OVERVIEW OF THE DAOCHANG RITUAL MUSIC FROM TUJIA ORIGIN——An Anthropological Research of the Ritual Music from the Tujia Origin in Pengshui County

Tujia Nationality has a charm of ethnic and religious cultures,especially with the funeral ceremony-Daochang.The Pengshui Daochang is a religious ceremony combining with Confucian concept Chunghsiao and Buddhist concept of Reincarnation.It serves mainly for the funeral ceremony by paying homage to the souls of salvation.Daochang is an important part of funeral culture in Pengshui area.It is highly impacted by the local languages and hence it is full of characteristics of regional ethnic origins.In the Daochang temple ceremony,the main style of performance is a kind of Chanting(Qiao Chang),such as Man Ting Fang,Liu Han Yan,and Nan Xiang Zi.This is a very unique style of performance,combining of the tune,melody,singing and the ritual ceremony.The Daochang ritual music also reveals the understanding of life and death from Pengshui Tujia people.It gets to become gradually a kind of religious performing arts.