祈向“道际”的求索——读罗小平、冯长春《乐之道——中国当代音乐美学名家访谈》

On Luo Xiaoping and Feng Changchun's Book The Essence of Music:Interviews with Celebrated Contemporary Chinese Music Aestheticians

罗小平、冯长春两位学者鼎力合撰举四十余万言的《乐之道——中国当代音乐美学名家访谈》（以下简称〈乐之道〉）一书已由上海音乐学院出版社付梓出版。因其新颖之立意，独运之匠心，故而使音乐学界同仁青眼有加。该著除前言和结语外共分六章。六章分别选了六大名家作为访谈的对象，即“音乐美学的领军人物于润洋”；

The Essence of Music:Interviews with Celebrated Contemporary Chinese Music Aestheticians,abook co-anthored by Luo Xiaoping and Feng Changchun with over 400,000 Chinese characters,was published by the Shanghai Conservatory of Music Publishing House.The significance of its novelty in subject matter and high professionalism hs drawn the eyes of many fellow Chinese musicologists.Bisides the preface and the conclusion,the whole book is divided into six chapters,containing interviews with six great scholars in music aesthetics respectively,including 'Yu Ruryang.the Leading Figure in Music Aesthetics', 'Wang Ningyi,a Music Philosopher','Zhang Qian,a Pioneer of Multiple Disciplines','Mao Yuan,a Ceasetess Explorer','Zhao Songguan,an Academic Wizard',and 'Cai Zhongde,a Humanist',The publication of this book undoubtedly became a necessary and timety event for the contempoary Chinese music assthetics.it is necessary because it has recordes an inreplaceable part of the living history of conterporaly music assthetics while it is timely because the majority of these national-tree-sure masters are quite old age or close to the end of their lives, and in the anthor's words,'it would be a pity and a loss for the Chinese music aesthetics discipline if we did not rush to make all the interviews so as to record these great masters' ideas as well as the dialogues and communications that their students have with them.'The book provides us an access to the academic and psychological experience of these contemproary aestheticians in search of the essence of music and in such a way helps us understand the actual development of contemporary music aesthetics in China.Many experts have made contributions to the development of contemporary music aesthetics,and the reason why only six of them were selected in this book is that these first-generation scholars since the founding of the New China,mostly over 70 years old,have made great ac^iev^nents both academicaJly and morally,and are highly learned in both Chinese and on music and present expectations the book,one seems to be travel Western music..The contemporary Chinese music aesthetics bears a profound and long-standing significance,and the implication behind Wis is based upon philosophic and aesthetic meditation for the future.When reading traveling through the winding path of the history of reforms and opening up in the country,towards a spiritual palace shining with the essential nature of the spirit of contemporary music aestheticians.The highestlevel concept in Ctwiese philosophy is this essential nature,which,in Chinese philosopher Jin Yuelin's words,is the ' ultimate objective of spiritual practice,preaching and attain? ment' The book is entitled 'The Essence of Musitf,which reflects the author's understanding of the essential nature of music as well as of the thoughts of the six great masters.The book defines the title from two perspectives: 'on the one hand,it outlines the music aesthetics masters' major research areas in which one may find their pursuit for the essential nature of music,their understanding of aesthetic rules,their grasp of distinctiveness of music,as well as their taste in learning music practice and the society,and the interaction between life and nature or the universe;on the other hand,the interviews show that these great masters have been pursuing the spiritual satisfaction over their creations and discoveries,the delight in confrontations of ideas,the excitement of sudden enlightenment,the straightforwardness in expressions of their own ideas,and the intensity in speaking their mind in the form of writing.The above two aspects outline the dimensions of both ontology and methodology.In the ontological dimension,the book reveals the six great aestheticians' metaphysical practice of searching for the essentials of music in the same way as suggested by the ancient philosopher Confucius to 'reach the utmost of one's expectations by learning',or as suggested by today's Confucian followers to 'reach the utmost of one's expectations by understanding what he has learned.' In the methodological dimension,it shows their pilgrimage in seeking for the essence of the art of music and of their academic researches.