Ancient Chinese Philosophy and the formation of Modern Chinese Piano Art

Zhernosenko Irina Aleksandrovna ORCID: 0000-0002-8571-6205 Professor of the Department of Humanities, Altai State Institute of Culture 656055, Russia, Altai Territory, Barnaul, Yurina str., 277 iaj2002@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Lun Tszyayui ORCID: 0009-0004-4049-0240 Postgraduate student of the Department of Museology and Tourism, Altai State Institute of Culture 656015, Russia, Altai Territory, Barnaul, Lenin ave., 66, room 303 ljy756242576@gmail.com

Philosophical concepts

Ancient Chinese philosophy developed over three thousand years before the end of the feudal monarchy in China in 1840, creating its own set of unique categories and basic concepts, which until that time was unknown to the Western philosophical tradition. Over such a long period of philosophical genesis, the meaning of the basic fundamental concepts has undergone a number of transformations, depending on the historical stage or the evolution of the views of certain philosophical schools in China. However, the basic concepts remained unchanged, acting as a worldview basis. Let's consider them.  

The concept of "Yin-Yang and the Five Elements". (Chinese). This is the basis of Chinese classical philosophy, which is a system of ancient materialistic concepts that set out worldview postulates and methodology for understanding and interpreting natural phenomena. In addition to philosophy, this concept is widely used in traditional Chinese medicine, fortune-telling practice, martial arts, numerology, and the art of Feng Shui.

The Yin-Yang category (kit. Defines two opposing and interrelated forces (or energies) in all natural phenomena and phenomena of being at the macrocosmic and microcosmic levels. The concept of "Yin-Yang" originated in the field of agricultural labor and originally referred to the north and south sides of the hill. People called the bright side facing the sun "Yang", and the dark side turned away from the sun was called "Yin". For ancient people, the most important thing in agriculture was understanding environmental changes, therefore, by observing the sun, they revealed the laws of agriculture that became the fundamental laws of existence: the opposition of yin and yang, the tide of yin and yang and the conversion of yin and yang.

The U-sin system (five elements; five elements; five actions; five movements; five columns; five phases; five states – kit. ) determines the states and changes of five basic substances: fire (?), water (?), wood (?), metal (?) and earth (?). It emphasizes the general concept and aims to describe the form of movement and transformational relationships of things. Yin-Yang is an ancient theory of the unity of opposites, and Wu-xing is a primitive theory of systems ^{[1, p. 231; 2, p. 125-127]}.

The integrated concept of "Wu-xing and Yin-Yang" is known all over the world as the basis of the theory of traditional Chinese medicine: thus, in the system of five elements of "Wu-Xing", each element corresponds to organs in the human body – dense and hollow. This shows the nature of their duality. Hollow organs are yang, dense organs are yin. But this is not just a theory of Chinese medicine, it includes a lot of aspects. "Wu-xing and Yin-Yang" were originally things and phenomena that objectively exist in nature. Gradually, the primary worldview of the Chinese was formed, which made it possible to comprehend the nature of the Universe and the laws of things. Later, on the basis of this concept, a system of Chinese medicine, a system of divination, etc. was created and the traditional Chinese religion, Taoism, was born.

The idea of "Wu-sin" also comes from agriculture. Floods were often observed in ancient times. After the flood subsided, people found that the water washed away the soil and revealed metal, but water can feed trees, and fire burns them. This is how the connection between the five elements (elements) was discovered: their mutual generation and mutual overcoming.

The mutual generation consists in the following:

I. Wood generates fire because wood is warm, it contains fire, which has been proven by the ancient method of extracting fire from dry pieces of wood.

II. Fire generates earth: when firewood burns, it turns to ashes. Ashes are the earth, so fire generates the earth.

III. The earth generates metal, metal is hidden in stone, mountains are made of stone, so the earth generates metal.

IV. Metal generates water: water condenses on metal. In ancient times, gold mines were located near rivers – native gold was mined there. And the metal melts, becoming a liquid (a property of water).

V?Water generates a tree, nourishes it.

The mutual agreement consists in the following:

I. The tree defeats the earth because the roots absorb nutrients from the soil, the trees become stronger, and the soil, if not replenished, is naturally depleted.

