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卷二十四 志第四: 禮儀四

Volume 24 Treatises 4: Rites 4

Chapter 28 of 舊唐書 · Old Book of Tang
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1
調
Music was the tool the earliest sages used to govern the passions. People are born with blood and breath, with innate understanding—and with joy, anger, grief, and pleasure. Feeling answers to the world inside; shaped sound answers outside. The sage-kings set pitch to measure it, gave it words in praise, shook it through bronze and stone, breathed it through string and pipe—so the mind could be rinsed clean and brooding anger let go. Set it on a kingdom and the court falls into rank; set it on the world and gods and ghosts attend; set it at a feast and ruler and subject find accord; set it in the ranks and commoners and troops take heart.
2
西 滿 殿 調 調調 調
Under the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors every age kept its music officers—so Shun's court revived the shield-and-feather dance, and the Zhou made plucked strings and choral learning a pillar of rule. Once the ancient order failed and the Warring States threw up their dust, rites and music belonged to whichever lord held power, and the Ya and Song odes were traded down into vulgar hands. Qi's se and Yan's zhu—nothing left of clear, disciplined tone; eastern pot-drums and western lutes, each scoring out the shapes of lewd delight. It went so far that the war drum crossed into Han while Master Zhi let his strings fall silent. Yanling Zi was mocked for music that smelled of Zheng; Confucius stood up when he heard the Shao and could only sigh. When Qin Shihuang welded the realm into one, he treated every earlier king as beneath notice. The Qin palace rang wall to wall with bells and drums—and every piece was Zheng or Wei; song and dance lined the Han imperial temple—and none of it was the Xian or the Shao. The Ninefold rite and Six Changes survived as choreography; eight rows and four suspended choirs survived as numbers—but the feeling behind them scarcely arrived. All the Music Office handed on was outward shape. Under Han Wudi and Xuandi the throne championed the classics, collected night-recited verse and court poets' fu, sang mornings in the Orchid Hall and played evenings at the Bamboo Palace—then charged the pitch officers to compose the first sacral hymns. Prince Xian of Hejian hoarded old texts until his court overflowed with them; he trimmed the Odes and Hymns into scores and shaped dance sections after the Zhou Offices. Thereafter each dynasty copied the form and swapped the words; pipes and stones still sounded, but the spirit of the Jing and Ying hymns was feared lost. Later courts lolled to Sang of Pu and Doli mixed in; Guzhu and Kongsang pieces no longer obeyed circulating-tonic theory; tall tooth-boards and feather banners were all that was left—mere display of ritual gear. Players multiplied; true listeners grew scarce. After Yongjia the twin capitals turned to rubble; rites broke apart and music with them, and the written canon nearly vanished. The Jiangzuo states salvaged what scattered pieces they could and still kept something like music of a well-governed world. Northern Wei and Yuwen's line ruled the northern steppe; clear court music did not take root there—every household kept its own frontier habit. Even when they recruited artisans from Chang'an and Luoyang, they still staged the four-sided metal ensemble. Nothing in it pleased the ear; the title of court music was all that remained. Sui Wendi rose from a literati house and threw himself into restoring rites and music; on taking the throne he ordered Court Music Director Niu Hong and Libationer Xin Yanzhi to rebuild the elegant repertoire. Niu Hong gathered palace musicians and brooded over the task for years without finishing it; meanwhile suburban and temple rites made do with Yellow Bell alone. After Chen fell they finally gained Jiangzuo veterans and the four-suspended sets; Wendi had them played at court and exclaimed: "This is the true voice of the Central Lands—without my campaign, who alive would have heard it? The passage concluded." He then cast the five tones into fourteen court suites—the five Summers, two dances, ascent hymn, inner-chamber music, and the rest—for guest rites and sacrifices. Only then did the Sui possess a true elegant repertoire and found the Pure Shang Office to guard it. Soon Pitch Officer Zu Xiaosun, using Jing Fang's old arithmetic, stretched five tones and twelve pitches into sixty notes, then sixfold into three hundred sixty, cycling the tonic through the year—and so drafted temple music on paper. Ru scholars quarreled over it until the scheme was shelved. Under the Sui, court elegance meant those fourteen pure-music suites—nothing more. Sui collapsed in chaos, but the scores and instruments survived.
