Triple Divisions—Key Points from the Treatises on Music (c. 680), Chapter 5:4 “On the Paradigm of Mutual Generations” and Chapter 5:5 “On ‘triple division with one part subtracted or added’ being applicable to strings and pipes”
This is the third part of my translation of Key Points from the Treatises on Music (c. 680), or “Empress Wu’s Music Theory Primer.” These two chapters continue to discus the seven sheng, yet it also “previews” a significant concept in Chinese tuning theory in relation to the twelve tuning pitch pipes (or lü), before…
What Pentatonicism? – Key Points from the Treatises on Music (c. 680), Chapter 5:2 “The method for the mutual generation of the seven sheng” and 5:3 “On how to understand the two bian notes”
This is the second part of my translation of Key Points from the Treatises on Music (c. 680), or “Empress Wu’s Music Theory Primer.” These two chapters discuss the seven sheng or musical notes of the scale, particularly: (1) what are the topological relations or “mutual generations” between these seven notes vis-à-vis the twelve tuning…
Empress Wu’s Music Theory Primer — Key Points from the Treatises on Music (c. 680), Table of Content and Chapter 5:1 “Distinguishing the sheng of musical notes, examining the origin of sheng.”
Beginning with this post, I will produce a complete, chapter-by-chapter translation of Key Points from the Treatises of Music (Yueshu yaolu 樂書要錄, c. 680). The treatise is special in many ways. It the earliest extant Chinese monograph on music theory and one of the earliest extant monographs on music at large. It is traditionally attributed…
The Politics of Listening — “The Duke of Shao Remonstrating with King Li on Eliminating Criticism,” Discourses of the States (c. 4th century BCE)
The most important political term in Classical Chinese is mingjun 明君 “enlightened ruler”, which literally means “brightened ruler,” in contrast to the lesser-known anju 暗君 “darkened ruler.” Here, one might be tempted to argue that traditional Chinese political philosophy is “ocularcentric”—except surveying its key texts, figures, and anecdotes suggests that the sense and notion of…
What music means — Ji Yun et al., “Music Category,” Introduction and Postface, from Summary Catalogue and Annotated Bibliography for the Complete Library in Four Sections (1798)
What is music? And is “music” a mistranslation for the Chinese concept of yue (樂)? Rather than defining exactly what “music” or yue is, dictionary style, I find it more stimulating to ask where music/yue falls within a particular mapping of the structure knowledge—for which a fancier word would be episteme. While many important cartographies…
Follow My Blog
Get new content delivered directly to your inbox.
From the Reed Ashes Pavilion 