Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c11.s2.t6: Duan Anjie
Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c11.s2.t6
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Duan Anjie
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Duan Anjie (9th century CE), a music theorist of later Tang, was born in Linzi of Qizhou (now in northeast Zibo of Shandong Province), with an inherited official family background, who was an offspring of Duan Zhixuan, the famous general of
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'Yuefu zalu'
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Tang. His grandfather Duan Wenchang used to be the prime minister during the reign of the Emperor Muzong of Tang (dominated in 821-824 CE), and his father Duan Chengshi (unknown-863 CE) was the Taichangshaoqing who was “good at melody.” Wen Tingyun (812-870 CE), a poet in Tang Dynasty, was proficient in melody and was his father-in-law. Duan Anjie used to be the Dafu of ritual working with the nation’s Zisi business. He was good at prosody and could compose music and write songs. In the first year of Kunning Period in Tang (894 CE), he wrote a volume of *Music Miscellany* including music works, dances, comedians, instruments, music and songs as well as stories of famous singers and pipa players. *Recognition of Five Tones and Twenty-eight Melodies* was attached at the end of the book. But the chart was lost with only words left. The author said that he himself “was good at melody in childhood, so he learned a little Gong and Shang, heard a few times and could memorise a little.” He once read the *Royal Academy Record*, but not in detail, and edited the *Music Miscellany* by seeing and hearing. Because of the Guangming Event (880 CE), Emperor Xizong (dominated in 874-888 CE), went to the state of Shu, but “half of opera actors had gone, and music and songs were in the decline.” Therefore, this book made up the deficiencies of Cui Lingqin’s *Royal Academy Record* and had a high reference value for music, dance and drama especially in late Tang.
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Besides the texture research about the origin of music, an outstanding contribution of *Music Miscellany* was to record a large amount of folk music used by the royals in the middle of Tang, especially after An Lushan Rebellion. Secondary, although *Recognition of Five Tones and Twenty-eight Melodies* attached at the end of book had no pictures left and it was hard to know the whole story. The words about pipa melody are still the precious material for later generations to study the Tang prosody and Gong melody. Thirdly, it recorded the stories for socially disadvantaged musicians who contributed greatly to Tang musical dancing.
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The book of *Music Miscellany* recorded many stories about the pipa. Duan Anjie’s *Pipa Stories* was recorded in the book of “Explanation of Zhizhai Books’ by Song people, Chen Zhensun. Chao Boyu called it *Pipa Records* in his *Continued Collected writings*, so the later generations called it ‘*Pipa Records*’ as well. Both *Shoushange Series* and *China Classical Opera Works Integration* (China Opera Press, 1959) compiled by Qian Xizuo in Qing Dynasty included the collated revision of this book. (Zhao Jiazi)