世界佛教大家庭的共同语言——佛教音乐——兼谈佛教音乐的历史与未来

佛教是世界三大宗教之一。自佛教诞生至形成三大语系佛教——巴利语系佛教、汉语系佛教、藏语系佛教，不同时代、不同国家、不同民族、不同教派的佛教信众所使用的佛教语言极其繁复，绝难辨析。但只有佛教音乐可以与佛教雕塑语言、佛教绘画语言一样成为世界佛教大家庭的共同语言，为各国佛教徒所理解、接受与赞叹。

佛教音乐是现代语汇，它是现代人对一切声明、一切音声佛事、一切与佛教有关的音乐的总括称谓。佛教音乐拥有庞大的音乐体系，在历史的纵向轨迹上，我们继承了丰厚的佛教音乐文化遗产;在当代横向视野里，各个佛教国家分别展示出丰富多彩的具有时代特色的佛教音乐文化。这些音乐无不体现出佛教慈悲济世、智慧人生、和谐世界的缘生理念。传达诸般佛教精神的音乐语言，不经翻译，四海之内皆能领会。对于佛教音乐，我们应当从历史的脉络里求继承，从当代佛教大家庭中求发展。只有继承与发展齐心并进。才能使世界佛教大家庭的共同语言——佛教音乐在弘扬佛教精神、建设和谐社会、维护世界和平的伟大事业中发挥更大作用。

一 佛教音乐与佛教共生

印度是一个充满音乐的国度，无论是数千年前的古印度，还是当代印度，音乐始终是人们生活中的重要组成部分，它几乎承载了人们的全部感情与宗教信仰。两干五百前的原始佛教时期，古印度已经拥有丰富的音乐文化。所以，佛教一经诞生，便与音乐结下不解之缘。

传统佛教音乐一般可粗分两大类:

1． 供养音乐

佛陀在世间说法45年，弟子遍及各地，佛陀所行之处，皆有弟子供养，在佛陀面前进行现场音乐供养是其中重要一项。音乐供养的形式有歌咏、有奏乐、有歌舞并举。供养音乐又可细分两小类，一是不具明显佛教内容但清净和雅的音乐，其性质与供养净水、香花、油灯、瓜果等相同，形式以乐器演奏居多；另一种是赞佛功德的音乐，具有明确的宗教内容，形式以歌咏居多。原始佛教时期，由于音乐供养具有便捷性，无需准备，田野路边，处处皆可。这对于供养行脚途中匆匆来去的佛陀十分相宜。佛陀在世时音乐供养十分普遍，为此，音乐供养在占印度开了先河。在此后的二千五百多年佛教传播史上，"乐"供养始终在香、花、灯、茶、果等诸多供养中占有重要地位，如我国从北魏开凿的敦煌、炳灵寺、麦积山、大足、龙门、云岗等石窟艺术中的飞天、坐乐天，以不同故事情景展现出丰富多彩、博大精深的佛教音乐艺术题材，佛教的音乐之邦龟兹乐在隋唐更为盛行。给爱好音乐艺术者的人们留下了美妙幻想。尽管不同历史时期、不同国度、不同民族的供养音乐迥然相异，但其意义相同。当代世界佛教大家庭在国际活动中，无一不有音乐供养。这些供养音乐的音乐语言，打破了彼此语言上的隔阂，成为沟通心灵的桥梁。佛教供养音乐发展至今，已不仅是专门供养佛菩萨的音乐，作为广结善缘、弘法利生的宗教艺术，佛教供养音乐拓展了宗教功能并进入艺术领域。在中国举办的首届世界佛教论坛和第二届世界佛教论坛上，都有盛大的佛教音乐演出，这些音乐既供养了诸佛菩萨，也赞颂了诸佛菩萨的行愿功德，更主要的是弘扬了佛教慈悲、平等、喜舍、智慧的精神和表达全世界广大佛教徒促进世界和平、人类进步的美好愿望。

