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Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c11.s3: C. Types of Songs and Dances

Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c11.s3

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English

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C. Types of Songs and Dances

Lion Dance

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Lion Dance of Five Orientations (*Wufang shiziwu*), one of the eight musical dances for standing playing of the Tang Dynasty, was a large-scale musical dancing played by groups and also called Peaceful Music. According to Du You’s *Tondian* • Music VI, “Peaceful Music also meant the Lion Dance of Five Orientations. The image of lion, a beast, came from India and Sri Lanka in the southwest, wearing clothes made by sewing furs, players were imitating the gestures and movements of lions: two people would hold a rope, pretending to be training the lions; players would act as lions with different fur colours according to orientations. A group of others would sing the praise of peace, frolicking along with the dancers, the clothing being all like those in Kunlun.” The *Old Book of Tang·Musical Record* had similar descriptions. According to *Folk Music Collections*, “instruments include Bili, flute, pabam, four-colour drum, Kakko, Jilou drum and drama includes the dancing of five orientations with five zhang in height and five colours in clothing. Twelve people, called lion men, played one lion, wearing the red forehead ribbons, painted clothes and holding the red whisks and the music and dance on praising peace was played.

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*Kamala Lakshman*

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Lion dance during the northern Song Dynasty

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The lion is an auspicious animal and has a close tie with Indian Buddhism. It is said that when the Buddha was born, 500 lions came from the snow mountain and served standing at the two sides of the door. Lion dance was already popular in the Central Plains at the time of Three Kingdoms. Lions were worshipped by the Kucha royal. The General Lü Guang of Former Qin Dynasty (352-394) attacked the Western Regions with troops,

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Lion Dance

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destroyed Kucha and brought thousands of Kucha artists back to Liangzhou (now in Wuwei of Guansu). They mixed the Han elements with the lion dance and produced the lion dance of five orientations. When the dancing began, tens of Kakko were being beaten together. Green, red, yellow, white and black lions were standing in the corresponding five directions of east, west, south, north and middle. Ten people were playing five lions, and the other two played the warriors holding a coloured ball teasing and 140 people were dancing beside and playing the Kucha music. They used various kinds of instruments to foil the atmosphere. The scene was completely spectacular and inspiring which reflected magnificent atmosphere of the flouring Tang Dynasty.

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Apart from the court, the lion dance was popular both in the army and the folk, just as described in Bai Juyi's *Xiliang Techniques*. For over 2,000 years, the lion dance has been fashionable and popular and it is an important festival entertainment form for all Chinese home and abroad.

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(Zhao Jiazi & Liu Jian)

Triumphant March of Prince of Qin

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*Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā*, also known as *Vijaya-Gītā* and later renamed as *Seven Merits*, was gaining widespread popularity among people during the Wude period when Emperor Taizong reigned, Tang dynasty. Later, it was re-compiled into a court dance with music under the order of Emperor Taizong, and was once widely spread in the Western Regions and even brought to Japan.

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Creation and Evolution

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The original version of *Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā* was created during the Wude period of Tang. In the 3ʳᵈ year of Wude (620 CE) when Emperor Taizong defeated Liu Wuzhou, people were all singing *Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā* to celebrate his success (*Old Books of Tang*, volume XXIX). It was also said that soldiers in armies played *Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā*. (*New Books of Tang*, volume XXI). This is the folk version of *Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā* which includes lyrics and melody, and takes the form of folk rhyme and probably has no dances or just simple dances available in early times. Yang Xianyi believes that the folk version of *Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā* was created by Turks and was then introduced into the Tang armies.

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In the 1ˢᵗ year of Zhenguan (627 CE), Emperor Taizong held a banquet to entertain ministers, in which, he ordered for the first time to play *Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā* in the royal palace. During the early stage that Emperor Taizong inherited the throne, *Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā* began to become harmonious in melody thanks to Lv Cai, a versatile scholar and was greatly improved and optimised with simple lyrics and dances. In the seventh year of Zhenguan (633 CE), Emperor Taizong created the drawing of *Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā* and ordered Lv Cai to teach 120 musicians (or 120 dancers by another saying) to dance in accordance with the drawing, they were all practised in armours with halberds. Several days later, the practice and rehearsal was completed. *Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā* was one of the drum dances mixed with the elements of Qiuci music. Later, the emperor issued another order to Wei Zheng to change the lyrics and rename it as Qi De (Seven Merits) Dance. From then on, *Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā*, as one of the grand ceremonial classic melodies began to take shape. The production and evolution of *Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā* incorporates the music styles of a variety of nationalities and absorbs the talent of royal musicians and it is undoubtedly a masterpiece full of concern and vitality of folk art. This is the root cause that *Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā* can be widely spread through generations.