II. The earth conquers water, because dams built in ancient times could stop the flow of water.

III. Water defeats fire, because it extinguishes the flame.

IV. Fire defeats metal, because it melts metal.

V. Metal defeats wood, because forged metal and cutting tools can cut and saw wood ^{[2, pp. 125-127; 3, pp. 84-86]}.

As for the appearance of the concept of "Yin-Yang", some researchers believe that it originated in the era of the Xia Dynasty. In the book "I Ching" (Chinese: "Canon of Changes" or "Book of Changes") of the Xia Lianshan dynasty, the signs Yin Yao (broken line) and Yang Yao (solid line) formed eight trigrams (sets of three lines), all possible ratios of which made up the entire system of the "Book of Changes" consisting of 64 hexagrams (sets of six lines each).

However, the earliest book officially dedicated to Yin and Yang was The Book of Changes during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, written by officials responsible for writing the history of the state and for predictions. They not only summarized the information about the predictions left by their predecessors, but also integrated into these predictions the experience of public life at that time. Since then, the book "I Ching" has been a collection of ancient predictions used to determine the future. The I Ching system describes the laws of change of phenomena and things through a set of symbolic forms, thus expressing the philosophy and cosmology of Chinese classical culture. But this book was not easy to understand, and during the Warring States period, someone gave it an interpretative version called Yi Zhuan. Later, "Yi Jing" and "Yi Zhuan" were combined into the book "Zhou Yi".

The categories "Yin" (?) and "Yang" (?), described in "Yi Zhuan", are used to describe two opposite but interdependent aspects of nature and human phenomena, thereby symbolizing the binary nature of all aspects of the universe. "Yin", denoted by the Yin Yao sign () is an interrupted line, embodies darkness, softness, compression, peace, the negative pole and other properties. "Yang" is indicated by the sign Yang Yao (?)) – a solid line, embodies light, strength, expansion, activity, positive pole and other properties. Combination of Yin and Yang Yao Yao to form eight basic trigrams (): Qian (?, Qi?n ?), Blow (?, Du? ?), Lee (?, L? ?), Zhen (?, Zh?n ?), Xun (?, X?n ?), Kan (?, K?n ?), Gen (?, G?n ?) and kun (?, K?n ?), each of which represents a corresponding side of the world, and their corresponding energies. The process of unfolding the Great Limit into trigrams and hexagrams is identical to the process of the birth of the Universe, the world of "ten thousand things". The neo-Confucian philosopher Shao Yun (XII century) describes this cosmological process in this way: "The Tao gives birth to the One, the One is the Great Limit. The one generates two, the two becomes two [opposite] images. Two gives rise to four, four becomes four symbols. Four gives rise to eight, eight becomes eight trigrams. Eight trigrams give rise to sixty-four [hexagrams], sixty-four things are there, and post-celestial earthly numbers appear. Everything that exists, without exception, has its root in the One. Ten thousand [things] appear from the One and, having exhausted the celestial numbers, return back to the One" ^[4].

Graphically, this can be expressed as follows:

Thus, each trigram consists of three yin-yao or yang-yao, and their combinations form 64 hexagrams representing various natural phenomena, events and philosophical ideas. The features of interaction and changes in the yin and yang ratios in hexagrams reflect the dynamic nature of the phenomena transmitted by them, as shown in the figure:

The embodiment of philosophical elements in modern piano work

In modern Chinese culture, the influence of ancient philosophy on ideas about music is clearly visible both on a theoretical level and in practice. One of the features of Chinese philosophy in its approach to defining the functions and meaning of music is the belief that music is not just an aesthetic entertainment, but a moral, philosophical art form. Such views on music and culture, formed in ancient Chinese philosophical teachings, continue to significantly influence modern aesthetic concepts and features of musical creativity in China. Many modern musical works are created for traditional musical instruments, as well as based on traditional ideas about the sound combination and the emotional content of music. At the same time, modern Chinese composers actively use Western principles of composition in their work, which embodies the continuity and integration of ancient philosophical heritage into modern composition techniques.

