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East Asian arts 

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 East Asian arts, the visual arts,  performing arts, and music of  China, Korea ( North Korea and

South Korea), and Japan. (The literature of this region is treated in separate articles on Chineseliterature, Korean literature, and Japanese literature.) Some studies of  East Asia also include the

cultures of the Indochinese peninsula and adjoining islands, as well as Mongolia to the north.

The logic of this occasional inclusion is based on a strict geographic definition as well as arecognition of common bonds forged through the acceptance of  Buddhism  by many of these

cultures. China, Korea, and Japan, however, have been uniquely linked for several millennia by a

common written language and by broad cultural and political connections that have ranged in

spirit from the uncritically adorational to the contentious.

A broad introduction to East Asian arts — their common characteristics, traditions, and values — follows. More detailed and focused treatment is presented elsewhere. For detailed coverage of the visual art of East Asia, see Chinese art; Chinese bronzes; Chinese calligraphy; Chinese jade; 

Chinese lacquerwork ; Chinese painting; Chinese pottery; Japanese art; Japanese calligraphy; 

Japanese pottery; Korean art; Korean calligraphy; and Korean pottery. For detailed coverage of the architecture of East Asia, see Chinese architecture; Japanese architecture; and Korean

architecture. For detailed coverage of the music of East Asia, see Chinese music; Japanese

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music; and Korean music. Likewise, for detailed coverage of the dance and theatre of East Asia,

 see Chinese performing arts; Japanese performing arts; and Korean performing arts. 

The visual arts 

From ancient times, China has been the dominant and referentialculture in East Asia. Although variously developed Neolithic cultures existed on the Korean 

Peninsula and on the Japanese archipelago, archaeological evidence in the form of worked stone

and blades from the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods suggests an exchange between the early

East Asian cultures and the early introduction of Chinese influence. This cultural interaction wasfacilitated in part by land bridges that connected Japan with the continent.

Significant developments in the production of earthenwarevessels from as early as 14,000 bce in Japan (thus far, the world’s earliest dated  pottery) and

from approximately 3500 bce in Korea are well documented. They reveal a rich symbolicvocabulary and decorative sense as well as a highly successful union of function and dynamic

form. These types of vessels chronicle the increasing needs for storage as there was a gradual

societal transformation from nomadic and foraging cultures to more sedentary crop-producingcultures. There were pottery-dominant cultures in China as well. The painted (c. 5000 bce) and

 black (c. 2500 bce) earthenware are the best known.

As Korea and Japan continued in various Neolithic phases, developments in China from

approximately 2000 bce were far more complex and dramatic. Archaeological evidence firmlycorroborates the existence of an emerging bronze culture by approximately 2000 bce. This

culture provided the base for  Shang dynasty (c. 1600 – 1046 bce) culture, which witnessed

extraordinary developments in the production of bronze, stone, ceramic, and jade artifacts as wellas the development of a pictograph-based written language. Bronze production and theexpansion of rice cultivation gradually appeared in Korea from approximately 700 bce and then

slightly later in Japan. While no single political event seemed to further the transmission of 

Chinese cultural elements to Korea and Japan, clearly the expansionist policies of the rulers of 

the Han dynasty (206 bce – 220 ce) stimulated what had been a gradual assimilation of Chinesecultural elements by both Korea and Japan. Indicatively, it is from this period that Chinese

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documentation of legation visits to Japan provide the first written records describing the structure

of Japanese society.

The cultures of China, Korea, and Japan went on, from this period of interaction during the Han

dynasty, to develop in quite distinctive ways. China, for example, experienced two major 

dynasties, the Han and the Tang (618 – 907), that were truly international in scope and easilyrivaled contemporary Mediterranean powers. In succeeding dynasties, including rule by foreign

invaders from the north, the development of the visual arts continued to explore and develop the

 basic media for which the Chinese demonstrated special affinity: clay, jade, lacquer, bronze,stone, and the various manifestations of the brush, especially in calligraphy and painting.

Emphases shifted, as did styles, but the fundamental symbolic vocabulary and a predisposition to

renew through reinterpretation and reverence of the past was characteristic not only of  Chinese

arts  but of all the East Asian arts.

