Chen Yang's "Music Book"

Introduction

"Music Book", also known as "Chen Yang Music Book", is my country's first large-scale music encyclopedia The whole book was compiled by Chen Yang in the Song Dynasty.

Author

Chen Yang, courtesy name Jinzhi, was born in Fuzhou (now part of Fujian). In the first year of Zhezong's Shaosheng reign (1094), he was awarded the title of "Shunchang Army Jiedu Tui" in the Zhongzhi Department. Huizong ascended the throne, except for university doctors and secretary Sheng Zhengzi. In the "Book of Music", he moved to Taichang Cheng, Yuan Wailang of the Ministry of Rites, and the official of the Rites and Music Department of the Department of Speech and Discussion, and moved to Honglu, Taichang Shaoqing, and Minister of the Ministry of Rites. He was promoted to Dongxiao Palace by the Xianmo Pavilion. He died at the age of sixty-eight. There are biographies in Volume 114 of "Eastern Capital History", Volume 27 of "Chunxi Three Mountains Chronicles", and Volume 432 of "History of the Song Dynasty". According to relevant records, Chen Yang began to compile this book during the Xining and Yuanfeng years of Song Shenzong (1068-1085), and presented it to Song Zhengzong Zhao Ji in the first year of Jianzhong Jingguo (1101), which lasted nearly 40 years. "Book of Music" was presented to the imperial court but was not published at that time. In the sixth year of Qingyuan (1200), Chen Hou Qifang, a descendant of Chen Yang, first carved this book into the world.

Contents

The "Music Book" has a large number of volumes, up to 200 volumes, and contains more than 1,300 music items. It can be said that "Music Book" is a general history of music, recording the music system, music theory, music of eight tones, songs, hundreds of operas, five rituals, etc. from the three dynasties to the Song Dynasty, and each category has an article. Throughout the past and present, trace the source and clear flow, understand its origins, and demonstrate in detail. "Music Book" pioneered the format of a large-scale music monograph. The 200-volume "Music Book" is divided into two parts. The first part is called "Xunyi" (Volume 1-95), which excerpts the Confucian classics "Book of Rites", "Zhou Rites", "Rituals", "Book of Songs", "Shang Shu", "Spring and Autumn", "Book of Changes", "Xiao" Chapters on music in books such as "The Classic of Confucius", "The Analects of Confucius" and "Yu Zi" are explained line by line. The next part is called "Music Theory" (Volume 9-200), which includes the theory of music rhythm, ceremonial music system, musical instruments, vocal music, music and dance, hundreds of operas, etc. It also describes folk, ethnic minority and foreign music and its musical instruments. In terms of the classification of music, Chen Yang classified eight tones, songs, dances, and miscellaneous music into three categories: Ya, Hu, and Su. He also included a large amount of Hu Su music, which expanded the influence of Hu Su music. In these aspects, It shows the uniqueness of Chen Yang's "Book of Music". What's even more valuable is that there are a large number of illustrations in the "Music Book", which preserves a lot of music picture information. According to statistics, there are 517 illustrations in the book, covering musical instruments, music rhythms, dance postures, dance instruments, dance positions, arrangement of musical instruments, and five elements. Etiquette, etc., can be said to be all-encompassing.

Editions

There are many editions of "Yue Shu". The existing editions are: (1) The revised edition engraved by Confucianism on Fuzhou Road in the seventh year of the Yuan Dynasty and collected by the Beijing Library (2 ) The Song version, the Song Dynasty printed version and the Song Dynasty printed version, collected by the Beijing Library (3) The film version of the rare book taken by the National Library of Congress in Peking Library, collected by the National Library of Congress (4) The film version of the Jingjiatang text, collected by the National Library of Congress (5) Collection of the National Diet Library. For a detailed introduction to this book version, please refer to the article "Research on Chen Yang and His Music Book" (PhD thesis of Zheng Changling of Fujian Normal University).

Evaluation

"Book of Music" is a large-scale music reference book compiled in ancient China. It compiles a large number of long-lost music documents from the Tang, Song and previous periods, and preserves rich Music materials, including detailed descriptions of music ideas, music theories, musical instruments, etc., are one of the most important music documents in ancient China and still have high historical value.