A Note on the Authenticity and Ideology of Shih-chi 24, "The Book on Music".

• Author: KERN, MARTIN

A Note on the Authenticity and Ideology of Shih-chi 24, "The Book on Music"

Chapter 24 of the Ssu-ma Ch'ien's [CHINESE TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (c. 145-c. 86 B.C.) Shih-chi [CHINESE TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], the "Book on Music" ("Yueh-shu" [CHINESE TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), has long been strongly suspected of not being authentic but a significantly later and in parts badly flawed text. This assumption, gradually established by traditional scholars under the T'ang, Sung, and Ch'ing dynasties,(1) has been effectively confirmed and further refined by modern Chinese scholarship.(2) The present note may serve to summarize the established evidence and to add some new findings that corroborate earlier views. I will also suggest a tentative date of composition for this chapter on the basis of its underlying ideology within the context of Western Han cultural and intellectual history.

According to Ssu-ma Ch'ien's biography in the Hanshu [CHINESE TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], ten of the 130 Shih-chi chapters were missing by the second half of the first century A.D., having only a title listing but no text (yu lu wu shu [CHINESE TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]).(3) One of these ten chapters, as they are noted by the Han-shu commentator Chang Yen [CHINESE TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (third century), is the "Book on Music."(4) The Shih-chi commentator Ssu-ma Chen [CHINESE TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (eighth century), after quoting Chang Yen, holds that the "Book on Music" was based on the "Records of Music" ("Yueh-chi" [CHINESE TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) chapter of the Li-chi [CHINESE TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII].(5)

In the modern punctuated edition, the "Book on Music" occupies sixty-three pages(6) that can be divided into three parts: the first four pages relate the continuous degeneration of (ritual) music from high antiquity through the Ch'in dynasty and then deal briefly with the music of the Han. The last three pages of the chapter present a story that is based on an earlier account in the Han Fei tzu [CHINESE TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII](7) and close with the historian's judgment, introduced by the standard formula "the Grand Historian says" (t'ai-shih kung yueh [CHINESE TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]). The middle part of the chapter, comprising almost ninety percent of the text, is virtually identical with the complete Li-chi chapter "Records of Music," differing only in some textual variants and an alternative arrangement of a few paragraphs. On the assumption that the "Yueh-chi" is indeed the earlier text, Ssu-ma Chen's observation that it served as the blueprint for the "Yueh-shu" can hardly be challenged. Considering further that the final passage paraphrases a story taken from the Han Fei tzu, we are left with the few introductory pages as the only portion of the text original to the "Yueh-shu."

Unfortunately, even these pages present not much more than a sketchy and stereotyped narrative of cultural decline; only in its final section on the sacrificial music of Ssu-ma Ch'ien's own emperor Han Wu-ti [CHINESE TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (r. 141-87 B.C.) does the text turn to concrete historical issues. It is therefore this section that deserves closer examination in order to determine the textual value of what is left after leaving aside the "Yueh-chi" and Han Fei tzu material. The account on Wu-ti's ritual music may be given in full here:

When the present emperor ascended the throne, he created

the nineteen [musical] pieces. He ordered the palace

attendant Li Yen-nien to arrange their melodies in an

orderly sequence and promoted him to the position of

Commander for Regulating the Pitch Pipes. Those officials

who master only one of the canonical books cannot understand

the [song] texts on their own; only if one assembles

all the erudites of the Five Canonical Books and

has them together discuss and recite the texts may one

comprehensively understand their meaning; they often

are in phrases approaching the elegant standard.(8)

Under the House of Han, it was always in the first

month that the emperor went out to sacrifice to the Grand

Unity at Kan-ch'uan, beginning at dusk to perform the

nightly sacrifice, and ending only when dawn was

reached. Constantly there were meteors passing through

above the sacrificial altar.(9) Seventy boys and girls were

made to sing in chorus. In spring they sang "Azure Yang"

("Ch'ing Yang" [CHINESE TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), in summer

they sang "Red Shining" ("Chu-ming" [CHINESE TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN

ASCII]), in autumn they sang "Western Whitelight" ([CHINESE TEXT NOT

REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), and in winter they sang "Obscure Darkness"

([CHINESE TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]).(10) At present [these songs]

are widely known; therefore I will not discuss them.

Again, earlier [the emperor] had obtained a divine

horse from the Wo-wa River, and following this,

he had the "Song of the Grand Unity" ("T'ai-i chih ko")

[CHINESE TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] composed. The song text goes:

"The Grand Unity bestows us,

the heavenly horse descends!

Soaked with red sweat,

bathed in liquid hematite!

Dashing forward lightly and carefree,

it crosses ten thousand miles.

Today, what could compare with it?--The

dragon is its friend!"

Later, [the emperor] attacked Ferghana and obtained a thousand-mile horse which was named Pushao [CHINESE TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], and...