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‘There is No Music in Chinese Music History’: Five Court Tunes from the Yuan Dynasty (AD 1271–1368)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Joseph S. C. Lam
Joseph S. C. Lam*
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Barbara
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Extract

‘There is no music in Chinese music history.’ This paradox is often expressed by music scholars in Hong Kong, a modern metropolis in which Chinese and Western musics and music scholarship mingle and thrive. Highlighting the contrasts between traditional Chinese and contemporary Western views of music and music historiography, the paradox refers to the scholars' observation that Chinese music histories include few descriptions of actual music, and that performances of early Chinese music are often inauthentic. Published accounts of China's musical past include little hard evidence about the structure and sounds of specific musical works. Thus, the scholars argue, the accounts are more theoretical than factual, and their musical descriptions disputable. Public performances and recorded examples of early Chinese music reveal obvious use of Western tonal harmony and counterpoint, and thus cannot be authentic music from China of the past. The scholars' arguments, however, cannot refute that in Hong Kong many Chinese music masters and audiences find the so-called early Chinese music authentic and its histories credible.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Musical Association , Volume 119 , Issue 2 , 1994 , pp. 165 - 188
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 Royal Musical Association

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References

I would like to thank Profs. John M. Ward of Harvard University. Evelyn Rawski and Bell Yung of the University of Pittsburgh, and Wdliam Prizer of the University of California Santa Barbara They read earlier drafts of this paper and offered many helpful suggestionsGoogle Scholar

1 Between 1988 and 1991 I taught in Hong Kong, and I often heard students and colleagues express this paradox.Google Scholar

2 In his Zhongguo gudai yinyue shigao (Draft History of Ancient Chinese Music) (Beijing, 1981), the standard text of Chinese music history, Yang Yinliu devoted 800 (out of 1,070) pages and 50 musical examples to his description of the history of Chinese music from its beginning to AD 1550 Only four of these musical examples (nos. 3, 7, 8 and 14) are preserved in documents contemporaneous with the music being discussed.Google Scholar

3 A representative commercial recording of such examples is Song Jiang Baishi gequ shiqishou zuoyu 1176–1196 nian (Seventeen Songs by Jiang Baishi Composed in 1176–96) (China Records, AL-50, 1986).Google Scholar

4 Three current publications on the questions, which also constitute a general foundation for this paper, are Liu Nianci et al., ‘Yinyue shixue fangfalun yantao’ (‘Symposium on Methods of Music Historiography’), Zhongguo yinyuexue (1989/2), 66–89, Leo Treitler, ‘The Politics of Reception Tailoring the Present as Fulfilment of a Desired Past“, Journal ofthe Royal Music Association, 116 (1991), 281–98, Writing Culture The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography, ed. James Clifford (Berkeley, 1986)Google Scholar

5 For reasons why the DMJL remained unknown, see Joseph S. C Lam, ‘Creativity Within Bounds State Sacrificial Songs from the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644)’ (Ph D dissertation, Harvard University, 1988), 311–17Google Scholar

6 The year 1550 is a convenient dividing line in Chinese music history. No known genre of Chinese music can trace and verify that its performance tradition has been continuously and orally transmitted to the present from a time prior to 1550 In contrast, Kun operatic arias (Kunqu) and certain schools of qin (Chinese seven-string zither) music, which developed in the mid-sixteenth century and are still thriving, have contestable claims to such a kind of continuous oral transmission Historiographical issues concerning these two other genres are related to but different from the issues discussed in this paper, which limits its purview to Chinese music created before 1550. I use the term ‘early Chinese music’ to draw an analogy to the early music of the West. The two repertories share fundamental problems of performance practice, authenticity and relationships between facts and fiction For an introduction to theories of early music of the West, see Authenticity and Early Music, ed. Nicholas Kenyon (Oxford, 1988)Google Scholar

7 Collingwood, Robin George, Idea of History (London, 1946), 231–19Google Scholar

8 The lulu̇ notation uses 12 terms to denote the 12 pitches inside an octave; the notation does not include symbols for rhythm. The gongche notation uses ten characters to denote pitch, the notation does include optional signs to indicate rhythm. Rhythmic signs are absent from the source For further information about the notational systems see Pian, Rulan Chao, Sonq Dynasty Musical Sources and their Interpretations (Cambridge, Mass, 1967), 59–98.Google Scholar

9 The names of all ten songs can be found in the Yuanshi (Standard History of the Yuan) (1370, Beijing Zhonghua shuju edn, 1976), 71 1773–7Google Scholar