3
使 調 調 調 調
When Tang Gaozu took the throne he raised Zu Xiaosun to a post in the Ministry of Personnel, then made him Vice Director of Court Music and steadily leaned on him. Zu Xiaosun seized the moment and asked leave to compose new state music. Armies and administration consumed the court; reform waited, and the Music Office still performed from Sui books. In Wude 9 he finally charged Zu Xiaosun to overhaul the elegant repertoire; by the sixth month of Zhenguan 2 it was ready for the throne. Taizong said: "Rites and music exist because sages read the world and taught through it—to brace conduct. Whether a reign flourishes or fails, can bells and hymns really be the cause? The passage concluded." Censor-in-Chief Du Yan answered: "Former dynasties rose and fell through music—that much is plain. Chen on the brink composed Jade Tree in the Rear Court; Qi on the brink composed the Companion Song. Wayfarers who heard them wept in the street—the so-called music of a dying kingdom. Seen that way, music is the lever of fate. Taizong said: "No. Sound moves the heart—that is nature. The glad listener brightens; the grieving listener breaks—the feeling lives in the listener, not in the tune. A state about to fall breeds a bitter people; bitterness answers to the ear, and the tune sounds sad. What plaint in the score could force a happy man to weep? Jade Tree and Companion still survive intact. I will play them for you—and you will not weep. The passage concluded." Secretariat Vice Director Wei Zheng stepped forward: "The ancients said, 'Rites, rites—are we talking about jade and silk? Music, music—are we talking about bells and drums?' Music is the harmony among people, not the scale. The passage concluded." Taizong agreed. The emperor took his point. Zu Xiaosun memorialized again: "Chen and Liang scores still carry Wu and Chu color; Zhou and Qi scores lean on northern and frontier pieces. He weighed north against south, tested both against ancient pitch, and forged the Great Tang elegant repertoire. Twelve pitches aligned to the months; the tonic cycled through the year. The Record of Rites says great music shares heaven and earth's harmony—so he built twelve harmonic suites: thirty-one pieces, eighty-four modes. Round Mound rites took Yellow Bell as tonic; Square Mound rites Forest Bell; ancestral temples Great Cluster. For the five suburban altars, court audiences, and banquets, the month's pitch ruled the tonic. The passage concluded." Earlier Sui had used Yellow Bell alone, striking seven bells while five hung mute on the rack. Once Zu Xiaosun restored circulating-tonic practice, every bell on the rack sounded; none was left idle. Heaven rites used Yuhe; earth rites Shunhe; ancestral temples Yonghe. Ascent hymns at heaven, earth, and temple alike used Suhe. When the emperor took the throne hall, Taihe sounded. Princes and dukes entering or leaving heard Shuhe. Imperial meals and toasts used Xiuhe. Imperial audiences used Zhenghe. The crown prince's full bell-set processions used Chenghe. New Year and winter-solstice state rites sang Zhaohe at the ascent hymn. When offering trays entered at suburban or temple rites, Yonghe. Pouring the libation, reading the prayer, drinking the blessing cup, receiving the sacrificial meat—Shouhe accompanied each. The five suburban qi-welcoming rites each took the month's pitch for its tone. Suburban and temple sacrifices also danced Huakang and Kaian. Zhou ritual's circulating tonic had been dead for ages; no one alive understood it until one morning brought it back—here was the start. After Zu Xiaosun's death, Pitch Officer Zhang Wenshou mined the Three Rites and argued that Xiaosun had only opened the work—suburban and border-sacrifice music still needed finishing. The throne ordered Zhang Wenshou and the Court Music ritual officers to revise the system together. Following the Zhou Offices: August Heaven took round bell as tonic, Yellow Bell as second, Great Cluster as third, Guxian as fifth, with the Yuhe dance. Mount Tai enfeoffment used the same score. Earth at the Square Mound: sealed bell tonic, Great Cluster second, Guxian third, Southern Lu fifth, Shunhe dance. Solemn rites at Liangfu shared the same score. Collective ancestral rites: Yellow Bell tonic, Great Lu second, Great Cluster third, Ying Bell fifth, Yonghe dance. Five suburban altars, sun, moon, stars, and spirits classed with Heaven: Yellow Bell tonic, Yuhe suite. Great La and Great Report rites cycled Yellow Bell, Great Cluster, Guxian, Flabby Guest, Yi Ze, and Wushe through Yuhe, Shunhe, and Yonghe. Bright Hall and rain-prayer rites: Yellow Bell tonic, Yuhe suite. Central Land, soil-and-grain altars, and plowing rites took Great Cluster; Rain Master Guxian; mountains and rivers Flabby Guest—all with Shunhe. Feasts