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"Qin Virtue" and "Wenxin": Innovation of Ji Kang's "Qin Fu" Based on Tradition and Its Impact

Song Zhanyun   

  1. the School of Chinese Literature, Yangzhou University
  • Online:2017-11-25 Published:2017-10-18
  • About author:Song Zhanyun, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the School of Chinese Literature, Yangzhou Univernsity, with research interest in the study of classics and qin culture.
  • Supported by:
    This article is funded by the National Social Sciences Fund Project (15CZW015).

Abstract: Based on the classic vocabulary of music fu's creative mode in the Han dynasty, Ji Kang's "Qin Fu" integrated the parallel prose and the argumentation into the work of the fu. Ji Kang gave yaqin metaphysical description, thus bringing the qin culture a richer content. He proposed a qin ethics of "peace virtue", which was an innovation based on the music theory tradition of the pre-Qin and Han dynasties. Ji Kang's "Qin Fu" reversed the trend of sadness beauty in the Han dynasty, and reinstated the idea of harmony from traditional Confucian music theory; it dispensed with the Confucian qin theory which emphasized didactic self-cultivation. In the meantime, he brought in the Taoist idea that no music is sorrowful, thus highlighting music's natural characteristics and practical function of self-cultivation and entertainment. The study, admiration, appreciation of Ji Kang's essay by posterities across the world have enriched its meaning, so that its moral can be felt, and its essence can be seen.

Key words: Anthologies, Ji Kang's "Qin Fu", music fu, theory of qin