In November 1987, Zhao Xiaosheng presented a piece for piano "Taiji" at the Shanghai International Music Competition "Sino-Western Cup" ()), receiving the first prize among small works. At the same time, his article "Tai Chi Music" was published^[5], published in the magazine "Musical Art", which also caused a powerful resonance in the music world. In 1990, Zhao Xiaosheng developed ideas about the use of the philosophical concept of "Tai Chi" in music in the work "The Compositional system of Tai Chi – a collection of musical theses by Zhao Xiaosheng", published by the Guangzhou Branch of the Publishing House of Scientific Popularization. For more than ten years, Zhao Xiaosheng has been developing the theory of the "Tai Chi composition system", creating many musical works in different genres and forms, delivering dozens of academic reports, the central theme of which was the development of the Tai Chi compositional system [6-8, etc.]. Finally, in 2006, the Shanghai Music Publishing House published an updated the publication of the work "The compositional system of Tai Chi". This work became the first in China the most complete theoretical work on the technique of modern composition ^[9].

The "Tai Chi composition System" developed by Ch. Xiaoshen is a musical composition system based on 64 hexagrams–predictions of "Zhou Yi". The treatise "The Compositional System of Tai Chi" and the piano piece "Tai Chi" by Zhao Xiaoshen are two unique phenomena with great cultural value and have had a positive impact on the development of modern music in mainland China.

The treatise "The compositional system of Tai Chi" consists of three chapters. In the first chapter, Zhao Xiaosheng outlined the principle of "Holi" (), revealing the cultural and aesthetic understanding of twentieth-century music in its historical development, revealing its dialectical nature. He explained it this way: "A composer can use a specific base point as a starting point in those categories where ideas and emotions, center and centerlessness, harmony and disharmony, nationality and internationalization, etc. are opposite to each other; comprehensively apply various other opposing factors, look for suitable "synthesis points" for work or "centers of convergence", around which several factors will simultaneously take shape, thereby forming new stylistic features" ^{[9, p.41]}.

In Chapter II, Zhao Xiaoshen analyzes modern musical composition techniques based on dodecaphony and "musical set theory", based on the works of Howard Hanson "Harmonic Materials of modern Music: Resources of the tempered Scale" and Allen Forte "The Structure of atonal Music", and on this basis offers his own concept applications of the "sound set"() ^[10].

In order to understand the essence of Zhao Xiaosheng's concept, it is worth taking a short excursion into the "creative laboratory" of Western composers who experimented with varieties of serial musical composition techniques. As you know, the founder of this musical direction is Arnold Schoenberg, the creator of atonal compositions and the method of dodecaphony – the construction of musical works from certain melodic wholes: rows of 12 non–repeating sounds of a chromatic scale (the so-called series). Moreover, the series could be not only horizontal (melodic), but also vertical – in the form of peculiar chords. During the unfolding of the musical fabric, the series can be transformed by inversion, crustacean, and crustacean inversion, and can also be repeated from any high-pitched sound, since there is no concept of fret, consonance or dissonance in the atonal system – all sounds are equivalent.

The ideas of A. Schoenberg were picked up and developed by Milton Babbitt, who, being a professional mathematician, develops his concept of a "musical and mathematical vision" of twelve-tone music, calling it "set theory". But, unlike Schoenberg, who interacted simply with "series", M. Babbitt developed a system of "high-altitude set/ series" based on the linear ordering of pitch classes ("pitch class" in the terminology of American musicologists), mathematically deducing the maximum number of permutations of any 12 sounds of which his "series" consist. This number is 12! – factorial ^[11].

The concept of "pitch class", in turn, was developed in the works of his student Allen Fort, the developer of the "pitch class set theory". Using the concept of "heights" (sounds), A. Fort formulates the essence of his system in this way: "It is assumed that only twelve heights represent the basis of the chromatic system <...> This means that all twelve heights are represented within one octave (assuming octave equivalence) and that the notation of the same sound can be different (assuming enharmonic equivalence)" ^{[12, p. 1]}. A. Fort developed a tabular system, describing all possible variants of rows consisting of 3 to 12 heights. The height ranges themselves are indicated by numbers from zero to 11. If M. Babbitt's series are "ordered sets" ("series"), then A. Fort adds "disordered sets" ("series").