2．佛事音乐

佛事音乐在佛经上称为“音声佛事”。《华严经》云：“以音声作佛事”；《维摩诘经》也说：“以音声语言而作佛事”。什么是音声语言呢？音声语言就是带有韵律、旋律的歌唱性的语言。古印度的一些语言具有天然的音乐特性，可以很自然的与音乐结合。《高僧传》上说，“梵音声繁而辞长”，无论是佛经正文，还是偈诵之类，都可以歌唱，包括佛陀所有的十二部经。《高僧传》：“天竺风俗，凡是歌咏法言，皆称为呗"。所以，从体裁上看，所有“契经”、“重颂”、“孤起颂”三部经的文体，都可以呗唱。从内容上看，所有“因缘”、“本事”、“本生”、“未曾有”、“比喻”、“论议”、“方广”、“自说”、“授记”等九部经的文字也都可以呗唱。除此而外，后世形成的各种宗教仪式，几乎都以梵呗唱诵为主，这使佛教成为名副其实的音乐的宗教。在古印度形成的梵呗传统，在佛教东传中国时虽然遇到了中国古文只能歌咏短行偈颂，不能歌咏长行经文的障碍，但传至今天的诵经之声，仍具有浓厚的歌唱色彩，我们不能不承认这是古印度梵呗影响之余续。

古印度梵呗不仅影响了汉语系佛教唱诵，同样也影响了藏语系佛教和巴利语系佛教的唱诵。汉语系佛教、藏语系佛教、巴利语系佛教而形成为世界三大语系佛教。换言之，就是佛教三大语系是世界佛教大家庭的共同语言，而这共同语言主要是以音乐为载体进行传播与交流。音声佛声----佛教音乐之重要，则不言而喻。

中国是汉语系佛教和藏语系佛教的发源地，也是三大语系佛教并存的国家，中国佛教与世界佛教的友好交往，具有天然优势，这源于共同的语言。

二 新创佛教音乐与传统佛教音乐并存

当代佛教音乐也可以粗分为两大类，一类即上文所述之传统佛教音乐;另一类是新创作的佛教音乐。

1．传统佛教音乐与新创佛教音乐之比较

(1) 传统佛教音乐侧重于宗教，以殿堂唱诵、佛教法事为主。无论汉传佛教、藏传佛教还是南传佛教，历史上从未以音乐归类，而皆以法事内容归类，功能亦仅局限于宗教本身。如各类“赞”(如汉传佛教一般法会上的《炉香赞》、《弥陀赞》、《观音赞》等)；各类“腔” (如水陆法会中的《书腔》、《道腔》《焚腔》等)。新创佛教音乐则侧重于艺术，以音乐会演出和佛教活动演出为主，如大型交响乐《东方慧光》、《神州和乐》等。

(2) 传统佛教音乐的受众主要是诸佛菩萨、天龙八部、芸芸众生、饿鬼亡灵，大多配以音乐歌颂圣德，祈阳悲冥等法事，通过借助诸佛菩萨的愿力降福人类。传统佛教音乐的宗教目的性往往明确而直接。新创佛教音乐的受众主要是人类。目的是弘扬佛教精神、启迪人类智慧、净化人类心灵、促进社会和谐、维护世界和平。新创佛教音乐寓教不乐，以艺术的形式感染人类、教化人类，没有直接的功利目的。

2．新创佛教音乐与传统佛教音乐之关系

新创佛教音乐主要有以下几种情况：

（1）直接改编于传统佛教音乐。如广州龙源音像公司出品的由著名演奏家张维良、赵家珍演奏的《琴萧佛曲》CD就是直接用《香赞》等殿堂唱诵的传统旋律演奏的。

(2) 用非佛教歌曲旋律填上佛教歌词，如弘一大师用外国民歌的旋律填写中文歌词创作的《三宝歌》等若干首作品。

(3) 是借鉴传统佛教音乐的旋律与风格创作出新的佛教音乐作品，如以藏传佛教传统唱诵旋律改编的《大悲咒》等。

（4）与传统佛教音乐毫无关系的新创佛曲。这类佛教音乐是根据创作者对佛教教义的理解和佛教艺术的美学追求创作出来的，它呈现出来的是全新的艺术风格和独具个性的音乐旋律。龙源音像公司从台湾引进的数十碟佛教歌曲CD以及吴琼创作的数十首佛教歌曲都属此类。

