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Sung Hui Tsung's Musical diplomacy and the Korean response1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
Extract
The introduction to the Sung shih monograph on music stresses the value of music to the ruler in the following way: ‘The second of the four mainsprings of kingly government is music, which brings the minds of the people into harmony and transforms the world.’ Music naturally played a major role in court ritual, especially in the sacrifices at the Temples of Heaven and Earth and the imperial tombs. The full complement of musicians at court in the early eleventh century was over seven hundred, and the control of music came under the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, T'ai-ch'ang-ssu
, whose President had overall responsibility for all musical affairs including those to do with pitch, texts, dances and military music. One of his subordinates, the Hsüeh-lü-lang 
took charge of the lü-lü
whereby Yin and Yang are brought into harmony. He arranged the positions for the musicians and dancers of the palace orchestra and the special orchestra. It was he who held the flag to indicate the beginning and end of musical sections at the great sacrifices. When he raised it the trough (chu
) was thumped and the music started, and when he lowered it [the back of] the tiger (yü
) was scraped and the music stopped. He was in charge of all matters of musical precedence.
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- Information
- Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 44 , Issue 3 , October 1981 , pp. 509 - 521
- Copyright
- Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1981
References
2 SS 126, p. 2939.
3 SS 164, pp. 3884–5. The organization of court music in the early Sung was similar to that in the T'ang, cf.Cheung, Sai-bung, Chung-kuo yin-yüeh shih-lun su-k'ao, Hongkong ŏ1972,1, 113 ffGoogle Scholar. The description of the Hsüeh-lü-lang's functions given in the Sung shih is very similar to that in T'ang liu Hen 14.11b, where the connexion between the lü-lü and the four seasons is also mentioned. In the Sung period this was expounded forcibly by Liu Ping 
, who also tied in the Five Elements (SS 129, pp. 3018–9). The post of Hsüeh-lü-lang does not appear in the protocol list of 1038. It reappears under the Ta Sheng Fu 
but considering the importance of its functions its holder is surprisingly low down on the post-1068 list (SS 168, p. 3995), notwithstanding the fact that he is the interpreter rather than the originator of the music. He is only of the upper 8th grade, and he and his colleagues of equivalent status, the Supervisor of Ritual Feng-li-lang 
and the Director of Prayers T'ai-ch'ang t'ai-chu 
, rank below certain subprefects.
4 SS 128, p. 2983.
5 ibid., p. 2991.
6 ibid., p. 2996.
7 SS 126, p. 2948.
8 Of the T'ang dynasty books on music listed in theChung-kuo ku-tai yin-yüeh shu-mu, Peking, 1962Google Scholar, approximately half are concerned with the ch'in 
and only a small number (less than 4 per cent) have to do exclusively with musical theory and the lü-lü. In the Northern Sung a quarter of the titles listed seem to have been devoted to theory, compared with a fifth in the Southern Sung. This bibliography is not a complete list of Sung dynasty music books but the titles of others mentioned in the Sung shih monograph suggest that a comprehensive list, if such a thing were possible, would tell a similar story.
9 The chief debate centred on the use of a 12- or 16–note compass. Li Chao, for example, favoured twelve notes in the mid-1030s, Yang Chieh sixteen in the 1080s. In 1050, Wang Yaoch'en 
maintained that music had collapsed at the end of the T'ang and that the use of sixteen notes exclusively would prevent its revival. It seemed to him that the ch'ingsheng 
, the extra four notes, were associated with the ch'ing 
, hsiao 
, ch'in, ho-sheng 
, and ch'ao-sheng 
, but that the hsün 
, ch'ih 
, yü 
, chu 
and sě 
had only twelve notes. Since there was authority for both systems, both should be used. (SS 127, pp. 2963–4.)
Among the instruments that came to stay in the eleventh century were the tung-hsiao 
and p'ao-sheng 
in 1050 and the chu trough and yü tiger in 1062. Li Chao had introduced a whole range of variant wind and stringed instruments in 1034, including two- and twelve-stringed ch'in (SS 126, p. 2954). They were abandoned again in 1039 (ibid., pp. 2961–2). Considerable argument surrounded the use of thechin-ku 
and san-lcu 
drums.
Following a memorial by Li Yü 
in 1064, the number of dancers to be used in the Nanchiao and T'ai-miao rites was fixed at 64 for each of the civil and military dances, arranged in eight rows of eight. This was the arrangement sent to Korea with the gift of Ta Sheng yüch 
in 1116. For the civil dances, the performers held a flute in the left hand and a plume in the right, for the military dance, a shield in the left and a spear in the right. (SS 127, p. 2973.)
