Southern girls or Tibetan knights: a Liang (502-557) court performance.

• Author: Wang, Ping
• Position: Critical essay

Xiao Yan [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] (464-549; R. 502-549; posthumously Wudi [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.], the founding emperor of the Liang [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] dynasty (502-557) (1) was born into a devout Taoist family, yet was the only Chinese monarch consciously to enact the role of an "Emperor-Bodhisattva." His rulership was a combination of the Chinese "sage emperor" and the Indian cakravartin. (2) Xiao Yan was also well known for his patronage of scholarship and literature. During his reign, he sponsored the compilation of an unprecedented number of scholarly projects. (3) His own writings, covering a broad range of topics, show that he was a polymath versed in classical scholarship, ritual matters, music, calligraphy, and go (i.e., encirclement chess). (4) Despite the large amount of scholarship on Xiao Yan as an important political figure and advocate of Buddhism, there have been surprisingly few in-depth studies on his poetic works--his shi [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] in tetrametric, pentametric, and yuefu [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] forms, and also his fit [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]. The modern scholar Lu Qinli [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] divides Xiao Yan's poetry into two categories: fifty-four yuefu pieces and forty-one shi pieces. (5) Evaluations of Xiao Yan's yuefu pieces, however, have been negatively affected by an entrenched prejudice against the Southern Dynasties yuefu. Believed to be mostly love songs, the Southern yuefu emerged out of the two folksong traditions known as the "Wu Songs" [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] and "Western Tunes" [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]. Furthermore, our understanding of the actual process and purpose of yuefu song/music-making is inadequate, as yuefu pieces written by literati are often taken to be imitations of folk songs, which may sometimes but not always be the case. Even worse, there is, among many Chinese scholars, a certain erophobic tendency to take love songs and their writing to be morally dubious. Criticism of the "decadent" lifestyle of the royals of the Southern Dynasties has long been based on the supposed femininity of their art and literature. At the same time, the feminity of Southern Dynasties yuefu is taken to be the result of an unrestrained lifestyle. This kind of circular reasoning has hindered our understanding of the Southern Dynasties yuefu and of the creative activities of the upper class.

In this paper, we shall look closely at one of Xiao Yan's yuefu compositions entitled "Xiangyang ta tongti ge" [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.], to see whether we can get to the heart of this so called "simple imitation of a folk song." In doing so, I hope to shed light on Liang Wudi's court music-making and also to examine the "sound of a perished state" (wangguo zhi yin [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]), a derogatory epithet that traditionally and even into modern times has been used to explain the failings of the Liang dynasty in particular and of late Southern Dynasties art and literature in general.

Upon Xiao Yan's ascension to the throne in the early sixth century, he engaged scholars and specialists in projects to restore rituals and court music. (6) Among them, Shen Yu [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] (444-513) certainly shouldered the largest share of work. His long "Monograph on Music" [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] in the Song shu [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] is now the single most important source on pre-Tang court music. This chapter of the Song shu was not completed until the early years of the Tianjian [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] reign-period (502-519) and very likely was part of Xiao Yan's music-making project. (7) In Shen Yue's extant writings, there is a group of thirty yayue [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] or "elegant songs" that were used in sacrificial and other courtly ceremonies. (8) Shen Yue's compositions complemented the music pieces that were adapted from the old Han court. (9) In addition, local and contemporary song pieces provided the other main source for creating court music. A good example is the set of new seasonal songs written to the title "Ziye ge" [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] ("Songs by Lady Midnight"). The emperor composed these lyrics himself. The court musician Wang Jinzhu [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] composed complementary songs to the same title. Similarly, there is a well-known "western tune" piece entitled "Xiangyang ta tongti ge" that was written by the emperor. This is the work we shall focus on here. The monograph on music in the Sui shu offers the following comments on the title and historical background of the composition of the piece: (10)

