Religious Music Traditions
We have already mentioned the music of various religious traditions within China's borders, including the Tang dynasty ballad tradition bianwen, with its vernacular recitation of Buddhist scripts. In the Chinese cultural context, Confucianism ritual practices are often an integral part of a quasi-religious tradition, and there are also widespread Taoist and Buddhist musical practices (Jones 2009; Szczepanski 2012). In many regions, these religious traditions have interacted with secular forms of music making over generations, leading to various syncretic genres as well as those reserved for specifically religious occasions. Apart from these major religious traditions, some religions are practiced in smaller regions: some varieties of Shamanism occur in Northern China, and various beliefs are held by ethnic minority peoples in Southern China. Apart from these indigenous forms, Islam is found particularly among populations in the Northwest. Christianity was brought to China by late 19th and early 20th century missionaries.
In contrast to the Han region, where the majority of people don't have particular religious beliefs, most Tibetan people believe and practice Buddhism. Religion plays a vital role in Tibetan people's daily life, their house decorations, literature, painting, and music. First and foremost Tibetan music is religious music, reflecting the profound influence of Tibetan Buddhism on the culture. The Lama Mani tradition-the telling of Buddhist parables through song-dates back to the 12th century. The songs were performed by wandering storytellers, who travelled from village to village, drawing on their own often humble origins to relate to people from all backgrounds.
Bön music is used as accompaniment to ritual chanting, a form of Tibetan mediation used to communicate with a supernatural force. This absolute simple music form (no rhythm, no melodic development of upwards or downwards, for instance) doesn't trigger any personal emotion or desire, and thus a state of ultimate 'emptiness' and harmony is gradually reached. In the last several decades, Buddhists further developed various kind of music by diversifying instrumentation and borrowing imported music elements from India and other parts of China and Central Asia.[3]For an introduction to Tibetan music in general, see Lhalungpa 1969; Tethong 1979; and Morcom 2015.
The Naxi musical tradition includes the music for the Dongba-a Naxi term for their religion's priests and organizers, one that also refers to intellectuals and wise people more generally-as they recite their religious texts. Dongba religion mixes indigenous Naxi beliefs, Tibetan Bön Buddhism, and Taoist religious traces. Based on the belief that human and nature are two half-brothers born of the same father, Dongba religious rituals are conducted by the priests to propitiate the spirits believed to be living in every part of the natural world. In Dongba ritual performance, priests dance while holding ritual the music instruments zhanlai (bell) and dake (drum), which are the symbols of the sun and moon respectively. Other instruments include various drums, shell trumpets, and horns. Dongba rituals are conducted to release the souls of those who died for love from purgatory, and their scripts tell of their sad love stories (Rees 2011). Religious traditions like these are also sources of inspiration for contemporary composers. For instance, a new piece 'Ba gua' was adapted by He Liping and Li Guoqun based on Naxi ritual music and fused with Taoist music sources from the Tang dynasty 'Zi wei bagua wu' (Example 18: Performed by the Youth Orchestra of Gucheng Youth Activity Center. Courtesy of Mu Cheng).
Example 18: 'Ba gua'.
Hong Kong film stars Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan were classmates at the Beijing Opera School in Hong Kong.
