Innovative Research on Music Literature in Tang & Song Dynasties

 

From May 16 to 18, the academic symposium titled "Sound, Technology, and Text: A Study of Music Literature in Tang and Song Dynasties," hosted by the School of Humanities at Shanghai Normal University, took place in Shanghai. Scholars and experts engaged in in-depth discussions on topics including the historical trajectory, textual forms, technical carriers, and cross-cultural dissemination of music literature during the Tang and Song periods.

 

Cao Xu from the Shanghai Institute of Literature and History highlighted that research on Tang and Song music literature is currently reconstructing the essential characteristics of the super-media nature of Tang and Song art through interdisciplinary approaches and innovative theories. Future research should further explore cutting-edge fields such as sound archaeology and the mechanisms of artistic synesthesia.

 

Wang Xiaodun from Wenzhou University introduced the forthcoming publication “A Critical Edition and Study of Goryeo Music History Annals.” For the first time ever, the book systematically organizes hundreds of Chinese musical tunes that have been preserved on the Korean Peninsula but have been lost in China, aiming to reveal the micro-mechanisms of the spread of Han culture beyond its borders.

 

Qian Zhixi from Peking University, through his research on the evolution from elegance to vulgarity in the lyrics of wind-and-drum music from the Han to the Song dynasties, pointed out that the archaistic creations of literati such as Liu Zongyuan and Jiang Kui have a dual nature. They not only continue the elegant musical tradition of the Wei and Jin dynasties of modifying old tunes to fill in new lyrics but also reflect the trend of musical revivalism among Song literati.

 

Published in Social Sciences Weekly, Issue 1955, Page 4