Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c11.s1.t2: Buddhist Music
Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c11.s1.t2
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Buddhist Music
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Buddhist songs are the anthems that use in the Buddhist chant form to praise Buddhas and Bodhisattvas or the music that is used to advocate Buddhism. One of the important forms of Buddhist music is to add music in the Buddhist texts and chants. During the Three Kingdoms Period, Buddha Dharma was brought into the East and the Indian Buddhist music was introduced to China Central Plains by eminent monks from the Western Regions or India. In volume XIII of *Eminent Monk Biography*, it is described that, "chanting Buddha Dharma was called zhuandu and anthem was called Sanskrit, all having music rhymes." Using cadence tones to read the Buddhist texts is called zhuandu, while using Buddhist chant form to praise the Buddhas and Bodhisattva is called fanbai which can be accompanied by instruments. Fanbai is also called zanbai, Brahma music, Sanskrit or Buddhist music. These are generally called Buddhist songs. During the Three Kingdoms Period, there were many popular fanbai, such as *Yu Mountain Fanbai*, *Nirvana Fanbai* and *Lianju Fanbai*. The name Buddhist
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A classical musical performance at Zhihua monastery, Beijing, China
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songs were first seen in the *Sui Book•Music Records*. According to records of Xiliang in this book, there were the songs *Everlasting Happiness*, *Jiequ Forever Harvest* and dancing music *Buddhist Song of Khotan*.
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As early as in the period of Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty (who reigned during 502-549 CE), the royal music was already integrated into many contents of Buddhist music. In Sui Dynasty, the Western Regions' dance was not only brought into the court but also played a leading role. Up to the Tang Dynasty, the impact of the Western Regions' dance and even Indian dance on Chinese Buddhist songs became more obvious. In 7^th^ century CE, even King Yongqiang of the Kingdom of Pyu (now in Burma) was influenced by Indian culture deeply and he believed in Buddhism and also sent Buddhist songs and musicians to China several times. It was altogether 10 kinds of Buddhist songs and 32 musicians. According to volume DLXIX of *Ce Fu Yuan Gui*, in 13^th^ year of Tianbao Period (754 CE), the name of Buddhist music which was originally popular in Kucha area was changed, for example, *Kucha Buddhist Songs* was changed to *Jinhua Dongzhen* and *Fast Kucha Buddhist Songs* was changed to *Fast Jinhua Dongzhen*. According to the Northern Song Chen Yang's *Music Book*, Tang music included over 20 kinds of music, such as *Puguang Buddhist Songs*, *Maitreya Buddhist Songs*, *Riguangming Buddhist Songs*, *Yamantaka Buddhist Songs*, *Apothecary Liuliguang Buddhist Songs*, *Sakyamuni Buddhist Songs* and *Avalokiteshvvara Buddhist Songs*. This indicated that Buddhist Songs were already very popular in Tang Dynasty. Some Buddhist songs were still retained in the Dunhuang potpourri.
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Mao Qiling wrote the *West River Poems* in the Qing Dynasty and said that “Buddhist songs already appeared in the Sui and Tang Dynasty and did not start in Jin and Yuan Dynasty.” For example, Yueh-Fu of Tang Dynasty had eight songs in Potuo tone, including Puguang Buddhist Songs and Riguangming Buddhist Songs. Yueh-Fu had nine Buddhist Songs in Qishi tone, including Shijiawen Buddhist Songs and Miaohua Buddhist Songs and two Buddhist songs in Yue tone, which were Da Miao Zhi Ji Buddhist Songs and Jie Buddhist Songs. Moni Buddhist Songs is in double tone. Sumi Qiju Buddhist Songs and Ritengguang Buddhist Songs are in Shang tone. Xiele Buddhist Songs are in Zhi tone. Four songs, including Poluoshu Buddhist Songs are in Yu tone. Qianxing Buddhist Songs is in Banshe tone. Tifan is in Yifeng tone. In current Wumen temple, people can still chant Buddhist songs. Every time when Buddhist songs were chanted, the Sheng and flute were accompanying Qing music that inherited the meanings of Buddhism. Various Buddhist songs were listed in *Kakko Records written by Nan Zhuo* in Tang Dynasty such as Vairocana Buddha Songs, The Four Kings, Atuomi Master Music, Forever Life, A Deer of Nine Colours, Sands of the Ganges, Mahayana, Pi Shramana, Avalokitesvara and Sakya-muni etc. Buddhist Songs in Tang Dynasty had the songs either introduced from India via the Western Regions, or created and recomposed by Tang people.
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Zhihua Temple of Beijing, which was built in the 11th year of Zhengtong Period of the Ming Dynasty (1444), inherited Buddhist songs through generations . In early 1950s, it passed on through 27 generations. The music works were most of the transcripts of Gongchi notations, among which there were 48 notations of wind music copied by monk Yonggan of Zhihua Temple, 66 incomplete notations of wind music copied by Zhihua Temple, 56 notations of wind music and 30 dharma-vessels music copied by nun Langkun of Shuiyue Nunnery and 137 notations of wind music copied by Chengshou Temple. Some melodies could be traced to the Tang and Song poems, and north & south music from Yuan and Ming as well as long-term popular folk instrumental music. These Buddhist songs can be played either along or together as a set. The instruments are mainly pipes and the rest of them are Sheng, flutes, Tunlo, drum, Chengzi, Nao and Bo etc. Zhihua Temple’s Buddhist songs were classic and elegant, and it preserved massive music information from Tang and Song, and became a representative of north China Buddhist songs. Nowadays, monks in this temple still play various kinds of Buddhist music works.
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(Zhao Jiazi)
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‘*Book of Songs*’ (*Leshu*), Fuming revised edition