Chinese and Western Aesthetic Realization in Traditional Chinese Instrumental Performance: Perspectives of Scholars and Students
Abstract
Chinese and Western music aesthetics arise from two different cultural backgrounds. While previous research has explored the evolution and interaction of Chinese and Western aesthetics, their specific impact on Traditional Chinese Instrumental Performance (TCIP) has been overlooked. This study investigates the intersection of Chinese and Western music aesthetics in TCIP, focusing on the perspectives of music scholars and students. To address this gap, the study employed narrative inquiry with music scholars (n=4) and semi-structured interviews with music major students (n=8). It explores how Confucianism and Taoism aesthetics, alongside Western concepts of autonomy and heteronomy, influence music scholars’ and students’ perspectives and practices in TCIP. The findings reveal that these aesthetic principles shape musicians’ artistic choices and interpretations. This research highlights the importance of integrating aesthetic thoughts into TCIP, offering insights for fostering Chinese and Western aesthetic appreciation and understanding of TCIP. These explorations extend to enhancing educational practices and promoting a more comprehensive interpretation of music aesthetics in both scholarly and performance contexts.
Downloads
References
Anderson, G. H. (1983). Pythagoras and the Origin of Music Theory. Indiana Theory Review, 6(3), 35–61. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24045969
Banban, D. (2018). Harmony in diversity: an empirical study of harmonious co-existence in the multi-ethnic culture of Qinghai. International Journal of Anthropology and Ethnology, 2, 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41257-018-0010-6
Barrett, N. F. (2011). “Wuwei” and flow: Comparative reflections on spirituality, transcendence, and skill in the “Zhuangzi.” Philosophy East and West, 679-706. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23015337
Benson, B. E. (2006). The fundamental heteronomy of jazz improvisation. Revue internationale de philosophie, (4), 453-467. https://doi.org/10.3917/rip.238.0453
Bertelsen, M. (2016). Aesthetic Encounters: Rethinking Autonomy, Space & Time in Today’s World of Art. [Doctoral dissertation, Copenhagen Business School]. Copenhagen Business School Repository.
Bogue, R. (2006). The New Harmony. In C. V. Boundas (Ed.), Gilles Deleuze: The Intensive Reduction (pp. 31-44). Bloomsbury Publishing.
Brown, N. (2019). Autonomy: The social ontology of art under capitalism. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1198x9z
Bujic, B. (1988). Music in European thought 1851-1912. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511896965
Carroll, N. (2010). Art in three dimensions. Oxford University Press.
Chao, Z., & Khomkrich, K. (2020). Analysis of the Innovative Ideas of Erhu Teaching in Chinese Universities. Oxidation Communications, 43(1):162-166.
Chen, W., Qi, J., & Hao, P. (2018). On Chinese aesthetics: Interpretative encounter between Taoism and Confucianism. Culture and Dialogue, 6(1), 61-76. https://doi.org/10.1163/24683949-12340042
Cheng, L., Wong, P. W. Y., & Lam, C. Y. (2020). Learner autonomy in music performance practices. British Journal of Music Education, 37(3), 234-246. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0265051720000170
Clarke, D. (2012). Musical autonomy revisited. In M. Clayton (Ed.), The Cultural Study of Music: A Critical Introduction (pp. 172-183). Routledge.
Cobussen, M., & Nielsen, N. (2016). Music and ethics. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315596594
Cohen, N., & Arieli, T. (2011). Field research in conflict environments: Methodological challenges and snowball sampling. Journal of peace research, 48(4), 423-435. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343311405698
Cottrell, S. (2017). The creative work of large ensembles. In J. Rink, H. Gaunt, & A. Williamon (Eds.), Musicians in the making: Pathways to creative performance (pp. 186-205). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199346677.003.0013
David, C. (2009). Musical naturalism in the thought of Ji Kang. Dao, 8(2), 151-171. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-009-9109-x
Davies, S. (2001). Musical works and performances: A philosophical exploration. Clarendon Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/0199241589.001.0001
Downes, S. (2014). Aesthetics of Music: Musicological Perspectives. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203136348
Ekken, K. (2007). The philosophy of qi: The record of great doubts. Columbia University Press. https://doi.org/10.7312/ekke13922
Freiberg, J. W. (1977). The dialectic of Confucianism and Taoism in ancient China. Dialectical Anthropology, 2, 175-198. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00249484
Frosini, C. (2021). The art of composing: between autonomy and heteronomy. TECHNE-Journal of Technology for Architecture and Environment, 44-50. https://doi.org/10.36253/techne-10978
Fung, C. K. V. (1994). Music and culture: A Chinese perspective. Philosophy of Music Education Review, 47-52. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40327069
Fung, C. V. (2017). A way of music education: Classic Chinese Wisdoms. Oxford University Press.
