Taoist music (Chengdu Taoist Music)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Taoist music (Chengdu Taoist Music)

Applicant: Chengdu City, Sichuan Province

Item No.: 638

Project No.: Ⅱ - 139

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: Traditional Music

Region: Sichuan Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Chengdu City, Sichuan Province

Protection unit: Chengdu Taoist Association

Introduction to Taoist music (Chengdu Taoist Music)

Applicant: Chengdu City, Sichuan Province

Taoist music, also known as "Daochang music", is the music used in Taoist religious activities. Like Taoism, it originated from the sacrificial songs and dances of ancient witches. Taoist music consists of two parts: instrumental music and vocal music. Instrumental music is mainly composed of bell, chime, drum, wooden fish, cloud Gong and other instruments, with wind, plucking, string pulling and other instruments. Vocal music is mainly composed of chanting, which is composed of Gaogong master's recitation of vows, praise of God, chanting of the table, the confession of all preachers and the chorus of all Taoists.

Taoist music in Chengdu is a unique musical form that combines the essence of North and South ancient music. It is based on the ancient Shu religious sacrificial music and dance, and experienced the repeated refinement of the musicians. After more than 1800 years of development, Chengdu Taoist music not only spread widely in Chengdu and its surrounding area of more than 200 square kilometers, but also spread throughout the country, affecting Southeast Asia, Japan and the United States.

Chengdu Taoist music retains a lot of forms of ancient Shu sacrificial music and Bashu folk music, and absorbs the royal music rhythm. Whether it's chanting, playing Qupai, or performers' clothing and ritual walking around, it has rich cultural connotation. Even if it's praise, ode and verse of the same theme, the tune and melody decoration are also different. It is not only used in the morning and evening homework of Taoism and the activities of fasting, but also used in the folk wedding and funeral ceremonies, so it is very popular among the people in the area. There are three main schools of Taoist music in Chengdu: Jingtan school, shantan school and Xingtan school. Among them, Jingtan school and shantan school belong to the same system, and the mainstream belongs to Quanzhen School of Taoism. The instrumental music is mainly fine music, the vocal music adopts Quanzhen rhyme, and the sentence ends are mostly syllabic, full of momentum. The representative repertoire includes yinxiaozan and shuishuichuan. Xingtan school's Taoist music is another system, and the mainstream belongs to Zhengyi tianshidao and folk Huoju Taoist music system, and the instrumental music is big music The vocal music mainly uses Guangcheng rhyme, which is rich in Sichuan local music characteristics. The representative repertoire includes Buxu, jiukuzan, etc. The music scores of Chengdu Taoist music are recorded by ruler score and Dang Yue score, which are handed down by oral and psychological teaching.

Chengdu Taoist music is an important part of the history of Chinese music and the development of Taoism, which has a high value of historical and cultural research. At present, the organization of Taoism in Chengdu is loose, musicians are scattered everywhere, and the repertoire is lack of arrangement, so it is urgent to take effective measures to protect and inherit it.