Korea’s pivotal location gave it particular strategic value and thus

made it the target of subjugation by a stronger China and Japan. But Korea strove to maintain its

own identity and to prevent China and Japan from exercising control over more than a small

 portion of the peninsula. National contributions to the larger aesthetic culture of East Asiaincluded unequaled mastery of goldsmithing and design as well as a ceramic tradition that

included delicate celadon ware and a vigorous folk ware that inspired generations of Japanese tea

masters. Indeed, Korea was a primary conduit of continental culture to the Japanese in many

areas of visual expression, including metalwork, painting, and ceramics.

In the late 13th century, Mongol forces made two unsuccessful

attempts at invading the Japanese islands, and the country was spared occupation by a foreign power until well into the 20th century. This unusual condition of comparative isolation provided

Japanese cultural arbiters with a relative freedom to select or reject outside styles and trends.

 Nevertheless, Chinese art’s highly developed, systematic forms of expression, coupled with its

theoretical basis in religion and philosophy, proved enormously forceful, and Chinese styles

dominated at key junctures in Japanese history. The reception and assimilation of outsideinfluence followed by a vigorous assertion of national styles thus characterized the cycle of 

Japanese cultural development. In addition to distinctive reinterpretations of  Chinese ink  monochrome painting and calligraphy, an indigenous taste for the observation and depiction of 

human activity and an exquisitely nuanced sense of design are readily apparent in most areas of 

Japanese visual expression, none more so than in narrative painting and in the wood-block print.

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The elements and tendencies common to the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese cultures are vast, but

two kinds of visual expression are especially important: a strong affinity for the clay-formed

vessel and calligraphic expression through the ink-charged brush. Vigorous, subtle, andtechnically sophisticated expressions ranging from Neolithic earthenware to celadon and glazed

enamelware were both integral to daily life and prized by connoisseurs who judged ceramics by

an elaborate code of appreciation. Increasingly abstracted forms of pictographs provided a meansof writing that was image-based; characters formed by the brush could be normative but alsooffered infinite possibilities for personal expression through ink modulation and idiosyncratic

gesture. Although Korea and Japan later developed phonetic syllabaries, the visual language of 

the educated continued to be based on the ancestral Chinese form. The meanings of words, phrases, or whole texts could be expanded or nuanced by their visual renderings. Painting was

derivative from calligraphy, and implicit in painting skill was a preceding mastery of the brush-

rendered calligraphic line. As a consequence, calligraphy was unequaled as the major element in

the transmission of cultural values, whether as information or as aesthetic expression.

The influence of  Buddhism, a force which was initially foreign to East Asia, also should not be

underestimated. Emerging from India and Central Asia in the first century after nearly 500 yearsof development on the subcontinent, Buddhism offered a convincing universalist system of belief 

that assimilated and frequently gave visual expression to indigenous religions. By the 5th centuryce, a Chinese dynastic line had adopted Buddhism as a religion of state. While individual rulers,courts, or dynasties at times propelled the florescence of East Asian arts, none of them equaled

the patronage of Buddhism in duration, scale, and intellectual sustenance. Confucianism, 

Daoism, and, to a somewhat lesser degree, Shintō required expression through the arts; however,Buddhism’s multiple sects, complex iconography, and program of proselytizing made it the

natural and dominant vehicle of transcultural influence in East Asia.

The performing arts

From ancient times dance and theatre have played a vital role in China, Korea, and Japan. Many

 performances of plays and dances were closely tied to religious beliefs and customs. In China,records from about 1000 bce describe magnificently costumed male and female shamans who

sang and danced to musical accompaniment, drawing the heavenly spirits down to earth through

their performance. Impersonation of other characters through makeup and costume was

occurring at least by the 4th century bce. Many masked dances in Korea have a religiousfunction. Performances invoking Buddha’s protection are especially popular and numerous in

Japan and Korea. Throughout East Asia the descendants of magico-religious performances can

 be seen in a variety of guises. Whether designed to pray for longevity or for a rich harvest or to

ward off disease and evil, the rituals of impersonation of supernatural beings through masks and

costumes and the repetition of rhythmic music and patterns of movement perform the function of linking humans to the spiritual world beyond. Hence, from the earliest times in East Asia, dance,

music, and dramatic mimesis have been naturally fused through their religious function.

