Lǐshì xuéyuè lù 李氏學樂錄
Mr. Lǐ’s Record of Studies in Music by 李塨 (Lǐ Gōng)
About the work
A two-juan music treatise recording Lǐ Gōng’s studies of music with 毛奇齡 (Máo Qílíng), specifically the doctrine of the five tones, seven sounds, and twelve pitches as keyed to the seven qìsè 器色 fingering-color characters of gōngchě notation. The book consists of a series of seven diagrams (Máo’s Gōngdiào tú; the Qīdiào quántú; the Shíèr lǜ xuánxiāng wéi gōng gébā xiāngshēng hétú; the Qìsè qīshēng huánxiāng wéi gōng gébā xiāngshēng tú; the Yuèsè xiàshēng shàngshēng tú; the Wǔyīn qīshēng shíèr lǜ qìsè qīzì wéi qīdiào huánxiāng wéi gōng gébā xiāngshēng quántú; the Liùlǜ zhèngyīn tú) with Lǐ Gōng’s discussions. The principal doctrine: the seven characters 四上尺工六五 plus a leading-mode (lǐngdiào) character form a closed cycle, with each successive character one tone higher than the leading one upward and one tone lower downward, the cycle being completed by the rotation. The work was originally compiled by Lǐ as transcripts of Máo’s lectures, and Máo himself revised and approved them — for which reason it was later included in Máo’s Xīhé jí 西河集 with Máo’s name on the cover, but the Sìkù compilers restore Lǐ Gōng’s authorship.
Tiyao
[Your servants] respectfully report: Lǐshì xuéyuè lù in 2 juàn, by Lǐ Gōng of our dynasty. Lǐ Gōng’s zì was Shùgǔ; he was a man of Lǐxiàn. Lǐ Gōng once studied the doctrine of pairing the five tones, seven sounds, and twelve pitches with the qìsè fingering-marks under Máo Qílíng. He has compiled the Gōngdiào tú, the Qīdiào quántú, and the Shíèr lǜ xuánxiāng wéi gōng gébā xiāngshēng hétú, the Qìsè qīshēng huánxiāng wéi gōng gébā xiāngshēng tú, the Yuèsè xiàshēng shàngshēng tú, the Wǔyīn qīshēng shíèr lǜ qìsè qīzì wéi qīdiào huánxiāng wéi gōng gébā xiāngshēng quántú, and the Liùlǜ zhèngyīn tú, and supplied each with a discussion. His arguments turn on the principle that the characters 四上尺工六五, after removing the lǐngdiào (leading-mode) character, ascend tone by tone from the leading mode and descend tone by tone from the leading mode, and the cycle is closed-circular in use. Although on the question of why the huángzhōnggōng serves as the foundation of the pitch-system he has nothing original to contribute, he can still serve as one school’s account. — The book was originally compiled by Lǐ Gōng, since it consists entirely of what he heard from Máo Qílíng; Máo Qílíng then revised it personally, hence later editors included it in his Xīhé jí and placed Máo’s name at its head. But it is not in fact written by Máo. Just as Zhào Fǎng’s Chūnqiū shī shuō did not have Huáng Zé’s name placed on it — this is the practice of the ancients — we now restore Lǐ Gōng’s name so as not to obscure the truth. Respectfully edited and presented in the fifth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Editor-Generals: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. Editor-in-chief: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The Lǐshì xuéyuè lù is the principal record of Máo Qílíng’s yuè teaching in the form of student-edited lectures. It thereby gives a more direct and pedagogical access to the doctrines elaborated more polemically in Máo’s own KR1i0015, KR1i0016, and KR1i0017. The Sìkù compilers’ restoration of Lǐ Gōng’s authorship is a small but important act of philological rectification: the work had been routinely included in Máo’s Xīhé jí under Máo’s name, but is in fact a record of Máo’s teaching compiled by Lǐ. The textual history is parallel to Hú Yuán’s Zhōuyì kǒuyì (KR1a0012), which is similarly Hú’s lectures recorded by his student Ní Tiānyǐn. The principal substantive contribution is the elaboration of how the seven qìsè characters 四上尺工六五 plus lǐngdiào function as a closed modal cycle, and the Sìkù compilers note that this is among the cleanest available expositions of the gōngchě notation system. Composition cannot be precisely dated; Máo and Lǐ’s pedagogical contact dates principally to the first decade of the eighteenth century, with Máo dying in 1716. Bracket: 1700–1716.
Translations and research
- 蕭水順. 1995. 毛奇齡學術研究. 臺北: 文史哲出版社. — Treats Lǐ Gōng’s Xué-yuè lù as the most accessible exposition of Máo’s music doctrine.
- 楊蔭瀏. 1981. 中國古代音樂史稿. — Brief treatment.
- No further substantial Western-language secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The work is one of the few clear Qing-period documents of teacher-pupil pedagogy in music: Lǐ Gōng’s notebook captures Máo’s actual teaching method (diagram, then commentary). It is therefore a valuable witness to the practical pedagogy of Confucian music-theory in the late Kāngxī period, and to the YánLǐ school’s interest in shí xué (practical-applied learning) extending into the music-theoretical domain.