Earlier, when [the future] Emperor Wu was stationed at Yongzhou garrison, there was a popular children's ditty that said: "Shining and glittering horse-hoot's from Xiangyang, / Bound up are the soldiers of Yangzhou." The cognoscenti said bai tongti [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] refers to horses and bai [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] is the color of metal [in the system of wuxing [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] correspondences]. When [Xiao Yan's] loyal troops rose up, they were indeed impregnable "steely" cavalry. All soldiers of Yangzhou surrendered with their hands tied behind their backs. It turned out to be exactly as said in the ditty. Therefore, upon ascending the throne, while the emperor was constructing new melodies, he composed lyrics for this ditty in three stanzas. Furthermore, he ordered Shen Yue to write three additional stanzas. They were accompanied by bamboo and string instruments for performance. [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]

This short paragraph gives a condensed account of a series of quite complicated events taking place between 497 and 501, the four years during which Xiao Yan plotted and staged a successful military coup to take the throne from his own clansmen, the rulers of the Qi [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] dynasty (479-502). The popular ditty testifies to Xiao Yan's revolt against the Qi and his subsequent establishment of the Liang.

In Xiao Yan's remaking of this chant, the line implicating Xiao Yan's revolt is replaced in a chorus that reads: "Oh! Shining and glittering horse-hoofs from Xiangyang; / Sagacious virtue, responding to heaven, comes forth" [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]. (11) The main part of the song consists of six stanzas, three by the emperor himself and three by Shen Yue. (12)

Here are Xiao Yan's poems:

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Following are the thre stanzas attributed to Shen Yue:

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The above song lyrics are the only vestige we have of the emperor's entire musical production. We know that the actual performance would have required musical instruments, both bamboo and strings, sixteen dancers, and at least one main singer. (17) The fact that there are two versions of the lyrics tells us that the words are replaceable. What we do not have and what cannot be replaced, however, is the musical performance itself, an untransferable experience that can only be described in the most abstract and often impressionistic terms. The effect of music, as noted in the writings of many cultures, is beyond linguistic range. Chinese sources tell us that when listening to music, one is induced to clap the hands, tap the feet, nod the head, and that some auditors will tap their ruyi [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] flywhisks on a pot to keep rhythm, even till the pot is chipped all over. (18) The universal power of music was recognized by early Chinese thinkers and regarded as a transformative force to be revered and feared. Hence, the strict regulation of music suggested a corollary to governance. But for the musical piece under discussion here, such force is gone with time and we are at the mercy of mere words. Yet, there are peripheral materials beyond the scope of lyrics that may shed light on those parts of the experience that have evaporated with time. In this case we may start with the title of Xiao Yan's piece and its recorded variations.

The most authoritative title seems to be "Xiangyang ta tongti" [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.], as given in the sixth-century text, Gujin yuelu [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]. This was adopted in the Yuefu shiji [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] compiled by Guo Maoqian [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] (fl. 1264-1269) in the thirteenth century, and recently by Lu Qinli in his standard collection of early medieval poetry. However, the seventh-century commonplace book, Yiwen leiju [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.], and the tenth-century encyclopedia Wenyuan yinghua [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] both give the title as "Bai tong ti ge" [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]. And the sixth-century anthology known as Yutai xinyong [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] compiled at the Liang court, has the title as "Xiangyang bai tong di [ge]" [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]. (19) Notice that tongti [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] is variably written as Tongdi [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]. The latter term is attested as a place-name in Shanxi, northwest of present-day Shangdang [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]. (20) But there are accounts that also indicate the existence of a place of this name in the vicinity of Xiangyang, the military town from which Xiao Yan launched his attack on the Qi.

For example, in a twelfth-century work on music, Chen Yang [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.], commenting on the origins of song titles, says: (21)

In the past, songs titles were given mostly on the basis of actual things; it is not that they had profound or elusive meanings. Thus, looking up, one would take names from the sky and call the songs "White Dew," "Morning Dew," "White Clouds," "Auspicious Clouds," "Dark Clouds," "Pacing the Clouds," "White Snow," "Southern Wind," "Great Wind," etc., all of these being taken from the sky. Looking down, one would take...