for the deceased empress dowager: Yi Ze tonic, Yonghe dance. Grand banquets used Guxian and Flabby Guest modes. Imperial ritual meals at suburban or temple rites took the month's pitch and played Xiuhe. Imperial processions at suburban temples used Taihe; throne-hall processions Shuhe—both with Guxian as tonic. Imperial great archery: Guxian tonic, Zouyu suite. The crown prince's archery used Lishou. The crown prince's full bell procession: Guxian tonic, Yonghe suite. Strike Yellow Bell, sing Great Lu; strike Great Cluster, sing Ying Bell; strike Guxian, sing Southern Lu; strike Flabby Guest, sing Forest Bell; strike Yi Ze, sing Middle Lu; strike Wushe, sing Pinched Bell. With Huangzhong and Ruibin as the palace-tonic, the music has nine variations; With Dalü and Linzhong as the palace-tonic, the music has eight variations. With Taizu and Yize as the palace-tonic, the music has seven variations. With Jiazhong and Nanlü as the palace-tonic, the music has six variations. With Guqian and Wushe as the palace-tonic, the music has five variations. With Zhonglü and Yingzhong as the palace-tonic, the music has four variations. The Son of Heaven had twelve bells; upper dukes nine, marquises and earls seven, viscounts and barons five, ministers six, grand masters four, and knights three. When the work was finished, it was performed. The Founding Ancestor praised it; ranks were then raised and gifts distributed according to merit.
4
In the fourteenth year an edict said: "Yin offered to ancestors and fathers to exalt merit and virtue; though we have lately added sincerity and purity, the temple music is still unfitting. Let the responsible offices examine former precedents in detail, fix regulations, and submit a memorial for approval. The Eight Seats deliberated: "The seven temples display virtue; their meaning crowns ancestral sacrifice; the three ancestors in Heaven display it in solemn pairing. Reverence is fully harmonized; the way of great filial piety should be proclaimed. Therefore the eight rows are fully arrayed, and solemn rites take form in the dance positions; the four suspensions are fully deployed, spreading the great emblem through elegant tones. To examine the bright meaning of making music and select the august kings' proper canons—among what former sages practiced, nothing is greater. We bow before Your Majesty, Heaven-endowed with sympathetic penetration, following the dark ultimate. Filial governance is manifest and brilliant, shining across the realm; love and reverence pure and deep, pursuing honor for a hundred generations. Everlasting words bestow blessing; thereby praise is magnified. Bell-tones change their notes, spreading clangor at offerings; feather-flutes form their ranks, displaying vigorous tread at seasonal and ancestral sacrifices. Edicts then went to the canonical offices and elevated titles were added; following the sound and verifying the substance, we respectfully clarify honored names. We venture that the imperial numen increases blessing; the deep source long pours forth, surpassing Yan's swallowing of Shang and exceeding the dragon-disturbing founding of Han, storing brilliance in concealment and gradually issuing forth at the three divisions. The High Ancestor drew in earth and patched heaven, again spreading the realm's bounds, returning souls to flesh and bone, again creating the living. Vast is the imperial design, joining heaven and earth in greatness; splendid is the imperial way, matching the seven luminaries in brightness. Though sage traces and divine achievements cannot be fathomed; the warp of culture and woof of arms—we dare set them down in famous words. We respectfully prepare music sections to display the constant pattern. For the temples of Imperial Grandfather Hongnong, Duke Xuanjian, and Illustrious King, the music should jointly perform the dance Changfa. For the Founding Ancestor Emperor Jing's temple music, please perform the dance Daji. For the World Ancestor Emperor Yuan's temple music, please perform the dance Dacheng. For the High Ancestor Great Martial Emperor's temple music, please perform the dance Daming. For the Cultured Virtue Empress's temple music, please perform the dance Guangda. For the seven temples' ascent hymns, please perform a separate piece in each chamber. The throne approved. In the twenty-third year Grand Mentor Zhangsun Wuji and Palace Attendant Yu Zhining deliberated on the Founding Ancestor's temple music: "The Changes says, 'Former kings made music to exalt virtue; Yin offered to the Supreme Lord to pair with ancestors and fathers. We request the music be named the dance Chongde. The throne approved. Later, at the Cultured Virtue Empress's temple, the offices by ritual stopped the dance Guangda and advanced only the dance Chongde.
