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Towards a Daoist-inspired philosophy of music education
Author
Lu, Mengchen
Supervisor
Tan, Leonard Yuh Chaur
Li, Jia
Abstract
The purpose of this thesis is to propose a philosophy of music education drawn from Daoist writings. The research questions are: (1) What are the principles which are key to Daoism? (2) What are philosophies of Music located in Daoism? (3) How would a Daoist-inspired philosophy of music education look like? In order to address these questions, I draw on the philosophies of Daoist thinkers such as Laozi, Zhuangzi and Ji Kang. In particular, I study the “wu-forms” (無) of terms in Daoism (Ames & Hall, 2010, p. 36), such as wu (無: non-; nothing/ness; -less), wuwei (無為: non- action), wusheng (無聲: non-sound), and wuaile (無哀樂: neither sorrow nor joy). Using these ideas, I propose a Daoist-inspired philosophy of music education, one that emphasizes the usefulness (yong 用) of nothingness (wu 無). More importantly, the philosophy I argue for offers a practical model for music educators in the form of a “Eight Hexagram (Bagua 八卦) of Music Education.” This model I propose includes four pairs of yin-yang opposites: you (有: presence) and wu (無: nothing/ness), youwei (有為: action) and wuwei (無為: non-action), yousheng (有聲: sound) and wusheng (無聲: soundless), and youaile (有哀樂: presence of sorrow and joy) and wuaile (無哀樂: neither sorrow nor joy). These ideas have the potential to expand our existing views of music and music education and contribute to the philosophy and practice of music education.
Date Issued
2018
Call Number
MT1 Lu