Song, Liao, and Jin · Official and Scholar

Fan Zhen 范鎮

Attested AD 1086 - AD 1094

Passages: 4
Chapters: 1
Histories: 1

Overview

Fan Zhen was an official and Scholar.

Life and dates

Attested activity

AD 1086 to AD 1094 元祐間
Directly stated · History of Jin 39, passage 20

Places and affiliations

Polity Song 宋 · Relation Served
Directly stated · History of Jin 39, passage 20

Events and relationships

Devised unused pitch one note below Li Zhao
AD 1086 to AD 1094 元祐間 · Scholarly · Reformer · Mode quotation
Directly stated · History of Jin 39, passage 20
Revived Li Zhao Grand Storehouse iron foot rule
Scholarly · Debater · Mode quotation
Directly stated · History of Jin 39, passage 23

Source notes

Value historical
Directly stated · History of Jin 39, passage 20
Knew the old music was too high but had no practical way to lower it.
Mode quotation
Directly stated · History of Jin 39, passage 21

References in the histories

History of Jin, Chapter 39Volume 39 Treatises 20: Music 1: Formal Music, Court Music, Wind Instrument Music, Our Own Court Music · 4 passages

元祐間，範鎮又造新律，下李照樂一律，而未用。 During Yuanyou, Fan Zhen devised yet another pitch standard, one note lower than Li Zhao's, but it was never adopted.

至崇甯間，魏漢津以範鎮知舊樂之高，無法以下之，乃以時君指節為尺，其所造鐘磐即今所用樂是也。 By the Chongning era, Wei Hanjin recognized that Fan Zhen knew the old music was too high yet had no practical way to lower it, so he took the reigning emperor's finger joints as the foot-rule; the bells and chimes he cast are the instruments in use today.

其後范鎮等論樂，複用李照所用太府尺、即周、隋所用鐵尺，牛弘等以謂近古合宜者也。 Later Fan Zhen and others debated music and revived Li Zhao's Grand Storehouse foot-rule — the same iron standard used in Zhou and Sui times — which Niu Hong and others had regarded as close to antiquity and therefore appropriate.

漢津用李照、範鎮之說，而恥同之，故用時君指節為尺，使眾人不敢輕議。 Hanjin drew on Li Zhao's and Fan Zhen's theories yet was unwilling to appear merely to follow them, so he took the reigning emperor's finger joints as the foot-rule so that critics would not dismiss his work lightly.