Every temple will send a band for the accompanying and chanting of ceremony. Additionally, the copy of Jixiang Interpretation found in the investigation of 1986 has about 40 brands for chanting and playing. Both matter the “Great Dharma Sabha of Ten Temples” and the Jixiang Interpretation ceremony had been abandoned, and the monks who know the ceremony are almost all gone. Huang Temple (Tibetan Buddhism) used to have its own Yankou Ritual and the daily Sun-sending Ritual. But now they are all abandoned, too. In the investigation of 2007, there were two Qing Temples could do traditional “Northern Ceremony”, and the musical compositions were far less than before. And in Huang Temples, only by assembling of the monks of two temples together could do the ceremony with instruments.

Buddhist music seemingly had a sign of revival after 1980s.However, with 20 years’ development, today we just see the traditions become shows on stages; the nature of Buddhist ceremonies has not that much changed.

Mount Wutai is one important component of Chinese Buddhism. Does its current situation just reflect that of Chinese Buddhist music? So far from the materials we have, we notice that: in the middle of 1930s, no matter the Mount Wutai in the north, Chaozhou Temples in the south, Mount Emei in the west, musical instruments were widely used in Buddhist activities. These musical instruments not only can be used to accompany chanting sutras, but also to play musical compositions. Each kind of Buddhist music had its different wonderful charm, and was very artistic. But now, only Mount Wutai has kept a little incomplete Buddhist music, other places may have already “changed”, at least they don’t use musical instruments at all.

In consideration of this current situation, I think Chinese Buddhist music is urgently needed protection. While the first task of this protect project is to rescue the existing Buddhist music. We take Mount Wutai for example again: in 1986, that is more than 20 years ago, when I investigated at Mount Wutai, I found there still existed some monks who knew traditional Buddhist ceremonies and music. They knew the rules and process of past religious rites, some even could sing or play the “Buddhist Songs” and “Buddhist Ditties” once being used. After these monks passed into Parinirvana one by one, they also “took away” those traditions inherited from older generations. Because of historical, social or some other reasons, most of them had not passed on those traditions to today as heritage. Also the Buddhist ceremonies in temples usually base on monks, the monk who leads the chanting controls the whole chanting of the Buddhist ceremonies. The chanting are different in different sects, even if monks belong to the same sect, the chanting may be different in different environments after many years’ developments. Therefore, rescue those Buddhist ceremonies, melodies and ways of chanting in different sects and schools is the most important thing.

We once tried some rescues for Buddhist music for more than 20 years. The first thing is to collect Buddhist music together. During the compilation process of national top 10 literature, art and record collections which has been honored as “the great wall of culture” and began at the end of 1970s, the Buddhist music has been taken into consideration ,so all the Buddhist music we have collected are compiled in these collections. The second thing is to perform this Buddhist music. The music institute and religious art institute of China Art Research Institute had organized the “Buddhist music essence performance” separately in Beijing in 1990 and 2003. Besides, some small performances has been held in Europe, US, Taiwan, Hong Kong and many other places every now and then. The third thing is to hold academic exchanges. Taiwan once held “Buddhist Music Conference” at early time. And the Buddhist music research center of China Central Conservatory of University cooperated with South Korea northeast Asian music research institute and held “Chinese and South Korean Buddhist Music Conference” for 4 times. This conference had renamed as “East Asia Buddhist Music Exchange and Academic Forum” and was held in Taiwan in 2007. Most of these academic conferences above had published memoirs. One thing more important than above things is the “Beijing Music of Zhihua Temple” and the “Buddhist Music of Mount Wutai”, which are considered as the heritage of Chinese traditional music, have been listed in the “the First Batch of State-level Non-material Cultural Heritage List”.

What we done has made some efforts for the understandings and socialization of Buddhist music. But it seems that all these efforts haven’t played the key role for Buddhist music itself. Buddhist music has not developed by our care. Therefore, the major task in current for Chinese Buddhist music is to rescue them.