10 There is only one known publication which specifically discusses music in the Yuan court of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries Moerjihu's ‘Yuandai gongting yinyue chutan’ (‘A Preliminary Study of Music in the Yuan Court‘), Yinyue yishu (1990), 16–23Google Scholar

11 ‘For an introduction to documents about the Ming, see Franke, Wolfgang, An Introduction to the Sources of Ming History (Kuala Lumpur, 1968) For further details of Ming dynasty musical sources, see Lam, ‘Creativity Within Bounds’, 319–34 For general information on Chinese historical documents mentioned briefly, see Wilkinson, Endymion, The History of Imperial China A Research Guide (Cambridge, Mass., 1975)Google Scholar

12 See their biographies in Dictionary of Ming Biography, ed L Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang (New York, 1976)Google Scholar

13 A discussion of the continuity is Edward L Dreyer ‘The Early Ming Period in Chinese History’, Early Ming China A Political History, 1355–1435 (Stanford, 1982), 1–12Google Scholar

14 This is clear from a description in the Ming Shizong Shuhuangdi shilu (1577; Taipei Academia Sinica edn, 1962–8), 116 9aGoogle Scholar

15 Besides the differences in the number of chapters, the 1530 edition has textual discrepancies with contemporaneous documents over elements which were regarded as anachronistic None of these facts, however, casts doubt on the reliability of the DMJL. See Lam, ‘Creativity Within Bounds’, 329–32Google Scholar

16 See Emperor Shizong's preface in DMJL, 1-la-b– Emperor-Shizong wrote that the DMJL preserves ritual guidelines from the founder of the empire that should be followed by all his descendantsGoogle Scholar

17 A copy of this 1530 edition exists in the Harvard Yenching Library in Cambridge, Mass.Google Scholar

18 Zongyi, Tao, Chuogenglu (1366; Taipei Shijie shuju edn. 1963), 430–1. For Tao's biography, see Dictionary of Ming Biography, s.v. ‘Tao Tsungi’.Google Scholar

19 The Chinese population includo many ethnic groups. In this paper, the term Han will refer to the dominating group of Han people, non Han to all other groups of Chinese peoples.Google Scholar

20 For an introduction to the encyclopedia and its musical contents, see Pian, Sonq Dynasty Musical Sources, 23–9.Google Scholar

21 There are many references to the use of notation in the Yuan court See ‘Zhiyue shimo’ (‘History of Instituting Music [in the Yuan Court]‘), Yuanshi, 68 1691–9Google Scholar

22 Pian, Sonq Dynasty Musical Sources, 59, 97–8Google Scholar

23 Provine, Robert, Essays on Smo-Korean Musicology (Seoul, 1988), 116–33.Google Scholar

24 For a discussion of the concept of ‘partial truth’ and its intellectual contexts, see Clifford, James, ‘Introduction. Partial Truths’, Writing Culture, 1–26.Google Scholar

25 In addition to making new instruments, the Yuan government collected musical instruments from the Jin, Northern Song and Southern Song courts. For a brief survey of the different tuning standards used in these courts, see Yinliu, Yang, Zhongguo yinyue shigang (Outline of Chinese Music History) (Shanghai, 1953), 288–300.Google Scholar

26 See Leo Treitler's discussion of various types of analysis in his Music and the Historical Imagination (Cambridge, Mass, 1989), 67–78Google Scholar

27 There are various classifications of music in Chinese courts proper music or state sacrificial music (yayue), vulgar music (suyue), entertainment music (yanyue), non-Han music (huyue), outdoor processional music (yizhang), recreational music for leisurely enjoyment, and so forth To facilitate discussion, banquet music and secular ceremonial music, both of which belong to the general category of entertainment music, are defined as follows Banquet music was music performed as entertainment at court functions, such as banquet parties which followed New Year celebrations, coronations, and other formal and ritual activities. Secular ceremonial music was music performed to accompany secular ceremonies, such as a formal toast, in secular court functions.Google Scholar

28 ‘Yuedui’(‘Musical Orchestras’), Yuanshi, 71.1773–7Google Scholar

29 The term recreational music refers to those genres emperors, noblemen and court citizens enjoyed privately and/or during their leisure. Such genres, which ranged from the seven-string zither music of the Confucian scholars to popular musical dramas, were also enjoyed by the general public Thus, those genres are seldom discussed as court musicGoogle Scholar

30 An example is the first song for a Yuan dynasty state sacrifice to Heaven and Earth, performed in 1302, which was entitled Qianning zhi qu (Music of Heavenly Peace).Google Scholar

