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教坊記

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Text ID
KR3l0011
Date
749–766
Dynasty
唐

Jiàofāng jì 教坊記

Record of the Music Bureau by 崔令欽 (撰)

About the work

A one-juàn prose-anecdote treatise on the imperial Music Bureau (Jiàofāng 教坊) of the Kāiyuán / Tiānbǎo court, with a closing catalogue of 225 named tune-titles (qǔdiào 曲調). Composed by the post-rebellion exiled official 崔令欽 Cuī Lìngqīn (fl. 727–766) in the years after the Ān Lùshān rebellion, when he was banished south and had occasion to reflect on the lost glamour of the Tiānbǎo court. The work is the principal extant primary source for the institutional structure of the imperial Jiàofāng, for the recruitment, ranking and lives of the performers, and for the repertoire of the Kāiyuán–Tiānbǎo court music — and is therefore an indispensable source for Tang music history and for cí studies.

Tiyao

Your servants report: Jiàofāng jì in 1 juàn, by the Táng Cuī Lìngqīn. This book is recorded in the Táng shū Yìwén zhì; also under the zǒngjí class is recorded Lìngqīn’s commentary to Yǔ Xìn’s Āi Jiāngnán fù in 1 juàn. Yet neither catalog says of what locality Lìngqīn was; by the time the Táng shū was being compiled his beginnings and ends had no record. The book records many vulgar matters of the Kāiyuán; Chén Zhènsūn faulted it as crude. But its closing essay (hòujì 後記) admonishes earnestly on shēngsè wángguó (sound-and-colour bringing down the state), and although decorum forbade direct censure of Xuánzōng, it cites in succession Hàn Chéngdì, [Northern Qí] Gāo Wěi, Chén Shūbǎo, [HòuYān] Mùróng Xī — clear and pointed. It is now apparent that Lìngqīn’s book was originally to admonish, not to indulge; the Táng treatise placing it in the Classics-Music sub-class was indeed misplaced, but its didactic fēngzhǐ is recoverable. Even if one calls it “the yǎ tune sounded only at the close,” that judgement is not without its claim. And the listing of 225 qǔdiào names alone is sufficient for cí scholars’ source-criticism.

Abstract

The work’s biographical evidence locates Cuī Lìngqīn in the Tiānbǎo era as a low-ranking court official (his self-description); his commentary on Yǔ Xìn’s Āi Jiāngnán fù was also recorded in the Táng shū Yìwén zhì. CBDB id 33001 records c_fl_earliest_year 727 and c_fl_latest_year 766. The text proper falls into roughly four parts: (1) the institutional layout of the inner and outer Jiàofāng and the Yíchūn yuàn 宜春院; (2) the hierarchy and recruitment of the bóshì and gējì performers, with sociological detail on backgrounds, marriage practices, and lifeways; (3) court music protocols and ceremonial occasions; and (4) the catalogue of tune-titles (225 qǔdiào names plus minor variants), with the closing hòujì (admonitory essay) cited approvingly by the Sìkù compilers. The catalogue is the single most cited part of the work today: every modern study of Táng yuèfǔ / cí tune-titles takes it as a baseline.

Modern critical edition: Rèn Bàntáng 任半塘, Jiàofāng jì jiāndìng 教坊記箋訂 (Zhōnghuá, 1962; rpt. 2012) — the definitive scholarly treatment. Wáng Xīyáo 王希堯 Jiàofāng jì jíshì (Wénjīn, 1992) extends Rèn’s annotations.

Translations and research

  • Rèn Bàn-táng 任半塘. 1962. Jiàofāng jì jiān-dìng 教坊記箋訂. Zhōnghuá. (Standard critical edition.)
  • Owen, Stephen, in The Late Tang (HUP 2006), uses Jiàofāng jì for the Tiān-bǎo musical milieu.
  • Tsai, Sung-Lin. 1989. The Chiao-fang-chi and Its Importance in Chinese Performing-Arts History. Journal of Asian Studies (general survey).
  • No complete European-language translation has been located; partial translations of the tune-title catalogue exist in studies of cí poetry.

Other points of interest

The work’s catalogue of qǔdiào names is the most important single source for the early formation of cí tune-names: many cípái of the Sòng (e.g., Niànnú jiāo, Púsà mán) derive directly from titles listed here.

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