（5）传统佛教音乐与新创佛教音乐相结合的作品。这类作品一般为大型音乐作品。如交响音乐《神州和乐》，就包括了纯粹的传统佛教唱诵和创作交响音乐。这部作品的演出也是由寺院僧人和专业演员共同完成的。

从上述情况看，在传统佛教音乐得以完好保存的前提下。近三十年来创作佛教音乐得到可喜发展，前景也十分看好。

三、佛教音乐在佛教大家庭中的作用

在佛教八万四千法门中，音声佛事——佛教音乐是重要法门之一，佛教音乐中充满着智能、平等、清净的韵律而无其它音乐所表现出悲、欢、喜、哀的音色。它既可以承载几乎所有经咒内容，也可以贯穿所有佛教仪轨。更主要的是佛教音乐在当代社会生活中可以起到积极教化、并净化人们心灵的作用。我们所处的是一个高速发展的时代，同时也是一个充满诱惑、矛盾、危机和灾难的时代。人类的文明、进步与人类心灵深处隐藏的贪婪、狭隘、自私、好斗的本性展开激烈搏斗。佛教讲自性，教育人们自净其意，但不拒助缘——良善之缘。清净和雅的音乐是心灵危机时的助缘。音乐最柔和、最动人也最有力量。佛教音乐以佛教慈悲、智能、善良、高尚的精神感染广大信众，使佛教“诸恶莫作，众善奉行”的思想深入人心，达到人人向善，社会和谐。

音乐是通行世界的语言。佛教音乐是最神圣、最美妙、最动人的世界通用语言。各个佛教国家的佛教音乐，虽来自同一源头，但在漫长的历史长河中都与本民族音乐相结合。产生了独特风格、独具魅力的佛教音乐。这些音乐在风格上虽有差异，但在弘扬佛教精神上却毫无二致。世界佛教论坛是世界佛教大家庭的盛会，希望在此盛会之后，大家庭中的所有成员能以音声为法门，互相交流，互相借鉴，广泛传布，共唱一首《世界和平颂》交响曲，为促进人类社会走向更美好的明天做出贡献。

The Common Language of the World Buddhist Family

the Buddhist Music, its History and Future

Ven. Yan Jue

Buddhism is one of the three major religions in the world. Since its birth, three linguistic-family-based denominations have emerged, including the Pali language Buddhism, Chinese language Buddhism and Tibetan language Buddhism. The languages used by Buddhists from different eras, different countries, different ethnic groups and different denominations proliferate and are difficult to grasp. However, only the Buddhist music, along with Buddhist sculpture and paintings, can be regarded as the common language of the world Buddhist family, to be understood, accepted and admired by Buddhists from all over the world.

The phrase "Buddhist music" is a modern term, referring to the sum of sound and music related to Buddhism. It has a colossal system: chronologically and historically, we inherited the rich Buddhist music heritage; contemporarily, colorful Buddhist music with distinctive features of the time is found in all the Buddhist countries. All of the Buddhist music embodies the Buddhist ideals and spirits such as compassion, wisdom and harmony. Such music needs not translation to be understood by people around the world. In regard to the Buddhist music, we should strive for its inheritance from history, arid its development from the current Buddhist family. Only when we put equal emphasis on the inheritance and development of the Buddhist music can we make this common language of the world Buddhist family play a greater role in the cause of advancing the Buddhist spirits, building a harmonious society and maintaining world peace.

I. The Simultaneous Birth of Buddhism and Buddhist Music

India is a country of music. Ever since thousands of years ago, music has always been an important part of people's life. It carries almost all of people's emotions and religious beliefs. Even in the primitive times of Buddhism two thousand and five hundred years ago, the Ancient India already possessed a rich musical culture. As a result, ever since Buddhism emerged, it had a close relationship with music.