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Painting of Naxi Music, 'Triumphant march of Prince of Qin' (Qinwang pozhen yue)

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A poster of the performance of 'Triumphant march of Prince of Qin' (Qinwang pozhen yue)

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Lyrics of *Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā

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Lyrics of *Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā* are available in two versions. The lyrics recorded in *Old Books of Tang* and the *Collection of Yuefu Poems* as "Warriors receive the order of emperor to fight against enemies. They bid farewell to the emperor and set foot on a journey to the battlefield." *Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā* is sung by everyone to celebrate success. The lyrics are short and simple, and should be the folk version of *Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā* and its main character may not be Prince Qin (Emperor Taizong) and more like a general or solider who was telling a story. This is probably why Emperor Taizong ordered Wei Zheng to change the lyrics after he decided to use it as a tool to enhance his authority.

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The court version of *Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā* recompiled by Wei Zheng is renamed as *Seven Merits*, which extols the seven merits of Emperor Taizong just as its name implies. The melody is unknown for us today, but through the *New Yueh-Fu·Seven Merits Dance* created by Bai Juyi, who enjoyed the *Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā* during Yuanhe period (806-820 CE), we can get a glimpse of the general meaning of its contents: Emperor Taizong orders to present silk to those people who bury the bodies of soldiers without relatives (first merit). In a great famine, gold and silver in the national treasury are offered to starving people selling their children for food, so that they could get their children back (second merit). When Wei Zheng was seriously ill, Emperor Taizong dreamt of Wei Zheng saying farewell to him at night; he woke up surprised and couldn't help crying; another minister Zhang Gongjin passed away, Emperor Taizong arranged his funeral by himself in great sorrow (third merit). Thousands of the maids who had been confined in the royal palace for a long time were released under the order of the Emperor (fourth merit). Emperor Taizong inquires the law cases by himself all the time for fear of unjust cases (fourth merit); Emperor Taizong was kind enough to send 400 condemned prisoners back home and wanted to punish them the next year, and when the time came, all 400 prisoners came back for death. (fifth merit). General Li Ji was greatly ill, and the doctor said his disease must be treated by the drugs mixed with ashes of the emperor's beard; emperor Taizong then cut off his beard and burnt it (sixth merit). General Li Simo was shot by an arrow. Emperor Taizong sucked the poisoned blood out for him personally (seventh merit).

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*Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā* that was introduced into India is neither the original version nor the melody and lyrics of *'Seven Merits'*.

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Transmission into the West and East

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It can be figured out according to historical records that '*Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā*' had been introduced into India before Master Heun Sang met Siladitya. Siladitya and Janaka Kumara both knew '*Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā*' of *mahā-cīna* (China in ancient India). It features remarkable artistic charm and combines the elements of the western regions, and therefore becomes very popular among the different peoples; it is most likely that envoys of countries in the Western Regions, foreign business men or monks who once saw '*Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā*' in the royal palace introduced it and Emperor Taizong's good reputation into their own countries, and then it was brought into India by word of mouth.

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The Chinese character "Qin" is equivalent to "*cīna*" in Sanskrit. The "Prince Qin" in '*Records of the Western Regions of the Great Tang*' written by Master Heun Sang is the author's translation to '*cīna-rāja*'. Siladitya referred to the emperor of '*mahā-cīna*' as '*cīna-rāja*' generally, so we can notice that he has no ideas about the origin of titles of Prince Qin and emperor of Tang. The '*Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā*' mentioned by Siladitya can be directly translated to the song eulogizing the victory of Emperor of China.

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'*Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā*' was probably changed in form when it was brought into India, with only lyrics and music left and the dance part was missing. Its lyrics and music part were also quite different from its original versions due to the reorganisation and re-composition by audiences and might convey the spectacles of court military dances and anecdotes of the great Tang dynasty. In the records made by Master Heun Sang, both Siladitya and Janaka Kumara used the words “singing” or “hearing” when talking about ‘*Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā*’, and this was just in line with the oral way of transmission by bards, and the dance part might have got lost in the course of transmission.

