The Investigation And Study On Gongde Ritual Music Of Mian’an Philanthropic Hall In Chaoyang

Studies on the Gongde Ritual Music of Mian’an Philanthropic Hall in Chaoyang, were carried out through this paper based on field research together with theoretical work. To begin with, by probing into its cultural ecology, we apprehended the general anthropogeography of the Gongde rite and its cultural background such as Buddhist religion, soul religion and ancestral worship. What’s more, we described individual cases of the Gongde rite from the perspectives of both ritual course structure and music structure through our field research and record of the Mian’an Philanthropic Hall in Chaoyang and its Gongde Ritual Music. Also we analyzed its musical reality based on our research before further illuminating its profound cultural intension.Finally we carefully concluded that the Gongde Ritual Music of Mian’an Philanthropic Hall is a cultural phenomenon with profound cultural content such as religion, customs, art and ethics.In the analysis of musical reality, the paper explained the definition, category, application and characteristics of Chaozhou Xianghuaban Buddhist Music, the vocal music in rites, as well as the instrumental music, the Chaozhou Temple Drum Corps featuring its obbligato method that to accompany the vocal music with improvisational key, and its characteristics. Then it illustrated the artistic quality of this kind of music, such as the perfect combination of form and content,formality and improvisation, etc. In the illumination of its cultural intension, the paper focused on the social function, musical meaning and Shantounese cultural promotion of the Gongde Ritual Music of Mian’an Philanthropic Hall in Chaoyang, and discourses upon its function of conciliation, education, appeal and economy, the meaning of musical anthropology and musical humanity, its significant meaning in the inheritance of Chaozhou music and its revelation in musical thinking, as well as its display of Shantounese religion, cultural feature of the combination of Confucianism and Buddhist, and a harmonious life philosophy, etc.