In East Asia the easy intermingling of dance and theatre, with music as a necessary andinseparable accompanying art, also derives from aesthetic and philosophic principles. In the

West, by contrast, musical performance, spoken drama, and ballet have evolved as separate

 performing arts. Confucian philosophy holds that a harmonious condition in society can be

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 produced by proper actions, including the playing of music and the performance of dances that

are appropriate and conducive to moderation. Throughout China’s history, poems were written to

 be sung; songs were danced. Dancing, while it might occasionally be pure dance withoutmeaning, more often was used to enact a story in the theatre. Zeami (1363 – 1443), the most

influential performer and theoretician of   Noh drama in Japan, described his art as a totality,

encompassing mimesis, dance, dialogue, narration, music, staging, and the reactions of theaudience as well. Without arbitrary divisions separating the arts, East Asia has developedexceptionally complex artistic forms possessing extraordinary richness and subtlety.

Dance may be dramatic or nondramatic; in all traditional theatre forms some elements of dance

will be found. Puppets, masks, highly stylized makeup, and costuming are common adjuncts of 

 both dance and theatre. Dialogue drama (without music) is rare but does exist. The major dance

and theatre forms performed today in East Asia can be loosely classed as unmasked dances (folk and art dances in each country), masked dances (Korean masked dances and bugaku and folk 

dances in Japan), masked dance theatre (Noh in Japan and sandae in Korea), danced

 processionals ( gyōdō in Japan), dance opera ( jingxi and other forms of  Chinese opera), puppet

theatre (kkoktukaksi in Korea and Bunraku in Japan), shadow theatre (in China), dialogue playswith traditional music and dance (Kabuki in Japan), dialogue plays with dance (kyōgen in Japan),

and modern, realistic dialogue plays introduced from the West into China, Korea, and Japan inthe 19th and 20th centuries.

Common traditions

As previously noted, China, Korea, and Japan have been historically close for centuries, thus

accounting for their numerous common artistic traditions. From pre-Christian times until the 8th

and 9th century ce, the great trade routes crossed from the Middle East through Central Asia into

China. Hinduism, Buddhism, some knowledge of ancient Greek, and much knowledge of Indian

arts entered into China, and thence in time into Korea and Japan. Perhaps before the CommonEra, the Central Asian art of manipulating hand  puppets was carried to China. For more than 700

years, until 668, in the kingdom of  Koguryŏ, embracing northern Korea and Manchuria, courtmusic and dances from Central Asia, from Han China, from Manchuria, and from Korea, called

chisŏ and kajisŏ , were performed. Many of the dances were masked; all were stately as befit

serious court art. They were taken to the Japanese court in Nara about the 7th century. Called

bugaku in Japan, they have been preserved for 12 centuries and are still performed at theImperial Palace in Tokyo, though they have long since died out in China and Korea. In

Koguryŏ’s neighbouring kingdom of  Paekche, a form of Buddhist masked dance play was

 performed at court, and, in the 7th century, it too was taken to the Japanese court at Nara by a

Korean performer, Mimaji, who had learned the dances while staying at the southern Chinese

court of  Wuhou. Called kiak in Korea and  gigaku in Japan, the Aryan features of some of itsmasks clearly indicate Indian (or Central Asian) influence. Such complicated genealogies are

common in East Asian performing arts.

Very likely by the 7th century, nomadic puppeteers from CentralAsia who had taken up residence in northern Korea migrated to Japan. The men continued to be

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 both herdsmen and puppet manipulators in their new homeland, while the women performed

dances and sang as popular entertainers. (There may have been a native puppet tradition in Japan

as well.) In time the art of puppet manipulation joined with that of epic storytelling to producethe famous Bunraku  puppet theatre. Musical accompaniment for Bunraku and for other popular 

 plays in Japan, such as Kabuki, was provided primarily by the samisen, a three-stringed lute,

 borrowed from China by way of Okinawa. The lion dance, originally from China, is performedin a score of versions in Korea and Japan as well as in China, India, Sri Lanka, and Bali. Certainmyths are dramatized in common as well. The story of the angel or nymph who flies down to

earth and arouses the love of a mortal man is known in many parts of the world. It is dramatized

in Southeast Asia (especially in Myanmar [Burma] and Thailand, as the play Manora), inChinese opera, and in both Noh and Kabuki theatre in Japan (as Hagoromo [The Feather Robe]).