Fung, Y. M. (2008). Problematizing Contemporary Confucianism in East Asia. In J. H. Berthrong, & J. L. Richey (Ed.), Teaching Confucianism (pp. 157). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195311600.003.0009
Garnett, L. (2017). Choral conducting and the construction of meaning: Gesture, voice, identity. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315095714
Gu, M. D. (2016). The ethical turn in aesthetic education: Early Chinese thinkers on music and arts. Journal of Aesthetic Education, 50(1), 95-111. https://doi.org/10.5406/jaesteduc.50.1.0095
Guo, X. (2002). Chinese Musical Language Interpreted by Western Idioms: Fusion Process in the Instrumental Works by Chen Yi. The Florida State University. https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/chinese-musical-language-interpreted-Western/docview/305571152/se-2?accountid=28930
Hagen, L. (2012). Taoism and psychology. In F. D. Piano, A. Mukherjee, S. M. Kamilar, L. M. Hagen, E. Hartsman, & R. P. Olson (Ed.), Religious Theories of Personality and Psychotherapy: East meets West (pp. 141-210). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203725238-3
Herzog, P. (1995). Music criticism and musical meaning. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 53(3), 299-312. https://doi.org/10.2307/431355
Hulatt, O. (2013). Critique through autonomy: On monads and mediation in Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory. In O. Hulatt (Ed.), Aesthetic and Artistic Autonomy (pp. 171-196). Bloomsbury Publishing.
Jullien, F. (2004). In praise of blandness: Proceeding from Chinese thought and aesthetics. New York: Zone Books.
Kania, A. (2007). The philosophy of music. Stanford University.
Kivy, P. (1990). Music alone: Philosophical reflections on the purely musical experience. Cornell University Press.
Ko, A. P. Y. (2006). The beauty of harmony: Clues from Chinese aesthetics for contemporary art and art education [Doctoral dissertation, Simon Fraser University]. Summit Research Repository. https://summit.sfu.ca/item/2478
Lam, C. W. (1994). The Lost Tradition: Changing Interpretations of Music in the Three Chinese Confucian Ritual Classics from the Han to the Qing Dynasty [Doctoral dissertation, Durham University]. Durham University Repository.
Lee, M. Y. (2023). Concept of Nature in the Musical Aesthetics of the Chinese Guqin. Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics, 46(1), 161-171.
Li, C. (2008). The ideal of harmony in ancient Chinese and Greek philosophy. Dao, 7, 81-98. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-008-9043-3
Li, Z. (2010). The Chinese Aesthetic Tradition. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824837624
Liu, J. (2014). Art and Aesthetics of Music in Classical Confucianism. In V. Shen (Ed.), Dao Companion to Classical Confucian Philosophy (pp. 227-244). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2936-2_10
Liu, K., Fish, S., & Jameson, F. (2000). Aesthetics and Marxism: Chinese Aesthetic Marxists and Their Western Contemporaries. New York, USA: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822380535
Liu, M. B. R. (1985). Aesthetic principles in Chinese music. The World of Music, 27(1), 19-32. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43562676
Liu, Y. (2024). The meaning of autonomy: How artists justify career paths. Poetics, 105, 101915. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2024.101915
Lowry, K., & Wolf, C. (1988). Arts education in the People’s Republic of China: Results of interviews with Chinese musicians and visual artists. Journal of Aesthetic Education, 22(1), 89-98. https://doi.org/10.2307/3332967
Lütticken, S. (2014). Autonomy as aesthetic practice. Theory, culture & society, 31(7-8), 81-95. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276413496853
Major, J. S., Queen, S., Meyer, A., & Roth, H. D. (2012). The Essential Huainanzi. Columbia University Press.
Man, E. K. W. (2015). Issues of contemporary art and aesthetics in Chinese context. Dordrecht: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-46510-3
Meyer, L. B. (2008). Emotion and meaning in music. University of Chicago Press.
Miles, S. (1997). Critical musicology and the problem of mediation. Notes, 53(3), 722-750. https://doi.org/10.2307/899713
Miller, J. P. (2022). Taoism, teaching, and learning: A nature-based approach to education. University of Toronto Press. https://doi.org/10.3138/9781487551568
Nettl, B., & Bohlman, P. V. (1991). Comparative musicology and anthropology of music: essays on the history of ethnomusicology. University of Chicago Press.
Nzewi, M., & Nzewi, O. (2007). A Contemporary Study of Musical Arts: The foliage: consolidation (Vol. 3). African Minds.
Odena, O. (2012). Musical creativity: Insights from music education research. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315596952
Paddison, M. (1991). The language-character of music: Some motifs in Adorno. Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 116(2), 267-279. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrma/116.2.267
Papadopoulos, A. (2014). Mathematics and group theory in music. arXiv preprint. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1407.5757
Portelli, D. (2012). Breath through water: personal cross-cultural and multimedia processes flowing towards Dao in composition. [Doctoral thesis, University of Western Sydney]. https://www.proquest.com/docview/1929226039
Rutter, B. (2010). Hegel on the modern arts. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511760440
Sadler, G. R., Lee, H. C., Lim, R. S. H., & Fullerton, J. (2010). Recruitment of hard‐to‐reach population subgroups via adaptations of the snowball sampling strategy. Nursing & health sciences, 12(3), 369-374. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1442-2018.2010.00541.x
Saussy, H. (1995). The problem of a Chinese aesthetic. Stanford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804766616
Scott, J. T. (2006). The harmony between Rousseau’s musical theory and his philosophy. In J. T. Scott (Ed.), Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Critical assessments of leading political philosophers (pp. 57-77). New York: Routledge.