5
In the ninth month the High Ancestor's temple music took Juntian as its name. The Middle Ancestor's temple music performed the dance Taihe. A tenth-month edict ordered the Sagacious Ancestor's temple to perform the dance Jingyun. In the sixth month of the twenty-ninth year the Court of Imperial Sacrifices memorialized: "According to the elegant music fixed on the day of the eastern feng at Mount Tai in the twelfth year, Yuanhe has six changes to bring down the Heavenly Spirit. Shunhe has eight changes to bring down the Earth Spirits. When the emperor processed, use Taihe. At the feng of Mount Tai, for the ascent hymn and offering of jade disks, use Suhe; to welcome the offering stands, use Yonghe; for libation offering and drinking the blessing, use Shouhe; to send off the civil and welcome the martial, use Shuhe; for the second and final libations, use Kai'an; to send off the spirits, use Jiazhong-palace Yuanhe. The spirit shrine is foremost; to send off the spirits use Linzhong-palace Shunhe. At offerings in the Grand Temple, to welcome the spirits use Yonghe; for libation to Offering Ancestor Emperor Xuan perform Guangda, to Illustrious Ancestor Emperor Guang perform Changfa, to Founding Ancestor Emperor Jing perform Dazheng, to World Ancestor Emperor Yuan perform Dacheng, to High Ancestor Emperor Shenyao perform Daming, to Founding Ancestor Emperor Wen perform Chongde, to High Ancestor Emperor Tianhuang perform Juntian, to Middle Ancestor Emperor Xiaohe perform Taihe, to Sagacious Ancestor Emperor Dasheng Zhen perform Jingyun; to remove the beans, perform Yonghe; to send off the spirits, use Huangzhong-palace Yonghe. We consider that the music sections are incomplete and have lacked repair for years. Since the eastern tour and personal audience at the nine temples, the emperor was careful in ritual and refined prayer sensed communion—several days before each sacrifice examining and fixing pitch and tones; we request they be compiled into the historical records for practice in ten thousand generations. The issued ordinance said: "Princes, dukes, ministers, and scholars, down to the responsible offices, have repeatedly come to the gate and memorialized, requesting that 'Tang music' be the name—this is a matter of utmost impartiality; how could We decline? Yet Daxian, Dashao, Dahu, and Daxia all used the character da to mark their music sections; what is now fixed should be called Great Tang Music. From Imperial Grandfather Hongnong through the High Ancestor Great Martial Emperor's six temples—in Zhenguan an edict had already ordered Yan Shigu and others to fix music sections and dance names. By now the Court of Imperial Sacrifices again reported the offices' fixing of libation dances from Offering Ancestor Emperor Xuan through the Sagacious Ancestor Emperor Zhen's nine temples.
