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Yuanluo zhiyue 苑洛志樂

Dec 7, 2013 © Ulrich Theobald

Yuanluo zhiyue 苑洛志樂 "Master Yuanluo's treatise on music" is a book on music compiled by during Ming period 明 (1368-1644) by Han Bangqi 韓邦奇 (1479-1555), courtesy name Rujie 汝節, style Yuanluo 苑洛. He hailed from Chaoyi 朝邑 (modern Dali 大荔, Shaanxi).

His book of 20 juan begins with a 2-chapters long comment to Cai Yuanding's 蔡元定 (1135-1198) Lülü xinshu 律呂新書 from the Song period 宋 (960-1279), and from juan 3 on presents Han's own findings and research. Although most of the statements in his book are taken from older texts, Han's collection of sources must called a nearly complete overview of the most important aspects related to musical tuning and similar topics, from weights and measures to music instruments, dances and airs.

His statements are derived the the Confucian Classics, history books, the "masters and philosophers", astronomical and geographical texts, but also from books on divination and the art of war. Part of the quotations belong to rather unscientific ideas and must be taken with care.

There is a postface writen in 1549 by Han Bangqi's disciple Yang Jisheng 楊繼盛 (1516-1555). The book is included in the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書.

Sources:
Li Bo 李波 (2015). "Mingdai Qin Dong yinyue wudao wenxian. Yuanluo zhiyue jianshu 明代秦東音樂舞蹈文獻——《苑洛志樂》簡述", Lantai shijie 蘭台世界, 2015 (10).
Li Xueqin 李學勤, Lü Wenyu 呂文鬰, ed. (1996). Siku da cidian 四庫大辭典 (Changchun: Jilin daxue chubanshe), Vol. 1, 622.
Pan Dalong 潘大龍 (2017). "Han Bangqi Yueluo zhiyue banben wenti bianxi 韓邦奇《苑洛志樂》版本問題辨析", Huangzhong 黄鐘, 2017 (7).