A Study Of The Thought Of "Nature" In The Song Dynasty Music Theory

The idea of "nature" in Song dynasty music theory is another epoch-making period after the philosophical view of nature of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu in the pre-Qin dynasty and the aesthetics of nature in the Wei and Jin dynasties.It combines Confucianism’s view of musical functions,spiritual cultivation of Chan Buddhism,and Taoism’s idea of natural inaction,and combines the cosmology of the two Han dynasties and the aesthetics of the Wei and Jin dynasties.It also laid the foundation for the formation of the idea of "nature" in the music theory of the Ming and Qing dynasties,which is a key link to the next.This paper focuses on the relationship between music and "nature" and discusses the idea of "nature" in Song dynasty music theory in four parts.The first part,the theory of musical origin,focuses on the relationship between the development of music and the objects with the characteristics of "nature".Song Dynasty rationalists believed that "reason" has natural properties,and as "heavenly reason",it can be connected with "Tao",which is the origin of musical existence;it can also be equal to "ritual",which is the ethical order.It is also the same as the "ritual" of the ethical order,which is mainly expressed in the "logic of numbers" in the theory of music,and is the norm of human morality.Outside of theory,music is closely related to the objective nature,and the spirit of "harmony and music" in the mind of the subject is the basis for musical aesthetics.The second part of the musical aesthetic theory focuses on how music achieves natural beauty.It is generally believed in Song music theory that the rhythm of words and songs should be in harmony,the emotion should be consistent,and the sound and technique should be simple,quiet and calm.On top of this,they also emphasized the involvement of the "Tao" so that the content and form of music could have the ability to communicate with heaven and earth,thus providing a basis for the naturalization of music education.The third part,the theory of musical work,focuses on the process of naturalizing music as it acts on human beings.The theoreticians believed that music could naturalize the mind,thus promoting the formation of moral character and the realization of a free life of "Kong Yan’s happy place".The literati and qin masters believed that music could establish an aesthetic mood in the mind when it reached a certain level.The fourth section discusses the historical influence of the idea of "nature" in Song dynasty music theory and its inspiration to contemporary art practice.