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Aesthetics and Precision in Court Ritual Songs, Ca. 266–272

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Aesthetics and Precision in Court Ritual Songs, Ca. 266–272 CHAPTER THREE AESTHETICS AND PRECISION IN COURT RITUAL SONGS, CA. 266–272 Jue 角: The Turn The third step in the Chinese gamut, another whole step, is a “turn” – the jue note. It gives our ears the “major third” interval from gong. In early China’s circle-of-fifths, the major third’s length is assigned the fraction 7.111, whereas gong, shang, and zhi, have whole numbers. Nu- meric ratios begin to clash with the physics of actual musical instruments. A musicologist in early China would know that beyond jue lay not just hard-to- produce notes, but a world of competing modes. For Xun Xu, the “turn” turned out to be a time of com- plexity and competition. These several years were a turning point during which Xun Xu’s ca- reer went in a new direction. He challenged his peers intellectually and experienced forward motion. He gained appointments to reform the court’s music, starting with lyrics for ritual songs. We see for the first time his overarching principle as a reformer intent on a funda- mentalist Zhou restoration, which on several occasions in China’s past had served as an ideological frame in attempts to unify and shape the realm. A Zhou restoration, according to the most trenchant model, that of Wang Mang’s 王莽 (r. 9–23 ad) court, involved nominal and real changes in noble grants, official hierarchies, administrative and penal code, the calendar, architectural standards and shapes, and ritual song-texts and musical scales. As this book progresses, we shall see that Xun Xu directed many of these areas for the Jin court. Back in 260, Xun Xu had recently emerged, like many others, from associations with the Wei-dynasty court of Cao Shuang. He was al- ready advising Sima Zhao and in addition was building a reputation outside Luoyang as a leader of local officials and students; he was made Intendant of Secretaries at court, with a minor noble title. After his in- law Zhong Hui failed in his rebellion in Shu, and after Sima Zhao was made Prince of Jin, both in 264, Xun was appointed Palace Attendant. His posts were moving along on the scholar-adviser track of official- 122 dom, as opposed to the military track, and they were directly inside the palace archival and historiographical offices. Part of the relatively quick rise was due to his kinsman Xun Yi’s solid place among the Si- mas. But Xun Xu himself was politic: he had imitated Yang Hu’s ges- ture by turning down a noble title, and was eventually placed into the activities of a new court, becoming a scholar in the law committee. Xun’s family had not been famous for any intertextual weaving, as it were, or for reshaping canons, that is, there was no Xun who syn- thesized Daoist and Confucian traditions by means of cosmological insights. There was one Yijing political moralist back in the late 100s and Yijing debaters closer to Xun Xu’s day. Furthermore, not even in the early days at their Yingyin manor had Xuns attained literary lead- ership or forged a poetic voice in the new, more intimate styles. It is no surprise, then, that Xun Xu generally did not meet in soirees or ex- change poems and quips (with one brief exception), nor was he partic- ularly known in history as a commentator on the Confucian classics. He is known to have authored a work on the Classic of Filial Piety, but no part of it remains. These were exceptional times for writers of classical commentaries, and in fact quite a few of the great examples from Wei-Jin times went on to be honored in subsequent centuries. Nevertheless, a scholar in the Jin era contributing to court ritual studies did not have to be, nor need to be, renowned as a classical commentator. The court program to gather scholars and revise rites offered places to Xun Xu and Xun Yi. The latter worked on the rites 禮, which may have included aspects of court music. Xu was placed into the law codification project, a field in which the Xun family stood out (see Figure 2, Chapter One).1 Several days after Sima Yan’s imperial accession in February of 266, Xun Xu and Xun Yi were among a group of Sima boon-companions, including Yang Hu 羊祜 (221–278) and Pei Xiu 裴秀 (224–271), who were promoted and enfeoffed. This coterie assumed control of state affairs at the outset of the dynasty.2 In Chapter Two we saw that upon accession, Xun Xu had been made Palace Attendant and he punctili- ously declined a noble title. We pick up the Jinshu 晋書 biography ex- actly at that point: 1 The entire Xun-family involvement in legal policy and compilations since the end of Eastern Han was discussed in chap. 1, sect. “Xun Musicologists and Legists.” 2 See JS 40, p. 1166; and 43, p. 1224: Pei was lauded and supported in this new sta- tus by Shan Tao..
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