The legend of the one-horned wizard who traps the dragon gods of rain and causes a searing

drought originated in India and was later transmitted by the Chinese to Japan, where it is

dramatized in Noh ( Ikkaku sennin [―The One-Horned Wizard‖]) and in Kabuki ( Narukami [Saint  Narukami and the God Fudō]).

The direction of artistic exchange was reversed in the 19th century. As part of Japanese national policy following the Meiji Restoration (1868), artists studied Western  performing arts. In the

early decades of the 20th century, Chinese and Korean actors, dancers, and playwrights studyingin Japan took back to their countries Western theory and practice in  ballet, modern dance, andtheatre. Most influential was the Western dramatic theory of  realism. It diametrically opposed

the traditional intermingling of music and dance with drama, and it eschewed the stylization and

symbolism that lay at the heart of East Asian performing arts for more than 2,000 years. Aconflict between traditional and Western performing arts came into being that continues to the

 present.

As has been noted, dance and theatre are accompanied by music in all except the most unusual

cases. Music may be instrumental or vocal. The music is especially composed for each Bunraku

 puppet play in Japan and for most dance plays and court dances. Fixed melodies accompany

most folk performances. In Chinese opera and in Japanese Kabuki, melodies appropriate toscene, action, character, or mood being portrayed are selected from a standard musical repertoire

of several hundred tunes. The knowledgeable spectator easily identifies scenes by the music that

accompanies them (a similar system is found in Southeast Asian theatre). The close linking of music with dance and theatre can be seen in the Korean drum dance, in which the dancer also is a

musician who plays the drum, and in a number of Japanese Kabuki and puppet plays that show

characters expressing hidden feelings by playing a musical instrument. Equally important, the performer demonstrates to the audience his skill in yet another refined accomplishment.

The performing arts of India ( see South Asian arts) are closelylinked to sculpture and painting by the unusual phenomenon that bodily positions in all these arts

are regulated by similar, indeed almost identical, codes. The code of hand gestures, for example,for the dancer and the actor set forth in the  Natya-shastra (―Treatise on the Dramatic Arts‖; dated

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variously from the 2nd century bce to the 4th century ce and later), a treatise on dramaturgy, is

identical with that for Buddhist temple sculpture, or painting. Although these hand positions

(mudrā) from India also are seen in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese statues of the Buddha, theywere not adopted by East Asian performing artists (as they were by dancers and actors in

Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Java, and Bali).

In three notable instances, however, the performing arts in China and in Japan can be seen to be

closely related to the visual arts. During the Song dynasty (960 – 1279) in China, Northern and

Southern schools of painting evolved that were totally different in style; the former used boldoutline and brilliantly contrasting colours of deep green, blue, and gold, while the latter 

emphasized delicate, monochrome ink painting of misty landscapes. Northern and Southern

schools of opera at the time reflected the same contrasting characteristics: the former dynamic,

vigorous, and filled with action, the latter emphasizing wistful emotions and soft, gentle singing.Zen Buddhism was a common source of inspiration in the 15th and 16th centuries in Japan for 

 Noh dance drama, for the tea ceremony, for ink painting, and for the art of rock-and-sand

gardens. Spareness of form, discipline, and suggestion rather than explicit statement are Zen

attributes found in these and other arts cultivated by the military ruling class (samurai) of thetime. In 18th-century Japan, a lively and faddish urban culture  produced both ukiyo-e wood-

 block prints and Kabuki. In fact, ukiyo-e artists, such as Tōshūsai Sharaku, established their fame by portraying famous Kabuki actors as their subjects. Eroticism, verve, brilliant colouring, andan intense interest in the passing moment characterize equally both Kabuki theatre and ukiyo-e

visual art.

