古樂苑

Gǔ yuèyuàn 古樂苑

Garden of Ancient Music-Bureau Songs by 梅鼎祚

About the work

A 52-juǎn late-Míng yuèfǔ anthology by Méi Dǐngzuò (梅鼎祚, 1549–1618, zì Yǔjīn 禹金, of Xuānchéng 宣城) — an expanded supplement to Guō Màoqiàn’s Sòng KR4h0048 Yuèfǔ shījí. Where Guō’s collection ran from antiquity to late Táng, Méi’s terminates at the 南北朝 (Southern-and-Northern Dynasties) — following Zuǒ Kèmíng’s Yuán-period KR4h0084 Gǔ yuèfǔ in temporal scope. The work supplements the Guō original with new materials and provides revised editorial classification.

The structure: opens with gǔgēcí (ancient songs) — beginning with the Duànzhú gē 斷竹歌 (the “Cutting-Bamboo Song” attributed to ancient archery-makers) and ending at the Qín Shǐhuáng cí Luòshuǐ gē 秦始皇祀洛水歌; then qínqū gēcí, zágē qūcí, etc. The work includes a 4-juǎn 衍錄 Yǎnlù (Expanded Record) documenting zuòzhě juélǐ (author rank-and-native-place) and the various commentators’ critical statements — drawn principally from 馮惟訥 Féng Wéinè’s KR4h0107 Gǔshī jì Biéjí, with some additions, especially from Yáng Shèn 楊慎.

Tiyao

Your servants respectfully submit: the Gǔ yuèyuàn in 52 juǎn — the Míng Méi Dǐngzuò composed it. Dǐngzuò has the Cáiguǐ jì — already catalogued. This compilation continues Guō Màoqiàn’s KR4h0048 Yuèfǔ shījí and adds further material. Guō’s recension stops at late Táng; this stops at South-and-North dynasties — using Zuǒ Kèmíng’s KR4h0084 Gǔ yuèfǔ example.

What he adds: Qínqū gēcí — Páng Dégōng’s 龐德公 Yú Hūcāo 於忽操 (see in Sòng wénjiàn) — actually a Wáng Lìng 王令 nǐzuò (imitative composition), not really Páng’s own work. Zágē qūcí — Liú Xūn’s wife 劉勳妻 — her poem, the Yìwén lèijù says Wèi Wéndì wrote it, the Yùtái xīnyǒng says Wáng Sòng 王宋 herself wrote it, Xíng Kǎi’s 邢凱 Tǎnzhāi tōngbiān says Cáo Zhí wrote it — but always recorded as a 5-syllable poem, not marked as yuèfǔ; also not titled “Liú Xūn’s wife” as a yuèfǔ title. Zuǒ Sī’s 左思 Jiāonǚ shī — recording his two daughters’ play — also not a yuèfǔ. As for Liáng Zhāomíng Tàizǐ, Shěn Yuē 沈約, Wáng Xī 王錫, Wáng Guī 王規, Wáng Zuǎn 王纘, Yīn Jūn’s Dàyán 大言 / Xìyán 細言 — these are ǒurán yóuxì (occasional sports) — really Sòng Yù’s Dàyán fù tradition; not gǔdiào (ancient tones), and not yet set to xīnshēng (new sounds) — forcibly named as yuèfǔ… [SKQS editors critique multiple miscategorisations].

But its jūnshí yíyì (harvesting of lost items) is considerable, supplementing Guō Màoqiàn’s gaps; its jiětí (problem-explanation) also has additions. Even though there are some defects — yǒu sīmá wú qì jiānkuǎi (though there is silk-and-hemp, do not throw away straw): preserving it is useful for verification.

Its 衍錄 Yǎnlù in 4 juǎn — recording authors’ juélǐ and various critics’ assessments — basically piāozhuō (extracted/excerpted) from Féng Wéinè’s Shījì biéjí with some additions; mostly drawn from Yáng Shèn etc.’s discussions. Today we also include it for cross-reference.

Reverently submitted, fourth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Editor-in-Chief Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Collator Lù Fèichí.

Abstract

Date. Méi Dǐngzuò’s Gǔ yuèyuàn is dated Wànlì 25 (1597) in the standard bibliographic record. It is the first of his major late-Wàn-lì anthological projects; he followed it with the KR4h0120–KR4h0129 文紀 Wénjì series (anthologies of pre-Suí prose by dynasty), completed in stages from c. 1605 to his death in 1618 (the post-mortem publication continuing posthumously through 1638).

The compiler. 梅鼎祚 Méi Dǐngzuò was a late-Míng Xuānchéng (Anhuī) literatus, descendant of the famous Sòng-era Xuānchéng poet 梅堯臣 Méi Yáochén — and editor of the Wǎnyǎ 宛雅 (Xuānchéng regional anthology). He was the most prolific late-Míng anthologist of pre-Suí literature: cataloging pre-Suí yuèfǔ (the present work) and pre-Suí prose (the eight Wénjì volumes — KR4h0120 through KR4h0129) on a comprehensive scale.

Significance. (1) The work is the major late-Wàn-lì supplement to Guō Màoqiàn’s classical KR4h0048 — substantially expanding the yuèfǔ corpus with materials Guō missed or that Méi could now access from late-Míng manuscript collections. (2) Méi’s program — together with 馮惟訥 Féng Wéinè’s KR4h0107 Gǔshī jì — exhausts the pre-Suí poetic record. (3) The work’s classificatory blunders (the SKQS editors detail several) are honestly noted; the work remains valuable for the supplemented materials even if categorisation is imprecise. (4) The 4-juǎn Yǎnlù anchors Méi’s compilation in the late-Wàn-lì critical conversation about pre-Táng yuèfǔ — citing Féng Wéinè, Yáng Shèn, Lǐ Pānlóng, Wáng Shìzhēn, and others.

Translations and research

• Joseph R. Allen, In the Voice of Others: Chinese Music Bureau Poetry (Ann Arbor, 1992) — uses Méi Dǐng-zuò’s compilation.
• 王運熙 Wáng Yùn-xī, Yuè-fǔ shī shù-lùn (Shanghai, 1996).
• 蕭滌非 Xiāo Dí-fēi, Hàn Wèi Liù-cháo yuè-fǔ wén-xué shǐ (Beijing, 1984).

Other points of interest

The work is late-Wàn-lì Anhuī antiquarianism’s representative monument — alongside Méi Dǐngzuò’s other compilations. The Méi family’s role in preserving the Sòng-era Xuānchéng literary heritage — from Sòng 梅堯臣 Méi Yáochén (KR4d0103), through the Yuán Wǎnlíng qúnyīng jí (KR4h0080), through Méi Dǐngzuò’s late-Wàn-lì compilations — makes the family one of the most enduring of late-imperial Chinese literary lineages.

Links

• ctext
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §38.2.