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Moreover, *Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā* was also once introduced into Tibet. In the second year of Changqing (822 CE), envoys of Tang came to the Tubo Kingdom. “The musicians then played *Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā* and other famous melodies of Tang to entertain them and meanwhile pay respect to Tang.” (*New Books of Tang*, Volume 216). The music score and dance of *Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā’* also travelled far away across the sea to Japan with the Japanese envoys, which can be proven by the 5-string *Pipa Music Score for Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā* copied by Shi Daniang and *Pictures of the Dance of Cīna-Rāja-Vijaya-Gītā in the Shinzei Kogakuzu (Pictures of Shinzei Ancient Music)*.

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(*Zhang Yuan*)

Nishangyuyi Melody

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*Nichang Yuyi Dance* is also called *Dance of Nichang Yuyi* and *Nichang* for short. It was the royal music and dancing in Tang Dynasty and also one of Fa music. The initial name was *Brahman Music* that was contributed by Yang Jingshu, the Jiedushi of Xiliang during Kaiyuan Period. After the music was recomposed and lyrics were added by Emperor Xuanzong, Li Longji, the name was changed to *Nichang Yuyi Music*, which became a master work of music and dance in the flourishing Tang Dynasty. It can be a model of integration of music and dance between India and China.

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According to the *Records of the Tang Dynasty* written by Wang Bo in early Northern Song Dynasty of Five Dynasties, which recorded the laws and regulations of the Tang Dynasty, “on July 10, in the 13th year of Tianbao Period (754 CE), the Taiyue Department contributed to the song names and then

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*A Chinese painting of Nichang feather dance (Nichang Yuyi)*

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some music names were changed.” *Brahman Music* was changed to *Nichang Yuyi*. Du You in the Tang Dynasty wrote *Li Dao Tips*, which had a similar record as “in July of the 13th year of Tianbao Period, the names of music was changed...”, and the name Huang Zzhongs Shang *Brahman Music* was changed to *Nichang Yuyi Music*. Because Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty advocated Daoism, he added some Daoist music elements into the *Nichang Yuyi Music* when he recomposed it. Therefore, *Nichang Yuyi Music* was not only a well-known omagari, but also a famous Fa Music.

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Regarding this music, there are many legends. *The Hidden History of Tang* by Lu Zhao described that, “Luo Gongyuan knew many occult sciences and used to go to the Moon Palace with Emperor Xuanzong. Hundreds of fairies were in white silk clothes and rainbow garments, dancing in the hall. Asked the name of music, they replied it was *Nichang Yuyi*. The emperor remembered the tune and came back. Musicians were called the next day and created *Nichang Yuyi Music* on the basis of the melodies.” *The Unofficial Biography of Yang Taizheng* described that *Nichang Yuyi Music* was completed by Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty when he went to Sanxiang facing the Nvji Mountain. It was also said that, “at the night of Mid-autumn Day in the 29th year of Kaiyuan Period (741 CE), the emperor toured the Moon Palace with Ye Fashan, heard fairies playing the music and then he joined the playing with a Jade flute.” The song was called *Nichang Yuyi* and was passed on to the musical department.

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Bai Juyi, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, described in detail the structures and postures of the music dance in his poem of *Nichang Yuyi Music and Weizhi*. The whole music included three parts, ie Sanxu, Zhongxu and Qupo, and had a total of 36 stages. Six stages composing Sanxu, purely played by instruments without dancing and singing; all kinds of instruments joined in with rubato and graceful tones. Beats appeared in the Zhongxu, which was also called Beating Xu and had a total of 18 stages; the plates were used to beat and all instruments were played together. The music was from lento to moderato, being graceful with dancing and singing. Twelve stages composing Qupo, which had more tones, fast beats and sonorous melodies and was the upsurge of the whole music. Only dancing was performed without singing at the end; beats became gradually relieved and faded out in a prolonged sound. The whole section of music was pleasant, dancing was graceful, and clothing was beautiful in colours. It focussed on the images of an illusory fairyland and fairies, and was very romantic indeed.

