Compilation And Research Of Historical Materials Of Jinshi Music In "Shanxi Tongzhi"

Local chronicles are detailed records of geographical evolution,customs,figures,education,historical sites,poetry,and works in a specific area.They are characterized by endemicity,extensiveness,data,times and continuity.In the early 20 th century,Shanxi province complied Shanxi Tongzhi under the modern society,which shows the long-standing tradition of annals compilation there.There were many versions of Shanxi Tongzhi in Ming and Qing dynasties.The first three versions are published during the time of Chenghua,Jiajing and Wanli.Categories set in these three versions had a profound influence on the compilation of annals to come;another three versions,published during the time of Kangxi,Yongzheng and Guangxu in Qing Dynasty,took the essence from their predecessors.They are all good exemplars,especially the one published during the time of Guangxu,which ranked top among all Chinese chronicles.The topic of this essay aims at exploring two aspects: first,extract refined contents about music from the historical records of Shanxi Tongzhi;second,compare documents of music obtained from the compilation,and then relate to musical instruments and figures.This is the framework of this essay.First,the author selects the version published during the time of Chenghua sorts through contents about music from epigraphic historical documents,and then does the summary.These scattered contents,which depend on the musical activities of people at that time,can only be used as an auxiliary for other studies because their relevance and authenticity are not worth independent study.Second,the author selects the version published during the time of Guangxu sorts through contents about epigraphic music because this version contains Shanxi Jinshi Ji,which falls into the category of epigraphic music,while scattered historical documents on epigraphic music can also be found in other categories.Contents about music in Shanxi Jinshi Ji is of great value,among which the bronze bells of Qi Bao Ziboming,Ping Zhouzhengkuan,and Tong Zhongshi of Kaiyuan Temple in Tang dynasty are thoroughly studied.The situation of these objects mentioned in the book can be inferred by comparing to some existing results of archaeological research on music.Based on the study of contents about music in these two versions of Shanxi Tongzhi,the essay proves that historical documents on epigraphic music are of great value in corroborating and supplementing history,and tracing back to its source.