Taoist music (Macao Taoist Music)

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

Applicant: Macao Special Administrative Region

Item No.: 638

Project No.: Ⅱ - 139

Time of publication: 2011 (the third batch)

Category: Traditional Music

Region: Macao

Type: Extension Project

Applicant: Macao Special Administrative Region

Protection unit: Macao Taoist Association

Introduction to Taoist music (Macao Taoist music of scientific instruments)

Applicant: Macao Special Administrative Region

Macao Taoist music is a kind of religious music which combines the Taoist music of Zhengyi school in Macao and Quanzhen school in Guangdong. The total number of Taoist music is more than 500, which ranks the first in the number of Taoist music.

In addition to the two hundred years of Taoist music in the Zhengyi school Huoju Taoist temple, Taoist priest Wu Yusheng of Wu Qingyun Taoist temple spread to the Taoist temples in Macao and Hong Kong in the 1960s, expanding the spread of Taoist music in Macao.

Since the 1960s, with the economic transformation and urbanization of Macao, the traditional religious rituals have been simplified gradually, and the Taoist Rites are no longer prosperous. As a result, the number of orthodox Taoists has sharply decreased, and the traditional local style of Taoist music in Macao is facing the crisis of loss.

In order to preserve and save the precious cultural heritage of Macao, the Macao Taoist Association started a series of protection work immediately after its establishment in 2002: it set up a Taoist culture science and instrument seminar, set up a Macao Taoist Orchestra, formed a legal group of the Macao Taoist Association, held a Taoist music appreciation meeting, recorded the "Xuanmen morning and evening hall lesson Sutra" CD, and invited the original Wuhan dialect in 2006 Associate Professor Wang Zhongren, director of the Taoist Music Research Office of the Conservatory of music and music consultant and tutor of the Singapore Taoist Orchestra, visited Australia to record more than 500 scores of Taoist music. In addition, it has been compiled into "music of Taoist Rites in Macao" and will be published soon.