Although dances were often performed to sung poems and plays either were written in verse

form or contained references to classic poems, the performing arts traditionally are seen as

distinct from literature in East Asia. A century and a half passed in Kabuki before the firstcomplete  play script was preserved, and in China, where a tradition of written literature dates to

1400 bce, no play text was considered worth committing to paper until the late Song, about the

13th century. With few exceptions, playwrights have rarely been accorded the same status as

writers of poetry, novels, or criticism. As a result, the performing arts in East Asia succeeded byand large in escaping the stultifying grip that literature came to hold on Indian Sanskrit drama

and, some would say, still holds, at least in part, on drama in the West.

The general outlines of artistic borrowings among East Asiancountries can be traced from historical records. But borrowing tells only half of the story. Nomatter how strong the initial outside influence, in time, assimilation of the foreign art took place.

Older native performing traditions reasserted themselves, and new creativity altered the borrowed elements. This can be seen even in bugaku dances in Japan; although they are believedto preserve ancient Chinese and Korean forms to a very remarkable extent, native Japanese

qualities are also present. Local styles predominate even more in the  popular arts. Japanese

Bunraku puppet plays and Kabuki theatre show almost no observable signs of foreign influence.

In spite of certain general cultural similarities, then, the dance and theatre of China, Korea, or Japan exhibit definite local characteristics not shared by the arts of their neighbouring countries.

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In China singing became highly developed, and the most important theatre performances are

 built around song (hence the term Chinese opera). Dance as a separate art has a weak tradition

there and, at least in the 20th century, was tied very closely to the theatre. The shadow theatre,known from Morocco through Egypt and Greece and in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand,

and Cambodia, is found in East Asia only in China. In Korea there are scores of court and folk 

dances and danced plays, but no sophisticated dramatic forms evolved until the 20th century.Masked dances especially are characteristic of Korea. In Japan, from an early tradition of imported pure dance and from folk dance, complex theatrical forms evolved that include dance

drama, epic narrative performed as a puppet play, and dialogue dramas either accompanied by

music or not.

The aesthetic  principles that govern dance and theatre in East Asia are radically different from

those of the West. Dancers in the West attempt to be free from the pull of the Earth, trying toleap and soar in the air. Dancers in China, Korea, or Japan stand firmly on the dance floor, often

scarcely raising their feet in the air; they move in relatively slow and often geometric patterns.

Arm and hand movements are important and varied, while in Western dance the hands are little

used. Whether the dancer’s movement is dance or not, it is always stylized. Speech is stylized aswell, whether it is dialogue or narration, chanted or sung. The intent may be to portray

archetypes, human or mythological, especially in shadow and puppet theatre and in maskeddances and plays. Form is emphasized, both for its ritual value and because audiences are trainedto recognize the beauty implicit in form. There may be a purposeful contradiction between

artistic ends and means: children were moved as human puppets in China, and adults acted

 before lighted screens to make a living shadow play; in Japan, puppets execute realistic dailyactions, while live Kabuki actors refrain from duplicating daily life. The East Asian audience is

 prepared to respond in quick succession to a sequence of different stimuli —  physical

characterization, human speech, song, narrative commentary, visual composition, formal

movement patterns — over long periods of time, for 8 hours in Noh or up to 12 hours in Kabuki.This differs from the West, where the spectator expects to be exposed to a clearly focused

theatrical image for only two or three hours. The East Asian experience is more diverse, more

extended, more conventional than the Western experience in the theatre.

A further important characteristic of dance and theatre in China, Korea, and Japan is that

 performing arts developed very largely within an oral tradition. By and large the performersthemselves created the forms; only gradually did specialists in choreography, musical

composition, or writing take their places in performing groups. Even after forms reached

maturity, traditions of dance, acting, and music were passed on orally to the next generation.Play scripts came to be written in full only at a late date.

Social conditions

It is notable that, although some dance and theatre forms were highly regarded in China, Korea,

and Japan, performers were usually looked down upon. Wandering performers especially were

despised in the agrarian societies, where attachment to the land was valued and Confucianteaching, strong throughout East Asia, stressed veneration of one’s parents, which included

tending their graves and making offerings for their welfare in the spirit world. The place of 

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drama or of dance in these societies depended in part upon their audiences, whether they were

court nobles, villagers, or town merchants.

