Ritual Soundscapes Of Xuanjuan In Wuxi A Revisit Of The Ritualization In Xuanjuan

Xuanjuan (its scripts known as treasure books), which is believed to be closely related to Sujiang in Tang dynasty by the experts in the field of literature, history, and social sciences, is originally a kind of ritual behavior that has certain ritual connotation. After the middle of period of Qing dynasty, Xuanjuan was very popular in the south of Yangtze river. Widely spread into some big cities such as Suzhou, Shanghai, Ningbo, etc., this performance, on the basis of the accompaniment of some Buddhish artifacts such as woodfish, bell and an inverted bell, began to be accompanied by stringed instruments such as, erhu, pipa and dulcime. Furthermore, it borrowed the scripts and arias from other local story-singings and operas. All these gradually reduced and changed its originally religious properties and had the performance developed into a kind of popular story-singing amusement. Therefore, Xuanjuan is usually classified into singing-narration by the experts in the academic circle. However, Xuanjuan, very popular in Wuxi now, has not departed from its originally ritual religion context. Still Xuanjuan in Wuxi is deeply rooted in the Nianfo ritual in Buddhism and becomes the fundamental part of this ritual. It goes in the same way as it used to be---other people chant with the lead of Buddha head, meanwhile accompanied only by Buddhish artifacts.The study is intended to gain an insight into the nature and significance of Xuanjuan by putting the ritual soundscapes in Xuanjuan behavior into its ritual religion context and by the investigation of its enactment in Wuxi. There are five main chapters in this dissertation. Chapter I summarizes the relationship between the treasure books (the scripts of Xuanjuan) and Sujiang of Tang dynasty from the aspects of the text genre, the ritual process and the habbits of singing-narration, etc.. Also, it vertically investigates the spread of Xuanjuan in the south of Yangtze river since Ming and Qing dynasty. Chapter II focuses on the historical periodization of Xuanjuan in Wuxi (a location of the hinterland) from modern to contemporary times, which has a religious background of Buddism, Taoism and the official ritual tradition since the middle of Qing dynasty. Chapter III and Chapter IV are the description, analysis and interpretation of Xuanjuan and its current soundscapes in the nianfo ritual. Chapter IV is a summary, which further explores the essence and significance of Xuanjuan in Wuxi from the perspective of insiders.As can be seen:the essence and significance of Xuanjuan in Wuxi lies in the ritual behaviors which are deeply rooted in the religious rituals; its soundscapes, which is closely related to the religiou system, also results from its related ritual behaviors which have the religious property and ritual significance; this is what Xuanjuan in Wuxi has inherited from the history.