"Central Plains Rhythm" isYuan dynastyZhou DeqingHis works on the rhyme of opera (Northern Opera) were completed in 1324.
The Central Plains Rhythm was originally written by those who wrote Northern Songs to check the rhymes, but it is based on the changes and development of northern phonetics since Liao and Jin dynasties. It abandoned the flat tone and divided it into yin and yang, and merged the old rhymes into 19 parts, such as Dongzhong, Jiangyang, Zhisi, Qiwei, etc., which is close to the current Beijing accent.It takes the commonly used live voice as the recording and research object, which is of pioneering significance.Therefore, it is of great value in the history of Chinese phonetics.[2]
"Central Plains Rhythm" is divided into two volumes.The first volume is a rhyme book, and the second volume is an appendix, which lists "examples of writing words in official language" and various ways of writing words.The book is rooted in the actual rhyme of Yuan Opera. There are 19 rhymes in the book, which are neither inverted nor lettered, nor interpreted.It has four tones below the 19 rhyme part: Yin, Ping, Yang Ping, Shang and Qu. All homophones are grouped together, and each homophone group is separated by a circle.Its originality is as follows: divide Yin and Yang equally, enter the school three tones.[1]
Zhongyuan Yinyun is divided into three parts.The first part is "Rhythm Score". In the form of rhyme book, 5866 words commonly used as rhymes are classified according to their actual pronunciation in the Central Plains and compiled into a rhyme score.The second part is "Zheng Yu Zuo Ci Qi Li", which details the compilation of the rhyme score, the principles of sound evaluation, as well as the creation methods of palace tunes and composition methods.The third part is "Ten Methods of Writing Words": knowing rhyme, creating words, using things, using words, entering tone as flat tone, Yin and Yang, Wu Tou, antithesis, last sentence and fixed pattern.[3]
The author introduced the style of the book in "Central Plains Phonology · Examples of Words Composed in Zhengyu": in 19 rhyme parts, each empty space is another sound, and the first word of each sound is an easy to recognize word, so there is no need to reverse.It can be analyzed that the book has roughly 20 initials, which are represented by "the east wind breaks the early plum blossom and opens to the warm branch. Nobody can see the snow and ice, and spring comes from the sky.".The tone of Zhongyuan Yinyun has flat tone and yin tone;The sound is flat and the entering sound is flat;Up sound, down sound for up sound: down sound, down sound for down sound.In terms of tone, Central Plains Phonology is the first to "divide Yin and Yang equally and enter the school with three tones." This is different from the traditional rhyme books of Guangyun, which have always dominated the country, in terms of tone, which is divided into four tones, namely, level, up, down, and into four tones, but it is consistent with the tone category of modern Chinese Putonghua.[6]
The author assigned the middle ancient entering tone characters to the yin rhymes of Yangping, Shangsheng and Qusheng, which is a true reflection of the pronunciation of Dadu (now Beijing) dialect in the Yuan Dynasty.In "Central Plains Phonology · Self Preface" and "Qi Example", he pointed out the phonetic change of "entering the school with three tones" for many times, and pointed out that in the history of the development of Chinese pronunciation, the phenomenon of "entering the school with three tones" did not start from the Yuan Dynasty, but existed long ago."Divide Yin and Yang equally" is another tone evolution phenomenon recorded in the book.There are three main points in the content of "Central Plains Rhythm", that is, one part of rhyme, two parts of yin and yang equally, and three parts of rhyme.