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As ‘*Nichang Yuyi Music*’ was recomposed by Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty and Lady Yang was good at dancing to it. Therefore, it was popular during the periods of Kaiyuan and Tianbao (713-755 CE) of the Tang Dynasty. After An Lushan Rebellion, it was fading and even not seen in the palace. Up to the Kaicheng Period during the reign of Emperor Wenzong (836-840 CE), it was once rearranged and performed based on the old one, but was finally lost along with the turbulent political situation at the end of the Tang Dynasty. Li Yu, the Emperor of the Southern Tang Dynasty of the Five Dynasties, obtained the incomplete notation, organised and played with an imperial concubine, Zhaohui. According to ‘*The Songs of Taoist Baishi • the First Small section of Zhongxu of Nichang*’ written by Jiang Kui, a poet of the Southern Song Dynasty who was good at rhyming, “In the year of Bingwu Period (1186), I stayed in Chansha, visited Zhu Rong and obtained the sacrificing songs called ‘*Yellow Emperor Yan and Storax*’ as well as the 18 Que of Shang melody of Nichang Music from the old musician book. All had no tunes without any words. According to ‘*Prosody*’ written by Shen (Shen Kuo’s ‘*Mengxi Bitan*’), ‘*Nichang*’ should not be Dao Melody but be Shang Melody. Letian’s poems mentioned that there are six Que in the Sanxu, but here it was composed of two, so which one was right? However, the syllables were graceful and not like the music of today. I had no time to complete, so I finished one Que in the Zhongxu to spread.” Jiang added the lyrics, ‘*The First Paragraph of Zhongxu of Nichang*’, for one paragraph in the 18 paragraphs of scores and it was passed on to us.

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(Zhao Jiazi)

Brahman Sangeet

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Music of Brahman, an ancient Indian Music. The Brahman is also called ‘Brahman Quote’ or ‘Mochizuki Brahman Quote’. Since the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Brahman had represented Ancient India, meaning “Brahman people’s country”. According to historical records, about in the Year

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*The phoenix Chinese harp introduced from ancient India into the Western Regions.*

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of Yonghe in the Eastern Jin (345-356 CE), a batch of Indian ancient instruments and music were brought into China, including instruments of a phoenix head kugo, pipa, flute and bronze drum as well as music of ‘*Shashijiang*’ and ‘*Heaven Song*’. In the eighth year of Taiyuan Period of Eastern Jin (383 CE), Lü Guang started a war in the Kucha and Karasahr, and many instruments and music of the Western Regions were brought back to Liangzhou (now in Wuwei of Gansu). Indian Buddhist music of Brahmin Music was introduced in Liangzhou then, and became a great musical composition after recomposing. It was gigaku in the Northern and Southern Dynasties and became a Royal Academy omagari in the Tang Dynasty. According to ‘*New Tang Book·Rites and Music Records and Music Garden*’, in the 8ᵗʰ year of Kaiyuan Period of Tang (754 CE), Khrom of Hexi, Yang Jingshu offered ‘*Brahman Music*’ to the Emperor Xuanzong, who was very fond of it. In the 13ᵗʰ year of Tianbao Period (754 CE), this emperor a music lover. recomposed ‘*Brahman Music*’, added the lyrics and changed the name to ‘*Nichang Yuyi Music*’.

Natyashastra

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*Natyashastra*, regarded as the Dramaturgy or Theory of Drama was written by Bharatamuni, a dramatic scholar and musicologist in ancient India. It is the earliest work in theory of drama in India. Natya means dance in Sanskrit, and then changes into the drama integrating music, dance, language, etc. According to legend, Bharatamuni was a writer with the same status with Valmiki and Vyasa. He was a great scholar, and his book *Natyashastra* is a classic handed down from ancient times. But, the process of writing *Natyashastra* was very long, lasting about 300 or 400 years, therefore, the writing style is not unified in the previous and subsequent parts, and there is repetition and paradox. The earliest version is rumored to have had 6,000 *shloka*, while the existing versions include 36 chapters of southern version and 37 chapters of northern version, with about 5,000 Shloka, and it was updated by constant additions, deletions and revision by people of several generations. For the time of finishing the book, some people think that the time was in the 2^nd century BCE, while the majorities believe that it was in the 4^th or 5^th century CE, and finally, it is decided as before the 7^th century CE.

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*Natyashastra* covers the text theory of drama, music and dance, and standard of stage practice. The first chapter discusses the origin, nature and function of drama. The second to fifth chapters discuss the theater and dance, etc. The sixth and seventh chapters expound the theory of rasa. The concept of “rasa” is from vedic literature, with the original meaning of “juice”, “fluid”, “flavour” etc and in the *Upanisad* it is extended to “one of the five objects of sense (colour, sound, smell, taste and touch). Bharatamuni follows the concept of “taste”, and gives it more comprehensive and profound meaning, making the theory of taste become a theoretical center for stage performance practice. Bharatamuni also puts forward another important concept “feeling”, and thinks it is the cause and means of producing “taste”, it can refer to the situation, character, event, and also action or emotion, thus, “producing the taste associated with various performances”. The theories of feeling and taste in *Natyashastra* exert a profound influence upon Indian literature and art at that time. Later, they are widely used in the fields of poetics and art, and are still the soul of the aesthetic theory system in India up to now, as Bharata Gupt says: “Taste is not only the soul of poetry and drama, but also the soul of music, dance and painting”. *Natyashastra* thinks that feeling in the drama includes “common feeling”, “unsteady feeling” and “true feeling”, among them, eight common feelings include “love, laugh, sadness, anger, courage, fear, boredom and shock”, and unsteady feeling is actually “flexible feeling”, like true feeling, it is also attached to common feelings. These common feelings will produce the tastes that

