Buddhism was introduced to China in the Eastern Han Dynasty, bringing with it Cultural influences, including that of music, from India and the regions to the west of China into the Central Plain. Research by Chinese historians has found that the culture of the Central Plain began to seep westward at quite an early date, and by the time of the Eastern Han Dynasty a reverse flow started, until cultural exchanges both ways became increasingly frequent. The transmission of Buddhism eastward was the most important feature of Silk Road culture. One important means of propagating the Buddhist rituals was the music which accompanied them. This music inevitably combined with the indigenous music of China.
The ordinary music used every day by the Buddhists was called zanbei or fanbei, and was divided into that used for chanting the scriptures and that used for hymns of praise. The former was called Zhuandu and the latter fanbei generally had short lines of four, five or seven words each. Sung as solos, in unison or as a chorus, these songs praising the Buddha and Buddhists and imparting the scriptures were sung at matins, vespers, confession and other ceremonies. Needless to say, in the course of translating the scriptures into Chinese, it was found necessary to translate these hymns, which were originally in Sanskrit, also into Chinese for the benefit of Chinese believers, and this entailed creating a new type of music appropriate for the phonology of the Chinese language. In the Tang Dynasty book Pearl Forest of the Garden of the Law it says, "The Chinese and Sanskrit languages are different from each other, and their phonologies are not compatible."
In the Record of the Exalted Monk Liang Huijiao explained the course of the transformation: Because the Sanskrit and Chinese languages have different structures, it was difficult to fit Sanskrit music to Chinese words and Chinese music to Sanskrit words. So, although there were many people who translated the Buddhist scriptures into Chinese, there were few translators of the zanbei King Si of Chen was the first to adapt the zanbei Chinese music, greatly helped by his vast knowledge of both linguistics and music.
Another important figure in the amalgamation of Buddhist music and Chinese music was Xiao Van, Emperor Wu of Liang. This ruler propagated Buddhism to strengthen his government; at the same time, he was well versed in traditional Chinese culture. He himself composed Buddhist music, and combined Buddhist ceremonial music with the Qingshang music popular at that time. But, of course, the people who really sinicized and popularized Buddhist music were the many talented monks of the temples. During the Six Dynasties period, many leading temples used traditional music, dancing and dramas to spread Buddhist doctrines, taking advantage of festival days, and many monks with artistic skills took part. The Tale of the Luoyang Temple contains the following account concerning the jingle Temple in the capital, Luoyang: ' Even in the six cloisters, female musicians were installed. Their singing echoed around the rafters. The sleeves of the dancers gently fluttered. The music of zithers and flutes resounded loud and clear, enchanting the hearers." When the temple's thousand images of Buddha were paraded through the streets clouds of incense hung like a dense fog, the sacred music shook Heaven and Earth, the players ranced and danced, all was a festival."
The Tang Dynasty, which was a period in which feudalism flourished in China, was also a period which saw the sinicization of Buddhist music in the course of two or three centuries, until finally it became completely into the Chinese musical mainstream.
Source: ccnt.com