Chinese emperors, Korean kings, and Japanese emperors and military rulers (shoguns) all

supported  performers at their courts. During the Tang dynasty, the 8th-century Chinese emperor 

Xuanzong (also called Minghuang) established schools in the palace city of Chang’an (Xi’an) for music, dancing, and acting. The latter school was called the Pear Garden (Liyuan); ever since,

actors in China have been called ―children of the pear garden‖ (liyuan zidi). More than a

thousand young people from all ranks of society drew government salaries while studying and performing at lavish state banquets and for official ceremonies. Acting or dancing might be a

 permanent job (at least until old age made one less attractive) at the Chinese court, but in Korea

 performers at the court held other positions in the government and were mobilized from around

the country only for rehearsal and performance. In Japan, dancers and musicians have beenattached to the imperial household from the 7th century until the present time. First gigaku and

then bugaku dances were official performing arts, while shrine dances (kagura) were also partly

under imperial patronage. The military rulers of Japan incorporated into their retinues Noh actors

and musicians beginning in the 15th century, and, in time, provincial lords also began to followthis practice.

Court support resulted in high artistic levels in all countries. Performers were relieved of 

financial problems and could devote themselves, often full-time through their entire lives, to

their art. Audiences were educated and for the most part discerning. The importance attached to

official performances undoubtedly spurred artists to extend themselves to their utmost. In time,however, such forms as Japanese Noh and bugaku and Chinese kunqu opera became so rarefied

that they could be appreciated only by a small elite group.

At the Chinese and Korean courts, young female dancers were part of the ruler’s personal retinue

(often his concubines); they were not allowed to mix with men of the court, so that some courtarts were performed solely by men and others solely by women. This custom and the consequentartistic practice of male and female impersonation is also found in court theatre of Cambodia and

Thailand. In Japan, women seldom performed at court, and the major dance and theatre forms

were entirely the province of male performers. Since it was unusual for rulers or courtiersthemselves to take part in performance (they often did in Java, Bali, and Thailand), the court

artist was usually a middle-level civil servant.

Folk   performers, on the other hand, are local villagers who, like the sandae masked dancers of 

Korea or the young women who perform festive ayakomai dances in Japan, are amateurs who do

not live by their art. The midsummer Bon dance for spirits of the dead or early spring rice-

 planting dances in many areas of Japan or various auspicious dances held at the New Year inKorea and China were performed only once a year, and hence a high level of artistry was not

usually achieved. Because many folk performances were held as part of religiously sanctioned

rituals (Korean mask plays ensuring harvest, dances and dance plays of many varieties in Japandedicated to local Shintō deities), performers achieved considerable status in the local

community by their participation in these essential communal rites.

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Performers of popular dance and theatre in East Asia live — as do commercial artists

everywhere —  by their ability to draw audiences who are willing to pay money for a seat in a

 public theatre. The shadow and puppet performers of China, jingxi actors and musicians, andKabuki and Bunraku puppet performers in Japan are popular artists. Neither a part of village

culture nor patronized by the court, they have always been held suspect by their rulers. Kabuki,

in particular, was faced with repressive government action throughout most of its history.Popular theatre grew in importance in China and in Japan concurrently with the growth of largeurban centres and a moneyed, mercantile economy, in the 17th – 19th centuries. (An important

urban popular theatre did not develop in Korea.) Today troupes perform nightly throughout the

year, when it is possible, and consequently, in popular theatre, large repertories of standard playsare created (some 350 in Kabuki and more than 200 in Chinese opera). Popular theatre forms in

China and Japan are intensely theatrical, though they lack literary qualities that would

recommend them to the intelligentsia. Indeed, Kabuki in Japan and jingxi in China have had little

official status until the mid-20th century in spite of their immense audience popularity and their obvious excellence as performing arts. Traveling troupes that perform shadow or puppet plays,

do acrobatics and juggling, dance and sing, and perform versions of court or popular 

entertainments have long been a feature of Chinese and Korean village and provincial town life.Artistically the forms are related to folk performing arts; socially the performers are considered

outcasts, wandering entertainers of no status who belong to the popular tradition of performing

arts.

