MUZI MUZIChinese Matrix

Dongjing Scripture Music

One scripture, and a hall full of strings and flutes

Introduction

Ritual music of lay Dongjing societies, who chant the Dadong Scripture of Wenchang to strings, winds, gongs and drums

Dongjing music is the ritual music of lay Dongjing societies, who worship Wenchang, god of literature, and chant the Dadong Scripture of Wenchang. It blends Confucian and Daoist elements: the chant has hymn, penitence, response and grand modes, and the ensemble divides into a fine silk-and-bamboo band and a loud band of winds, gongs and drums. It is kept in the towns of Sichuan and Yunnan among the Han, Bai and Naxi. The national items are the Wenchang Dongjing music of Zitong, the Miaoshanxue women's Dongjing music of Tonghai and the Qiongdu Dongjing music of Xichang (II-128). The great temple on Qiqu Mountain in Zitong traces the music to the Qiandao years of the Southern Song; scripture texts from Lizhou in Sichuan record it in local use by 1636; and in Lijiang it survived after it had faded inland.

Timeline

Late Ming to present
1168 · EvolutionBy the Zitong temple tradition, the music began in the Qiandao years of the Southern Song (1165–1173) at the great temple on Qiqu Mountain, Wenchang's ancestral shrine. It was first called the 'sandalwood-blaze harmony' and was renamed Dongjing music after it came to be played for the Dadong Scripture of Wenchang (a temple tradition with no contemporary record).1636 · OriginIn 1636, the ninth year of Chongzhen, scripture texts of a ritual society in Lizhou, Sichuan, record that Dongjing music was already in use there. This is the earliest dated record of Dongjing activity found.1943 · EvolutionIn 1943 eighteen young women in Tonghai, Yunnan, founded the Miaoshanxue women's Dongjing society and learned gongche notation; in 1947 they played Dongjing in public at the Sanyuan temple, the first women to do so.2008 · ImpactIn 2008 the Wenchang Dongjing music of Zitong and the Miaoshanxue women's Dongjing music of Tonghai entered the second national ICH list as Dongjing music (II-128); the Qiongdu Dongjing music of Xichang was added as an extension in 2014.
  1. 1168EvolutionBy the Zitong temple tradition, the music began in the Qiandao years of the Southern Song (1165–1173) at the great temple on Qiqu Mountain, Wenchang's ancestral shrine. It was first called the 'sandalwood-blaze harmony' and was renamed Dongjing music after it came to be played for the Dadong Scripture of Wenchang (a temple tradition with no contemporary record).
  2. 1636OriginIn 1636, the ninth year of Chongzhen, scripture texts of a ritual society in Lizhou, Sichuan, record that Dongjing music was already in use there. This is the earliest dated record of Dongjing activity found.
  3. 1943EvolutionIn 1943 eighteen young women in Tonghai, Yunnan, founded the Miaoshanxue women's Dongjing society and learned gongche notation; in 1947 they played Dongjing in public at the Sanyuan temple, the first women to do so.
  4. 2008ImpactIn 2008 the Wenchang Dongjing music of Zitong and the Miaoshanxue women's Dongjing music of Tonghai entered the second national ICH list as Dongjing music (II-128); the Qiongdu Dongjing music of Xichang was added as an extension in 2014.

Heritage Listings

  1. 2008National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage2nd batch · II-128 Dongjing music [no. 627: Wenchang Dongjing music · Miaoshanxue women's Dongjing music · Zitong · Sichuan · Tonghai · Yunnan]
  2. 2014National ICH extension itemII-128 Dongjing music: Qiongdu Dongjing music · Xichang · Sichuan