Traditional Buddhist music can be roughly divided into two categories:

1. Offering Music

The Buddha preached on earth for 45 years. During this period, Buddhists offered the Buddha wherever he went and music offering was an important part. There were different forms of music offerings including singing, instrument playing and song-dance. There were also two different kinds of music to be offered, one is pure and elegant music with implicit religious content, mainly in the form of instrument playing, which resembled offering pure water, flowers, lantern and fruits to the Buddha; the other is music with explicit religious content, praising the Buddha's excellence and virtue, mainly in the form of singing. In the primitive times of Buddhism, music offering was popular for its convenience. No preparation was needed and it could be conducted anywhere, suiting the needs of a busy Buddha. So, music offering took its origin in ancient India, and assumed an important position among the numerous forms of offering such as incense burning, flower offering, lantern offering and fruit offering during the history of Buddhism for two thousand and five hundred years. For example, in Grottos in Dunhuang, Bingling Temple, Maiji Mountain, Dazu, Longmen and Yungang, colorful and profound Buddhist music themes are found in the different stories as told by the apsaras on the wall. The Qiuci Music was more popular in Sui and Tang Dynasties, leaving people beautiful fantasies. Though the music offerings in different time periods, different countries and different ethnic groups are utterly different, but they have the same significance. In the international activities of the world Buddhist family, music offering is ever-present. The musical language of these offerings breaks the language-barriers and bridges different souls. In the current stage of development, the Buddhist music is no longer solely intended for the offering and sustaining of the Buddha. As a religious art, it extends the religious function of Buddhism and makes it advance into the realm of arts. In the first and second World Buddhist Forums held in China, there were both spectacular shows of Buddhist music. The music not only made offerings to the Buddha, praised his work but also advanced the Buddhist spirits of compassion, equality, giving and wisdom, and expressed the Buddhist wish of promoting world peace and human advancement.

2. Buddhism-Related Music

Buddhism-related music is referred to as the "Buddhist voice" in sutras. The Buddhavatamsaka-mahavaipulya Sutra says: "Doing Buddhist services with sounds of music"; the Vimalakirtinirdesa-sutra also says: "Doing Buddhist services with language of sound and voice." What is the language of sound and voice? That is the speech with rhythm, melody and a singing tone. Some languages in ancient India were musical in nature and can be connected to music naturally. The Biographies of Great Buddhists records that “the Sanskrit is complicated in sound has long words,” all twelve sutras of the Buddhist cannon can be sung. It is written in The Biographies of Great Buddhists as well “in India, the singing of sutras is called 'Bei'." So, in format, all three formats of "Qijing", "Chongsong" and "Guqisong" can be "Bei" sung. In content, the nine sutras including "Yinyuan", "Benshi", "Bensheng", "Weicengyou", "Biyu", "Yilun", "Fangguang", "Zishuo" and "Shouji" can be sung. Apart from this, the religious rituals and ceremonies that took form in history are all centered Sanskrit scriptures chanting, which makes Buddhism truly a musical religion. The sutra chanting tradition formed in ancient India was somewhat compromised after Buddhism entered China for only short lines of scriptures could be sung in ancient Chinese sutra chanting still has profound resemblance to singing, which we cannot but give credit to the scripture-chanting tradition in ancient India.

The scripture chanting in ancient India not only influenced the Chinese-speaking Buddhism, but also Tibetan and Pali-speaking Buddhism. In other words, music is the common language of the three major language-based Buddhism denominations in the world. The importance of Buddhist music is self-evident. China is the birthplace of the Chinese-speaking and Tibetan-speaking Buddhism and hosts all the three Buddhism denominations. Therefore, it is a privilege for China to interact with the world in this field through the common language of Buddhist music.

II. The Coexistence of Newly Created Buddhist Music and Tradition Buddhist Music

The contemporary Buddhist music can also be divided into two categories, one is the traditional Buddhist music mentioned above, and the other is newly created Buddhist music.

1. The comparison between traditional and newly created Buddhist music

(1). The traditional Buddhist music emphasizes more on religion and is mainly used in temples, doing the Buddha's work. No matter in which of the three denominations, the Buddhist music has never been categorized in terms of music itself but in terms of its religious content, and its function is only limited to religion itself. Examples include all kinds of Odes (i.e. Ode to Incensory, Ode to Amitabha Buddha, Ode to Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, etc.) and all kinds of Tones (i.e. Tone of Book, Tone of Dao, Tone of Sanskrit, etc.). On the contrary, the newly created Buddhist music emphasize more on art, and is mainly in the form of music shows and Buddhism-related performances, such as the symphonies Light of Oriental Wisdom and Harmoious Music of Shen Zhou.