James R. Brandon 

Music 

Table Of Contents

East Asian music vis-à-vis that of other major cultures

East Asia can be viewed as one of the big four among the

generally urban, literate cultural areas of the world. The other three are South Asia, the MiddleEast, and Europe. Around each of these major regional cultures one can find many satellite

musical systems known as national forms. In most cases, the fundamental musical concepts of 

such national forms reflect the basic ideals of the cultural core. For example, the musics of Iranand Egypt are of one family, as are those of France and Sweden or of  China and Japan. A possible fifth addition to the ―big four‖ concept is the Southeast Asian musical culture

characterized by the use of knobbed gongs. Its documents on music theory from the 18th to the

20th century combine South and East Asian concepts with indigenous insights. Its mostdistinctive aspects are its instrument types and resulting ensembles and forms.

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Using instrument type alone as a measure, it is sometimes possible to note cultural influences

and mixtures of the major traditions in smaller units. For example, the physical structure and

 playing positions of various  bowed instruments in mainland Southeast Asia can often mark clearly Chinese influence, as in Vietnam, or Muslim and Chinese forms in confluence, as in the

various bowed lutes of courtly ensembles in Cambodia and Thailand. By the same token, the

appearance of flat gongs in mainland Southeast Asia shows Chinese connections, while theknobbed gongs clearly stem from Southeast Asian culture proper.

Concepts of music

If one turns to distinctions in musical style, one of the first questions to arise is ―What is music?‖

Two basic definitions will suffice for the present discussion. The first definition is cultural: a

sonic event can be called music if the people who use it call it music, regardless of one’s ownreaction to it. Similarly, certain events that sound musical to foreign ears are not music culturally

if they are not accepted as such by native culture carriers. A good example of such a situation isfound in the Middle East, where singing is never allowed in the mosque, though one may hear 

 performances and even buy records of ―readings‖ from the Qurʾān. Such cultural and functional problems of definition seldom arise in East Asian music, and a more neutral definition is

appropriate. A sound event may be considered and studied as music if it combines the elements

of pitch, rhythm, and loudness in such a way that they communicate emotionally, aesthetically,or functionally on the levels that either transcend or are unrelated to speech communication.

Those who have been moved by a love song or a lament can well appreciate some of the

implications of such a view of music. When listening to ―exotic‖ music— i.e., that of a tradition

outside one’s own background— it is important to remember that such transcendental values areat work for the alien listener as well as for listeners familiar with the particular musical language

in use.

There are many kinds of music in the world, the three most common terms being folk, popular,

and art music. Folk and popular music have their special indigenous and mixed forms in Asia (as

in all the world today), but it is in the literate art traditions of Asia that historical and musicaldistinctions can be made most clearly. In the context of this discussion, art music is defined as a

tradition having, to some degree, a conscious theoretical basis and a sense of repertoire that is

 played against the highest standards held by informed native listeners. The performer is often a

 professional, and there may be a known historical depth to the traditions. Thus, there may be artmusic in many nonliterate cultures such as that of the Australian Aborigines and that of the tribal

courts of Africa. Here, however, the major concern is with one of the large urban, literate

cultures and its three national variants. Before looking at these musical systems in detail, it is

useful to compare the entire culture with those of the other major ―big‖ three, South Asia, theMiddle East, and Europe.

Theoretical systems

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All four major literate cultures, in their ancient forms, laid a strong emphasis on the extramusicalqualities of music. For example, the study of such concepts as the power of vibrations (in ancient

Indian music theory) and the relationships between music and other elements in the universe (in

Assyrian records as well as in the writings of medieval European scholars) can be matched inEast Asia by the joint efforts of Chinese musicologists and astrologers to bring the music of the

empire in tune with the universe.

In addition, all four cultures developed mathematically and acoustically based music theories.

The pitches produced by dividing the length of a string were the basis of the three non-East

Asian music theories. String acoustics were known in China as well, but East Asian writings use

the overtones of end-blown bamboo tubes to illustrate their systems. It is fascinating that,whatever their origin, the Middle Eastern and South Asian theories produced highly variable tone

systems while the two ends of the old continent (i.e., the West and China) generated 12 tones based on a cycle of pitches 5 tones apart (such as C to G to D in the West). This cycle of fifths

 produced 12 pitches that were mathematically correct, but the 13th pitch did not match the 1st pitch. In the West this so-called ―Pythagorean comma‖ became bothersome as Western music

oriented toward vertical sounds called harmony in which the distance between pitches in chords

needed to be the same in every key. In the 17th century Western acousticians developed aformula that allowed them to bypass the ―natural‖ tone system by making all pitches equidistant.