As mentioned above, Zhao Xiaosheng mentions the name of another prominent American musical figure, Howard Hanson, next to A. Fort's name as a source of inspiration for his creation of the "Tai Chi composition system". However, his compositional experiments tended more towards tonal, neo-romantic stylistics, although they contained quite interesting ideas and "analytical algorithms", which were later developed in Allen Forte's "set theory".

Chapter III is the core of the entire theoretical system of Ch. Xiaoshen is called "Tai Chi". The composer uses the symbols "Zhou Yi" to create a musical work, taking as a basis, or unit of reference, the "Tai Chi chord", which is a "vertical series", then, spreading the chord horizontally, forms a "Tai Chi Scale" ("horizontal series"). Thirty-two pairs of complementary series or sound series corresponding to 64 hexagrams were derived from the "Tai Chi scale".

The composer, who was fascinated by Western theories of serial music and the fret of dodecaphony, managed to fill the rigorous mathematical calculations of atonal serial music with the elegant perfection of Chinese philosophy and the sublime spirit of Chinese culture.

Of the eight basic trigrams of the I Ching system, the two most important are: the Qian trigram (?) – absolute Yang, which represents Heaven; and Kun (?) – absolute Yin, symbolizing the earth. "Qian and Kun are opposite forces, but they are interdependent, just like day and night, manifesting their opposite properties. Strength and tenderness, life and death, man and woman, the sinister and the auspicious – each of these pairs can be considered as a reflection of Qian and Kun" ^{[5, p. 181]}. In each of the eight trigrams, Yang Yao and Yin Yao are combined in different combinations, embodying the most diverse manifestations of being in the universe. Based on the philosophy of Yin-Yang, Zhao Xiaosheng finds similar manifestations in music: If we take the consonant interval third as the basis of the musical fabric, then the small (minor) third will correspond to Yin Yao (broken line), and the large (major) third will correspond to Yang Yao (solid line): as the birth of a Binary from the Great Limit, which, in turn, generates four triads that give the main characteristics of the Yin and Yang energies (reduced, minor, major and increased triads like old and young Yin and Yang), and the thirds added to the triads generate eight basic seventh chords (mmm, mmB, mBm, mBB, Bmm, BmB, BBm, BBB) corresponding to eight trigrams ^{[5, p. 182][13, p. 36-37]}.

The resulting harmonious harmonic system is best illustrated by the treatise "Explanation of the Plan of the Great Limit of Taiji" – "Taiji tusho", created by the neo-Confucian philosopher of the Song Dynasty Zhou Dongyi. This treatise asserts that "Tai Chi" (or "The Great Limit") is the primary source of the Universe: both people and all things consist of the interaction of two energies yin and yang and the five elements. The five elements combine to form yin and yang, and yin and yang, in turn, collectively form Tai Chi. This concept of the doctrine of the Great Limit, proposed by Zhou Dongyi, has been repeatedly discussed and supplemented by thinkers of subsequent generations; this is how an important part of the system of categories of the doctrine of Tai Chi was formed. In particular, great attention was paid to the Taoist category "Wu Ji Tu" () – the infinity diagram, on the basis of which the concept of "Tai Chi Tu" () – the Plan of the Great Limit, which is relevant to this day and actively used in philosophical works, was created.

The Tai Chi chord - "Tai Chi He Hsien" ()) – is the fundamental chord of the compositional system of Ch. Xiaoshen, which contains all the melodic models presented in the piano piece "Tai Chi". The Tai Chi chord consists of two parts: yin and yang, where black notes indicate that the chord belongs to the yin category, and white notes to yang. ^{[14,pp.42-44]}.

Since the concept of the Tai Chi chord goes back to the ideas of the Plan of the Great Limit, the chord is very similar in appearance to the trigrams and hexagrams of the Plan: Both chords and hexagrams consist of two parts in black and white (yin and yang), used in combination with each other. Each set of "pitch classes" (white Yang and black Yin) includes six intervals between tones: the perfect fifth, major and minor second and third steps, as well as a tritone (San Quan and, ,). Chords formed by sets of Yang and Yin structurally reflect each other; for example, the interval between the upper F and C represents an ideal fifth, and the interval between the two lowest notes, C# and G#, is also an ideal fifth ^{[13, p. 39]}.

