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| Performative Forms and Musical Meanings of Fayue Tongzi Ji and Tongzi Yige Fanbei |
| Sun Lingxi1, Xu Yunhe2 |
1.The Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
2.The Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai 519000, China |
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Abstract Fayue Tongzi Ji (Dharmic Music Played by Lotus-born Children, 《法乐童子伎》) and Tongzi Yige Fanbei (Lotus-born Children’s Singing Accompanied Jade Conch, 《童子倚歌梵呗》)，composed by Emperor Wu of the Liang, are the earliest known Buddhist Jiyue (伎乐) that are assigned with specific names in ancient China. As religious media that took the form of audio-visual art, those Jiyue were performed alongside ten Buddhism musical pieces such as “Shanzai (《善哉》)”, “Dale (《大乐》)” and “Dahuan (《大欢》)” in pa?cavār?ika assemblies, expounding altogether Buddhism teachings. These Jiyue have significant value for the history of ancient Chinese music and Buddhist culture. However, since antique documents do not describe their musical patterns, there is still a considerable gap in our understanding of these two Jiyue.By comparing Fayue Tongzi Ji with contemporary Jiyue images that show lotus-born children dancing and playing music, it is evident that the performance of “Fayue” by children was then a very popular form of Buddhism dance and music. In the Mogao caves of the Northern Wei and Western Wei Dynasties in Dunhuang, we can often see lotus-born children playing instruments such as bili, pan flute, and pipa, while engaging dancing and singing. For instance, on the lintels of the niches for Buddha statues in the Northern Wei Cave No. 257 and the Western Wei Cave No. 285, there are carvings that meticulously depict the scenes of lotus-born children with double buns on their head dancing and singing, providing vivid references for understanding the form of performance of the Fayue Tongzi Ji. Through Buddhist scriptures such as the Sūtra of the Prediction of the Bodhisattva Avalokite?vara and the Amitabha Sūtra, we can know that the rebirth of the lotus-born children in the realm of Buddha, the questioning about Dharma through verses, and the performance of various Jiyue by celestial beings in the realm of Buddha are silhouettes of the Buddhist land of bliss. The rebirth through lotus in the realm of Buddha thus became a significant belief during the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Under the inspiration of such thoughts, the lotus-born children Jiyue emerged, and both the lotus-born children Jiyue images on the Dunhuang murals and the Fayue Tongzi Ji are born under this trend.Academia has not yet formed a clear and unified consensus regarding the musical meanings and the form of performance of Tongzi Yige Fanbei. In fact, “Yige” is a kind of singing that is inherent to ancient China, it uses songs to harmonize the music in the accompany of wind instruments, either with one soloist playing music and another person singing, or conducted by one person singing and playing music at the same time. Based on such musical structure, the “Fanbei” of the Tongzi Yige Fanbei should not be understood as short Buddhist verses (Fanbai,梵呗) that praise the Buddhas, but should be seen as the accompaniment instruments of the Yige. In early Chinese translations of Buddhist scriptures, the characters of “bei” (贝) and “bai” (呗) are often interchangeable, and “Fanbei” could also be written as “Fanbai” in scriptures, referring to the conchs that were used in Southeast Asian countries for playing Buddhist music. The Music Book by Chen Yang depicts what it looks like. Therefore, Tongzi Yige Fanbei is about one child playing the Fanbei (conch shell) with another child singing while leaning on the Fanbei (conch shell). This is a new form of art that has integrated the Buddhist music of the Western Regions in the framework of traditional Chinese Xiqu Yige (西曲倚歌) music.At the pa?cavār?ika assemblies that were widely participated by officials, monks, laypeople, and foreign envoys, Buddhist Jiyue, along with Buddhist sermons and the temple and palaces, constructed a multi-dimensional space for the Dharma assembly. On the one hand, Buddhist tenets could in this way be spread in a more direct fashion to the non-intellectual class, while on the other hand, religious ties were used to strive for the support and recognition of foreign countries. Through in-depth investigation of Fayue Tongzi Ji and Tongzi Yige Fanbei, we can not only re-examine the methods and ways that Buddhism spread through the art of music and dance, but also provide a unique perspective and case for understanding the interaction between religious art and politics during the Xiao Liang period.
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Received: 11 March 2024
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2024, Vol. 54 
