Gǔ yuèfǔ 古樂府
Old Music Bureau Songs by 左克明
About the work
A 10-juǎn anthology of yuèfǔ (Music-Bureau) poetry from the Hàn through Suí, compiled by Zuǒ Kèmíng (左克明) of Yùzhāng 豫章 (Nánchāng, Jiāngxī) and prefaced in his own hand at Zhìzhèng bǐngxū (= 1346, liángyuè / 10th month). The work organises yuèfǔ material into eight categories: (1) 古歌謠辭 gǔ gēyáo cí (ancient folk-songs), (2) 鼓吹曲 gǔchuī qū (drum-pipe songs), (3) 横吹曲 héngchuī qū (cross-pipe songs), (4) 相和曲 xiānghé qū (mutual-harmony songs), (5) 清商曲 qīngshāng qū (qing-shang songs), (6) 舞曲 wǔqū (dance songs), (7) 琴曲 qínqū (zither songs), (8) 雜曲 záqū (miscellaneous songs). The selection ends at the Suí, deliberately excluding Táng xīnyuèfǔ (new Music-Bureau verse) on the principle that yuèfǔ in its proper sense pertains to the pre-Táng tradition.
Tiyao
Your servants respectfully submit: the Gǔ yuèfǔ in 10 juǎn — the Yuán Zuǒ Kèmíng edited it. He calls himself a Yùzhāng man; his career and biographical details are not preserved. His own preface is dated zhìzhèng bǐngxū (1346) — i.e. the reign of Shùndì.
The work records old yuèfǔ lyrics divided into eight categories: gǔ gēyáo; gǔchuī; héngchuī; xiānghé; qīngshāng; wǔqū; qínqū; záqū. His own preface explains: “I prefix the work with gǔ gēyáo cí because I prize their issuing from natural spontaneity; I end with záqū in order to show the gradual drift toward ‘new sounds’ (xīnshēng).” He further says: “Fēnghuà (the influence of fēng poetry) daily shifts; multiplying tones daily proliferate; I have feared that this [proper] sound will not be made. Therefore not measuring myself, I have traced the root from the Three Dynasties and stopped clean at the Chén and Suí, taking these alone as my standard. Though I incur the censure of the gentlemen of the age, I have nowhere to escape it.”
In the late Yuán, Yáng Wéizhēn 楊維楨 was renowned for his yuèfǔ compositions — his style striving for marvellous strangeness, no longer following the old norms. Zuǒ Kèmíng’s argument was probably made on account of Yáng Wéizhēn.
The Sòng Guō Màoqiàn 郭茂倩 (KR4h0048) had earlier produced the 樂府詩集 Yuèfǔ shījí, with materials ending at the late Táng — extremely comprehensive. Zuǒ’s compilation appears at first like “a couch on a couch” (i.e. redundant). However, examining Lǐ Xiàoguāng’s 李孝光 preface to the engraving of the Yuèfǔ shījí, that work had been long out of circulation; only in Zhìyuán 6 (1340) did Péng Shūyí 彭叔儀 of Jǐnán first obtain a copy and reprint it. Hence at the time Guō’s compilation was newly re-engraved — only six years before Zuǒ’s. The printing was at Jǐnán, far from Jiāngxī. Consequently when Zuǒ compiled this anthology, he can hardly have seen Guō’s book — so the two are not following each other.
Moreover, Guō’s work strives to exhaust the 流 (downstream development) — so its inclusions are sometimes excessive: Xuē Dàohéng’s 薛道衡 Xīxī yán 昔昔鹽 is 20 lines long; Táng’s Zhào Xià 趙嘏 wrote one poem per line — clearly a gōngjǔ chéngshì (examination-hall) exercise of using lines as topics, having no real bearing on yuèfǔ — yet Guō places these after Xuē’s poem, which is somewhat unsuitable.
Zuǒ’s compilation, by contrast, strives to trace the source: his focus is on the 古題古辭 (old-title and old-words) and on the biàntǐ (modified-form) imitations; his selection is more careful. The two works’ guiding intent is quite different.
