Shèngyù yuèběn jiěshuō 聖諭樂本解說
Exposition of the Sacred Edict on the Foundations of Music by 毛奇齡 (Máo Qílíng)
About the work
A two-juan philological-musicological exposition by the early-Qīng polymath Máo Qílíng. The work was completed in the fifth month of Kāngxī 31 (1692) and was originally intended for presentation but went unpresented. When the Kāngxī emperor toured the south in the third month of Kāngxī 38 (1699), Máo intercepted the imperial entourage at Jiāxīng and presented the work in person — hence the long memorial of Kāngxī 35 (1696) prefacing the book and the colophon-note of Kāngxī 38 (1699) at the end. The book was occasioned by an earlier memorial of Grand Secretary Yī Sāngé 伊桑阿 on music, which had cited the Sacred Edict (Shèng yù) of Kāngxī himself on the principles of “jìng 1 / wéi 3” (diameter 1, circumference 3) and “gé bā xiāng shēng” (separation by eight, mutual generation) as the foundations of the bell-pitch system. Máo’s two-juan work is structured as a clause-by-clause commentary on these two doctrinal moments: juàn 1 expounds “jìng 1 / wéi 3,” juàn 2 expounds “gé bā xiāng shēng.”
Tiyao
[Your servants] respectfully report: Shèngyù yuèběn jiěshuō in 2 juàn, by Máo Qílíng of our dynasty. The book was completed in the fifth month of Kāngxī 31 (1692) and was prepared for presentation, but the moment did not come. In the third month of Kāngxī 38 (1699), the august Kāngxī Emperor (the Sage-Ancestor of rénhuáng) toured the south, and Máo Qílíng intercepted the imperial conveyance at Jiāxīng and reverently presented this book. Hence the head of the book carries a memorial of Kāngxī 35 (1696), and the end of the book carries an appended note of Kāngxī 38 (1699). The book was occasioned by Grand Secretary Yī Sāngé’s memorial on music, which had been originally based on the Sacred Edict’s doctrines of “jìng 1 wéi 3” and “gé bā xiāng shēng”; from there Máo extends the reasoning, examines and verifies, divides into sections, and writes commentary. The presentation memorial speaks of “the three works in 13 juàn combined; the head is the Yuèběn jiěshuō in 1 juàn”; the present recension is divided into 2 juàn — evidently the original work was conceptually a single piece, and at the time of printing it was divided so that the part on “jìng 1 wéi 3” became the upper juàn, the part on “gé bā xiāng shēng” the lower juàn, for ease of expository structure. When he intercepted the imperial conveyance and presented the book, this same printed recension was used; hence the collected works fix it as a 2-juàn work. Its citations are also rather detailed and erudite. Respectfully edited and presented in the third month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Editor-Generals: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. Editor-in-chief: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The Shèngyù yuèběn jiěshuō is a relatively brief but representative product of Máo Qílíng’s late-Kāngxī musicological output. It belongs to a wider trio (with KR1i0016 Huángyán dìngshēng lù and KR1i0017 Jìngshān yuèlù) that Máo originally conceived as a single 13-juan work. The genre is jīngjiě applied to imperial speech: rather than expound the Yuè jīng, Máo expounds Kāngxī’s own pronouncements on music as if they were classic. The two doctrinal points are the orthodox-classical ones of pre-Sòng lǜlǚ: that the huángzhōng pipe has yuán-perimeter 3 to yuán-diameter 1 (the pre-Zǔ-Chōng-zhī π ≈ 3 approximation) and that the eleven other pitches are derived by the gébā method (every-eighth pitch up or down by sānfēn sǔnyì). Máo’s purpose is partly polemical: against the xīnfǎ mìlǜ of 朱載堉 (KR1i0009) and the modified Zǔ Chōngzhī π = 22/7 of 蔡元定 / Péng Sī, he reaffirms the orthodox approximation precisely because it is the doctrine of the imperial Sacred Edict. Composition complete in Kāngxī 31 (1692); presented in Kāngxī 38 (1699). The bracket 1692–1699 covers the active period.
Translations and research
- 蕭水順. 1995. 毛奇齡學術研究. 臺北: 文史哲出版社. — Includes treatment of the music-treatise.
- 沈知白. 1982. 中國音樂史綱要. — Brief notice of Máo’s musicology in the early-Qīng polemical context.
- No further substantial Western-language secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The work, the Huángyán dìngshēng lù, and the Jìngshān yuèlù together form Máo Qílíng’s yuè trilogy and were always so transmitted. The Shèngyù yuèběn jiěshuō is the doctrinal preface; the Huángyán dìngshēng lù is the theoretical core; the Jìngshān yuèlù is the historical-philological extension. All three are anti-Cài-Yuán-dìng / anti-Zhū-Xī in their orientation and reflect Máo’s distinctive Hangzhou-school anti-Sòng-orthodoxy.