Abstract sub-title varies from t.p.: From Ut Re Mi to Fourteen-Tone Temperament: the Global Acoustemologies of an Early Modern Reform to Chinese Musical Tuning.

Abstract
This dissertation examines what is commonly known as the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1661-1722)’s fourteen-tone temperament, a 1714 reform to Chinese musical tuning that effectively uses the familiar Pythagorean proportions to divide the octave into fourteen parts. Besides examining the ideological and cultural contexts of the tuning reform and orrecting many longheld misconceptions, I argue that the reform largely resulted from an epistemological shift that rearticulated the empirical process of sounding and listening vis-à-vis the historicist studies of texts and records in producing musical knowledge. Besides examining it in the context of traditional Chinese scholarship, I shed particular light on the transregional and even global scale of this shift. I argue that the series of experiments and studies on which the fourteen-tone temperament was based took place within the specific political structures of the Qing Empire (1636-1912) as a conquest regime that subjugated China under its minority Manchu ruling class. I also show that the shift was itself inspired by a global exchange of musical knowledge, in which the concept of octave equivalence in Western music theory was misunderstood yet appropriated to advocate an empirical term in music theory and a reform to Chinese opera, both in turn harnessed for Qing-imperial ideological purposes. What is more, by comparing the fourteen-tone temperament to roughly contemporary discourses on texts vs. sounds, writing vs. speech, and historicism vs. empiricism, both within the Qing Empire and beyond, I argue that the Qing’s reform to musical tuning, despite its apparent parochialism, potentially reflected a much broader transformation that took place on a global scale, or what I call the “Phonological Revolution.” In concluding this dissertation, I make a case for further examining how seemingly discrete rearticulations of the relation between historicism and empiricism across different discourses and praxes of language, music, writing, and songs may reveal a coeval and coconstitutive epistemological shift on a global scale in the early modern world.

Keywords: tuning, history of music theory, Qing Empire, global music history, acoustemology, Phonological Revolution.

Local access dig.pdf. [Hu-Acoustemologies China.pdf]

During the reign of Kangxi (r. 1662-1722), the second Manchu emperor of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), Western music began to take root in the Manchu court. There is abundant evidence that the missionaries performed Western music before Kangxi and the emperor looked upon the Jesuits Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688) and Tomas Pereira (1645-1708) as his music tutors. In 1713, Kangxi commissioned a treatise on music, Yuzhi Lülü Zhengyi (A True Doctrine of Music, by Imperial Authority), which was completed in 1714. Begun by Pereira but completed by the Italian Lazarist Paolo Felipe Teodorico Pedrini (c. 1670-1746), the third part of this musical treatise Xieyun duqu, is devoted exclusively to Western music theory. This treatise is the earliest official Chinese source concerning Western music theory.

Evidence that Western theoretical writings were included in Lülü Zhengyi raises an important question: why did Kangxi demand that Western music theory be incorporated within his imperial treatise? There are only a limited number of studies on Western music in the early Qing court, and this research fills in a serious lacuna. This study will argue that it is not simply due to Kangxi's open mind and fondness for European knowledge that leads to the incorporation of Western music theory in Lülü Zhengyi. Kangxi's goal was to use Western music as a tool to restore the lost Chinese ancient music.

The reign of Kangxi witnessed the elevation of Western music in the Qing court. After the reign of Kangxi, Western music continued to be performed at the court, however, its prestige diminished, and it served solely as entertainment for the emperors. Indeed, in Yongzheng's preface to Lülü yuanyuan (1723), Western music theory was regarded as that of the Western barbarian. Later, when Qianlong ordered the compilation of the sequel to Lülü Zhengyi in 1741, no Western music was included.

Local access dig.pdf. [Chiu-Music.pdf]

"... On the level of Western theory of music, the most important introduction was Lülü zuanyao 律呂纂要 (Compilation of Musical theory) written by Tomé Pereira on behalf of the Kangxi emperor, and completed after Pereira’s death by Pedrini.* The work was revised and partly integrated as the last part of the Lülü zhengyi xubian 律呂正義續編, the supplement to the imperial encyclopedia on music Lülü zhengyi 律呂正義 (part of Lülü yuanyuan 律呂淵源, 1723).** It features a presentation of the tonal system, rhythmic and staff notation and is a good example of the difficulties involved in translating musical terminology from a European into a Chinese tradition."

