18 Scholars Ascend Yingzhou

24. Eighteen Scholars Ascend Yingzhou
- shang mode (5 6 1 2 3 5 6 , but played as 1 2 4 5 6 1 2 )

十八學士登瀛州
Shiba Xueshi Deng Yingzhou ¹

This title appears in full only in Faming Qinpu (1539). Three later handbooks, dated 1539, 1549 and 1596, include a melody with the title Yingzhou.² All seem melodically related, though the latter two are quite distant. All but 1549 have lyrics, though they are quite different. Only 1549 has an explanatory preface.³

Li Shimin, while still prince of Qin (before he became the Tang dynasty Taizong emperor), was appointed Chief Guardian of the Emperor. In order to promote good government after the unrest accompanying the change of dynasty, he brought together 18 scholars to advise the government. He appointed Du Ruhui to be first among them.

This group grew to become the Hanlin Academy, and joining the academy was called "ascending Yingzhou", after a fabled island of immortals in the Eastern Sea.

Depictions of 18 scholars in an elegant gathering came to be a motif in Chinese painting (sometimes in combination with the Four Arts).⁴ And because in classical Chinese pronunciation the word for crane (in Mandarin "ho") is pronounced the same as the word for study (xue), in art there is also the motif of 18 cranes, to represent the 18 scholars.⁵

Original preface

None.

Music and lyrics⁶
Five sections, untitled; the lyrics and music are paired almost one note per syllable

1.
Heaven protects the glorious Tang dynasty, greatness on our emperor.
He honors scholarly study, searching out superior talent.
With ceremony he takes the 18 scholars at the Hanlin academy.

2.
Each has essays imperial mostly superior....
... (translation incomplete)

4. (Melody begins as #2)

Harmonics

(Melody ends)

Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1 None of the dictionary references mentions a melody.

2741.192 (1) 十八學士 Shiba Xueshi mentions academic bureau of Tang Taizong (r.627-650);
(2) mentions Tang emperor Xuanzong (r.713-756)
23180.148 登瀛州 deng Yingzhou mentions joining the imperial academy after Tang Taizong
19047.6 瀛州 Yingzhou says it was traditionally considered an island of immortals in the East Sea
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2 These are:

Fengxuan Xuanpin (1539): six titled sections, with a similar melody but completely different lyrics.
Xilutang Qintong (1549): 6 titled sections, also in shang mode, but very different melody
Wenhuitang Qinpu (1596): 9 untitled sections and still different lyrics; the melody seems related to 1549. Zha Fuxi's index 15/157/341 does not mention the 1549 version, and so does not print out its introduction (I cannot make out some of the characters). The lyrics of 1539, section 1, are: 龍鳳之姿，恩濟世，蕙博施。熹儒臣，開學館，學士會斯時。 Those of 1596, section 1, are: 開府置屬，只見天下海宇昇平。崇文學，蒐羅俊英，禮延約一十八人。三番直宿，五夜究遺經，真英主大唐之盛。
(Return)

3 General comments; nothing about the origins of the melody.
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4 For some good commentary in English see pp. 43-53 of Scarlett Jang, Representations of Exemplary Scholar-Officials, Past and Present, in Liu and Ching (ed), Arts of the Sung and Yüan; Princeton, The Art Museum, 1999.
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5 Crane: 鶴; study: 學 . In Cantonese (the pronunciation of which is said to be closer to that of early Chinese than modern Chinese is) these are both pronounced "hok".

There are 18 cranes on all four sides of the ceramic piece from Jingdezhen, at right; the characters on the left side say 十八學士 18 Scholars.
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6 The lyrics in Chinese are as follows. (A gap between commas indicates a repeated musical phrase; there is no indication whether the lyrics of that phrase should also be repeated. // means the whole line is repeated.)

1.
天將昌唐，丕在吾皇。宗文蒐羅俊良。
禮延納，十八學士在金馬玉堂。

2.
一個個都是文章鉅公，多聰俊，向鴈塔題名。
曾赴瓊林晏，位列在公卿。
詞源傾三峽水，筆陣掃千人軍。
分三番更直宿，對五夜究遺經。
(2.a.)
人似洲仙鶴，馬似天邊龍，，清掖感相從。
文光射斗牛，豪氣貫霓虹。
峨冠講唐虞，殿前作賦聲摩空。
飄然放志意，二十八宿羅心胸。
致君堯舜上，天下比室皆可對。
誰不能秉公，誰不能盡忠，個個公忠。

3.
瀛州園囿神仙境，弱水三萬里。
非仙不能至，仙在杳杳靄之間。
官居清要之地，，
睹諸公追趨青鎖闥，與仙無二。

4.
月明玉堂空，路近蓬萊天咫尺，喜君仁臣良。
玉階仙仗里，飄然鷺序和鵷行。
依黼扆，翊政治，佩瑤琚，鳴丁當，
日光絇紫綬，霞彩明金章。
趨朝時，香滿袖，待漏時，靴滿口，
有時登金門，有時步玉堂。

5.
清風明月，其樂陶陶
如也不知身世在人里。
淩雲沖霄，攀龍附鳳，
囂宇軒昂也，出入華耀，如登瀛州。
//共列仙班，太平時，在鳳閣龍樓也多幽閑，//
自在，九重霄漢上，相往還，共世桓，
百世流芳內曲彈。
(Return)

Return to the Faming Qinpu intro or the Guqin ToC