Abstract

This study is about the musical thought of one of the most diverse and turbulent ages in Chinese history: the Warring States period of the Eastern Zhou dynasty. It is concerned with musical thought in two senses of the word: what the ancients thought about music--the role it played in shaping the self, society, and the natural world; and what was musical within the world of early Chinese thought itself--how beneath the constantly changing viewpoints and ceaseless argumentation among the different thinkers and schools lay an underlying continuity of concerns and an unrelenting drive toward a greater unity of philosophical outlook, like so many variations built around a single melodic theme. ;Music was of vital concern to the early Chinese thinkers. Musical offerings played an important role in sacrifices to the ancestors. Musical ensembles formed an integral part of the hierarchical ritual system through which order was maintained in the feudal structure. Music constituted an important tool of the ruling class for instilling the masses with a sense of social harmony and enhancing the force of the ruler's appeal. Properly keyed music was even understood to have the power to influence the course of the natural world. And the structure of music itself informed the structure of rhetoric in subtle ways. Music thus readily became both a central topic of debate and a metaphorical agent of discussion for the various philosophers who would shape the discourse of the Warring States. ;Taking the theme of music as a focal point, the purpose of this dissertation is to explore the interaction among the various philosophers of the period--to trace the course of inspiration, development, adaptation, attack, and synthesis through the entire procession of late-Chun Qiu to late-Warring States thought. ;Works examined include: the Zuozhuan , the Guoyu , the Lunyu of Confucius, the Mozi , Lao Zi's Daode jing , the Mencius, the Zhuangzi , the Xunzi , and Lu Buwei's Lushi chunqiu