Before the Yuan Dynasty,all the discussions of gongdiao宫调 (literally pitch and tone in ancient Chinese music)belonged to the category of music theory. However,afteryuanqu元曲(a type of musical poetry and drama in the Yuan Dynasty) became popular,scholars began to pay particular attention to the emotional implications ofgongdiao whenyuanqu was accepted as a form of performing arts,thus leading to the recognition ofgongdiao as a notion of performing rather than music proper. This change was due to the following factors. Frequent wars in the Jin and the subsequent Yuan dynasties and the southward invasion of the northern ethnic minorities seriously damaged the system of rites and music of the Song Dynasty and caused the fusion of the arts of various ethnic groups,leading to the formation of the unique style ofyuanqu. During this process,no unified standard was formed because melodies from various ethnic groups differed greatly from each other. In addition,at that time,melodies received insufficient attention,the patterns of tones of the traditional music had been lost,the order sustained by the traditional rites and music were greatly disturbed,and the elegant music and folk music were integrated into each other. All this diverted the music theorists from focusing on the musical aspect ofgongdiao to its emotional styles.%元代之前，有关宫调的理论，均不出于“音乐”论的范畴，但自元曲产生之后，曲论者纷纷讨论宫调的“声情风格”，由此而形成了“宫调声情说”。产生这种转向的主要原因在于：金元时代战乱频繁，尤其是少数民族的南侵，使得宋代的礼乐制度及职官设施遭到严重破坏，但却造就了各民族多元艺术的融合，并最终形成了独特的元曲文艺风格。在民族融合过程中，各民族音乐的乐律具有较大差异，无法形成统一的标准，加之当时乐律不讲、音声失传，礼乐大乱，雅音杂俗，俗乐窜雅的历史文化背景，这最终导致曲论者放弃对音律的讨论，转而探寻宫调声情的风格特点。
展开▼
