Chinese theories of “mud” music and poetry

Abstract

The article is focused on analysis of ideas of human creative activities in its connections with the spiritual life of society and state board system, which were among the fundamental problems of the Ancient Chinese thought, begging with its originative stage (mid 1st cent. BCE). The problem received a particular development in Confucian thought, and initially was applied to musical types of art (“music-Yue”), endowed with special metaphysical properties. Going from the analysis of original theoretical works the fact of formation of the holistic concept of “mud music” (yin yue) is argued. As “mud” is offered with a certain proportion of conditionality to translate the character yin, originally designated the river flow released from the coast and mixed with mud and, later, turned into a categorical term, which transmitted the totality of human Vices and related actions: immorality (including sexual behavior), debauchery, etc., and which is usually rendered in English as “excessive, licentious, obscene”. It is stated, that the spread of “mud music”, born by ethnical (barbarian) musical folklore, within the native Chinese social and cultural compound was considered by the Chinese thinkers to be the embodiment of its spiritual degradation, starting with the ruling elite. The growing popularity of “mud music” aggravated the further fall of the public moral foundations, inevitably leading to the decease of the state. At the end of this millennium, the ideas of “mud music” were transferred to poetic creativity. As a result, it is assumed that the Chinese philosophy and aesthetic thought were originally inherent in the notions of creative activity, expressing the most Vile human qualities and aspirations, and which was endowed with the ability to render debasing impact on the individual, human society and the world order.