10 WHTK, 147.1291b.
11 SS 121, pp. 2965–6.
18 These were the music of Ho Hsien 
, introduced e. 966; Li Chao, introduced in 1035; Yuan I 
, introduced in 1050; Yang Chieh and Liu Chi 
, introduced in 1083; Fan Chen, introduced in 1088. (SS 126, pp. 2937–8.)
18 SS 128, pp. 2981 ff. They were (a) inadequacies in singing, (6) incompleteness of music using only twelve notes instead of sixteen, (c) lack of ensemble between bells and chimes and the rest of the instruments in the orchestra, (d) mistakes in dancing, (e) the lack of clearly defined sections in the music, (f) the use of improper modes at the sacrifices, (g) the contamination of ya-yüeh 
by the style of popular music, despite the possession of old instruments and lü-lü.
14 SS 128, p. 2997.
15 ibid., pp. 2997 ff.
16 ibid., p. 3002; 164, p. 3886.
17 SS 129, p. 3001.
18 ibid., p. 2998.
19 Mao shih, Ssu-pu pei-yao ed., 1.1b.
20 SS.129, p. 3002.
21 See Pratt, K. L., ‘Music as a factor in Sung-Koryŏ diplomatic relations, 1069–1126’, Toung Pao, Lxn, 4–5, 1976Google Scholar.
22 KJRS, 70.5a–b. The Hsiao ching phrase comes from chapter 12: ‘Nothing surpasses music when it comes to transforming [men's] manners and their way of life’, i-feng i-su, mo shan yüyüeh 
.
23 See Kishibe, Shigeo, tr. Tsai-p'ing, Liang, T'ang-tai yin-yüeh shih ti yen-chiu, Taipei, 1973, II, 546 ff.Google Scholar
24 Hain Tang 
22, Peking, Chung Hua Book Co., 1975, 479Google Scholar.SGSG, 32.12a–b. On the music of Paekche seeHyegu, Yi, Han'guk umak nonch'ong, Seoul, 1975, 164–90Google Scholar.
25 SGSO, 32.5b ff.
26 This was in A.D. 664.Samguksa chŏlyŏ, 
Seoul, Asea Munhwasa, 1973, 10.6aGoogle Scholar; Tongsa hoegang 
Seoul, Asea Munhwasa, 1974, 3.14bGoogle Scholar.
27 Manyoung, Hahn, ‘Buddhist chant’, inSurvey of Korean arts: traditional music, Seoul, 1973Google Scholar.
28 TGTG, p. 303.
29 T'aejong sillok 
in Choson wangjo sillok 
Seoul, Kuksa Pyŏnch'an Wiwŏnhoe, 1958, 22. 47a–bGoogle Scholar.
30 Fang Ta-tsung, quoted byYoshinobu, Shiba in (tr. Elvin, M.), Commerce and society in Sung China, Michigan, 1970, 182Google Scholar.
31 Sung hui-yao chi-kao 
, Shih-huo, hu-shih, Peking, Chung Hua Book Co., 1957, 1094/4/25Google Scholar.
32 Two exceptions to this general statement may be noted. I n 1027 a merchant from Chiangnan presented 597 chilan to the Korean court, and in 1087 the merchant Hsü Chin 
presented printing blocks for the Buddhist text Hsin-chu hva-yen ching 
.
33 Hyegu, Yi, Han'guk ŭmak sŏsŏl, Seoul 1967, 299–336Google Scholar. KRS, 69.12a ff. records the participation of Chinese merchant leaders (tou-kang 
) and other foreigners in p'algicanhoc ceremonies.
34 TGTG, p. 403.
35 KBS, 7.25b–26a.
36 KRS, 8.8b–9a.
37 TQTG, p. 443.
38 KRS, 14.18a. The instruments, used to accompany the game, are illustrated in Nieh Ch'ung-i's (
) San-li t'u 
(Ssu-pu ts'ung-k'an ed., third series, 1936).
39 They might hardly be expected to have been, especially since the discussion in the eleventh century in China seemed to be motivated chiefly by the desire to revive Chinese fortunes.
40 KBS, 80.15a.
41 WHTK, 148.1293b.
42 SS 487, p. 14054.
43 Hui chu lu (Sung-tai shih-liao pi-chi ts'ung-k'an series, 1961), 167Google Scholar.
44 SS 487, p. 14054. Hsü Ching 
(KLTC, ch. 16. p.81) says that in the past they knew nothing about medicine but just relied on serving the spirits with oaths and sacrifices. All this came to an end with King Munjong's request for doctors in 1078 which resulted in the big Chinese medical expedition of 1079 (KMS, 9.24a ff.). After Yejong's request, says Hsü Ching, there was an influx of doctors. A medical office was opened to the east of Chinje-sa 
with officials in charge of it. Certainly there is some truth in the Chinese claim that it was their medical knowledge that was at the basis of the Koreans', but the latter had some understanding of herbalism at least in the Silla period, and studied Chinese medicine both then and in the early Koryŏ.
