高僧傳 13.59

13.59

始有魏陳思王曹植，深愛聲律，屬意經音。既通般遮之瑞響，又感魚山之神製。於是刪治《瑞應本起》以為學者之宗。傳聲則三千有餘，在契則四十有二。其後帛橋、支籥亦云祖述陳思，而愛好通靈，別感神製，裁變古聲，所存止一十而已。至石勒建平中，有天神降于安邑廳事，諷詠經音，七日乃絕。時有傳者，並皆訛廢。逮宋齊之間，有曇遷、僧辯、太傅、文宣等，並殷勤嗟詠，曲意音律，撰集異同，斟酌科例。存倣舊法，正可三百餘聲。自茲厥後，聲多散落。人人致意，補綴不同。所以師師異法，家家各製。皆由昧乎聲旨，莫以裁正。

In the beginning, Prince Chensi of the Wei, Cao Zhi, deeply loved musical pitch and devoted his attention to scriptural chanting. Having comprehended the auspicious resonance of Pañca and been inspired by the divine melody of Mount Yu, he thereupon edited the Ruiying benqi to serve as a model for learners. Transmitted in sound, there were more than three thousand notes; arranged in sections (qi), there were forty-two. Later, Bo Qiao and Zhi Yue also claimed to follow Chensi; loving communion with the divine, they were independently inspired by divine compositions and adapted the ancient tunes, but only ten or so were preserved. In the Jianping era of Shi Le, a celestial spirit descended upon the hall in Anyi and chanted scriptural melodies, ceasing only after seven days. Those transmitted by contemporaries at that time all became corrupted and fell into disuse. Down to the Song and Qi periods, Tanqian, Sengbian, the Grand Tutor, and Prince Wenxuan all diligently chanted and pondered the melodies, compiling discrepancies and evaluating standard forms; preserving and emulating the old methods, there were precisely three hundred-odd sounds. Ever since then, many sounds have been scattered and lost. Everyone exerted their own thoughts and patched them together differently. Consequently, every master had a different method, and every house had its own style. This was entirely because they were ignorant of the true intent of the sounds, with no one to rectify them.