from all over the South was collectively referred to as "Qing Shang Music" in historical documents, or "Qing Shang" or "Qing Music" for short. "Wei Shu·Yue Zhi" records: "The old songs of the Central Plains... and the Wu songs in the south of the Yangtze River, Jing and Chu Xisheng are collectively called 'Qing Shang'." This shows that the main components of Qing Shang music include Xianghe songs ( That is, "Central Plains Old Songs"), Wu Ge and Xiqu (ie Xisheng).Wu Ge was originally a folk song in Jiankang (now Nanjing, Jiangsu); Xiqu was originally a folk song in Jing, Ying, Fan and Deng areas (now Hubei).After these two kinds of songs entered Qingshang music, they developed into art songs with accompaniment combined with silk and bamboo.Qingshang music has natural, smooth, fresh and subtle musical characteristics. For example, the lyrics of "Hundreds of ballads, the most pitiful; generously voicing voiceless sounds, and turning to nature" in the "Dazi Yege" belonging to Qingshang music, are succinctly Summarizes its artistic style.

The highest development form of Xianghe songs and Qingshang music is the large-scale song and dance "Xianghe Daqu" and "Qingshang Daqu" that integrate singing, dancing and instrumental music.The structure of Daqu is generally more complicated. In addition to the main structure "main song", it also includes parts called "yan", "trend" and "luan". "Yan" mainly plays the role of prelude and introduction, most of which are before the main song, and the music is lyrical; It is a vocal piece, generally composed of several "solutions", "solutions" are equivalent to paragraphs, and one solution is a paragraph, the music is lyrical and beautiful, and the paragraphs are rich in contrast.There are also the titles of "harmony" and "song" in Qingshang Daqu, which have similar artistic functions to "yan" and "chaos".

Shang music from the Han, Wei, and Qing Dynasties developed to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and became an important part of "Yan Yue".Because it is considered to have maintained the "authentic" music tradition of the Central Plains since the Qin and Han Dynasties, it is known as the "China Zhengsheng".