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The Office of Music, c. 114 to 7 B.C.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Michael Loewe
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Extract

It has long been recognized that the establishment of the Office of Music (Yüeh fu) as one of the agencies of state in Han imperial government played an important role in the development of Chinese poetry and nurtured the growth of particular genres of literature; and the precedent that was set at this time was followed at later stages of China's literary development with highly important results. Less attention, however, has been paid to the work of the office in arranging musical performances; or to the circumstances in which the office was established and in which its activities were several times curtailed, prior to its eventual abolition. In addition historians have not always appreciated the connexion that may be traced between the rise and fall of this office and other changes which occurred in the intellectual history of Han China.

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Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , June 1973 , pp. 341 - 351
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1973

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References

1 Abbreviations are used in the notes as follows:

8 See Tang Tsu-shen Han shih yen-chiu Taipei, 1966, 168 f.; Hightower, J. R., Topics in Chinese literature, Cambridge, Mass., 1950, 49 f.Google Scholar; and Diény, J.-P., Aux origines de la poesie classique en Chine (T'oung Pao, Monographie, vi), Leiden, 1968Google Scholar.

3 For the more regular attendance of emperors at these cults, beginning from 114 B.C., see ‘K'uang Heng’, 9 f.

4 In a forthcoming study I am hoping to trace at length the connexion between intellectual, religious, and political changes in Western Han.

5 SeeHS, 22.12b, for Shu-sun T'ung's part in the adoption of Ch'in's spiritual incantations; HS, 22.13b, for Han's use of Ch'in dances.

6 HS, 22.14a.

7 Liu Pang's place of origin.

8 This statement is somewhat enigmatic; see Yen Shih-ku's note for a different interpretation.

9 For these sites and cults, see ‘K'uang Heng’, 9f.

10 Alternatively ‘and to collect those songs which did not circulate freely’ (i.e., owing to their criticism of the government). For the choice between these interpretations, see the notes in HS, 22.14b ff.

11 For other references to Li Yen-nien, see HS, 25A.34b; 54.15a; 93.4a; 97A.13b. There is no record of this title being conferred on any other individual; I have coined the term ‘Master of Harmony’ for Hsieh lü tu-wei despite the usual rendering of tu-wei as ‘commandant’ (Dubs renders the expression as ‘Commandant of harmonies’). For Li Yen-men's relationship to one of Wu-ti's consorts and his death during the crisis of 91–90 B.C., see Loewe, ‘The case of witchcraft in 91 B.C.: its historical setting and effect on Han dynastic history’, Asia Major, NS, xv, 2, 1970, 159–96Google Scholar, especially 171 f. See Hervouet, Y., Un poéte de cour sous les Han: Sseu-ma Siang-jou, Paris, 1964, 63 f.Google Scholar, for the use made of Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju's com-positions. As Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju died c. 117 B.C. he can hardly have been involved in producing poems specially for the ceremonies with which the Office of Music was involved.

12 HS, 22.35a. Considerable archaeological evidence illustrates the way in which musical performances were arranged during the Han period, but this dates mostly from Eastern Han. Plate I shows an exceptionally early example that has been found recently. The performance is attended by seven spectators and is given by an orchestra of six musicians, with their conductor, two dancers, and four acrobats. See Wen-wu, 1972, 1, p. 82 and plate xi; Kaogu, 1972, 1, p. 33, fig. 7; Wen-wu, 1972, 5, 19–23; and Wen-hua ta ko-ming ch'i-chien ch'u-t'u wen-wu I, Peking, 1972, 125.

13 See Tzu-chih-t'ung-chien, 19.13b (SPTK ed.). In his note to HS, 11.2a, Wang Hsien-ch'ien dates the foundation of the Office of Music in 120 B.C., and this statement may be based on the entry of the Tzu-chih-t'ung-chien for that year. The entry associates the establishment of the office with the reported discovery of a Heavenly Horse which had arisen from the river Wo-wei That event is dated variously at 120 (HS, 22.26b), 113 (HS, 6.19b; HFHD, n, 75) or possibly 121 (HS, 6.14a; HFHD, XI, 60; in this passage the name of the river is given as ); but there is no immediate evidence which supports Ssu-ma Kuang's tentative conclusion that the Office of Music was established at the time of the incident (see Tzu-chih-t'ungchien k'ao-i , SPTK ed., 1.8a). The Ch'ien Han-chi does not report the foundation of the office for any of these three years in question. For the hymn on the Heavenly Horses, see p. 344 below, and Waley, A., ‘The Heavenly Horses of Ferghana’, History Today, v, 2, 1955, 95 fGoogle Scholar.

14 HS, 22.13b, reports that in 193 B.C. Hsia-hou K'uan director of the Office of Music, was ordered to attend to certain musical instruments. In a somewhat shorter text, which corresponds with the passage that is cited from HS, 22, above, the Shih-chi (24.6; MH, III, 234) observes that ‘during the reigns of Hui-ti, Wen-ti, and Ching-ti no additions or changes were made; and within the Office of Music there took place nothing more than the regular performances and rehearsals of old-time music’.

15 See Fang, ibid., 227, for the view that Wu-ti's action was not an inauguration of something new but an extension of existing practice.

