The Study Of Minnan Hymn's Music And Linguistic Sign's Significance

The spread of Christianity in Xiamen started in 1840s after the first Opium War.The first missionaries arrived in Xiamen is the Protestantism priest David Abeel who was from the United States.Since then,the development of Christianity in the area of Xiamen has lasted for more than 100 years,leading to the formation of the South have a unique style of hymns,"Minnan Hymns",which was the product during the process when hymns met with the Xiamen dialect.Its pro-type was formerly known as a total of 13 "Raise mind poem" compiled by priest William Young from London Missionary Society in 1854.After years of development and expansion,300 "Minnan hymns" was officially published spread from Xiamen area to Taiwan,Hongkong,Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries.People in both sides of the Taiwan Straits and area around sing the same hymn with the same sound.The dialect of southern Fujian is regarded as a "living fossil" of ancient Chinese.The pronunciation vocabulary and grammar features is so specific that it is difficult to learn and understand.Vernacular words founded by Protestantism priest Talmage was used as "voice word" of the dialect and the writing language of the lyrics in Early Taiwanese hymns.The vernacular alphabet,which was like the "Pinyin" of Minnan dialect,is known as the "pioneer of modern Chinese Pinyin system".Though it was just the product appeared in the specific historical period and its historical mission has been completed,the impact caused by the vernacular in Minnan area,is of great social and cultural significance.This paper starts from the perspective of folk music and treats the music as culture.The author took the choir of "Xinjie Church" in Xiamen island and "Sanyi church"in Gulangyu island to inspect and explored the field work.The research object is 13 hymns in "Minnan Hymns" originated from the "Raise mind poem" and the analysis is around the music factor in hymns and the alphabet list as a notation of hymns,companied with the introduction for the feature of Taiwanese,the alphabet of vernacular and the language symbol meaning of Taiwanese hymns.Finally the author summarizes the current situation and the social impact to prove the heritage value of "Minnan Hymns".