Shell, S. M. (2009). Kant and the Limits of Autonomy. Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674054608
Shu, L., & Feng X. G. (2007). A comparison study on the Chinese and Western music aesthetics. Comparative Literature: East & West, 8(1), 136-138. https://doi.org/10.1080/25723618.2007.12015617
Stamou, L. (2002). Plato and Aristotle on music and music education: Lessons from ancient Greece. International Journal of Music Education, os-39(1), 3-16. https://doi.org/10.1177/025576140203900102
Staubmann, H. (2022). Aesthetics and Culture. In H. Staubmann (Ed.), Sociology in a New Key: Essays in Social Theory and Aesthetics (pp. 89-115). Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94922-8_5
Stecker, R. (2013). Aesthetic Autonomy and Artistic Heteronomy. Aesthetic and Artistic Autonomy, 30-48.
Swinkin, J. (2015). Teaching performance: A philosophy of piano pedagogy. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12514-5
Szczepanski, B. (2016). The Instrumental Music of Wutaishan’s Buddhist Monasteries: Social and Ritual Contexts. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315556710
Tan, L. (2015). Reimer through Confucian lenses: Resonances with classical Chinese aesthetics. Philosophy of Music Education Review, 23(2), 183-201. https://doi.org/10.2979/philmusieducrevi.23.2.183
Tan, S. H. (2008). Contemporary Neo-Confucian philosophy. In B. Mou (Ed.), The Routledge History of Chinese Philosophy (pp. 551-582). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203002865-28
Tan, S. H. (2012). Confucian Democracy: A Deweyan Reconstruction. State University of New York Press.
Tang, Y. (2015). Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, Christianity and Chinese Culture. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-45533-3
Thrasher, A. R. (1980). Foundations of Chinese music: a study of ethics and aesthetics. Wesleyan University.
Tu, W. M. (1998). Confucius and Confucianism. In W. H. Slote, & G. A. De-Vos (Ed.), Confucianism and the Family (pp. 3-36). State University of New York Press.
Wang, H. (2024). Moral thought: evaluation on the moral education and virtue cultivation of traditional Chinese music. Trans/Form/Ação, 47(5), e02400167. https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-3173.2024.v47.n5.e02400167
Wang, K. (2021). Daoist Pursuit and Spontaneous Naturalness. In K. Wang (Ed.), Beauty and Human Existence in Chinese Philosophy (pp. 119-173). Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1714-0_6
Wang, Y. (2004). The Ethical Power of Music: Ancient Greek and Chinese Thoughts. Journal of Aesthetic Education, 38(1), 89–104. https://doi.org/10.2307/3527365
Wang, Y., & Kantasiri, K. (2024). A Survey and Influence Study on the Development of Performance Art in Contemporary Chinese Erhu Adaptation Works. Journal of Ecohumanism, 3(4), 3041-3052. https://doi.org/10.62754/joe.v3i4.3818
Wang, Z., & Wong, K. (2022). Factors influencing the career intentions of music performance students: An integrated model analysis. International Journal of Music Education, 40(4), 554-570. https://doi.org/10.1177/02557614221077445
Whitcomb, R., Berger, L. M., & Schmidt, C. (2011). A General Music Experience in China: Reflections and Lesson Ideas. General Music Today, 25(1), 14-18. https://doi.org/10.1177/1048371310396482
Wnezhuo, M. (2023). Research and Analysis of the Communication Strategy of Music Variety Shows: master’s thesis [Master’s thesis, Minsk: BSU]. https://elib.bsu.by/handle/123456789/306786
Yang, F., & Tamney, J. (2011). Confucianism and Spiritual Traditions in Modern China and Beyond (Vol. 3). Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004215696
Yang, H. L., & Saffle, M. (2017). China and the West: Music, Representation, and Reception. University of Michigan Press. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.5555199
Yang, S. (2021). On the meta-category of Chinese music aesthetics (L. Ma, Trans.). World Scientific. https://doi.org/10.1142/11963
Zhang, H., Cone, M. H., Everett, A. M., & Elkin, G. (2011). Aesthetic leadership in Chinese business: A philosophical perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 101, 475-491. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-0734-z
Zhang, Y. H., & Rose, K. (2001). A brief history of Qi. Paradigm Publications.
Zhirong, Z. (2022). Chinese Aesthetics in a Global Context. Singapore: Springer.
Zuckert, R. (2006). The purposiveness of form: A reading of Kant’s aesthetic formalism. Journal of the History of Philosophy, 44(4), 599-622. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/hph.2006.0075