45 During the tenth and eleventh centuries there was a roughly even balance in the number of missions sent by each country which are recorded as bearing gifts, thirteen from Korea and seventeen from China. A complete list of gifts exchanged in the Northern Sung period is as follows: (1)China to Korea: silk, textiles, clothing, belts; gold, silver, jade articles, sacrificial objects and mourning items; wine-warmers, bowls, teapots, tea, wine, fruit, candles; sheep, horses, saddles, whips, bows and arrows; medical supplies; books, paintings, Lohans. Buddhist relics; musical instruments and texts; (2)Korea to China: textiles, woollen cloth, clothing, gold belts, furs, rugs, covers, furnishings; gold, silver, copper objects; wine-pourers, rice, edible pine seeds, ginseng, aromatic drugs, aromatic oils, sulphur; horses, saddles and fittings, one carriage, armour, weapons, swords and fittings, bows and arrows, other military items; screens, scrolls, paper, ink, religious texts and images, books.
46 SS 487, p. 14046.
47 KRS, 9.21a–b.
48 TGTG, p. 434.
49 KRS, 70.28b–29a.
50 KRS, 70.5b ff.
51 KRS, 15.4a ff., TGTG, P. 484.
52 KRS, 72.24b mentions groups of 18 musicians from India, 40 from Bokhara, and 16 from Karahodjo among a ceremonial procession.
53 KLTC 40, p. 223. See alsoHyegu, Yi, ‘Left and right music in Korea’, in Han'guk ümak sŏsŏl, op. cit., pp. 466 ffGoogle Scholar.
54 KR8, 14.17b.
55 The invention of the kayagŭm is traditionally ascribed to King Kasil of Kaya some time before 551 A.D. and was clearly based on the example of the Chinesecheng 
(SOSG, 32.7b). The origins of the kŏmun'go are more obscure. It too was an early invention, but though it is sometimes said to have been modelled on the ch'in there is some doubt about this. SeeHyegu, Yi, ‘Wo-k'unghou and kŏmun'go’ in Han'guk ümak nonch'ong, op. cit. pp.147–64Google Scholar.
58 KLTC 40, p. 223.
57 In the Yi dynasty Royal Music Institute (Chanagwdn 
) the allocation of musicians continued to be in favour of ‘music of the right’ vbangak 
. Under King Sejong 572 akkong 
played vbangak and 399 aksaeng 
‘music of the left’ chwabangak 
. After the Manchu conquest of China the ratio became even more favourable to ubangak, 429: 190. See B. S. Song, ‘A study of the Royal Music Institute and court musicians in the seventeenth century’ in Yesul Nonmunjip (forthcoming).
58 In the early Yi dynasty King Sejong attempted to redefine pure Chinese ceremonial music in a move that was somewhat reminiscent of the Chinese efforts of the eleventh century. The man responsible for the task, Pak Yŏn 
, achieved a good deal more lasting renown thereby than the earlier Chinese musicologists did. SeeProvine, R. C., ‘Sejong and the preservation of Chinese ritual melodies’, Korea Journal 14, no. 2, 1974Google Scholar. The ubangak referred to in note 57 was thus a mixture of hyangak and tangak. Chwabangak consisted of aak, though of course Pak Yŏn and his associates were no more successful than Li Chao etc. had been at recreating the actual sounds of early Chinese music.
59 Han Manyoung, op. cit.
60 In Bast Asia Korea alone preferred music in triple to duple time. For a detailed study of the relationship between quintuple, triple and duple time in Korean court and folk music see the article by Yi Hyegu in the forthcoming Festschrift for Walter Kaufmann.
61 Pottery figures of the Silla period, for example, are much inferior to those of the T'ang, Han and even earlier periods in China. In the representation of musicians, Korean bronze artists and stone sculptors demonstrated the highest sense of style and technical form, as may be seen from the temple bell at the Sangwŏnsa (A.D. 725) and the set of four semi-relief sculptures at the National Museum, Kyŏngju. In stark contrast, however, both to these and to T'ang figurines of zither players, lutenists and flautists, the few surviving Silla models of musicians have little artistic quality, and are valuable chiefly for showing that the instruments themselves (the kayagŏm and pip'a) have changed little from Silla times to the present day.
62 KLTC 32, pp. 172–3.
63 Choi, S. U., ‘Sung an d Yua n ceramics discovered in Korea’, Korea Journal 17, no. 11, 1977Google Scholar.