China's art, like the Taoist Inner Dan, also has the problem of life, and takes the word life as the general program of China's art, but the word life has different expressions: form and spirit. Zhuangzi, a Taoist in the pre-Qin period, extended the theory of form and spirit to the aesthetic category, and created the aesthetic system of form and spirit in China's artistic aesthetics, which paid equal attention to form and spirit, unified form and spirit, and filled form and spirit. Zhuangzi's view of form and spirit is reflected in the discussion of the relationship between "Shu" and "Tao", which is also the significance of the fable of "meeting God but not seeing him, and being an official with Zhi Zhi" in his classic work "Master of Health".
During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, form and spirit were widely used as an aesthetic category, which was not only reflected in the aesthetics of real people, but also in artistic creation and appreciation. Gu Kaizhi pointed out in "Wei Jinsheng's Painting Praise" that "whoever lives and dies, who has eyes in his hands, dies first, is right, but writing about God in form is actually right, and it is good to use it in life, but it is lost in communication." In fact, if you are right, you will lose a lot, and if you are irregular, you will lose a little. It's as clear as an image. If you don't see it, it's not clear. "(13) It can be seen that in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, under the advocacy of metaphysical style, form and spirit, as a pair of aesthetic categories, have officially become an inseparable unified whole." "God" not only refers to people's inner spirit and emotion, but also refers to people's external attitude and spirit, and "God" itself embodies a kind of "shape"; And "form" also refers to "form" containing "spirit", which embodies the inseparable relationship between form and spirit.
Not only painting, but also China's music art, such as Qin musician Xu Shangying's "Xi Shan Qin Situation" in the late Ming Dynasty, fully demonstrated the close relationship between spirit and form. The purpose of this book is to combine form and spirit. Among the 24 conditions of Qin, the first nine conditions are harmony, quietness, clearness, remoteness, antiquity, quietness, ease and elegance, which is the spirit embodied by the author after integrating Confucianism and Taoism. The last fifteen conditions, such as beauty, brightness, brilliance, cleanliness, embellishment, roundness, firmness, macro, fineness, smoothness, health, lightness, weight, delay and speed, describe the appropriate conditions of piano sound. It can be seen from the second arrangement of god and form in Qin Lun that the author thinks that god is the subject and form is the object, so he puts god at the beginning of the discussion, but form and god are not separated, and they are bound to depend on each other, so god must be the commander in chief when discussing form; Rely on the support of the afterlife. "Western Hills" reflects the comprehensive view of form and spirit of China's instrumental culture, and is also the concrete expression of Taoist basic cultivation route and aesthetic thought in China's instrumental culture theory.
In China's instrumental music culture, form and spirit have their specific contents. Form refers to the material form in instrumental music performance, including the exercise of finger function, the mastery of techniques and skills, and the application of inner breath. God refers to the spiritual charm, which is a high degree of integration of the player's inner spiritual temperament and the mental outlook of the player, and the charm is condensed in the artistic conception of the music. In China's instrumental music culture, form and spirit are not independent and separated individuals, but the interdependent unity of opposites, which together constitute the aesthetic realm of China's instrumental music culture. "Both form and spirit" is the advanced realm of China's instrumental culture aesthetics.
In the process of interaction between "double cultivation of life" and "wonderful form and wonderful spirit" in China instrumental music culture, "Qi" plays a vital role, and it plays an important intermediary and transformation role. In the process of the formation and germination of "form" and "spirit", that is, "destiny" and "nature" in instrumental music performance, "Qi" is a bridge and channel to communicate and connect "form" and "spirit". "Form" and "spirit" can be integrated through the dissolution and transformation of "Qi" and can be displayed mutually. Therefore, in the process of realizing instrumental music culture, "Qi" is a basic problem in basic skills training. Once the player has mastered the intermediary of Qi, it is possible to make the form and spirit out of the body. Without the support of Qi, it is difficult to grasp both ends of the form and spirit and establish the existence of both form and spirit, let alone "both form and spirit are wonderful" and "life cultivation". In this way, the basic line of China's instrumental music performance training is deduced: both spirit and form (double cultivation of life).
Because Qi is a freely convertible intermediary between "shape" and "spirit", in the category of Qi-shape, Qi-shape has its own expression: strength. The problem of "strength" in instrumental music performance is actually a clever use of technology and skills. Any technique of instrumental music performance includes not only the standardized movements of external form, but also the ingenious cooperation of internal breath, so as to turn qi into strength, and the integration of qi and force, qi and shape. Flute playing, which enjoys the reputation of "the art of breathing" in China's instrumental music performance, pays special attention to the comprehensive application of "Qi" and "Force". In the basic training process of flute performance, a lot of targeted luck and gas refining training are adopted to achieve the purpose of turning "gas" into "force". Such as long notes, short notes, interval jumping, interval overlapping, broken chords, three-degree touch, five-degree touch, syllable progression and various pronunciations, all have corresponding basic skills supporting exercises. Through systematic and step-by-step basic training of gas refining, the purpose of solving the harmonious relationship between breathing and lips, tongue and fingers is achieved.
In fact, the above discussion about the flute breathing method is actually based on the physiological structure of the human body to discuss the exchange of spiritual matter and energy among the human body, heaven and earth and the universe. Like the purpose of Taoism, they all require contact with Tao through the transformation of Qi. It's just that the material carriers they use are different: one is a musical instrument and the other is a body, but the result of gas refining luck is the same, that is, the practitioner's body and mind have undergone benign changes.
