The Way of the Pipa

Structure and Imagery in Chinese Lute Music

John E. Myers

• Éditeur: The Kent State University Press
• Année: 1992
• ISBN:
  9781612779669
• Sujet: Médias et arts de la scène
• Sous-sujet: Théorie et appréciation de la musique

"Over the centuries a repertoire of solo pipa pieces has developed and this study focuses on those found in the Hua collection, which encompasses the pieces in the repertoire of the Hua family, and was printed, using the wooden block technique, in 1819. Among the works are many ancient melodies which were handed down through oral tradition. Myers discusses the history and development of the musical aesthetics, and the relationship between imagery in the titles and corresponding melodic devices. He relates these recurring themes to elements in East Asian culture and philosophy. Included are transcriptions of pipa music into Western music notation. It is a welcome addition to the library of anyone interested in Chinese music and culture"—Elaine Bradtke, Come-All-Ye

Part 1

THE BACKGROUND

1

A General History of the Pipa

When one considers our subject, it is important to remember that the pipa and its music have already gone through a millennium of development in China. In terms of organological and stylistic changes, the history of this instrument may be divided into four roughly over-lapping periods:

1.Importation (Han-Sui dynasties, c. 200 B.C.–A.D.. 617)

2.Assimilation (Tang-Yuan dynasties, A.D. 618–1367)

3.Classical (1366–1949)

4.Modern (from 1949)

As Chang Chun-Shu has pointed out,¹ periodization depends on which aspects are emphasized or on which kinds of data are available. The earliest sources of information about the lute in China are iconographic and literary. These sources, which include wall paintings, court records, accounts from travelers, and so on, reveal changes in the form and the use of the instrument.

In the first period, three different kinds of lute were introduced into China. During the second period, these foreign instruments and their music were Sinicised. During the third period, the present-day schools of playing and bodies of traditional repertoire were developed. Finally, in the modern period we find the compositional influence of the West coexisting with traditional pipa music. Although all these periods overlap, certain dynastic changes serve as convenient marking points, especially when considering their impact on musical life.

The Importation Period: 200 B.C.–A.D. 617

According to literary and material sources, no record exists for any kind of lute in China before the third century B.C. By the time lutes first appeared, Chinese civilization had already developed a sophisticated musical life, including a system of music theory, a rich musical cosmology, and a unique array of instruments, many of which are still in use today. In very general terms, while the lute itself (beginning, as far as is known, in Egypt or Mesopotamia) and Chinese music are roughly the same age—about four thousand years—the lute’s presence in China spans only about half of China’s total musical history.

As indicated by its name, the most significant feature of this period was the importation of lutes, which occurred in three or more overlapping waves involving different kinds of instruments and music styles. As a result of these waves, the actual “importation” phase for one kind of lute can overlap with the “assimilation” phase of an earlier one. By the end of the Sui dynasty in 617, however, the basic series of importations had been completed and the assimilation process was well underway.

In order to understand this period and its waves of importation, we must first separate the term pipa from its modern denotation of a specific instrument. Until the end of the first millennium A.D.,pipa was a generic term for all plucked lutes. As Liao Fushu has noted: “From the Qin dynasty to the Sui and Tang dynasties, one name was applied to many kinds of plucked string instruments: long-necked, round-shaped, pear-shaped, wooden-sided, skin-sided, with strings added or subtracted, and all were called ‘pipa’.”²

To approach this maze of instruments in a systematic way, we must first examine the general organology of the modern instrument. In this context, the term lute must be understood in the broader sense of instrument classification, rather than the specific European instrument of the same name. Actually, both the pipa and the European lute belong to a much smaller division of instruments within the vast family of lutes.

The lute family itself is the largest group of chordophones (string instruments in general). Both the modern pipa and the European lute belong to the “necked bowl-lutes.” In addition, the playing method is also considered, so that the complete Sachs-Hornbostel category would be: “a plucked, necked, bowl-lute,” a classification shared by the pipa, Western lute, Greek bozouki, Arabic oud, and many other instruments. In the organological sense, it might seem that the title “Chinese lute,” applied for poetic reasons by Van Gulik to the venerable qin (a zither), would be a perfect description of the pipa.³

Because each wave of importation was associated with a particular kind of lute, organological differences among them are historically significant. According to iconographic and archaeological evidence, the earliest plucked lutes were spike-lutes used in the ancient cultures in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Despite China’s geographic isolation, ideas were exchanged between the two civilizations long before any written accounts existed.⁴

According to Du Jin of the Jin dynasty, the earliest lute was the qin pipa, named for the emperor Qin Shihuang (rgn. 221–207 B.C), who unified China through conquest and centralized government. This qin pipa, played by the workers who built the Great Wall, was created by applying strings to the taogu, a percussion instrument which consists of a clapper-actuated membranophone mounted on a wooden spike.

Since this traditional explanation concerning the creation of the qin pipa has become part of the historical record,⁵ later scholars have concluded that all pipa derive from this hybrid instrument of the Qin dynasty. Because of this, a Chinese origin is sometimes claimed, even though the Middle Eastern spike-lute predates the Chinese instrument by over a millennium.

