Musicians in Texts and in Contexts – Telling and Retelling Musical Narratives as a Rhetorical Tool in Han China
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About this event
Speaker: Ms Avital ROM艾葦婷(Cambridge): ahr33@cam.ac.uk
Music has doubtlessly occupied (and still does occupy) an important role in human society throughout history. Humans, even if not creating or performing music themselves, react to it (emotionally or physically); they interpret it; categorise it with regards to their perception of self; or even label others as more or less worthy relying on their musical taste. Naturally, music is mostly thought of as an auditory object, but does one actually have to hear the music in order to react to it?
In my research, I examine the function of textual references to music in Han dynasty writings. I claim that discussions regarding music often serve as a rhetorical tool for authors of early Chinese texts. By looking at references to music in pre-Han and Han texts, I aim at gaining a different and deeper understanding of the developments in political thought upon the establishment of the Han, as well as the diversity of philosophical and political approaches among thinkers of the Han themselves.
In this paper, I intend to focus on a specific facet of written musical references – namely stories that relate to renowned musicians and Music Masters – and trace the ways in which they were changed or preserved, retold or invented, over time.
My first purpose, specific to the texts under examination, is to understand what we can learn about the perceptions of music and musicians during the Han dynasty by looking at the musical narratives its authors choose to include in their writings. Moreover, I wish to shed light on the motivations of authors in their inclusion of references to these musical figures within philosophical and political texts.
Secondly, and more closely related to the conference theme, ‘Texts and beyond’, I suggest to examine the variety of ways in which a written narrative can be used as a rhetorical tool (and specifically how it was used by Han authors): what happens when an old story is retold in a new text, or within a new context? How can inserting small changes to a familiar story serve the author of a political text? What are the possible rhetorical benefits of taking a character from a famous story and placing it within a newly invented narrative (in this case - at times completely unrelated to music, but with a music master as the protagonist)?
In summary, in this paper I hope to use musical texts in order to go beyond music and beyond texts, and understand some of the mechanisms of thought upon which Han society operated.