Chinese traditional culture is deeply rooted and profound. Chinese artists must have some understanding of traditional culture, respect the national mentality and appreciation habits formed on the basis of traditional culture, so that our works of art can be better accepted by the public.

In the past, when I studied the erhu of the Jiang school, I heard someone commenting that the characteristic of the erhu of the Chiang school lies in the word "fine", and the "fine" lies in the handling of the music. This evaluation is very accurate from the processing of the music by Jiang's erhu. However, when we listened to Jiang Fengzhi's performance, we felt that the music should be like this, and we could not detect any traces of processing. For example, in "Autumn Moon in the Han Palace", you can only feel the meticulous and complex processing in the music when you are studying. In terms of hearing alone, you will feel that this music should be like this. It sounds very natural, but it is very complicated to learn. This is the characteristic of Jiang Fengzhi's erhu performance, and it is also the characteristic of Jiang's erhu performance. Through this feature, we can see a deep-seated problem, which is the "cultural orientation" of Jiang's erhu performance.

As an aesthetic category, "wen" refers to literary ornaments and literary graces, that is, things present intricate ornaments according to the laws of their compositional beauty. "Wen" and "一" are relative. The so-called "no sound is heard, nothing is written". "Culture" generally refers to the sum of material wealth and spiritual wealth created by human beings in the process of social and historical development. The "culture" mentioned in this article refers specifically to spiritual wealth. Such as: literature, art, education, science, etc.

What is the relationship between "text" and "culture"? For example: In primitive society, in order to convey a mysterious power to people during divination, wizards often tattooed, which is the early meaning of "Wen". After a long period of time, this kind of tattoo has evolved into the decoration of clothing. The most typical is the system of clothing in the feudal era. From the emperor's robes to the ministers' court clothes, to the common people's civilian clothes, the hierarchy is strict. This process from the decoration of clothing to the formation of a complete system has finally become a fixed situation. Each link has a specific social background and a specific extension and connotation, which cannot be surpassed in terms of customs and regulations. This kind of clothing system with specific social background and specific extension and connotation has become a kind of spiritual wealth-the clothing culture of feudal society. It is no longer a simple ornament of clothing. In the thousands of years of civilization history of the Chinese nation, there are many things that have risen from the initial decoration to the culture. Such as wine culture, tea culture, food culture and so on. Erhu, as an art form, is no exception. After nearly a thousand years of historical evolution, both in form and in content, it has also developed from an initial artistic decoration to an art culture.

From a formal point of view, the erhu has changed from the flat-headed cylinder of the past to today's elbow, faucet, hexagon, and octagon. This evolution process is actually the process of the formation of the erhu formal culture. This process has a profound and comprehensive cultural accumulation, and it can be said that it has never surpassed the category of the "dragon" culture of the Chinese nation. Of course this is another proposition.

It is not a random thing to embellish the content of the erhu. The appropriateness of the ornamentation is based on its own logic, showing the natural interest; otherwise, an alternative situation will occur. So what kind of decoration is the natural interest of each according to its own logic? This involves the issue of "cultural orientation".

"The Analects of Confucius, Ba Yi" records: "The Master said: 'How can people be polite if they are not benevolent? How can people be happy if they are not benevolent'?" In Confucius, "benevolence" is reflected in ritual and music, and it is the premise of ritual and music. According to Confucius, without "benevolence", neither propriety nor music can be realized. "Quality is better than literature and wild, and literature is better than quality. History. The quality is gentle, and then the gentleman." "The Analects of Confucius, Yong Ye" It's not perfect." "The Analects of Confucius · Ba Yi" Judging from these several records in the "Analects of Confucius", Confucius not only opposed the "wildness" of quality over writing - vulgarity and lack of literary grace; ” — impetuous, flashy. The pursuit of gentleness and gentleness, complementing each other. Not only appreciate beauty, but also emphasize goodness, pursue perfection, harmony and unity. He praised "Guan Ju, happy but not promiscuous, sad but not sad" "The Analects of Confucius, Ba Yi". Confucius believed that music should express certain emotions, but it must be moderate but not excessive, and it must be harmonious but not obscene. When discussing the social function of music, Confucius said: "Poetry can be enjoyed, viewed, gathered, and resentful." ("The Analects of Confucius, Yanghuo")

From these records of the Analects, we can see that Confucius' musical thought is a relatively complete system. "Benevolence" is the premise of music; "perfection and perfection" is the aesthetic standard of music; "pleasure without obscenity, sadness without sadness" is the aesthetic attitude of music; "prosperity, view, group, and resentment" are the social functions of music. This musical thought system of Confucius has occupied an orthodox position in our country's music culture for thousands of years. From the perspective of appreciation habits, if the music works conform to this idea, people will accept it, otherwise it will not be easily accepted. It's a mental set. Ancient and modern musical works, whether they are first, second or third, all follow this mentality. The works that can occupy a place in the history of music also follow this mentality. The same is true of erhu works in the past century. Those that can stand the test of the above-mentioned principles have been preserved; some works that are timely or unconventional have been eliminated; Principles, after being popular or popular for a while, are ultimately not remembered by people.

Erhu performance, the meticulous and complex treatment of the music, does not reveal traces, and each has a natural interest. The fundamental reason is that the cultural orientation follows the above-mentioned mentality and does not violate the appreciation habits formed thereby. Because of this, people think that music should be like this in the first place. The Jiang school erhu follows this principle, so people place the Jiang school erhu in the humanistic style.

The formation of a mental set and habit of appreciation has a very complex cultural background and deep historical reasons. Especially China's national mentality and appreciation habits. Because China has thousands of years of civilization history and profound cultural accumulation, it is conceivable that it is difficult to form another mental set and appreciation habit. Today's world culture is in the process of exchange and integration. Under this background, should our erhu stick to the mentality and appreciation habits of our nation, or be subject to the mentality and appreciation habits of our nation forever? This is another proposition in terms of cultural orientation, which has nothing to do with the cultural orientation of erhu playing. The cultural orientation of Jiang Fengzhi's erhu performance has given us a good revelation: following the national mentality and appreciation habits is one of the important factors for the vitality of art works.