Tiantanshenleshuzhongheshaole

01 · Historical Records

Zhonghe Shaoyue was the ritual music reserved by the Ming and Qing courts for major state occasions of sacrificing to heaven, earth and the ancestors; it ran through the whole ceremony, integrating ritual, music, song and dance, and it is an important part of the Chinese yayue tradition. In the Ming dynasty the Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang revised the court music and gave it the name 'Zhonghe Shaoyue'; it was mainly practised and transmitted in the imperial capitals or detached palaces of the Ming and Qing, such as Nanjing, Beijing and Chengde in Hebei. The Yongle Emperor Zhu Di moved the capital to Beijing, followed the old Nanjing system, built the Temple of Heaven, the Temple of Earth and the Shenle Guan, and took charge of sacrifices and of the management and teaching of ritual music, which the Qing continued to use. In the 1980s the Temple of Heaven set up a Hall of Sacrificial Music and Dance, sought out folk musicians and carried out the collecting, sorting and translating of Zhonghe Shaoyue.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The Temple of Heaven in Beijing, in Dongcheng District, is the largest and most complete surviving altar in China. As music reserved for the imperial household, Zhonghe Shaoyue is marked by gravity, harmony and orthodoxy, and it is governed by a strict ritual-and-music system. From the size and constitution of the orchestra and the method of playing to the use of instruments, everything must follow strict rules. Its music is written in four notations: gong-shang, gongche, lulü and reduced-character notation. The performing instruments are required to have 'all eight timbres present', that is, to perform on sixteen instruments made of eight materials — metal, stone, silk, bamboo, clay, wood, gourd and hide — while music, song and dance follow a one-character-one-note style. When the performance begins, the hui signal is raised and the wooden zhu is struck three times, indicating that a movement has begun; the bo bell is struck once, indicating that a phrase has begun; a bianzhong chime bell is struck once, indicating that a single note has begun; the singing student sings one character while the dancing student executes one movement and the instruments sound together one note; when the note ends, a bianqing chime stone is struck once; when the phrase ends, a teqing stone chime is struck once to close the rhyme; the jiangu drum is struck once and the bofu answers with two beats, the jiangu being struck three times in all and the bofu answering six beats in all, to mark the beat and start the next phrase. When the movement ends, the wooden clappers li and yu are struck three times and the hui signal is lowered. The characteristic of performing Zhonghe Shaoyue is clarity of order, with a clear beginning and a clear end, fully expressing the quality of 'golden sound and jade resonance'. 'Golden' is the sound produced by instruments of metal, and 'jade' is the sound produced by instruments of stone. Golden sound and jade resonance summarizes both the performing method of beginning with a metal instrument — the bell — and ending with a stone instrument, the chime, and also expresses the performing requirements that the use of instruments be properly matched, that the order of performance be clear, and that the performance have a beginning and an end. In 1743 the Qianlong Emperor renamed the Shenle Guan 'Shenyue Suo', and in 1754 it was renamed 'Shenyue Shu'; this office managed the training of music and the vetting of the pitch of instruments, and it selected and trained the music-and-dance students of the various temples and altars of Beijing as well as the ritual training of officials.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

In the Ming and Qing dynasties Zhonghe Shaoyue was uniformly managed and taught by the Shenyue Shu, and music-and-dance students were organized into orchestras of different sizes according to the rank of the sacrifice, and had to rehearse together at the Shenyue Shu before the ceremony. After the 1980s the Temple of Heaven set up a Hall of Sacrificial Music and Dance and sought out folk musicians to collect, sort and translate Zhonghe Shaoyue, and the Shenyue Shu together with the court orchestra became its principal transmitting institutions.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The principal transmitting institution of Zhonghe Shaoyue, the Shenyue Shu, lies in the western part of the outer altar of the Temple of Heaven, occupies an area of about 10,000 square metres and is one of the main buildings of the Temple of Heaven. The buildings of the Temple of Heaven are grand and magnificent and the setting is solemn and dignified; it has deep cultural content and is a World Cultural Heritage site and a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level. At present, at the Temple of Heaven, the Shenyue Shu and the Shaoyue are carried on mainly by community transmission, sustained through the practice of the yayue centre of the Shenyue Shu and of the court orchestra, forming a team of full-time transmitters; as publicity increases, their visibility keeps rising. Zhonghe Shaoyue is the perfect combination of ancient ritual and music, with music running through the whole of the ritual and used to teach and instruct; it is an important part of the traditional ritual-and-music civilisation, and it has a far-reaching influence on the formation and development of court ritual music in the Asia-Pacific region and on social development and on the ideals of self-cultivation, ordering the family, governing the state and bringing peace to the world. It has considerable historical, cultural and artistic value.

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Tiantanshenleshuzhongheshaole (Dongcheng, Beijing) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