“风”字的音乐学研究

A Musicological Study of the Chinese Character"Feng"(Wind)

风之本义是指自然界一种气流现象，是流动着的强对流空气。宋玉《风赋》中有“夫风者，天地之气也。”庄子曾谈到大地呼出的气就是风。但很早，人们就给“风”赋予了一种新的意义：《辞海》解释“风”为民歌；《汉语大字典》解释“风”有民俗歌谣及声音之意。

Literally,'风'(Feng,or wind) means a natural phe- nomenon of air movement,or massive convective air in motion.The ancient writer Song Yu remarked in his Ode to the Wind that'wind is a kind of Qi (air) from the Heaven and the earth.'Zhuangzi (or Chuang-tzu) believed that the Qi breathing from the earth is wind.But even long time a- go,the character'Feng'had been given new meanings.In the dictionary Cihai (Sea of Phraseology),it is defined as folk song.The Grand Chinese Dictionary also defines the character as folklore or ballad as well as sound. The ancient Chinese's worship for'Feng'was later de- veloped into totem worship so that wind or bird singing was regarded as heavenly music,from which originated folk mu- sic,ballad and dance.Music comes from'Feng',or the air of Yin and Yang from the Heaven and the earth,while'Feng'has the function of connection between the Heaven and the earth,and as'Feng'can communicate with spirits or gods,a series of worship rituals emerged with involve- ment of ancient musicians and musical instruments.When the spring came,the noblemen would worship agriculture with music in order to call upon the peasants to work on the farmlands,and gradually folklore came out of this prac- tice,and later this is called'Feng'(folklore).Therefore,'Feng'was so closely related to music and social life of the ancient people that it could affect the fate of the whole na- tion. As an old saying goes,'you can learn one's Feng by listening to his sound and you can learn his cus- toms by watching his music.'Hence the'Feng'is embodied in the form of folk songs,which can not only reflect the sufferings of ordinary people,but al- so become a form of power for the ruling class. With their objectiveness and spontaneity,folk songs of the people mirror the status of social develop- ment.Both the Shijing (The Book of Songs) from the Western Zhou Dynasty and the songs from the Han Dynasty music conservatory had the same function. The ancient monarchs made a series of poli- cies for utilizing music on the basis of social condi- tions and customs in that particular state.The ar- gument of'making music through observing the Feng or customs'from a historical record best rep- resents the close relationship between politics and folklore.The great Chinese philosopher Confucius believes that music has extreme power of harmo- nization over the society.Hence,it is easy to un- derstand how important folk music was to the ruling class. In general,the'Feng'is one of the earliest ob- jects known by the ancient people.It can date back in all Chinese historical records as early as music itself,bearing almost the same term as music.Its imaginary form is phoenix,which serves as God of Music in the history of music.Phoenix was not only our ancestors' totem,but also the initial God of Music or Melody to the ancient people.Due to its high position and important role in the daily life of ancient people,it had been highly valued by the ruling class.Our ancestors' worship for the'Feng'or God of Wind led to the creation of religious wor- ship,thus the primitive ballads that accompanied the religious ceremonies,and then the musical in- struments and folk songs which had been so useful to the ruling class.This is the very origin of our an- cestors' totem worship,religious ceremonial singing and the observation of folklore by the ruling class, all of which symbolizes the close relationship be- tween the'Feng'and the music culture.