Each category has a small preface; from the wording it is certain that Zuǒ composed them himself. The interlinear notes below the titles often draw on the Yuèfǔ shījí; under zǐyù gē the Yuèfǔ shījí is explicitly named. Now examining the lín gāotái entry, where the discussion cites Liú Lǚ’s (劉履) Fēngyǎyì (KR4h0090) — Liú Lǚ is not far in time from Zuǒ. But under zǐliúmǎ, the discussion cites Féng Wéinè’s (馮惟訥) Shījì (KR4h0107) — but the Shījì is a Jiājìng (1522–1566) work; how could a Yuán man have seen it? Clearly this entered through Míng-era recutting and editorial addition.
Further: Féng Shū (馮舒) in his collation of the Yùtái xīnyǒng on the line “shǒu jié qíng bù yí” of Jiāo Zhòngqīng’s wife poem notes — “according to the Huóběn and the Yángběn, below this line are the two lines ‘jiànqiè liú kōngfáng / xiāngjiàn chángrìxī’” — but checking Guō’s and Zuǒ’s yuèfǔ, neither has these two lines. Yet here in the present recension these two lines do appear, indicating that the body-text also was altered by Míng recutters, not just the jiětí. As the Yuán imprint is not extant we have no way to compare and excise, and have provisionally followed the Míng recension while noting the errors above.
Reverently submitted, first month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Editor-in-Chief Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Collator Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Date. Zuǒ Kèmíng’s own preface is dated Zhìzhèng bǐngxū (1346). The work was completed in Jiāngxī.
Relation to Guō Màoqiàn’s Yuèfǔ shījí. The SKQS editors persuasively show that Zuǒ’s Gǔ yuèfǔ is not derivative of Guō’s earlier and more famous Yuèfǔ shījí (KR4h0048): when Zuǒ was compiling, Guō’s anthology had been long out of circulation and was newly reprinted in 1340 in distant Jǐnán. The two anthologies have complementary methodologies: Guō’s is exhaustive-downstream (running through late Táng), with somewhat indulgent inclusion; Zuǒ’s is curatorial-upstream (Hàn through Suí), with strict adherence to gǔtí gǔcí (old titles, old lyrics) and the biàntǐ of canonical imitation. Zuǒ thus complements rather than duplicates Guō.
Significance. (1) The work is the principal Yuán-period theoretical reflection on yuèfǔ tradition, deliberately positioned against Yáng Wéizhēn’s contemporary practice of guàishēng yuèfǔ (Yáng’s stylised, xīnshēng-laden compositions). (2) Each of the eight categories carries Zuǒ’s own xiǎoxù — a unified critical-historical statement of the yuèfǔ tradition that pre-dates by 250 years Hú Yìnglín 胡應麟 (1551–1602) and Féng Wéinè’s (馮惟訥) Jiā-jìng-era Shījì (KR4h0107). (3) The transmission history is complicated by Míng-era recutter’s interpolations (cited from Féng Wéinè etc.), which the SKQS editors document but cannot reverse since no Yuán imprint survives.
Translations and research
- Joseph R. Allen, In the Voice of Others: Chinese Music Bureau Poetry (Ann Arbor, 1992) — major Western study of yuè-fǔ, places Zuǒ’s anthology in canon-history.
- 王運熙 Wáng Yùn-xī, Yuè-fǔ shī shù-lùn (Shanghai, 1958/1996) — foundational PRC study.
- 蕭滌非 Xiāo Dí-fēi, Hàn Wèi Liù-cháo yuè-fǔ wén-xué shǐ (Beijing, 1984).
- 王運熙 — Yuè-fǔ shī xuǎn (Beijing, 1995) — uses Zuǒ’s text.
Other points of interest
The Gǔ yuèfǔ is the chief YuánMíng anthological alternative to Guō Màoqiàn’s Yuèfǔ shījí. The two were complementary in the MíngQīng yuèfǔ curriculum; the Qīng Sìkù editors valued both. The work was substantially superseded only by Féng Wéinè’s KR4h0107 Gǔshī jì (Jiājìng) and ultimately by Méi Dǐngzuò’s KR4h0119 Gǔ yuèyuàn (1597), both of which build on Zuǒ’s classificatory scheme.
Links
- ctext
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §38.2.