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Cover page of '*Nāṭyaśāstra*'

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the audience can enjoy through body, language and dress-up performance, namely, erotic, funny, compassionate, violent, heroic, horrible, disgusted and surprised tastes. Bharatamuni also specifies the colour of the eight tastes as well as gods what they represent. Later, Abhinavagupta identifies the ninth taste “calmness” in his '*Abhinava Bharati*'.

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Nine types of eye expressions in Indian dance

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Chapters 8 to 14 of *Natyashastra* discuss the application of hands, feet and eyes in dance and drama. When discussing role shaping, Bharatamuni expounds the rules of using plots closely connected with it. He divides the plot into five stages (Avasthana): start (Arambha), efforts (Prayatna), hope (Praptisambhava), recognition (Niyataphlaprapti) and success (Phalayoga). And five elements of the plot include seed (Bija), oil drop (Bindu), episode (Pataka), small episode (Prakari) and end (Karya). In addition, he also stipulates the drama’s “five Sandhi”, 21 Sandhyantara and 56 Sandhyanga. Above various factors are interrelated and correspond to each other to form the inner structure of the drama, which makes the “emotional and meaningful form” of the drama be presented completely, so as to achieve the purpose of role shaping. Bharatamuni conducts a lot of induction and classification of dramatic roles, and stipulates the modal performance of various roles. He divides the body movement into body, facial expression and posture. Body includes head, hands, chest, waist, rib and foot; and facial expression covers eyes, eyebrows, nose, lips, cheeks and chin. He makes detailed description of the movement, posture and emotional expression of each part. For example, head movements include 13 kinds, such as nod, shaking head, alternate turning, raising head and others, which are used in the hint, rejection, questioning, arrogance, respectively. Eyes expression includes 36 kinds, such as side-looking, gaze, half-open eyelid and glare, which are used in the expression of eight tastes, eight common feelings and other emotions, respectively. In addition, he also defines six movements of nose, eight of cheek, six of chin and nine of neck. Hand gesture includes 28 one-hand gestures and 23 two-hand gestures, with each gesture having its own name and various uses. For example, one-hand gesture Pataka means flag, and in different places, it can represent more than 40 meanings such as the beginning of dance, clouds, forest, rejection, God of Wind and sleeping. If two hands cooperate in the same or different gestures, they can derive more meanings. For example, the left-hand thumb and middle, finger ring are held on the chest to make Simha Mukha gesture, which represents the deer, with right-hand thumb and ring finger, little finger held on the right corner of the eye, which represents the deer’s eyes, and they are used to describe a beautiful girl.

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Leg and hand movements in Indian dance

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Chapters 15 to 22 of *Natyashastra* discuss the language performance. Chapter 23 and the following chapters discuss the clothing, makeup, role, actors, audience and music, etc. Bharatamuni also make detailed stipulation of the theatre, setting of the troupe, sacrifice and performance, dress-up, acting movements and others.

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India’s performing arts have been following the principles stipulated by Bharatamuni in *Natyashastra* for 2,000 years, so that the artistic image, posture, gestures and facial expressions of modern Indian dance are mainly based on such theory.

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The time of Chinese people’s studying Bharatamuni’s *Natyashastra* is only about half a century. Jin Kemu has ever used a chapter in the *Sanskrit Literature History* published in 1964 for introducing “literary theory”, of which the first section briefly introduces the content and significance of *Natyashastra*. The next year, he translated some important chapters of *Natyashastra* and put them into his book *‘Collected Translations of Theory of Classical Literature and Art’*. Huang Baosheng has discussed the origin of Sanskrit drama and made discussions on the different aspects of *Natyashastra*, deeply and systematically in the *Indian Classical Poetics*, published in 1993. He translated 11 chapters of *Natyashastra* and put them into the *Collection of Sanskrit Poetics Works*, published in 2008. *Natyashastra* is of guiding significance for Indian literature research in China, and Chinese artists of Indian dance and their teaching activities.

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*(Jin Shanshan)*

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