Three Kingdoms and Six Dynasties · Official and Musician

Zheng Yi 鄭譯

Attested AD 578 - AD 604

Passages: 15
Chapters: 4
Histories: 3

Overview

The translated histories identify Zheng Yi as an aristocrat, courtier, musician, and official. This record brings together 15 passages from 4 chapters across 3 histories, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Zheng Yi	鄭譯	Zheng Yi
Title	Duke of Pei	沛公	Pei Gong
Title	Inner Scribe Senior Grand Master	內史中大夫	Neishi Zhongdafu
Title	Palace Superintendent	宮尹	Gongyin
Given	Yi	譯
Surname	Zheng	鄭
Personal name	Zheng Yi	鄭譯	Zheng Yi

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:145:s0106, liaoshi:054:s0070, zhoushu:026:s0158
Sex: male
Strongly inferred · zhoushu:009:s0001

Roles

Aristocrat
Courtier
Musician
Official

Life and dates

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 及大漸 · Western Year: AD 580
Explicit · zhoushu:009:s0097
Source Date: Text: 宣帝時鄭譯 · Western Interval: Start: AD 578 · End: AD 579
Explicit · zhoushu:026:s0158, zhoushu:026:s0159
Source Date: Text: 隋朝 · Western Interval: Start: AD 581 · End: AD 604
Explicit event contextual date · jiuwudaishi:145:s0105, jiuwudaishi:145:s0106
Source Date: Text: 隋高祖詔求知音者，鄭譯得西域蘇祗婆七旦之聲 · Western Interval: Start: AD 581 · End: AD 604
Explicit · liaoshi:054:s0070

Career and standing

Label: Inner Scribe Senior Grand Master / 內史中大夫 · Action: appointed
Explicit · zhoushu:026:s0159
Title: Duke of Pei / 沛公 · Action: held
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:145:s0106
Status: demotion · Action: demoted-and-dismissed · Reason: failed to guide crown prince
Explicit · zhoushu:026:s0158

Places and affiliations

Polity: Sui / 隋 · Relation: served
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:145:s0106
Place: Western Regions / 西域 · Relation: obtained-from
Explicit · liaoshi:054:s0070

Works and attributed material

Kind: speech · Role: speaker · Quoted: true
Explicit · zhoushu:026:s0165, zhoushu:026:s0166

Events and relationships

Kind: scholarly · Role: actor · Action: obtained-sujiva-seven-mode-system · Other Person Id: Sujiva (蘇祗婆)
Explicit · liaoshi:054:s0070
Kind: music-theory · Role: theorist · Action: restored-eighty-four-modes-from-kucha-pipa
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:145:s0106
Kind: political · Role: slanderer · Action: slandered Hu Sizheng into prison · Other Person Id: Hu Sizheng (斛斯徵)
Explicit · zhoushu:026:s0172
Relation: colleague-of · Person Id: Wan Baochang (萬寶常)
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:145:s0109, jiuwudaishi:145:s0112

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 145Volume 145: Treatises 7 Music 2 · 4 passages

而沛公鄭譯，因龜茲琵琶七音，以應月律，五正、二變，七調克諧，旋相為宮，復為八十四調。 Duke of Pei Zheng Yi then adapted the seven notes of Kucha pipa to the monthly pitches; combining the five regular and two altered tones into seven harmonious modes and rotating them as tonics, he restored the eighty-four modes.

博士何妥駁奏，其鄭、萬所奏八十四調並廢。 Academician He Tuo submitted a counter-memorial, and the eighty-four modes proposed by Zheng and Wan were abolished entirely.

唐太宗爰命舊工祖孝孫、張文收整比鄭譯、萬寶常所均七音八十四調，方得絲管並施，鐘石俱奏，七始之音復振，四廂之韻皆調。 Emperor Taizong of Tang ordered veteran masters Zu Xiaosun and Zhang Wenshou to reconcile the seven-note, eighty-four-mode system of Zheng Yi and Wan Baochang; only then could strings and pipes sound together with bells and stones, the seven foundational tones revive, and harmony return to all four sides of the ensemble.

樞密使王樸，采京房之準法，練梁武之通音，考鄭譯、寶常之七均，校孝孫、文收之九變，積黍累以審其度，聽聲詩以測其情，依權衡嘉量之前文，得備數和聲之大旨，施於鐘虡，足洽《簫韶》。 Privy Council Commissioner Wang Pu drew on Jing Fang's pitch standard, mastered Emperor Wu of Liang's universal tones, studied the seven keys of Zheng Yi and Wan Baochang and the nine transformations of Zu Xiaosun and Zhang Wenshou, calibrated measures with millet grains, tested pitches against the Sound Poems, followed ancient standards of weight and measure, recovered the principle of numbered harmony, and applied it to bells and stands until it matched the legendary Xiao-Shao music.

History of Liao, Chapter 54Volume 54 Treatises 24: Music · 1 passage

至隋高祖詔求知音者，鄭譯得西域蘇祗婆七旦之聲，求合七音八十四調之說，由是雅俗之樂，皆此聲矣。 When Sui Gaozu issued an edict seeking masters of music, Zheng Yi obtained from the Western Regions the seven-mode system of the Kuchean musician Sujiva and sought to align it with the theory of seven tones and eighty-four modes; from that point, both court ritual and popular music drew on these sounds.

Book of Zhou, Chapter 9Volume 9 Biographies 1: Empresses · 2 passages

及大漸，劉昉、鄭譯等因矯詔以后父受遺輔政。 When he was near death, Liu Fang, Zheng Yi, and others used a forged edict so that the empress's father received the dying charge and assisted in government.

后初雖不預謀，然以嗣主幼沖，恐權在他族，不利於己，聞昉、譯已行此詔，心甚悅之。 The empress at first had not taken part in the plot, but because the successor ruler was young and she feared power would fall to another clan to her own detriment, when she heard Liu Fang and Zheng Yi had already carried out this edict her heart was greatly pleased.

Book of Zhou, Chapter 26Volume 26 Biographies 18: Zhang Sunjian; Zhangsun Shaoyuan; Younger Brother Cheng; Elder Brother Si; Hu Sizheng · 8 passages

儉容貌魁偉，音聲如鐘，大為鮮卑語，遣人傳譯以問客。 Zhangsun Jian was towering in build and spoke in a deep, bell-like voice; he addressed them at length in Xianbei and had interpreters relay his questions.

帝之為太子也，宮尹鄭譯坐不能以正道調護，被謫除名。 When the emperor had been crown prince, Palace Superintendent Zheng Yi had been demoted and dismissed for failing to guide him properly.

而帝雅親愛譯，至是拜譯內史中大夫，甚委任之。 But the emperor had long been fond of Zheng Yi; he now made him Inner Scribe Senior Grand Master and entrusted him heavily.

譯乃獻新樂，十二月各一笙，每一笙用十六管。 Zheng Yi thereupon presented new music: one sheng for each month, each sheng using sixteen pipes.

鄭譯曰：「旣云聞樂，明卽非無。 Zheng Yi said: "Since the text says 'hearing music,' music clearly exists.

帝遂依譯議。 The emperor then followed Zheng Yi's view.

譯因此銜之。 Zheng Yi thereby nursed a grudge against him.

譯因譖之，遂下徵獄。 Zheng Yi thereupon slandered him, and Hu Sizheng was thrown into prison.