6
In the fourth month the offices were ordered to fix the music at report-offerings in the temple of the Primordial Origin Emperor; to bring down the spirit use Huncheng, to send off the spirit use Taiyi. In the sixth month the offices memorialized: "For the Mystical Ancestor's temple music please perform Guangyun; for the Solemn Ancestor's temple music please perform Weixin. For the Generation Ancestor's temple music please perform Baoda. In the tenth month, for the Virtuous Ancestor's temple music please perform Wenming. For the Compliance Ancestor's temple music please perform Dashun. For the Accomplished Ancestor's temple music please perform Xiangde. For Emperor Muzong's temple music please perform Hening. For the Respectful Ancestor's temple music please perform Dajun. For the Cultured Ancestor's temple music please perform Wencheng. For the Martial Ancestor's temple music please perform Dading.
7
At a banquet for the assembled ministers they first performed the tune Prince of Qin Breaking the Battle Array. Taizong told the attending ministers: "When I was in the fief I repeatedly campaigned; the world thereby got this music—who would have thought it would today ascend to elegant music! Yet its display of vigor and tread, though unlike cultured bearing, achievement came by it to reach today; therefore it is clothed in music sections—to show we do not forget our root. Right Vice Director Feng Deyi advanced: "Your Majesty with sage martial quelled difficulty, established the pole and settled the people; achievement complete and transformation fixed, displaying music to image virtue—truly a magnificent achievement of succoring the age, a grand sight for generations to come. Cultured bearing and practiced ritual—how could they be compared! Taizong said: "Though I settled the realm by martial achievement, in the end I shall soothe the seas within by cultured virtue. The ways of civil and martial each follow their time; you say cultured bearing is not equal to vigorous tread—that goes too far. Deyi bowed his head: "Your servant is not acute and is insufficient to know this." Thereafter he ordered Wei Zheng, Yu Shinan, Chu Liang, and Li Baiyao to revise the song texts, renaming it the dance Qide, increasing dancers to one hundred twenty, donning armor and grasping halberds to image battle-array methods. In the sixth year Taizong went in person to Qingshan Palace and banqueted his ministers on the Wei River's bank, composing a poem in ten rhymes. That palace was Taizong's birthplace. Whenever the imperial carriage visited he was especially moved with celebration, bestowing gifts on the hamlet—like Han's Wan and Pei. Thereupon Attendant for Drafting Lü Cai set the imperial poems to the Music Bureau, clothed them in strings and pipes, naming the tune Achievement Complete, Qingshan Celebration, ordering eight rows of children all wearing jinde caps and purple trousers and jackets, performing the dance Jiugong. At the winter solstice feast and when the state had great celebration, together with the dance Qide they were all performed in the court. In the seventh year Taizong devised the Battle-Array Dance Diagram: left round, right square, first echelon then five-deep, fish-scale and goose-file, winnow-spread and wing-unfold, interlaced bending and stretching, head and tail turning back upon each other—to image the battle array's form. He ordered Lü Cai to teach one hundred twenty music workers from the diagram, donning armor and grasping halberds to practice it. In all there were three changes; each change was four arrays, with coming and going, fast and slow, striking and thrusting images to match the song's beats—in several days it was done, and the name was changed to the dance Qide. On day guisi they performed the dances Qide and Jiugong; viewers seeing their restraint and vigorous tread all clutched their wrists and leapt, awestruck and trembling. Martial ministers and arrayed generals all raised cups for longevity, saying: "This dance is entirely Your Majesty's likeness in a hundred battles and a hundred victories. The assembled ministers all shouted "Long live the emperor!" More than ten southern peoples themselves requested to lead the dance; an edict permitted it, and only after a long while did it stop. In the fourteenth year an auspicious cloud appeared and the Yellow River cleared. Zhang Wenshou gathered the ancient meaning of Vermilion Goose and Heavenly Horse, composing the Jingyun River Clear Song, naming it banquet music; performed on strings and pipes, it was first among all music—the first performed at the great assembly was this.
