PIPA ARTISTS AND THEIR MUSIC IN LATE MING CHINA
Abstract During the Ming dynasty, within a span of almost three centuries China's political organization, social structure, and important cultural elements were transformed by changes in government, military reforms, urban life, interaction with foreign peoples (in particular the naval expeditions of Zheng He <inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="splitsection3_in1.tif"/> [1371–1433]), advancement in science and technology, and the growth of literature and art. Thanks to the increase of commercial printing during the period, a vast amount of primary sources has been preserved, providing modern-day scholars with the necessary information to understand the diversity and complexity of the Ming era. However, although sinologists and historians have produced a tremendous amount on various Ming topics, much work is needed concerning music. One can certainly argue for the attention that has been given to tuning systems, qin <inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="splitsection3_in2.tif"/> music, ritual music, and dramatic arts, but they constitute only a fraction of the multiplicity of genres and the wide range of expression in Ming music. Without scrutiny into the other genres and expressions, we will never be able to enlarge our picture of Ming music and musical life, and their relationship to the larger social and cultural milieus.
MING MUSIC AND MUSIC HISTORY
AbstractMing China was a society of songs, dances, instrumental music, and operas. Ming emperors, scholar-officials, and commoners, male and female, produced and consumed a large variety of music, and left numerous descriptions of their music activities. Ming China, as interpreted and narrated in the twentieth century does not, however, appear to be musical at all. Major references compiled in the last two decades, such as the Dictionary of Ming Biography and the Cambridge History of China, hardly discuss music. The Zhongguo jinbashinian Mingshi lunzhu mulu (Studies of Ming history published in China in the last eighty years) of 1981 lists only seven studies on music. In the early 1990s, Ming music was still a marginal topic. Mingshi xinbian (New edition of Ming history) of 1993, for example, very briefly mentions music, and Yamane Yukio's 1992 bibliography lists 82 Japanese studies of Ming history, none of which is devoted to music. This twentieth-century marginalization of Ming music is not intentional ...
Offerings of jade and silk: Ritual and symbol in the legitimation of the T'ang Dynasty
available to a broader audience by translating and elucidating some of its key concepts in the light of Wittgenstein's philosophy. Thurman credits his study of Wittgenstein with making it possible for him to translate the Buddhist tradition's nonegocentric critical analysis of the prevalent forms of "misknowledge" (avidya) into Euro-American philosophical discourse. Despite my reservations about using the conceptual framework of modern Western philosophy to clarify the views of medieval Tibetan philosophers, I find Thurman's exploration of the common ground of Wittgenstein's and Tsong Khapa's ideas worth the effort. Thurman argues that previous Western interpreters of the central way (Madhyamaka) philosophy have misunderstood the system in much the same way as had some of Tsong Khapa's Tibetan contemporaries. These misinterpretations fall into two distinct groups: absolutist mysticism and relativist skepticism. The members of the first group interpret the truth of the central way as referring to an inexpressible absolute, utterly beyond all human expression and reason, accessible only through a "leap of faith." The others interpret the central way's use of language and logic as a criticism of all absolutes; they prefer to limit the use of reason to mundane concerns. Against both positions Tsong Khapa argues that the absolute can be expressed through language, proven by human reason, and realized through the intuitive force of wisdom. Thurman's attack on modern interpreters of the central way philosophy is perhaps too harsh, considering that they have had no access to a wide range of central way treatises translated into Tibetan and have based their opinions largely upon a limited body of surviving Sanskrit texts. His translation of Tsong Khapa's Essence of True Eloquence, however, makes it less likely that future interpreters will be able to ignore the rich and substantial contributions of Tibetan scholars to an understanding of the central way school's philosophical positions.