       The basic idea of the essence of the Tai Chi chord stems from the ancient Chinese concepts of "Zhou Yi", according to which any consonance consists of notes of yin and yang, opposing each other, but at the same time mutually reversible and complementary. Each of the "pitch classes" of the Tai Chi chord (yin and yang) represents a "series" consisting of six intervals corresponding to certain requirements:

1. The notes should be arranged in a certain order, corresponding to the principle of six intervals: pure fifth, major and minor seconds and thirds, and tritone.

2. Each "pitch class" ends with its opposite in Yin-Yang expression, i.e. the Yin group begins with a yin sound, looping and ending with a yang sound, and the Yang group, starting with a yang sound, ends with a yin sound; this principle is called "embracing yin-yang" ().

 3. The main elements of the pentatonic should be contained within each group of notes.

4. The combination of two sets of notes (Yin and Yang) forms twelve notes, a twelve-tone series in which repetition or omission of individual notes is not allowed.

5. The notes of the Yin group and the Yang group represent a symmetrical structure, where the chords are an inversion, a mirror image of each other.

Within the framework of such a structure, the Tai chi scale consists of two pitch series of Yin and Yang, consisting of minor and major chords, respectively. In this case, the principle of "mutual transformation" of the ratio of Yin and Yang energies in the A and E chord of Tai Chi is applied. According to the concept of the pitch range of 64 hexograms (), the set of notes that make up the chord remains unchanged even after the Yin-Yang exchange; only the order of their arrangement changes, which is expressed in the "law of exchange A-E" (A-E).

At the same time, if you move the sound of A one octave higher and the sound of E one octave lower, a chord is formed based on thirds. If at the same time you change the position of the high bass spectrum in accordance with the principle of "Yang at the top, Yin at the bottom", you can get the first version of the position of the notes (see Fig.), and if you arrange it according to the principle of "Yin from above, Yang from below", a second version is formed:

This arrangement of chords and its variations allow us to draw the following conclusions:

1. The Yin and Yang note groups are symmetrical, their chords are a mirror image of each other;

2. The entire musical system is divided in half into the same number of Yin (minor) and Yang (major) triads;

3. The digital sequence of sounds is not a definition of their tones, but only indicates their rise or fall – the "pitch class".

Comparing the first and second versions of chords, despite the fact that the notes are arranged identically to each other, changes in the Yin and Yang groups and their tonality lead to significant harmonic changes ^{[5, pp. 242-245]}.

If the Tai Chi chord is spread out horizontally, you will get a scale marked with Ch. Xiaoshen as   Tai Chi gamma(). A similar construction of the scale is typical for traditional Chinese music: 12 l? (, "shi er l?") a chromatic scale of 12 steps, built with a ratio of pure fifths: re - la — mi — si — fa-sharp - do—sharp - sol—sharp - re-sharp- la—sharp — fa — do — sol.

The hieroglyph l? (?) means "rule, law, statute". In musical theory, it means "normative sound" or "pitch system". This means that 12 ly is the same "pitch class", "series", similar to Western systems, but with its own standard. So, another name of this system – l? l? () contains its important quality: the hieroglyph ? denotes even notes of the scale and have Yin quality, and ? – odd, Yang notes of the scale. The same principle was laid down by Ch. Xiaoshen in conceptualizing the Tai Chi scale is "Tai Chi Lui" ().

A similar principle is used as the basis for the construction of other traditional sound systems: pentatonics and heptatonics (heptatonics), systems of minor and major tones (heptatonics), dodecaphony (heptatonics). At the same time, Tai Chi Lu is still qualitatively different from them: two sets of Yin and Yang notes allow you to maintain balance in the compositional system and a clear internal structure, even when introducing various kinds of innovations into it.

Based on the law of 64 hexagrams "Zhou Yi" and the compositional principle of Tai Ji Lu, Zhao Xiaosheng develops a sound pitch range – also consisting of 64 hexagrams.

Sixty-four hexagrams, built by Zhao Xiaoshen, based on eight basic seventh chords corresponding to eight basic trigrams ^[15].