31 Mengou, Wang, ‘Yueling’, Lijt jinzhu jinyi (Book of Ceremonial, Annotated and Translated) (Tianjin, 1988), 201–40.Google Scholar

32 Yuanshi, 71 1773–7.Google Scholar

33 As described in the Yuanshi (71 1771–3), the grand orchestra included the following instruments, organ (xinglongsheng); pear-shaped four-string lute (pipa), 13-string fretted zither (zheng); four-string lute (huobusi), two-string fiddle (huqin); metal-slab chime (fangxiang), flute (longdi); oboe (touguan), mouth organ (sheng); harp (konghou); gong chimes (yunluo); vertical flute (xiao); bamboo pole (xizhu); suspended big drum (gu); hour-glass drum (zhanggu), small hour-glass drum (zhagu); hand-held drum (hegu); seven-string zither (qin); three-hole flute (jiangdi); wooden clappers (paiban); bronze bowls (shuizhan)Google Scholar

34 As described in the Yuanshi (71.1700–5), the terrace orchestra includes the following instruments a set of bell chimes; a set of stone chimes; a one-string zither (qin), two three-string zithers; two five-string zithers; two seven-string zithers, two nine-string zithers, four 25-string zithers, two sets of panpipes; two flutes (di), two flutes (yue), two flutes (chi), four large 19-pipe mouth organs (chaosheng), four small 19-pipe mouth organs (hesheng); a seven-pipe mouth organ (qixingbao); a nine-pipe mouth organ (jiuyaobao); a 13-pipe mouth organ (yunyubao); two ocarinas (xun); two drums (bofu), a wooden rectangle (zhu), a wooden tiger (yu)Google Scholar

35 See Yinliu, Yang, Zhongguo gudai yinyue shigao, 421–2 Throughout the monograph, Yang alludes to issues of non-Han music without detailed discussions Section 6 of Yang's book, pp 275–456, is entitled ‘[Music in the] Liao, Song, Xixia and Jin dynasties, 937–1279’, but discussion is devoted to music of the Song empires of Han people, only pages 421 -2 discuss court music in the Liao (Khitan people, 907–1125) and Jin (Jurchen people, 1115–1234) dynasties See also note 36 belowGoogle Scholar

36 While the Northern Song government of Han people ruled over the central part of China (960–1127), the Khitan, the Jurchen and the Tanguts peoples of Xixia (1032–1227) occupied various areas in north and north-west China Genghis Khan (1162–1227) established the Mongolian empire in 1206. The empire was renamed as the Yuan in 1271, eight years before it conquered the Southern Song dynasty of the Han people and achieved full control of the whole Chinese land Contacts between the various non-Han and Han peoples were constant.Google Scholar

37 For example, Cheung Saibung believes that importation of non-Han peoples' plucked lutes led to the rise of rhythmically fast melodies and the use of padding words in song texts See his Zhongguo yinyueshi lunshugao (Historical Studies of Chinese Music) (Hong Kong, 1975), 353–6Google Scholar

38 See Carr, Edward Hallett, “The Historian and his Facts', What is History? (London, 1987), 7–30; Stanford, Michael, ”The Evidence of History', The Nature of Historical Knowledge (New York, 1986), 56–75.Google Scholar

39 See Haskell, Thomas L., ‘Objectivity is not Neutrality: Rhetoric vs. Practice in Peter Novick's That Noble Dream’, That Noble Dream 29 (1990), 129–57Google Scholar

40 For a history of modern Chinese acceptance of scientism and positivism, see Daniel W. Y. Kwok, Scientism in Chinese Thought, 1900–1950 (New Haven, 1965)Google Scholar

41 This sentence reports what Hong Kong music scholars emphasize as characteristics of Anglo-American musicology as it relates to Western art music For a discussion of Anglo-American musicology, see Kerman, Joseph, Contemplating Music Challenges to Musicology (Cambridge, Mass, 1985) see also Treitler's, Leo review, ‘The Power of Positivist Thinking’, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 42 (1989), 375–402, and ‘History and Music’, New Literary History, 21 (1990), 299–319.Google Scholar

42 There are numerous verbal descriptions of China's musical past, but there are relatively few notated sources See Zhongguo yinyue shupuzhi (Bibliography of Chinese Music Books and Scores) (Beijing, 1984)Google Scholar

43 For an analysis of the fundamental presumptions in-music-histories of Western art music, see Treitler, Leo, “The Present as History', Music and the Historical Imagination, 95–156.Google Scholar