*mss discovered by Wu Xiangxiang 吳相湘, who first published his discovery in Guangzhou daguang bao 廣州大光報 (7 November 1936)…”
**"Also included in Siku quanshu 四庫全書...."

Local access dig.pdf. [Pereira-Lulu zuanyao.pdf]

清代律學若干問題探討 / 翁攀峰
【摘要】：清代律學是我國古代聲學的重要組成部分,是科學史的重要研究對象。本文討論了清代律學中的“康熙十四律”的合理性及其源流,清代學者對朱載堉新法密律的認識與評價,以及清代的連比例生律法三個問題,主要包括以下幾部分內容： 第一,分析了“康熙十四通”的律制結構和生律方法,在此基礎上,採用現代聲學理論證明了“康熙十四律”同徑管的黃鐘正律與太簇半律相合的觀點是錯誤的,其同形管也不能與同徑管實現聲音上的相應。第二,通過對比分析“康熙十四律”與傳教士所著《律呂節要》一書中的相關內容,發現“十四律”的思想源於《律呂節要》,該律制是結合了中西樂律理論的創新產物。第三,通過對《律呂正義》記載的幾種樂器型製的分析,發現這些樂器是嚴格按照“康熙十四律”的律制結構、相合觀以及同形管的要求製作的。第四,通過對乾隆朝批判朱載堉新法密率文獻的分析,發現乾隆朝御用學者對新法密率的評價,並非純粹的學術觀點爭鳴,而是皇權主導下的律學思想批判。乾隆的聖諭以及“康熙十四律”的權威直接影響了學者們的學術取向。第五,根據江永的三部律學著作,系統梳理了他從最初排斥新法密率與三分損益並創立“今律”,到放棄“今律”轉而接受新法密率的過程,分析了他能接受新法密率的原因：一是從江永極為重視的返宮標准上看,新法密率比“今律”更加完善；二是在接觸新法密率之前,他就十分推崇河洛之學與方圓相函理論在律呂研究中的基礎性作用。第六,通過對比安清翹的連比例律與朱載靖新法密率,發現安清翹的連比例算律思想源於朱載堉新法密率,但二人的計算思路不同。安清翹較朱載堉的進步之處在於提出了律長虛率的概念,認為黃鐘長度不限於朱載堉提出的長十寸、五寸或二十寸,對於任何長度的黃鐘,只要各律長滿足十二率連比例關係就能相合。這反映了安清翹對十二平均律之“平均”的認識較朱載堉更進一步。第七,通過對戴煦所著《音分古義》一書的分析,發現他的連比例算律思想源於傳統的三分損益法。他根據“康熙十四律”,對黃鐘與半太簇之間的各律呂長度進行了等比處理,但這並沒有達到實用意義上的各音之差相同。此外,戴煦以十五則邇言作為連比例算律的理論根據,當計算中出現與邇言不符的情況時,他會根據邇言對律呂長度進行調整。這種論證方式很有可能源自西方的公理化方法。第八,根據載武所著的四部律學著作,對他在否定中西音樂理論的基礎上,如何利用西方數學的計算方法算得七平均律進行了分析和討論。此外,本文采用現代聲學理論對載武的管弦音進行理論頻率計算,發現他在弦音上實現了七平均律,而對於管音,由於受到“康熙十四律”的影響,以及對律管發音認識的不足,並沒有實現平均。

Full Table of Contents see CNKI.

"... On the level of Western theory of music, the most important introduction was Lülü zuanyao 律呂纂要 (Compilation of Musical theory) written by Tomé Pereira on behalf of the Kangxi emperor, and completed after Pereira’s death by Pedrini.* The work was revised and partly integrated as the last part of the Lülü zhengyi xubian 律呂正義續編, the supplement to the imperial encyclopedia on music Lülü zhengyi 律呂正義 (part of Lülü yuanyuan 律呂淵源, 1723).** It features a presentation of the tonal system, rhythmic and staff notation and is a good example of the difficulties involved in translating musical terminology from a European into a Chinese tradition."

*mss discovered by Wu Xiangxiang 吳相湘, who first published his discovery in Guangzhou daguang bao 廣州大光報 (7 November 1936)…”
**"Also included in Siku quanshu 四庫全書...."

Collection: Siku quanshu huiyao 四庫全書薈要.
Editions online Internet Archive.
Edition with text, image, and dictionary tools at ctext.org
Local access dig.pdf. [Pereira-Lulu zhengyi xubian.pdf]