Fan Yu figuratively and concisely prescribes the system of musical hexagrams of Zhao Xiaosheng: "In the "magic" scheme of Zhao Xiaosheng, 64 hexagrams are arranged in a circle in the form of melodic rows and loop the rest of the musical text, like a circle of Tai chi-tu. In the middle, the composer places the same 64 hexagrams (16 on each of the four note-bearers), but "folded" vertically, in the form of intervals and chords. The very concept of a "hexagram" as a "six-element" structure in this case is conditional. Cells can contain any number of sounds from 2 to 12, the main thing is their interaction, the complementarity of the opposite principles of yin and yang" ^{[15, p. 41]}.

The hexagram configuration is a coherent system of composition methods that allows you to obtain various musical structures to create a wide variety of musical forms. Below are some common hexagram configuration methods:

1. The method of increasing sounds: the number of sounds in the set increases from less to more, while it is necessary to comply with the condition that all twelve sounds are reflected in the sound series;

2. The method of reducing sounds: the opposite of the first method, where the number of sounds decreases from more to less, while the rule of preserving all 12 tones is also observed;

3. Connection method: three or more sound combinations are combined into one complete set of twelve sounds;

4. Residual method: after a multi-note set, a subset of one or two notes is added, creating the effect of a sound environment, the number of subsets may not be fixed;

5. Partial fusion method: individual sounds can be separated by intervals, with the help of which similar and different sound effects occur simultaneously;

6. The rondo method: one of the hexagrams functions as a center around which, as if rotating, several other hexagrams are built, forming the structure of the musical series ABACAD...A;

7. Diffusion method: spreading the elements of one hexagram to another, and then to subsequent ones, forming a chain of interaction;

8. The "Zhou Yi" method: clockwise or counterclockwise movement from any hexagram taken as a starting point to create a sound combination corresponding to the principles of "Zhou Yi" ^{[5, pp. 223-229]}.

The piano piece "Taiji" demonstrates the realization of the compositional system of Taiji, organically absorbing the achievements of Western music. The form of the piece is characterized by strict logic, a balanced balance of structural elements and high aesthetics of sound. The eight "sections" of the piece represent a typical structure of traditional Chinese music. At the same time, the form of the piece "Tai Chi" can be considered as an inverse sonata form:

The greatness of this relatively small piece of music lies in the fact that it reveals in musical language the ideas about the origin of the universe and the philosophy of the interaction of Yin-Yang energies. Through the disclosure of the compositional principles of constructing a pitch series of 64 hexagrams, which provides control over the organization of the harmony of the work, the ontological constants of the ancient Chinese philosophy "Zhou Yi" are manifested. At the same time, the musical texture of the work is replete with modern rhythms and frequent changes of key, which makes it related to the figurative sphere of Western music. This play is like a Universe – it contains all the ontological principles.

Conclusion

In the course of our research, the oldest and most fundamental philosophical concepts of China have been examined: Wu-xing and Yin-Yang, which embody the universal vision of the foundations of the universe. Composer Zhao Xiaosheng's appeal to these concepts led him to equally fundamental discoveries in the field of modern music, embodied in his original work for piano, the piece "Tai Chi". This work has become a successful example of modern musical creativity, combining elements of classical Chinese philosophy and modern methods of composition. The worldwide success of the play is convincing proof that classical Chinese philosophy continues to have a huge impact not only on music, but also on world culture to this day. Thanks to the original structure and ontological ideas of the work, the author was able to demonstrate the high degree of influence of philosophy on music, to clearly show how classical Chinese philosophy influences traditional Chinese music and modern musical creativity, as well as to emphasize the unchanging role of Chinese tradition and philosophy in the works of our days.

Zhao Xiaosheng's approach to creating a musical composition structure based on the basic concepts of classical Chinese philosophy proved to be very productive. Based on the "Tai Chi system" developed by him, they were subsequently created: "The theory of symmetry of the center – Gong Zhu", by Feng Guanyin; the theory of Fan Xiaoming "The Wu-xing Composition Method" () and others ^{[16, p. 25]}. The emergence and formation of such theories, as well as the appearance of relevant musical works, undoubtedly lead to positive trends in the development of modern Chinese music and classical Chinese philosophy, once again confirming its status as a world cultural heritage and demonstrating its constant influence on modern world culture.