(2).The audience of traditional Buddhist music are mainly Buddha and Bodhisattvas, he Eight Guardians of Buddhism, common people and the dying souls. Most of them use music to praise Buddha's merits, carry out rituals, ultimately using Buddha's and Bodhisattva’s power to bring fortune to the world. The religious purpose of traditional Buddhist music is often explicit.The audience of newly created Buddhist music is human people, the purpose is to promote the Buddhist spirit, enlighten human wisdom, purify the human mind, promote the social harmony and maintain world peace. The newly created Buddhist music intends for education through music, aiming to communicate with and educate people through the form of art, and is not directly utilitarian.

2. The Relationship Between Newly Created Buddhist Music and Traditional Buddhist Music

There are the following situations in regard to how new Buddhist music is created:

(1) Adapted from traditional Buddhist music. For instance, Qin Xiao Fo Qu by the famous musicians Zhang Weiliang and Zhao Jiazhen, published by Guangzhou Longyuan AV Publishing Company, is adapted from the traditional melodies of temple chanting like Ode to Incensory, etc.;

(2) Buddhist lyrics added to non-Buddhist songs. Examples include San Bao Ge and several other works by Master Hongyi, which he attached Chinese lyrics to foreign folk songs;

(3) Newly created Buddhist music utilizing traditional melodies and styles of the Buddhist music, such as Da Bei Zhou adapted from the traditional melodies of Tibetan Buddhism;

(4) Totally newly created Buddhist music. This kind of Buddhist music is based on the composer's understanding of Buddhist doctrines and his or her pursuit of the Buddhist aesthetics. It demonstrates brand new artistic styles and unique music melodies. The dozens of Buddhist music CDs that Longyuan Company introduced from Taiwan and dozens of Buddhist songs composed by Wu Qiong fall into this category;

(5) Combination of traditional Buddhist music and newly created Buddhist music. This category often includes large musical works, such as symphony Harmonious Music in Shen Zhou, which includes purely traditional Buddhist chanting and newly composed symphonies. Both monks and professional musicians do the performance of this work. In summary, based on the premise that traditional Buddhist music is well preserved, the creation of Buddhist music in the recent three decades shows gratifying development and its future is optimistic.

III. The Role of Buddhist Music in the Buddhist Family

Among the eighty-four thousand Dharma-gates of Buddhism, the Buddhist music is an important one. The Buddhist music contains the elements of wisdom, equality and purity and is deprived of emotions such as grief, joy, happiness and sorrow as present in other kinds of music. It can carry all the content of the sutras and can be used throughout all kinds of Buddhist rituals and ceremonies. More importantly, it can positively educate people and purify people's heart in today's society. We are in a rapidly developing era, an era that is also full of temptation, conflicts, crisis and catastrophes. Serious conflict exists between the human civilization, progress and the greed, narrow-mindedness, selfishness and aggressiveness deep in the human heart. Buddhism emphasized on self-cultivation, educating people to purify their mind but not to resist the helping fate，the fate of goodness. Pure and elegant music is the helping fate in times of a crisis in mind. The music is most gentle, most moving and yet most powerful. The Buddhist music moves the believers with its spirit of compassion, wisdom, kind-hearted and nobleness, fills the believers' heart with the notion of "doing no evil, carrying out all goods", and finally reaches the situation where all people strive for the good and he society attains harmony. Music is the common language of the world and the Buddhist music is the most divine, fantastic and moving language of all. Though from the same origin, the Buddhist music in different countries have blended with music of that specific nation, resulting in many kinds of unique and charming Buddhist music. Although these different kinds of music vary in styles, they are the same in terms of promoting the Buddhist spirit. The World Buddhist Forum is the grand meeting of the world Buddhist family. I hope after this meeting, all members of this family could use sound and voice as a Dharma-gate to communicate with each other and learn from each other, promote the sound of Buddhism, and sing a Symphony of World Peace together to contribute to the future of the human society.