8
使 調
In the eleventh month the High Ancestor personally sacrificed at the southern suburb; Yellow Gate Vice Director Yu Wenjie memorialized: "According to the ritual, tomorrow at audience with the assembled ministers, removing the music suspension, please perform the Nine Department Music. The emperor thereupon said: "As for the Breaking the Array dance—emotionally I cannot bear to watch it; the offices should furthermore not set it up." When he finished, he grieved a long while. First month: Breaking-the-Array dance renamed Divine Merit in Breaking the Array. Second year: the Court presented the zither piece White Snow. Earlier the emperor, knowing ancient elegant zither pieces were sung but the practice had died out and surviving versions had wrong pitches, ordered skilled zither and mouth-organ workers to restore the old repertoire. The Court then memorialized: "Per the Book of Rites and Household Sayings, Shun played the five-string zither and sang the Ode to the Southern Breeze. Thus zither pieces and melodies were all meant to be sung. Zhang Hua's Comprehensive Record also says: "White Snow was a fifty-string se piece the Plain Girl played for the Supreme Emperor. Song Yu told King Xiang: "A guest in Ying sang Sunny Spring and White Snow; only a few dozen could harmonize." So White Snow was meant to be sung; its mode was so high that few could join in. Since Song Yu, a thousand years have passed with no one able to sing White Snow. Pursuant to the edict I fixed the modes of the old zither pieces, taught them, and set them to song. I used the imperial Snow Poems as White Snow's lyrics. Ancient and modern Music Bureau pieces also had sending-off vocals after the main tune—lord sings, ministers answer—as earlier histories show. I took the ministers' responsive snow poems as sending-off vocals, sixteen stanzas each; all are taught and rhyme correctly. The emperor approved and had the Court enter them in the Music Bureau. Sixth year, second month: Lü Cai composed zither songs including White Snow; the emperor wrote sixteen lyrics, entered in the Music Bureau. Sixth year, third month: planning the Liaodong campaign, he taught dance at camp and summoned Li Yifu, Ren Yaxiang, Xu Jingzong, Xu Yuanshi, Zhang Yanshi, Su Dingfang, Ashina Zhong, the King of Khotan Fuzhe, Shangguan Yi, and others to Luoyang Gate to watch. The piece was One Campaign, Great Settlement. Viewers received brocade silks of varying grades. Tenth month, edict: "Having pacified the realm and remade institutions, recording merit in music is long established. Yet suburban sacrifice still uses shield-and-axe dance on the four suspensions; prior courts' music lies stored and unperformed. Palace suspended civil dance at suburban and temple rites and banquets should use Merit Achieved, Celebration of Goodness—shoes, fly-whisks, former trousers-and-jacket dress and youths' caps. Military dance should use Divine Merit in Breaking the Array—armor and halberds; banner bearers also wear gilded armor. Numbers as in eight rows; add pipes, flutes, and song-drums south of the suspension; when they dance they join the palace suspended orchestra. Banquet two-color dancers remain separately arranged as before. Eleventh month edict: "The Shangyuan dance for sacrifices was formerly set for all major shrine offerings. Hereafter use it only at Round Mound, Square Mound, and Grand Temple offerings; stop it at other sacrifices. End of edict.
9
殿
Eleventh month, sixth day: Vice Director Wei Wanshi memorialized: "Per Zhenguan rites, suburban civil dance uses Joyful Harmony, Smooth Harmony, Eternal Harmony; dancers wear weimao caps and robes with yue flutes and pheasant feathers. Military dance uses Triumphant Peace; dancers wear pingmian caps with shields and axes. Per the tenth-month edict, civil dance becomes Merit Achieved, Celebration of Goodness and military dance Divine Merit in Breaking the Array, with changed implements and dress. Since the edict, Celebration of Goodness cannot summon spirits and Divine Merit in Breaking the Array is not yet elegant music; though dress changed, the dances remain old and unaltered. The matter is unsettled; separate disposition may be needed. Recorded sixth of this month; edict: "Former civil and military dances cannot be abolished; implements and dress should follow the old way. When the Shangyuan dance is suspended, still perform Divine Merit in Breaking the Array and Merit Achieved, Celebration of Goodness; court dances must be performed outside the suspension. Dance placement should be reconsidered for a stable arrangement. Also record Triumphant Peace's six changes and their symbolism and report. Wanshi again submitted with the collation officials:
10
Assent was given.
