Yōngxī yuèfǔ 雍熙樂府
The Music Bureau of Universal Harmony edited by 郭勛 (輯)
About the work
The Yōngxī yuèfǔ 雍熙樂府 is the great Jiājīng-era anthology of sǎnqǔ 散曲 and xìqǔ 戲曲 — the song-arias and dramatic-poetry corpus of the Yuán and early-Míng — compiled by the Wǔdìnghóu (Marquis of Wǔdìng) Guō Xūn 郭勛. Twenty juǎn in the SBCK arrangement. The title “Yōngxī” — borrowed from the YáoShùn formula shí yōng xián xī 時雍咸熙 (“the times are universally in harmony”) — declares the volume as a peacetime cultural monument of the Jiājīng court, and the preface (translated below) frames it explicitly as the editor’s offering of the yuèfǔ heritage to the reign. The contents are arranged by gōngdiào 宮調 (modal-system: 17 gōngdiào total, listed in the preface) and then by tune-form, gathering song-suites (tàoshù 套數) and individual xiǎolìng 小令 from the principal YuánMíng qǔ-writers. The anthology is the single most important source for the early-Míng sǎnqǔ corpus and a major textual witness for Yuán-era qǔ preserved into the Míng.
Prefaces
(The SBCK _000.txt prefatory file preserves the editor’s own preface; it has no Sìkù tíyào, the Yōngxī yuèfǔ having not been admitted to the Sìkù in its own right.)
Guō Xūn’s preface: Yuèfǔ 樂府 as a name arose in the Hàn; after the Hàn, generation upon generation of writers refined its style, and only today has it reached its summit — the highest craft of literary diction, the fullest completion of tonal regulation. Its modal-system has 17 gōngdiào: Xiānlǚ 仙呂, Nánlǚ 南呂, Zhōnglǚ 中呂, Huángzhōng 黄鍾, Zhènggōng 正宫, Dàogōng 道宫, Dàshí 大石, Xiǎoshí 小石, Gāopíng 髙平, Bānshè 般渉, Xiēzhǐ 歇指, Shāngjiǎo 商角, Shuāngdiào 雙調, Shāngdiào 商調, Jiǎodiào 角調, Gōngdiào 宫調, Yuèdiào 越調 — each grounded in the natural sound of heaven and earth, with a fixed qiāng and a fixed name. Within one line one cannot change a single character; within one tune one cannot mix even one piece — only a man of great learning and acute musical sense can set the cí to the qiāng such that the mood is bright and the language flows easy, sitting comfortably with the yuèfǔ. (After this technical exposition, Guō’s preface narrates that he was raised in the imperial palaces, saw and heard the great song-craft of the Zhōnghé dàyuè 中和大樂, and was inspired to assemble this anthology: drawing on a recently cut compilation of the guócháo (Míng) and JīnYuán court songs and dance-suites, on tunes and lyrics gathered up by no single hand, he edited the present volume. Conceived in the editor’s leisure-hours from zhíshì and ritual-office duties, “facing the wind to the moon, lifting a wine-cup and tasting the sound — wandering and untiring”, he names the volume Yōngxī yuèfǔ in tribute to the YáoShùn formula and to the peace of the present reign.)
Abstract
The Yōngxī yuèfǔ is the largest Míng sǎnqǔ / xìqǔ anthology preserved, and the principal Míng-period source for Yuán-era qǔ. Sūn Kǎidì 孫楷第, Zhèng Zhènduó 鄭振鐸, and modern qǔ scholarship have demonstrated that many Yuán pieces transmitted through this volume are otherwise unattested. Guō Xūn was disgraced (and died in prison) in 1542; the volume must have been completed by then. The earliest text is a Jiājīng-era cutting (its precise year contested between c. 1525 and c. 1540), and the SBCK reproduces a Wànlì-era reissue of that cutting. The volume’s organization by gōngdiào (whereby Guō explicitly lists the 17 modes used in Northern sǎnqǔ) is also the principal Míng-period systematic statement of qǔ mode theory; it is the source for the modal-table given in later qǔpǔ (e.g. the Yùdìng qǔpǔ KR4j0089 of the Qīng). The work was not admitted to the Sìkù (probably for the author’s political disgrace) but is preserved in Sìbù cóngkān and Tàiwān Shāngwù’s 1939 reprinting.
Translations and research
- Sūn Kǎi-dì 孫楷第, Cāng-zhōu jí 滄州集, and Sǎn-qǔ cōng-kān — extended discussions of the Yōng-xī yuè-fǔ as a textual witness.
- Wáng Lì-qì 王利器, “Yōng-xī yuè-fǔ kǎo” — modern textual study.
- Wilt L. Idema and Stephen H. West, Chinese Theater 1100–1450: A Source Book (Wiesbaden, 1982) — frames the wider sǎn-qǔ tradition that Yōng-xī yuè-fǔ records.
- Stephen H. West, “Sources for Yuan Drama and Yuan Music” — methodological essays on this and related anthologies.
Other points of interest
The Yōngxī yuèfǔ together with Yáng Cháoyīng’s 楊朝英 Cháoyě xīnshēng tàipíng yuèfǔ KR4j0081 form the two principal early sǎnqǔ anthologies; the Yōngxī yuèfǔ preserves substantially more Míng-period material and substantially more material in the huáinán / jiāngzuǒ schools of qǔ, while Yáng Cháoyīng’s anthology is the principal Yuán-period anthology. The SòngYuánMíng qǔpǔ tradition runs from these two through the Tàihé zhèngyīn pǔ 太和正音譜 down to Wāng Wéncái’s modern Quán Yuán sǎnqǔ 全元散曲.