If “qin pipa” is interpreted more narrowly to refer only to the specific species of spike-lute created by adding strings to a membranophone, the idea of its Chinese origin gains credence. The conscripted laborers who built the Great Wall probably had some contact with western nomads. They could have easily used the concept of the spike-lute to make a creative adaptation of an existing instrument. The round shape of the drum was retained, even after the instrument was no longer spiked. This may have also influenced the design of the ruanxian, a round-bodied lute with a parallel historical development. The person credited with the invention of the ruanxian is Ruan Xian, who was one of the “Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove,” a group of third-century Daoist literatti who epitomized the cultured life, excelling in calligraphy, painting, music, wine drinking, and philosophy. The Middle Eastern spike-lute returned to China many centuries later as the sanxian and the huqin, both introduced during the rule of the Mongols (A.D. 1271–1368).

The second kind of lute to arrive in China, the four stringed, pearshaped lute, is most directly related to the modern pipa in terms of its shape and the number of strings. During the importation period, this instrument was most commonly called han pipa in order to distinguish it from the round-shaped qin pipa. According to iconographic research conducted by Shigeo Kishibe, the earliest illustrations of the pear-shaped pipa are found in sculpture from Gandhara, a kingdom that existed at approximately the same time as the Han dynasty.⁶ This monarchy, culturally influenced by both Greece and India, existed in the area of present-day Afghanistan. Although examples of the short-necked lute can be found in Greek sculpture antedating the Han dynasty, this instrument is smaller than the Gandharan lute.

A literary tradition associates the han pipa with two famous women of the Han dynasty: Xijun, a princess of the first century B.C. who was the bride in a diplomatic marriage to the Susun (Turks); and, a generation later, Zhaojun, who was the bride in a diplomatic marriage to the Xiongnu (Tartars).⁷ Both women were considered great beauties, and both either played the pipa or had it played for them to soothe their longing for home. Wang (princess) Zhaojun, in particular, has been the subject of many paintings, songs, and instrumental pieces, including one pipa piece, Zhaojun Yuan (T16), first published in the Hua Collection.

The third (and last) type of lute to be imported into China was the wuxian (five-stringed) pipa. While evidence points to the Middle East as the source for the round-shaped, long-necked lute and Central Asia for the pear-shaped, short-necked lute, both literary and iconographic records suggest India as the place of origin for the five-stringed instrument.⁸ In India, the lute was known as veena (or vina), at that time a generic term for all chordophones,⁹ and although the Indian instrument had six rather than five strings, its other features (especially the straight neck) were very similar to the wuxian.

As in the case of the other two kinds of pipa, the wuxian entered China from the northwest, along the silk route. A major cultural center along this route was the city of Kucha, known in Chinese as Qiuzi. There is an abundance of literary and iconographic information about this center of Asian trade, which had direct contacts with Persia, India, and China. Kucha, which is now in the Uigiur Autonomous District of western China, has a turbulent political history that reflects its geographic position. Kuchan art from this period shows all three kinds of pipa, especially the wuxian pipa, which was also called the qiuzi pipa.

Two famous musicians are associated with the city of Kucha, both of whom played the wuxian pipa and had a significant impact upon Chinese music history. The first is Cao Bolomen, who lived during the fifth century (Northern Wei period) and founded a great family of musicians, extending well into the Tang dynasty several centuries later. His descendants included players of the pipa as well as of indigenous instruments such as the qin. Many won high honors and official rank through their brilliant performances at the imperial court in the capital city of Changan.¹⁰

The second important pipa player from the importation period is Sujiva (Sujipo in Chinese). Sujiva arrived in the year 568 when his patron, the Turkish princess Ashina, married emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou dynasty. Although he was regarded as a master of the pipa, Sujiva is remembered today for his “seven modes and seven tones,” which are listed in the annals of the Sui dynasty (Suishu).¹¹ Along with the foreign terms (transliterations of Sanskrit), the Chinese equivalents are included, making this section of the Suishu a potential Rosetta Stone for Asian music.

That the Sanskrit names for some of Sujiva’s modes correspond to Indian modal theories from that time¹² has been verified through the discovery of an example of an Indian music notation based on the fretted veena of India.¹³ This notation, carved into a stone tablet, was found in 1904 at Pudukkottai Kudimiyamalai in India. It includes the names of modes which are consistent with the terms given in both the Suishu and the Brhaddesi of Matanga, an Indian document from a few centuries later.¹⁴

It is possible that two of the Indian terms omitted from the Suishu were not just modes in terms of tonal emphasis, but were also the names of two separate intonation systems used in India at this time.¹⁵ Two of the three omitted terms included the suffix grama, a Sanskrit word related to the Western term grammar. The meaning of the Sanskrit term grama was very broad, similar to the Greek word logos. “Madhayama-grama” and “Sadja-grama” eventually became ma and sa, the names of the fourth and first scale tones used in Indian music to this day. If it is true that these terms originally referred to two separate intonation systems rather than to pitch degrees, it is almost certain these systems would have been much less compatible with the indigenous Chinese music.

According to Indian music theories, the octave was divided into twenty-two shruti, unequal intervals that could be sung or played by stringed and other instruments. The Chinese, on the other hand, had already been seeking a mathematical basis for dividing the octave into twelve symmetrical parts in order to coordinate their ritual music, which was performed on metal bells and stone chimes, with the lunar calendar. The radical difference between these two systems was, in the words of Kenneth Robinson, that the string derivation “requires constant adjustment and is intimately associated with the human voice,” while the metal and stone derivation was “immutable once out of the maker’s hands.”¹⁶

Iconographic evidence strongly argues for an early association of the wuxian pipa with Buddhism, especially during the importation period. However, contemporary literature usually mentions the pipa only in the context of entertainment music and dance, while Confucian ceremonial music retained the instrumentation of earlier dynasties. Actually, the Buddhistic aspect of the pipa was more a popular rather than a court tradition and was associated with narrative sing...