敎坊記辨附望江南菩薩蠻小考

Abstract

The Chiao-fang-chi, an account of the pleasure houses of Ch'ang-an by a T'ang official named Ts'ui Ling-ch'in 崔令欽, contains the names of 324 songs sung by the courtesans of Ch'ang-an, and thus represents the most complete record we have of T'ang period musical compositions. From various sources we may discover something of the career of Ts'ui Ling-ch'in. It is almost certain, for example, that he was a police official in Ch'ang-an during the k'ai-yüan period (713-741), and therefore we may assume that his work, the Chiaofang-chi, possesses a high degree of reliability. Up until now, the piece entitled Hsieh-ch'iu-niang 謝秋娘 by Li Teyü 李德裕 (787-849) has been regarded as the source of the later composition Wang-chiang-nan 望江南, but from evidence in the Chiao-fang-chi it would appear that the two are actually the same piece of music. The tune entitled P'u-sa-man 菩薩蠻 has been considered a work of the late T'ang, and therefore the words to the tune traditionally attributed to the poet Li Po (701-762) have been regarded as spurious. The fact that a tune entitled P'u-sa-man appears in the Chiao-fang-chi indicates, however, that the traditional attribution cannot for this reason be so lightly dismissed. This has led some scholars to assert that the words are a genuine work of Li Po, though the author considers that, in view of their content and style, this is hardly possible.