What has been introduced above is the method of training the basic skills of instrumental music from the starting point of "Qi" and "Shape". From this perspective, instrumental music performance is "form precedes god" and "life precedes sex". This is because it is a long and arduous process for players to master and improve their technical skills. It requires players to adopt phased, step by step, planned and step by step training methods, which is the tempering that any instrumental player must experience and try. Without this stage of training, it is impossible to play instrumental music.
The practice of training instrumental music from "technique" or "shape" is very similar to the traditional Taoist health preservation method that attaches importance to refining shape and the practice of "starting from life" of Dannan School in Taoism. They have the same way of thinking, and both advocate that "form precedes God" and that life, form and skills should be cultivated, and life and skills are the first. However, compared with the Northern School of Inner Dan and the Five or Six Schools in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the difference between them is only in the way of "being born before sex" and "being a god before form", and their ultimate goal of "entering the realm of innate inaction" is the same, which is consistent with the two schools and can be said to be the same.
Refining shape or spirit is not the ultimate goal of Inner Dan, but achieving immortality is the real goal of Inner Dan. The theory of instrumental music performance also follows the basic cultivation principle of Taoist inner alchemy, with wonderful form and spirit and double cultivation of life. Modern interpretation of Taoist body view-both form and spirit.
Life, form and spirit, body and mind, body and spirit, meta-spirit and knowledge, vitality and spirit, heart and body are all terms used interchangeably in different historical periods, but Taoism has always attached importance to the body. In Taoism, the body is the foundation of all existence, the field and medium of experience, and the starting point and place for other values to be realized. People communicate with the outside world through their bodies. In addition, the body has cultural significance, and the natural and social attributes of human beings are presented by the body. Being is being in the body. Without the body, there is no way to talk about the mind and spirit. Taoism's profound understanding and great attention to the body is unique among the world religions. Health preserving thought is an important part of Taoism. The highest belief of Taoism is Taoism, and the highest realm of Taoism is "wonderful in form and spirit, true in Taoism", thus becoming a fairy or a real person.
The concept of immortal or real person is inherited from the ancient Fang Xiandao. Its characteristic lies in the hope that through certain cultivation, people's spirit and body will be transformed, imperceptibly, well-informed and beyond the constraints of the real world. Immortality is the unity with Tao, so it is the connection point between the believed Tao and the realistic people. The ideal of becoming immortal is one of the cores of Taoist teachings, and health preservation is an indispensable part of the theory and system of becoming immortal. At the same time, immortality lies in the pursuit of the beauty of form and spirit, that is, the permanent combination of form and spirit. Although the way of combination, that is, the specific connotation of wonderful shape and wonderful spirit, has changed in the understanding of Taoism in past dynasties, it is also the fundamental difference between Taoism and Buddhism and other religions.
Tao Hongjing, a Taoist theorist in the Southern Dynasties, briefly expounded the main differences between Taoism and Buddhism. In his view, the difference in nature (aspect) between the immortal family and Buddhism is mainly manifested in the different understanding and pursuit of the relationship between form and spirit. "All qualities are like knots, but the form and spirit are the same. Form and spirit are one, and people are things; If form and spirit are separated, it is spirit and ghost. It is inseparable, what Buddhism takes, and it is also separated and combined, and the fairy road depends on it. How to do this today? Immortals are extremely refined, and the sense of change is also reasonable. ..... Those who pretend to be immortals, refine their shapes with medicinal stones, carve gods with spirits, cultivate their qualities with kindness, and solve their disputes with kindness. All methods are barrier-free and there are no obstacles. If they want to be together, they will ride a cloud and a dragon. If they want to leave, they will dissolve their qualities. If they don't leave, they either live or die. So each went his own way, taught and taught, and gradually it was endless. After all, he is dead. " The unity of form and spirit, or liberation, is the fundamental feature of the immortal family, which is very different from Buddhism, which does not seek the unity of form and spirit. Therefore, the famous scholar Mr. Tang Yongtong thinks: "It seems very important for Tao Hongjing to clarify the difference between Buddhism and Taoism in religious theory."
Therefore, the immortal theory is a sign that Taoist teachings and basic characteristics are different from other religions. From this point of view, the idea of health preservation contained in the theory of immortals is the expression of Taoist characteristics.
Taoism takes immortality as its ultimate pursuit. For a long time, Taoism has been looking for ways to live forever. A large number of health-preserving works and Taoist health-preserving methods in Taoist literature are the result of their hard research and continuous practice. This fully shows the enthusiasm and exploration spirit of Taoism, which loves life and longs for eternal life.
The so-called Taoist concept of health preservation is the basic understanding and attitude of Taoism to a series of problems such as human life, the relationship between man and nature, and the relationship between god and nature, and it is also the basis of Taoist health preservation thought. In fact, the Taoist idea of keeping in good health is the main body and characteristic of Taoist thought and philosophy.
Wonderful in form and spirit —— The modern interpretation of Taoist body view is in the prehistoric religious sculpture art in China before the formation of Taoism, in the religious sculpture art in the pre-Qin period, in the immortal sculpture art in the Qin and Han dynasties, in the emergence of Taoism at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, in the bud of Taoist sculpture art, in the rise of Taoism and sculpture art in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and in the heyday of the development of Taoist sculpture art in Sui and Tang Dynasties, Taoist sculptures all pursued the splendor of both form and spirit. Whether it is grottoes, cliff statues, inscriptions, or palace sculptures; Whether it is jade, stone, gold, silver, copper, iron, or wood, bamboo, clay sculpture and other materials, they all pay attention to the wonderful shape of God.