11
殿 滿
Third year, seventh month: the emperor feasted at Jiucheng Palace, Xianheng Hall, with Han Prince Yuanjia, Huo Prince Yuan gui, and northern and southern army generals. As music began, Wei Wanshi memorialized: "Breaking-the-Array is where imperial fortune began; it proclaims ancestral glory to endless posterity. Since the August Sovereign ruled the four seas it has lain dormant; the sage's grief was such that none below dared speak. Your servant in the Music Office fears neglect. By rite the Son of Heaven on sacrifice day leads shield and axe to dance ancestral music and share joy with the realm; Breaking the Array is long abandoned—how can filial feeling be stirred? The emperor started, changed expression, granted the request, and ordered the dance. When it ended the emperor sighed, tears streaming; ministers wept and could not look up. After long silence he told the two princes: "Nearly thirty years without this dance; seeing it today stirs deep grief. Recalling the past, the royal enterprise was toilsome like this; I now guard the great enterprise—can I forget martial achievement? The ancients said: "Wealth and nobility do not fix a date with pride and extravagance—pride and extravagance come of themselves." I wish to see this dance now and then to admonish myself and avoid excess—not for mere pleasure. Attending ministers shouted long life.
12
涿鹿 便
First month, twenty-first day: Wu Zetian feasted from Luoyang's south tower; the Court performed Six Harmony Returning to Purity. First month: Wu Zetian personally offered at the Temple of Myriad Images. Earlier the emperor had composed Spirit Palace Grand Music for nine hundred dancers; now it was danced in the spirit palace courtyard. The empress memorialized: "Consorts, princesses, and fifth-rank-and-above mothers and wives not ennobled through husband or son should receive drum-and-pipe music from relocation burial onward. Palace women likewise. Attendant censor Tang Shao remonstrated: "Drum-and-pipe music was originally military display; when the Yellow Emperor won at Zhuolu it served as guard music. Drum pieces include Spirit Rhinoceros Roaring, Eagle and Falcon Struggling, Stone Falling from the Cliff, and Valiant's Wrath. Meritorious subjects alone received it by full rite. Men with achievement in the four directions receive favor and reward. Suburban sacrifice to Heaven and Earth is a weighty rite with only palace suspended music—no frame-drum racks. Military music therefore does not suit the spirits; how can bells and drums enter the inner quarters? Regulations for princesses and consorts and below allow only round fans, square fans, colored curtains, and brocade screens at burial. Adding drum-and-pipe is unheard of in any generation. Statute gave fifth-rank weddings and burials no drum-and-pipe; only capital fifth-rank officials might borrow fourth-rank drum-and-pipe. Granting it to fifth-rank mothers and wives gives fifth-rank officials what statute forbids. Rank derives from husband and son yet display exceeds them—illogical and hard to codify; on moral grounds it cannot be routine. Request to halt the prior edict and follow usual statute. The throne declined. First month, twenty-third day: composed Transcending Antiquity, Long Years.
