Chou Wen-chung

Chinese Terms & Musical Terms

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Tzu jan p’u wu wei (ziran pu wu wei):
These three terms as they relate to “terseness in art” means naturalness achieved by cultivation.
“For example, in the case of hsieh i painting, i.e. the style of painting an idea in a cursive matter, there is great economy in the application of highly expressive brush strokes, often leaving a vast amount of space untouched by ink. Thus it is said that ‘the idea is present where ink is not,’ and ‘the idea arrives before the brush.’ Such an approach would be in accordance with… Taoist teachings: naturalness or spontaneity (tzu jan), simplicity (p’u — i.e. the original state without artificial contrivance), and non-action (wu wei), the avoidance of external activities.”
(Asian Esthetics and World Music)
Variable mode:
See “mutable modes” and the section “Music and Theory”.
Water image symmetry:
In both the Chinese and Western traditions, symmetry, in its various manifestations, has played an important role in shaping musical compositions… Chou’s concept of symmetry is based on “water-image” where the object remains unchanged; however, images reflected in water are [transformed] as a result of the refraction of light. (“An Introduction to Chou Wen-chung’s Water Image Symmetry;” see section on Music and Theory).
Wenhua:
In modern times, wenhua is commonly used to refer to culture, but it originally meant “education through the arts”. (Wenren and Culture)
Wen tzu yi wu sheng …po tzu yi pa yin (wenzhi yi wusheng …bozhi yi bayin):
“Organized according to the five classes of scale-tones… distributed according to the eight classes of timbres” —Chou Li. This concept, that a composition is organized according to proper choice of scale-tones and instruments of specific timbre, and therefore a musical tone is defined not only by its pitch but also by its timbre, is… a fundamental one in Chinese music and has long characterized all East Asian music… (Asian Esthetics and World Music)
Wenren:
A person with ultimate knowledge of the arts. (Wenren and Culture)
Wu wei:
See “Tzu jan p’u wu wei”.
Yin, yueh (yue), sheng:
All three may mean music. Yueh refers specifically to music of the highest order while yin is used for music in general, sometimes that of an inferior nature. Yin and sheng may mean sound, but sheng refers to sound in general while yin implies “musical tone” that is defined in terms of its two primary acoustic properties, i.e. pitch and timbre. (Asian Esthetics and World Music)
Yueh (Yue):
See “yin, yueh (yue), sheng.”
Yün:
“Yün is based on the Chinese philosophic concept of art as the moment when ‘the universe and the individual merge as one’ (tien jen he yi). That is when macrocosm and microcosm resonate in sympathy. …[It] is taken from the expression ch’i yün, the foremost principle in Chinese art, which means reverberation (yün) of the revitalizing force in nature (ch’i).”
(program note to Yün)
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