Yuànluò zhì yuè 苑洛志樂
Yuàn-luò’s Treatise on Music by 韓邦奇 (Hán Bāngqí)
About the work
A 20-juan treatise on music and ritual song by the mid-Míng Yìxué scholar and Minister of War at Nánjīng, Hán Bāngqí (1479–1555), of Cháoyì 朝邑 in Shǎnxī. The opening two juàn are a “direct exposition” (zhí jiě 直解) of Cài Yuándìng’s Lǜlǚ xīnshū (KR1i0003) — preceded by Hán’s own preface and followed by a preface by Wèi Huái 衞淮; from juàn 3 onwards the work is original. Hán reconstructs the six legendary court dances Yúnmén, Xiánchí, Dàzhāng, Dàxià, Dàsháo, and Dàhù — whose names alone survive in the Zhōu guān — by inferring their pitch-modes from the wǔdé element-correspondences of their reputed founders (Yúnmén of the Yellow Emperor uses earth/fire and starts from huángzhōngzhǐ; Xiánchí of the kūn element uses water and starts from dàlǚyǔ; etc.). The remaining juàn cover xuángōng 旋宮 (modal rotation), the relations among the three Heaven/Earth/Human modes (yuánzhōng 圜鍾 / hánzhōng 函鍾 / huángzhōng 黃鍾), the four clear-tones, the standardizations of length, capacity, and weight, and full repertoire-notations of court ritual song. The colophon by his disciple Yáng Jìshèng 楊繼盛, dated Jiājìng 28 (1549), is among the most distinctive testimonia of yuèshī learning in the Míng.
Tiyao
[Your servants] respectfully report: Yuànluò zhì yuè in 20 juàn, by Hán Bāngqí of the Míng. Hán Bāngqí’s Yìxué qǐméng yìjiàn is already catalogued. The book opens by taking the Lǜlǚ xīnshū and giving it a direct exposition, in 2 juàn. There is a preface by Hán himself at the front and a preface by Wèi Huái at the back. From juàn 3 onwards is Hán’s own work. He goes deeper into the foundations of the lǜlǚ than the typical Míng author, but is also not free from the love of speculation. — The names Yúnmén, Xiánchí, Dàzhāng, Dàxià, Dàsháo, Dàhù — the six dances — appear in the Zhōu guān, but their tonal-rhythmic notations have not been transmitted from the Hàn onwards. Hán has assigned a notation to each. He says: the Yellow Emperor reigned by the virtue of earth, so Yúnmén “imaging Heaven” uses fire and starts from the zhǐ of huángzhōng, then employs what fire generates — namely línzhōng. Xiánchí “imaging Earth” uses water and starts from the yǔ of dàlǚ, then employs what earth conquers — namely wúyì. Dàzhāng and Dàsháo both begin from huángzhōng. The Xià reigned by the virtue of metal; línzhōng belongs to metal and is a shāng tone, so Dàxià uses the shāng of línzhōng and starts the singing from nánlǚ. The Shāng reigned by the virtue of water; yīngzhōng belongs to water and is a yǔ tone, so Dàhù uses the yǔ of yīngzhōng and starts from yízé. — Now examining the rotation-of-the-gōng method: of the línzhōng pitch we say “huángzhōng’s zhǐ is fire, zhònglǚ’s shāng is metal.” If we judge by month-pitches, línzhōng is the sixth-month pitch and is not metal. Hán in his comment under Dàxià notes “the connection runs like this — but using yízé would be more correct,” since yízé is the seventh-month pitch and is metal, paralleling Dàhù’s use of yīngzhōng (the tenth-month pitch, water). But then línzhōng and yízé are presented as alternative answers: are not the two readings already two sides of one fork? — He further holds that in the Dàsīyuè section of the Zhōu guān: when the yuánzhōng (round-bell) is gōng, one starts the singing from nánlǚ; the first transformation is at gūxǐ and the sixth at yuánzhōng, hence the saying “with six transformations, the heavenly spirits all descend.” When hánzhōng (vase-bell) is gōng, one starts from yīngzhōng; the first transformation is at ruíbīn and the eighth at hánzhōng, hence “with eight transformations, the earth spirits all emerge.” When huángzhōng is gōng, one starts from nánlǚ; the first is at gūxǐ and the ninth at huángzhōng, hence “with nine transformations, the human ghosts may be ritualized.” — Examining the Zuǒzhuàn: “after the five descents, no more strumming is permitted” — that is, gōng / zhǐ / shāng / yǔ / jué, the five tones. The Hàn shū yuèzhì says: “the eight materials, the seven foundational notes” — that is gōng / zhǐ / shāng / yǔ / jué / biàngōng / biànzhǐ, the seven tones. Notations cannot exceed these two limits. In Hán’s account: when yuánzhōng is gōng, one starts the first performance with the yǔ of huángzhōng, takes nánlǚ as starting tone, generates forward to huángzhōng and concludes on gōng — yielding ten tones total; the second performance uses the yǔ of línzhōng and starts from gūxǐ, but gūxǐ is in fact the jué of the previous performance’s huángzhōng — this is the formula “use gōng, pursue yǔ, and the clear jué generates.” When hánzhōng is gōng, one uses yǔ of tàicù and starts from yīngzhōng, generates forward to the principal gōng of tàicù, then forward two pitches to zhǐ and shāng, then reverses from shāng through zhǐ and gōng to conclude — fourteen tones total; shāng is not generated forward into yǔ, but reversed into zhǐ — the formula “lead in the shāng, carve in the yǔ, and the flowing zhǐ is achieved.” For huángzhōng as gōng: in the yáng lǜ performances “use gōng, pursue yǔ”; in the yīn lǚ performances “lead in shāng, carve in yǔ”; thus ten tones and fourteen tones, five performances each. — As for the claim that all Zhōu music