13
祿 使退 竿 西祿 使使 使
Xuanzong reigned many years and was skilled in music; banquets and public revels were held at the Diligence in Governance Tower. The day before, northern palace guard commandants of four armies led armored troops; before dawn they arrayed gear; the Minister of Ceremonies set screens; the Director of Palace Provisions prepared food. At daybreak the hundred officials attended; the secretariat announced inner solemnity and outer readiness; eunuchs with plain fans; the Son of Heaven opened the curtain for homage. When rites ended, plain fans lowered the curtain; regular court, tribute officers, nobles, two kings, and tribal chiefs ate and sat. Court great drums painted like brocade; musicians struck together; sound shook the gate-towers. The Director led elegant music; dozens per tone-color filed in from the south and ranked below the tower. Drums, flutes, gourds, and lutes filled the courtyard. Court standing- and seated-section performers danced by counted beats, interspersed with barbarian and foreign pieces. At sundown the inner stables led thirty pacing horses for Tilting Cup; they tossed heads and drummed tails in rhythm. A three-tier plank bed was set; they mounted and whirled like flight. He also had several hundred palace women emerge from curtains striking thunder-drums in Breaking the Array, Grand Peace, and Shangyuan. Though the Court had long practice, none matched this. In Longevity of Sagehood they turned bodies, changed dress, and formed characters like painting. Five-workshop envoys also led elephants in; some bowed, some danced, movements and drums in pitch—performing all day. In leisure from government he taught three hundred Court musicians' sons silk-and-bamboo; if one note erred when tones rose together, he detected and corrected it. They were styled Imperial Disciples, also Pear Garden disciples, from the academy near the forbidden Pear Garden. The Court also had a separate teaching academy for new tribute pieces. Each dawn Court drums and flutes sounded together at the Grand Music Office. The separate teaching academy rationed a thousand men; musicians dwelled at palace Yichun Courtyard. Xuanzong also composed more than forty new pieces and new scores. Each year on the first full-moon night he again went to the Diligence Tower for lanterns and music; nobles and kin borrowed tower rooms to watch. When night deepened and Court and prefectural scattered music ended, palace women bound frames before the tower for rope acts and pole climbing. Rope games and pole feats—strange and artful—had no equal. When Xuanzong fled west, An Lushan's rebels hauled the capital's instruments and musicians' robes into Luoyang. Soon Suzong recovered the two capitals; for the great rites ritual objects were wholly lacking. He ordered Ritual Commissioner and Court Vice Director Yu Xiulie to send subordinates with the Eastern Capital retained court to the capital. An edict granted money for Xiulie to make performers' robes and great-dance dress; then musicians and the two dances were complete.
14
殿 使 殿 使 殿
Third month, nineteenth day: the emperor inspected the Court's old bells and chimes; since Sui the five transmitted tones had errors; he told Yu Xiulie: "The sage made music to match heaven-and-earth's harmony and yin-yang's order. In harmony people do not die young and things are not blighted. Metal, stone, silk, and bamboo are the instruments of music. Lately, whenever I attended suburban and temple sacrifices and heard the music, the gong and shang modes were sometimes disordered, or the bells and chimes were out of tune. Supply all the bells and chimes you can; I shall set the tuning myself within the palace. The quote ended. The Grand Minister of Ceremonial presented the instruments; the emperor assembled music workers and tested them for several days, identified the errors, and then ordered them remade and recut. On the twenty-fifth day one set was finished first. He summoned the directorate's music workers, went in person to the Three Halls to watch the trial performances, found that all matched the five tones, and sent the set to the Grand Minister of Ceremonial. On the twenty-eighth day he also composed thirty-one pieces within the palace and sent them to the Grand Minister of Ceremonial to be sung at suburban and temple rites. In the fourth month, Hedong Military Commissioner Ma Sui presented the "Quelling Disturbances" suite. The emperor went to Linde Hall and ordered it performed for review. In the twelfth year, twelfth month, Zhaoyi Military Commissioner Wang Qianxiu presented the "Continuing Heaven's Birthday Sacred Music." In the fourteenth year, second month, Dezong personally composed the "Zhonghe Dance" and also had the Nine Department Music and palace song-dances performed. More than ten performers were arrayed in the courtyard. The emperor went to Linde Hall, gathered the hundred officials to view the new music and poems, and also ordered the Crown Prince to copy them out and display them to the officials. In the first month, Nanzhao's Yi Mouxun composed the "Offering to the Sage Music and Dance" and had Wei Gao present it to the court. In the eighteenth year, first month, the king of Pyu came to present his kingdom's music.
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In the tenth month the throne directed the Grand Minister of Ceremonial to follow the old staffing for Yünshao Music and have the newly arrived musicians rehearse at the directorate. By the tenth month the training was finished. In the third year the Wude Office received an imperial order for two scrolls of the Yünshao Music hanging chart and presented them.
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In the eighth month the Grand Minister of Ceremonial Rites Court memorialized:
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