The Primary Exploration On "Chu Music"

"Chu Music" plays a significant and profound role in the developmental history of Chinese music. With its unique style and abundant expressive force, it has been occupying a special position and catching widespread attention in Chinese musical history. As far as the definition of "Chu Music" in this thesis is concerned, briefly speaking, it refers to the music of Chu State from the 11th century B.C. to the year 221 B.C.As the vassal state with the longest history and largest area, the Chu State not only unified the south of China regionally and politically but also played an important role in the integration of multi-racial China at that time. In the ancient times, "Yue" or "Music" was a signifier with multiple and rich meanings. Besides its most representative musical denotation (song, dance and instrument), it also included the system of Yue, the theory of Yue and even the cultural spirit and connotation it embodied and represented. With this in mind, this thesis is meant to probe into a complete system with extensive and rich meanings, a comprehensive entity affected by both extrinsic forms of expression and intrinsic connotation as well as the status and influence of Chu Music. This system can be said to be a symbol of Yue culture formed in the historical development of Chu State.This thesis adopts the research methods like literature, survey, comparison, statistics, analysis and the foundational theories in musicology and history to make a comprehensive discussion of the development, form, connotation and influence of Chu Music. The author elaborates on its unique style with its original denotations like song, dance and instrument as the departing point. Then, the source of its stylistic charm and its profound influence in Chinese musical history are expounded on the basis of the relationship between Chu Music and social development as the point of penetration. By conducting a comprehensive analysis of Chu Music, it is intended to display the general situation of this particular historical and cultural heritage so as to get a better understanding of the importance of Chu Music in the Chinese musical culture and the process of transformation of musical culture in different historical periods more comprehensively.