Buddhist Music · Chinese Craft Stories

01 · Historical Records

Buddhism was introduced to China about the time of Emperor Ming of the Eastern Han. In the course of its long development, imported Buddhist music absorbed artistic elements of traditional Chinese music and so acquired a distinctive character, forming a unique Sinicized system of Buddhist fanbei music that became an important part of Chinese Buddhist culture. Yushan fanbei originated at Yushan in Dong'e County, Shandong Province and has been transmitted there for a long time; to this day it has a history of more than 1,800 years. It is the first of the four ritual elements — fanbei, scattered flowers, chanting sound and the monk's staff — that remain in wide use in Buddhist temples in Buddhist observances, and it has been handed down to this day; in the Tang dynasty it was recorded in the Yushan Shengming Ji and the Yushan Sicao, and fanbei was also one of the nine posts of the Tang translation bureau. As Buddhism spread eastward it was carried to Korea and Japan and thence disseminated to Asia as a whole and to other parts of the world, playing a certain role in promoting China's fine traditional culture.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Buddhist music is the music used by Buddhist temples in various ritual observances and festival celebrations. It praises the Buddha and the bodhisattvas in short gāthā verses, performed as solo singing, unison and choral recitation; during the chanting it may be accompanied by percussion dharma instruments such as the wooden fish, the bell and the stone chime. Yushan Fanbei Temple was first built during the Cao Wei period (231); the Yugu Temple on the hilltop has repeatedly been destroyed and rebuilt. Historical records state: in the third year of the Taihe reign of Emperor Ming of Wei (229), Cao Zhi was enfeoffed as Prince of Dong'e, and while visiting Yushan he "heard the auspicious sound of the full assembly and was stirred by the divine creation of the mountain of fish", so he edited and definitively collated the Sutra of the Auspicious Omens of the Crown Prince and thereby originated the "fish-hill fan" or "fish-hill bei" of Yushan, "the forty-two auspicious signs that became the school of the learned"; later generations abbreviated this to fanbei, now called Yushan fanbei. Its texts can be grouped into five major categories: praise, gāthā verse, dhāraṇī incantation, prose, and names and titles of the Buddha. Later the practices of changdao (chanted guidance) and zhandu (recessive chanting) developed, forming the chanted recitation. In a style of entirely natural true sound described as "pure, serene and harmonious, straight in tone, rising and falling in respiration, covering over its fervour", it praises the merits of the Buddha, expounds the sutras and preaches the Dharma, proclaims Buddhist principle and universally ferishes sentient beings. The instruments used in Yushan fanbei are called dharma instruments; they are mainly the percussion bell, drum, large stone chime, small stone chime, wooden fish, cymbals, bell, small bell, metal clappers, wooden clapper, tambourine, ruyi sceptre, vajra and nao cymbals, which accompany together with the vocal line and serve to keep the ensemble alert and in time. The representative works of Yushan fanbei include Yushan Forty-two Auspicious Verses, Fanbei, Yunhe Bei, Rulai Bei, Chujia Bei, the Prince's Ode (Great Eulogy of Shakyamuni), the Great Eulogy of the Buddha's Treasure and others.