Naxi Ancient Music

Yunnan has long been home to many of China’s ethnic minorities. Eleven minority groups live in the Lijiang area alone. In its ancient valleys, the Dongba culture of the Naxi people flows like a river through centuries of life shared by people and the natural world. During my study of this culture, I watched videos of several Dongba rituals. What struck me was the role of sound. It was more than something to be heard: it served as a sacred medium connecting the spirits of heaven and earth with human society and the rest of nature. When a Dongba priest shook his ritual bell, its clear metallic ring seemed to open a passage between the human and divine worlds, lending the altar a sense of solemnity and mystery. This essay offers a preliminary exploration of the roles sound plays in Dongba culture, particularly in religious ritual, the maintenance of social order, and cultural transmission. Through sound, I hope to understand the idea of unity between heaven and humanity that runs through this tradition.

1. Dongba Culture and Its Worldview

The Naxi trace their origins to the ancient Qiang people, who lived around the Yellow and Huangshui rivers in northwestern China. They migrated southwest to the lands on either side of the upper Jinsha River and eventually settled there. The Naxi retained views of nature and forms of social organization similar to those of the Qiang. Drawing on their ancestors’ knowledge and their own labor, they built communities in this region and developed Dongba culture.

Dongba culture is the distinctive religious and cultural tradition of the Naxi, sometimes described as a “living totemic culture.” As their principal belief system, Dongba religion encompasses myths and ritual practices as well as understandings of nature and the cosmos. It draws on early shamanic traditions and Tibetan Bon. Its animistic worldview holds that all things have spirits, which may be good or evil: “Mountains, rivers, springs, streams, trees, and livestock all have souls.” Its main practices include sacrifices to heaven, funerary rites, exorcism, rites to avert misfortune, and divination. Totemic worship is a feature of its early religious forms, alongside the worship of wood and stone, animals, and fertility.

In Dongba belief, heaven and earth form the foundations of the cosmos. Human beings live between them and bear responsibility for maintaining their order. “Human beings are the children of heaven, and all things are their brothers and sisters.” This understanding appears in ritual chants concerned with bringing things into being, healing illness, overcoming enemies, securing food and clothing, and even knowing the past and foreseeing the future. Through sound, dance, and symbols, rituals establish communication between people and spirits and seek to keep the natural and social worlds in harmony. This worldview gives Dongba rituals their cultural and social importance. Religious practice also becomes a way of expressing Naxi social values and an ethic of responsibility toward nature.

Dongba cosmology places particular emphasis on the life and divinity present in all things. Mountains, rivers, and trees, as well as wind, rain, thunder, and lightning, are understood to contain spirits. People and nature belong to an interdependent whole. Although this belief is not necessarily expressed in the phrase “unity between heaven and humanity,” it closely resembles that idea in traditional Chinese thought, especially its concern with harmonious coexistence and a balance that must continually be maintained.

2. Sound in Dongba Rituals

Naxi ancient music, a branch of Dongba music, originated in the early religious beliefs of the Naxi. It first appeared as ritual music for honoring spirits, sacrificing to heaven, praying for rain, and guiding the souls of the dead. Over time, it absorbed musical elements from Tibetan Bon and the cultures of the ancient Qiang and Dian. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Mu rulers of Lijiang introduced musical forms from the Central Plains, including Yuan qu, which blended with local traditions to shape the Dongba music heard today. Dongba music centers on ritual chanting, instrumental accompaniment, and dance, with an emphasis on religious expression and early belief. As an important part of Dongba culture, Naxi ancient music also preserves cultural memory and passes it from one generation to the next.

Much of this music depends on oral teaching. Older musicians pass on melodies, performance techniques, and the cultural meanings behind them to younger learners. In earlier times, this greatly limited how widely the music could circulate. Only when musicians began recording it in gongche notation in the modern period were some pieces secured against disappearance.

The following discussion takes Meibu, the sacrifice to heaven, as an example of the musical characteristics of Naxi ancient music and the beliefs they express. Meibu is the most revered and central rite in Dongba religion. It directly conveys the belief that human beings are the children of heaven and are responsible for maintaining cosmic harmony. Its sounds are carefully organized around the stages of the rite and the different levels of communication between people and spirits.

At the beginning, the Dongba priest’s low, sustained chant rises slowly, with a tremor in the voice. It is accompanied by the slow, solemn shaking of the ritual bell, or dake. The low chant signifies a connection with the foundations of the earth and the souls of the ancestors. The bell’s clear, penetrating metallic ring seems to open a passage toward heaven, calling the spirits to descend. Together, these sounds establish a solemn, sacred space and mark its separation from ordinary life. The human world has begun to address the divine.

As the rite reaches its central stage, the priest chants the creation epic Chongbantu with a wider vocal range and a rhythm that follows the text. At times the voice narrates steadily; at others it rises in intensity to describe divine acts. A conch horn may sound at this point, signifying divine power and the purification of space, while the dan’e drum joins in with a steady, moderately paced beat. The drum evokes the pulse of life in the cosmos. The epic itself recounts the separation of heaven and earth, the genealogy of the spirits, the origins of humanity, and the relationships among all things. Its chanting gives audible form to Dongba cosmology. Participants hear a shared account of the origins of cosmic order, one that also affirms their identity as a community.