44 See Fang Kun et al., ‘A Discussion on Chinese National Musical Traditions’, Asian Music, 12 (1981), 1–15 For discussion of the dapu process in which qin music preserved in historical notation is reconstructed in the present, see Yung, Bell, ‘Da Pu. The Recreative Process for the Music of the Seven-String Zither’, Music and Context Essays for John M Ward (Cambridge, Mass., 1985), 370–83, and ‘Historical Interdependency A Case Study of the Chinese Seven-String Zither’, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 40 (1987), 82–91Google Scholar

45 Jiaozhu Songshu yuezhi (An Annotated Edition of the Music Chapters in the History of the Song), ed Su Jinren and Xiao Lianzi (Jinan, 1982), 11–12.Google Scholar

46 Yang Yinliu and Yin Falu, Song Jiang Baishi chuangzuo gequ yanjiu (Studies of the Songs Composed by Jiang Baishi of the Song Dynasty) (Beijing, 1957), 47Google Scholar

47 See JiKong liyuezhi gaijtn (On Improving the Ritual and Music of the Sacrifice to Confucius) (Taipei, 1970)Google Scholar

48 A detailed study of the reconstructed music is in progressGoogle Scholar

49 A written example of such an attitude is Ge Hong's ‘Weiyi xiaode xingqiaocui’ (‘For Music, He is Exhausted A Biographical Sketch of [Shanghai] Qin Musician Gong Yi‘), Renmm yinyue (1991/4), 25–7.Google Scholar

50 The traditional music masters may however consult and accept historically established meanings of a musical work.Google Scholar

51 A recent article illustrating such a belief is Guo Naian's ‘Zhongguo chuantong yinyue di fengge’ (‘Musical Styles of Traditional Chinese. Music‘), Wenhua Shijie renmin di jiaoliu (Culture Dialogues among Peoples of the World) (Beijing, n d.), 58–64Google Scholar

52 Yanjiusuo, Yinyue, ‘Zhang Zai lunyue’ (‘Zhang Zai Discusses Music‘), Zhongguo gudai yuelun xuanji (A Selection of Ancient Chinese Music Theories) (Beijing, 1981), 188–9.Google Scholar

53 Yuanshi, 67 1667Google Scholar

54 An explicit record of the practice is provided by Yang Jie's arguments for its application (AD 1080) See Songshi (The Standard History of the Song) (1345, Beijing Zhonghua shuju edn, 1977), 128 2981Google Scholar

55 Laurence Picken and his colleagues have produced a series of ‘reconstructed’ and ‘performable’ scores of ‘music from the Tang court’ which will not be discussed in this paper for the following reasons. Picken and his colleagues' distinctive attempts to understand and reconstruct early music of East Asian cultures are intellectually, socially and musically different from the subject-matter and issues of this discussion Picken and his colleagues use a methodology that is based on a Western tradition of philology and textual criticism, and that does not involve current practices of the musical cultures they study The notated sources they have consulted were produced in Japan by Japanese musicians The Chinese attributes of that notated music are disputable The narratives and reconstructed compositions of Picken and his colleagues exist in specialized and scholarly publications, and are not commonly known among general Chinese music audiences in Hong Kong or any other Chinese communities See Music from the Tang Court, ed Laurence Picken et al., 5 vols (London, 1981, Cambridge, 1985–91). See also Richard Widdess, ‘Historical Ethnomusicology’, Ethnomusicology An Introduction, ed Helen Myers (New York, 1992), 219–37, and Joseph S C Lam, review of Music from the Tang Court, ii-iii, Ethnomusicology, 33 (1989), 345–8Google Scholar

56 See Treitler, Leo, ‘The Power of Positivist Thinking’, and Margaret Bent et al., ‘Facts and Values in Contemporary Musical Scholarship’, CMS Proceedings The National and Regional Meetings, 1985 (Boulder, 1986), 1–52Google Scholar

57 Cohen, Paul, Discovering History in China American Historical Writing on the Recent Chinese Past (New York, 1984), 196Google Scholar

58 Dahlhaus, Carl, Foundations of Music History, trans. J B Robinson (London, 1983), 39.Google Scholar

59 The word ‘objective’ refers to the objectivity defined in Haskell, ‘Objectivity is not Neutrality’ He states that ‘the most commonly observed fulfilment of the ideal of objectivity in the historical profession is simply the powerful argument – the text that reveals by its every twist and turn its respectful appreciation of the alternatives it rejects’ (p 135)Google Scholar