16 HS, 22.16a.

17 HS, 30.56b f. Fang (ibid., 167) divides the material into (a) compositions of members of the imperial family and men of letters and (b) compositions of anonymous popular poets. He estimates that (b) amounted to four-fifths of the total, but points out that it is (a) that has mostly survived.

18 HS, 22.13b. The text is translated in MH, III, 605 f. In a note to Shih-chi, 24.6, the So-yin commentator mistakenly identifies the An-shih fang-chung hymns, allegedly in 19 stanzas, with the 19 stanzas which are stated to have been composed by Wu-ti(SC, ibid.).

19 See MH, III, 612 f., for translations. See also Fang, ibid., 169 f.

20 Chih see MH, II, p. 176, n. 7.

21 For the Five Powers, see ‘K'uang Heng’, 10 f.

22 See ‘K'uang Heng’, 12 f.

23 The incident concerned Luan Ta and his execution for making claims that could not be substantiated; see HS, 18.10b; 25A.27a; and HFHD, II, 19.

24 See Waley, ‘The Heavenly Horses of Ferghana’.

26 SO, 24.7.

26 Chung-wei (Dubs ‘Commandant of the capital’). I n 104 B.C. this title was changed to Chih-chin-wu

27 There are some difficulties about this incident, as Kung-sun Hun g died in 121 (HS, 6.14a; HFHD, H, 60; an d HS, 19B.18a); an d his views are hardly consonant with this suggestion. Ssu-ma Kuan g suggests tha t th e proposal t o punish Chi Yen ma y have emanated from elsewhere (see Tzu-chih-t'ung-chien k'ao-i, SPTK ed., 1.8b).

28 HS, 19A.15a. Dubs renders Shao-fu as ‘Privy treasurer’.

29 See S. Kato ‘Kan dai ni okeru kokka zaisei to teishitsu zaisei to no kubetsu narabi’ — in his Shina keizai shi kōshō ‘Studies in Chinese economic history, I’;, Tokyo, Toyo Bunko, 1952, I, 35 fGoogle Scholar.

30 HS, 19A. 17a; Fang, ibid., 165.HS, 59.12b mentions Ching Wu as and Mang as

31 HS, 8.6b; HFHD, II, 213.

32 HS, 9.2b; HFHD, II, 304.

33 HS, 75.15a.

34 HS, 89.13b. Shao Hsin-ch'en held the post of Shao-fu for two years from 33 B.C.

35 See ‘K'uang Heng’, 15; HS, 25B.13a.

36 The agencies are not specified; they may have included the office of the T'ai-yüch ling who was subordinate to the T'ai-ch'ang (HS, 19A.6b).

37 HS, 11.2a; HFHD, III, 19; HS, 19A.17a.

38 I am hoping to discuss these developments in a forthcoming study.

89 See de Crespigny, R., ‘The recruitment system of the imperial bureaucracy of the Late Han’, Chung Chi Journal, VI, 1, 1966, 67–78, especially 68Google Scholar.

40 HS, 11.3a, 3b; HFHD, III, 24.

41 SC 24.4; MH, III, 232.

42 See ‘Analects’, XV, x, 6; and Mencius, Liang Hui wang, II, i.

13 SC, 24.6; MH, III, 235.

44 See pp. 342–3, above, and p. 343, n. 18.

45 SC, 24.9 to 24.72; MH, III, 238–86; Couvreur, S., Li Ki, Ho kien fou, 1913, II, 45 fGoogle Scholar.

46 SC, 24.5; MH, III, 234.

47 SC, 24.38, 44, 54; MH, III, 261, 264, 270.

48 SC, 24.36, 38; MH, III, 259, 261.

49 SC, 24.75; MH, III, 290.

50 See Hervouet, , op. cit., 279Google Scholar; Dieny, J.-P., op. cit., 17 f., 28 fGoogle Scholar.

51 Wen-hsüan, 1.1a f. (SPTK ed.).

52 HS, 22.7b; the text incorporates a number of passages which are also seen in the Shih-chi and Li-chi.

53 HS, 22.12a.

54 HS, 22.12b. This well-known comment also appears in SC, 24.56; MH, in, 272.

55 HS, 22.33a.

56 See Fang, ibid., 167, for the revival of the ‘harmonies’ under Hsüan-ti and the popularity of the music of Cheng during the reign of Ch'eng-ti (HS, 64B.8b).

57 i.e. ta-fu po-shih HS, 22.34a.

58 HS, 22.34b.

59 HS, 30.59a.

60 Dubs renders Yü-shih ta-fu ‘imperial counsellor’ as ‘Imperial clerk grandee’. I am hoping to discuss the significance of the change of title to Ta-ssu-k'ung in a forthcoming study.

61 For the full list, which still awaits critical examination, see HS, 22.35a f.

68 HS, 22.37a.

63 For Wang Chi, see HS, 72.3a f. His reformist attitude was expressed in protests against the type of government practised under Hsiian-ti, which was based on expedient and legal sanction rather than on principle and ethic. He called for the abolition of the jen-tzu privilege, and of state games, the reduction of the Office of Music and the abolition of the agencies which provided luxuries for the use of the palace.