Maiji Mountain Musicians Image Research

Wei, Jin, Northern and Southern Dynasties is an era of great turmoil in Chinese history, which is also an important period of Chinese music culture continuity. In its nearly400years of split situation, along with the change of regime and ethnic migration, the North and South of all ethnic groups continually merged based on the advanced economy and culture in the populous Han nationality, which would inevitably lead to the further music and cultural exchanges and integration among various ethnic groups.The Buddhist rulers carved a large number of Leji sculpture images on the Maijishan Grottoes, one of China’s four grottoes. This paper regards the Leji sculpture images on the Maijishan Grottoes as the research object, in order to reveal the basic situation of Western music in the context of great national integration towards East, the historical roots, deep politics and cultural background of the Leji sculpture images were collected,traced back to and investigated according to different phases.The whole paper is divided into four parts besides the introduction text.Part Ⅰ:The Leji sculpture form of Maijishan GrottoesBased on the grotto digging stages, the Leji sculpture form was studied in different stages. While the research could be done in terms of the following two respects:First, in the context of Chinese and Western music and cultural exchanges of Wei, Jin, Northern and Southern Dynasties, according to the characteristics of the Buddhism imperial power, the Leji sculpture form on the grotto was analyzed and the classification and function of Buddhist scriptures were settled as well. Second, based on the Leji sculpture forms and classification recorded in the Buddhist scriptures, they could be divided into the specialized Kuregaku carving expressing the Buddha or common boundary and the decorative Kuregaku engraving embellishing the grotto. The author tried to combine the Leji sculpture form of Maijishan Grottoes with the special features of Buddhist music so as to explore the reasons for the formation and significance in the grotto.Part Ⅱ:the Maijishan127Leji sculpture images research The Leji sculpture images of the127th Maijishan grotto were divided into two parts to be studied. First, the author introduced a series of backlight Leji sculpture forms of the Buddha carvings. Then systematic discussion on the mural "Western Pure Land change" was done. The author focused on the sources and national property of various instruments and then analyzed the causes and significance of Western instruments and traditional Musical Instruments of central plains appearing simultaneously. In addition, the dance Kabuki of the murals should be paid particular attention, due to the age of the murals, we could not clearly identify what kind of music and dance form it belonged to, but they could reflect the music and dance differences of different historical backgrounds and ethnic regions. They exchanged and influenced each other, a metaphor for national unity, cultural integration and Young Buddhist thought.Part Ⅲ:the4th Maijishan grotto:Northern Zhou Dynasty mural artThe Northern Zhou statue is one of the most expressive part of Maiji Mountain statues. Of the officially numbered caves and niches, there are as many as44belonging to the Northern Zhou period, accounting for about one-fifth of the total caves. There are about1200Northern Zhou statues and more than100square meters of murals, while the perfection combination of sculpture and mural art called"meat thin plastic"is spectacular, which placed an irreplaceable role in the Chinese sculpture history. The"meat thin plastic"on the4th carve provided reliable basis for us to study the musical forms of Northern Zhou period. Through a detailed discussion of the Northern Zhou Dynasty music cultural patterns, the author tried to make a comprehensive, detailed and accurate demonstration of the4th carve flying murals under the cultural context at that time.Part Ⅳ:the cognition of the west music culture making the transition to the east of Wei, Jin, Northern and Southern DynastiesThe west music culture of Wei, Jin, Northern and Southern Dynasties was developed on the basis of Hu and Han culture shifting and interacting with each other. The culture not only inherited the profound traditional music culture of the Central Plains Han nationality but integrated the minority cultures from the east to the west together so that our ancient musical cultures marched towards a new upsurge that suited both refined and popular tastes and the development was comprehensive.The Spread of Western music towards the east, whether from the time, the scale and depth, exerted dramatic influenced on the Central Plains music culture, so that our traditional music can emerge with other minorities music, greatly enriched the Chinese music meaning of culture. As a result, the role was pivotal from the perspective of the development of the music itself. Another perspective was the attitude towards Western music. When the west region music first came, the Chinese music generously accepted those interracial exotic cultures, and at that time even the influential Qingshang music set aside their stage show. It was just the generosity that accelerated the introduction of the music of the Western Regions. The lasting, large-sized and deep input of the west region music and dance of Wei, Jin, Northern and Southern Dynasties could be embodied in different aspects such as music and dance, music, song and musical instruments. While the scale was unique compared to the previous culture exchanges.