The mood then turns toward harmony and prayer. The music often settles into gentle, flowing melodies. Some passages derive from tunes bearing Central Plains ci tune-pattern names, such as Shanpo Yang and Guihua Xiang, and may be sung together or in response to a lead voice. The bell and drum take on more regular rhythms. These harmonious, recurring sounds represent prayers rising from the human world to heaven and anticipate blessings and protection descending in return. They give musical expression to the correspondence between heaven and humanity and to an ideal of harmonious coexistence. Singing together also brings the community closer, reaffirming gratitude, solidarity, and a shared desire for order. Near the end, the chant returns to a low, sustained register. The pace slows, and the instruments gradually fall silent, often ending with a single clear, forceful bell stroke or drumbeat. As the sounds fade and stop, the sacred space closes. Spirits return to their proper places, people and gods resume their respective roles, and cosmic order is restored. The community passes from sacred time back into everyday life.

The exorcism and misfortune-averting rite known as Cixijiu provides a striking contrast. Performed in response to illness, disaster, or disturbance by malevolent spirits, it reflects Dongba beliefs in a world inhabited by spirits, the distinction between good and evil, and the priest’s responsibility for preserving order. Its sounds are tense and dramatic. At the outset, the priest chants rapidly and forcefully, sometimes as though rebuking an adversary. The dan’e drum shifts to dense, powerful, irregular beats that suggest combat or pursuit, while cymbals clash harshly. The combined sound creates an atmosphere of confrontation. Rapid chanting declares the priest’s ritual power; the drumbeats convey the force and pace of battle with hostile spirits. The loud cymbals are intended to frighten and drive them away. Through these sounds, the community declares its opposition to disorder and danger.

At the climax, both the volume and complexity of the sound reach their peak. Chanting and instruments become intensely forceful. Vocal cries or special playing techniques may imitate the roars of wild animals or the clash of weapons, while rhythms grow complex and unpredictable. This imitation of violence acts as an “acoustic weapon” directed at the supernatural world. By sounding out the act of expulsion, the performers seek to drive invisible malevolent forces from the human realm through the power of sound. Here, sound serves as a sacred means of both communicating with and acting upon supernatural forces. Once the expulsion succeeds, the intense noise stops abruptly or quickly subsides. Quiet chanting or a simple, repeating bell pattern fills the space. Sometimes a gentle melody is played on the bili, a flute. This dramatic change signals that the spirits have been expelled or appeased and that the danger has passed. Calm, clear sounds mark the purification of a polluted space, the restoration of order, and the return of peace to the community. The rite ultimately seeks accommodation with natural and supernatural forces, ending confrontation and restoring the cosmos to a workable balance.

For centuries, these detailed arrangements of sound have been passed down mainly through oral teaching. Particular chanting styles, combinations of instruments, rhythmic patterns, and melodic passages correspond closely to the stages of each ritual. Older Dongba priests and musicians teach far more than technique. They insist on the sacred meanings behind the sounds, the cosmological relationships they express, and their role in sustaining ritual efficacy and social order. A particular drumbeat, for example, may represent the thunder god’s power, while a melody may evoke the path of ancestral spirits. Oral transmission has preserved the depth and sacred character of this knowledge, but it has also limited its circulation. Many distinctive vocal and musical practices now risk being lost.

The use of gongche notation in the modern period marked an important change. It cannot fully capture Dongba music’s microtones, unusual timbres, or improvised elements. It does, however, provide a written record of core ritual tunes, established melodic outlines, and rhythmic patterns that might otherwise disappear. Recorded melodic passages from the Sacrifice to Heaven, for instance, allow later generations to examine how its scales and rhythms, including its solemn, evenly spaced pulse, help create a sacred setting for communication between heaven and earth. Gongche notation has helped preserve both musical forms and cultural memory. Under the pressures of modernization, it offers a means of sustaining the relationships among sound, meaning, and ritual function.

3. Sound and Social Order

Within Dongba culture, sound helps maintain and reaffirm social order as well as giving form to ritual performance. The organization of ritual sound first reinforces religious authority. Dongba priests, as the only group able to chant the scriptures correctly and direct the required sequence of sounds, consolidate their religious and social standing through their leading role in ritual. Dongba music also communicates communal norms and values through established musical practices. The gentle melodies and steady rhythms of rites for blessings suggest peace and an orderly society. The forceful rhythms and piercing sounds of exorcism signify the capacity to contain disorder and threats. These shared meanings allow rituals to sustain order within Naxi communities and renew a sense of cultural belonging while also communicating with the sacred. Music carries cultural memory between generations, too. As young learners imitate chants and practice instruments, they absorb the central values of Dongba culture along with musical skills. The continuation of these practices has helped Dongba culture maintain its social foundations and cultural continuity through long periods of change.

4. Contemporary Change and Cultural Translation

Dongba music and the cultural system behind it are undergoing considerable change. Modern programs for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage have enabled the music to be recorded, organized, and performed for audiences on an unprecedented scale. As it moves into new settings, it increasingly leaves its original ritual context and becomes a subject of scholarship, cultural tourism, and public performance. At the same time, cultural globalization has weakened some of its sacred meanings and ritual functions. Greater emphasis falls on performance, and the music can become a recognizable cultural symbol or a commercial attraction. Wider circulation therefore brings a difficult question: how can Dongba music be renewed and presented in new forms while respecting the religious understandings and social purposes that give it meaning? This is a central issue for its preservation and study. Future efforts need to go beyond preserving outward musical forms. They must attend to the contexts and beliefs in which the music makes sense, including the worldview, social relationships, and spiritual values carried by its sounds. Only then can the wider Dongba tradition continue to be passed on and developed as a whole.

5. Additional Notes

Gongche notation is a distinctive musical notation used within the Chinese-character cultural sphere. It originated during the Tang dynasty and uses Chinese characters to represent notes. In traditional gongche notation, including that used for Naxi ancient music, the characters shang (上), che (尺), gong (工), liu (六), and wu (五) represent the five notes do, re, mi, sol, and la, respectively.

The conch is regarded by the Naxi as both a totem and a sacred object.