Mingde Yin / Kongsheng Jing

The lyrics for the short qin melody Ming De Yin are extracted from the commentary by the neo-Confucian scholar Zhu Xi (1130-1200)⁴ on the Da Xue (Great Learning), attributed to Confucius. Mingde Yin serves as a musical prelude to the longer Kongsheng Jing, the lyrics of which are the canonical text of the Da Xue itself.

There was in the past a tradition of setting philosophical essays to qin melodies.⁵ Not all of these have survived,⁶ but in the qin repertoire there are several other surviving settings of the Da Xue.⁷ However, Ming De Yin and the present Da Xue melody are preserved only in the Sanjiao Tongsheng (1592),⁸ a qin handbook with a melody from each of China's great religions (or ways of thought), Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism.

Da Xue is one of the texts collected in the Li Ji (Book of Rites). According to tradition it was written down by one or more of Confucius' disciples. Modern scholarship, however, says they were written several centuries later. In the 12th century Zhu Xi proposed that four ancient texts -- the Great Learning, The Doctrine of the Mean (another chapter of the Book of Rites), the Analects, and Mencius -- represented the core of Confucian philosophy. As a result of Zhu Xi's arguments (but about a century later), these four books became what might be called the core curriculum for people studying for the government exams. The books continued in that role from 1313 until 1905, almost the end of the Qing dynasty.

The lyrics of Mingde Yin (from Zhu Xi's commentary on the Great Learning) are as follows. The original is an essay, not verse; it is arranged here as though it were verse because that is the effect when it is sung.

The philosopher Chengzi said,
"The Great Learning is a text bequeathed by the Confucianists,
and when beginning to study, it is the gate through to virtue.
Today we can see how the ancients, in order to study it, proceeded in what sequence,
only because this book has been preserved, along with the Analects and Mencius following it.
Students must begin study from here,
then they will have the best chance to avoid making errors."

The lyrics of Kongsheng Jing, which are the same as the text of the Great Learning, are as follows. Translation is adapted from those by Patrick Moran ⁹ and Wing-tsit Chan.¹⁰ Once again, the original is an essay, not verse; it is arranged here as though it were verse because that is the effect when it is sung.

1.
The Way of the Great Learning lies in brightening clear virtue,
in loving the people, and in remaining in the greatest good.
Knowing where to remain,one can then have certainty.
Having certainty one can then be tranquil; being tranquil one can then be at peace.
Being at peace one may then deliberate; having deliberated one can then get it.
Things have roots and branches; affairs have endings and beginnings.
Knowing the sequence of thingswill bring one closer to the Dao.

2.
In antiquity, those desiring to brighten clear virtue
throughout all below Heaven first brought order to their states.
Those desiring to bring order to their states first regulated their own families.
Those desiring to regulate their families first cultivated themselves.
Those desiring to cultivate themselves first rectified their minds.
Those desiring to rectify their hearts first made sincere their thoughts.
Those desiring to make sincere their thoughts first perfected their knowledge
Perfecting knowledge lies in investigating things.

3.
After one has investigated things, knowledge is perfected.
After knowledge is perfected, one's thoughts become sincere.
After one's thoughts become sincere one's heart is rectified.
After one's heart is rectified one's person is cultivated.
After one's person is cultivated, one's family is regulated.
After one's family is regulated, one's state can be brought to order.
After one's state is brought to order, all beneath Heaven becomes peaceful.

4.
From the Son of Heaven all the way down to the common person,
all should take cultivating oneself as fundamental.
For the root to be in disorder but the branches to be orderly: this has never been the case.
For what is substantial to be slighted, or what is slight to be given substance:
this has never happened .

Original Prefaces

None

Mingde Yin: One section

1.
harmonics
end
Kong Sheng Jing: Four sections 1.
2.
3.
4. (harmonics)
end

Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. Biyu Diao (碧玉調) Instructions are "(from standard tuning) raise the 2nd, 5th and 7th strings". Tuning is the same as that of 姑洗 Guxian mode. (Return)

2. 14124.572 明德 mingde gives references to the Great Learning (Da Xue). (Return)

3. 7077.250 孔聖 kongsheng: respectful name for Confucius. (Return)

4. 朱熹 Zhu Xi started an academy in Changsha called the 嶽麓書院 Yuelu Academy. With luck, one day I will play this melody there. (Return)

5. Examples include Zhuge Liang's Chushi Biao and a 1630 setting from Mozi. (Return)

6. The Qin Shi Xu biography of Yu Lian says he wrote a qin setting for Da Xue, which he called Sounds of Reading (讀書聲 Du Shu Sheng), and that his main disciple 汪一恆 Wang Yiheng did settings of such essays as 中庸 Zhong Yong, 論語 Lun Yu and 孟子 Mengzi. (Return)

7. The words of the 大學 Da Xue are also set for qin (none of the melodies is related to that of the present Kongsheng Jing) in 大學序 Da Xue Xu (Guide 32/245/477 lists only 1623) and in some versions of 大學章句 Da Xue Zhangju, also called 聖經 Sheng Jing (Guide 25/213/389 lists six handbooks: 1585, 1663/5, <1802, 1875, 1884, 1899). (Return)

8. Zha Fuxi's Guide 27/---/420 明德引 Mingde Yin and 27/---/421 孔聖經 Kongsheng Jing list only Sanjiao Tongsheng, but see the footnote above. (Return)

9. See Three Smaller Wisdom Books, University Press of America, 1993. The original and Prof. Moran's translation are not divided into numbered sections. (Return)

10. Wing-tsit Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, Princeton, 1963. (Return)

Ming De Yin and the first line of Kong Sheng Jing, from San Jiao Tong Sheng (Return to top)