The same formula was discovered by a Chinese mathematician and musicologist, Zhu Zaiyu, in

the late 16th century; but such ―well-tempered‖ tuning was not accepted in Chinese music

 practice until very recently, when Western music styles combined with indigenous traditions.This is one reason why Asian music sometimes sounds ―out of tune‖ to Western ears. 

The scientific base of music is reshaped by each culture into a system that meets its needs andtastes. There are differences in the sound, the instrumentation, and the forms of Western and

Eastern music. However, if the wonder of such variants is to be fully appreciated, it must be

understood that music is not in fact an international language. It consists of a whole series of equally logical but sometimes very different closed systems. The word closed is used to mean

that the musical facets mesh perfectly within a given system, but they often may prove difficult

or impossible to transfer to another system. In this light, a given passage of Chinese music when

analyzed or judged with the logic of Beethoven is chaos, but Beethoven seems equally illogicalwhen viewed in the context of Chinese, or for that matter Indian, music theory. Such intercultural

clashes can be constructed between almost any of the larger systems. In this context, one can see

that Chinese music is tonally more foreign to Middle Eastern or Indian music than to Western,

though historically it had closer relations with the other two. There are, of course, many other musical concepts and styles that traveled over the Silk Road between China and other parts of 

Asia, which are treated in the article Chinese music.

Musical traits common to East Asian cultures

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In these primary considerations a view of some general aesthetic traditions common to much of 

East Asian music is also requisite. The tonal vocabulary of 12 tones generated in a cycle of fifths

is the first common factor. From this tonal vocabulary various scales of five to seven notes arechosen. As in the West, the total number of notes in an East Asian scale is often seven, but each

scale tends to have what could be called a five-tone (pentatonic) core. The one scale in which no

half steps appear (the so-called anhemitonic pentatonic) is common all over the world, althoughcasual listeners often mistake it as being characteristically ―Oriental.‖ A few moments spentlistening to authentic East Asian recordings will reveal clearly that the five black notes on the

 piano do not represent all the sonic resources of Asian music. Indeed, there are a great variety of 

East Asian musics. Some are historically related and others are indigenous. Their three mostcommon characteristics are linearity, transparency, and word orientation.

Linearity means an emphasis on melodic tension and release supported by or held in further tension by rhythmic devices. This line-and-rhythm orientation and lack of interest in Western-

style harmony are, in fact, major distinctions between most of the world’s music and that of the

West. In traditional East Asian music, as well as in most other non-Western traditions, all

melodic instruments play the same basic melody. No one fills in the texture with chords. If harmonic texture is used, its function is to provide colour rather than to generate tension or 

release by chord progression. Heterophony (more than one version of the melody being heard atthe same time) may occur to enrich the line. The sense of moving through a time continuumtoward an ending, however, is basically developed through the tension produced during the wait

for a pitch to resolve to a pitch of rest just one tone above or below. In Western single line

(monophonic) music one feels this melodic tension when, for example, in the key of C major thenote B or D resolves to C. A Westerner may feel an additional sense of harmonic

accompaniment in such an example. While such harmonic orientation is not part of traditional

East Asian listening and although the scales and pitches may be different in East and West, this

 basic principle of melodic tension is the same.

Transparency refers to the preference in East Asian music for chamber-music sound ideals; no

matter how large an ensemble may be, the individual instruments are meant to be heard. Thisdiffers from the orchestral sound ideal, popular in 19th-century Western music, in which the

intention is to merge the sounds of the individual instruments into one musical colour. A

transparent texture is a logical choice for a tradition that wishes to emphasize lines; orchestralcolour helps to merge various lines into single vertical sonic events called harmony.

Word orientation refers to the fact that until the 20th century there was little abstract instrumentalmusic, such as a sonata or a concerto, in East Asia. A piece had either a text or a title that evoked

an image, such as Moon Over the River or Spring Sea. Perhaps this relates to a general sensitivity

to nature in East Asian culture as a whole. Whatever its source, it has produced many sonorous

and pleasing results.