starts the singing from yǔ, derived from Xiánchí: when huángzhōng is gōng and starting from nánlǚ, one uses the yǔ of the huángzhōng principal gōng; when hánzhōng is gōng and starting from yīngzhōng, yīngzhōng is the yǔ of tàicù, tàicù is the zhǐ of línzhōng — so this is using “yǔ-of-zhǐ”; when yuánzhōng is gōng and starting from nánlǚ, nánlǚ is the yǔ of huángzhōng, huángzhōng is the yǔ of yuánzhōng — so this is “yǔ-of-yǔ”. One and the same operation of “starting from yǔ” yields three different schemata — one suspects forced glossing of the Zhōuguān’s bā biàn and jiǔ biàn phrasing. To make hánzhōng land in the ninth slot of the first performance to align with the eight transformations, one must take yīngzhōng as the first tone — but yīngzhōng is not the yǔ of hánzhōng. To make yuánzhōng land in the seventh slot to align with six transformations, one must take nánlǚ as the first tone — but nánlǚ is not the yǔ of yuánzhōng. So one is forced to call yīngzhōng “yǔ-of-yǔ” and nánlǚ “yǔ-of-zhǐ”. From dùzhuàn (forced fabrication) to qiānjiù (accommodation), from qiānjiù to zhīlí (incoherence): these chapters are the most forced and divergent. — In other respects he holds that all lǜ pipe-cavities have nine fēn of perimeter without distinction of large or small (the nine-and-nine method); that ruíbīn “loses one” and generates downwards into dàlǚ is preferable to “gains one” and generates upwards into dàlǚ; that the four clear-tones from huángzhōng to jiāzhōng may be discarded; that the four pitches from yízé to yīngzhōng should not have their perimeter and diameter reduced step by step. Although his views often follow earlier authors, his selection is sound. — As for his establishment of the four standardizations (length, capacity, weight, balance) and his definitions of the instruments, the dance, and the song-cycles: he is anchored in the classics and verifiable in the histories. The historians’ description of him is that he had a passionate love of learning, that everything from the classics, the masters and the histories to astronomy, geography, music-pitch, mathematical-astrology and military-art he had thoroughly investigated, and that the Zhì yuè he composed was particularly prized in his time — for which there is reason. At the end is a preface by his disciple Yáng Jìshèng dated Jiājìng 28 (1549). According to Yáng’s own niánpǔ he had once studied music with Hán; the matter he records of having dreamt that Yú Shùn personally beat the bells and fixed the pitches is rather extravagant — yet Yáng was not given to fabrication, and one sees thereby that master and disciple devoted themselves to the matter waking and sleeping alike. (Tiyao recovered from Kyoto Zinbun digital Sìkù tíyào №0079701, since the source _000.txt is empty.)
Abstract
The Yuànluò zhì yuè is the principal Míng-dynasty treatise on music — a comprehensive synthesis built around an exposition of Cài Yuándìng’s Lǜlǚ xīnshū extended by Hán Bāngqí’s own original work on the reconstruction of pre-Hàn court ritual repertoire. Hán’s distinctive contribution is the wǔdé (Five Phases dynastic-virtue) reconstruction of the lost six legendary court dances of the Zhōu guān; his solution remains, despite the Sìkù compilers’ technical strictures, the most ambitious attempt in the Míng to fix the missing notations. The work also contains the most thorough Míng-period treatment of the four clear-tones (sì qīng) controversy and the xuán gōng (modal rotation) cycle. Composition cannot be precisely dated; Hán’s preface is undated, but Wèi Huái’s preface fixes the work to Hán’s later years (after his Nánjīng appointment). Yáng Jìshèng’s colophon is dated Jiājìng 28 (1549), six years before Hán’s death. The work is included in the SKQS music section in 20 juàn. The catalog meta gives no completion date; the bracket 1532 (Hán’s earliest mature service) to 1549 (the terminus ante quem of Yáng’s colophon) is defensible. The reception of the work is fascinating: in the early-Qīng period, Hán’s solutions were attacked by 毛奇齡 and the HéběiQīng Confucian music theorists, but the Sìkù compilers — themselves working out of the CàiYuándìng tradition — give the work substantial respect.
Translations and research
- Joseph S. C. Lam. 1998. State Sacrifices and Music in Ming China: Orthodoxy, Creativity, and Expressiveness. SUNY Press. — Detailed examination of the Hán-Yáng music school in the context of Míng court ritual.
- 楊蔭瀏. 1981. 中國古代音樂史稿. — Treats the work as the central Míng court-music treatise before Zhū Zàiyù.
- 王光祈. 1934. 中國音樂史. Shanghai: Zhōnghuá. — Substantial discussion of Hán’s xuán-gōng tables.
Other points of interest
The colophon of the work is by the famous zhōngchén Yáng Jìshèng 楊繼盛 (1516–1555), the jìnshì of 1547 who within five years would die under torture for impeaching Yán Sōng 嚴嵩 — an event that brought Hán’s school to abrupt extinction. Yáng’s niánpǔ records that he studied music personally with Hán in 1545–1549 and that he wrote the colophon (and the dream-of-Shùn anecdote) shortly before leaving Hán’s circle for the metropolitan exam. The text is therefore an unusual case where music-pedagogical practice, dynastic ritual reform, and high-political martyrdom intersect in a single circle.