It is related toGuangyunEven the difference between "flat water rhyme" is quite remarkable.First, rhyme.The book has 19 rhyme divisions, and Guangyun has 209 rhyme divisions, 61 without tones, and 95 entering tones. Comparatively, it reflects the great changes from the development of Tang and Song dynasties to Yuan and Ming dynasties.Second, the author of the book first discovered that there are Yin and Yang in the flat tone.In the Tang and Song Dynasties, the division of the pure and the turbid was very clear, each with its own antithesis, regardless of yin and yang.In the Yuan and Ming dynasties, the voiced voice was read as the clear voice, so the problem of vocal cord vibration turned into the problem of high pitch. This is why the author divided the flat voice into yin and yang.Third, the entering tone in the old rhyme is opposite to the positive tone.The ending of the positive rhyme is one mouthful, and the ending of the entering rhyme is - k;The ending of the masculine rhyme is - m, and the opposite ending of the entering rhyme is - P;The ending of the masculine rhyme is - m, and the ending of the entering rhyme is - t.In the process of phonetic development, the ending of entering rhyme - k, - P, - t gradually disappeared and merged with the soothing tone.From the perspective of initial consonants, the greatest feature of Zhongyuan Yinyun is that it separates "Zhisi" from "Qiwei", "Boxhuan" from "Hanshan", and "Chezhe" from "Jiama", which also reflects the development of actual pronunciation at that time.[6]
Influence of works
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"Central Plains Rhythm" is thick and thin, brave and innovative, and can take the living language at that time as the research object, which had a profound impact on the opera circle at that time.[1]
Central Plains Rhythm is the earliest musical rhyme book in history, in which the relevant theories and creation methods are derived from the actual situation of Beiqu at that time and based on actual materials. Therefore, the book has a high authority in the history of opera, playing a strong role in regulating the creation and singing of Beiqu, especially in the aspect of sound evaluation and rhyme determination,Later generations even "dare to go in and out".(Song Rhythm · On Rhythm by Wang Jide of the Ming Dynasty) Even when the northern music declined and the southern music flourished, the rhyme books of southern music, such as Fan Shanqin's Complete Rhythm of Zhongzhou, Wang Ying's Summary of Zhongzhou Rhythm, and Zhou Shaoxia's Update of Zhongzhou Rhythm, all followed the compilation style of Central Plains Rhythm.[4]
Zhongyuan Yinyun is also the first rhyme book in history to describe the spoken language at that time.Before that,QieyunA series of rhyme books all take the reading pronunciation of the literary language of the time and even the previous generation as their own description object, and the reading pronunciation is always a certain distance from the living spoken language spread in the oral of the people at that time.Zhou Deqing did not.He criticizedGuangyunAs evidence, "the ancient times are not the present, but the time has not changed" pointed out that "if you want to be a musician, you must correct your speech; if you want to correct your speech, you must follow the voice of the Central Plains." ("Preface") At the same time, the Zhou family repeatedly stated that his book was based on "the masterpiece of the previous generation", and the language of Beiqu in the 13th and 14th centuries was very close to the spoken language at that time, so it can be seen that,The book of Zhou Shi is really a faithful record of the Central Plains Yayin at that time.Because of this, this book is not only an important reference for future generations to study opera, but also an important historical data for future generations to study modern phonology in the 13th and 14th centuries.[4]
Publishing information
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The first draft of "Central Plains Rhythm" was completed inelementIn the first year of Qin Ding (1324), the fixed edition was printed in the first year of Yuanyuantong (1333).The edition has the collection of Ming Qu's Iron Qin and Bronze Sword Tower;The Ming Dynasty's Xiaoyu Manual was originally carved in the 47th year of Wanli (1619), and was re carved inclearThe first year of Kangxi (1662);Minna Temple edition, engraved in the sixth year of orthodoxy (1441), was photocopied and published by Zhonghua Book Company in 1978.[4]
About the author
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Zhou Deqing (1277~1365), named Rizhan and Tingzhai, was born in Gao'an County, Ruizhou Road, Yuan Dynasty.Zhou Deqing, who had wandered around singing and dancing since childhood and indulged in poetry and wine, was not a dandy, but a literary genius, and had made high achievements in many fields.As a poet, Zhou Deqing wrote Yuefu poems and was famous for his 30 years of Yuefu poetry creation;Ruqu, Zhou Deqing is mainly engaged in the creation of popular Sanqu. His works are elegant in rhyme, complete against the king, and fresh in style, which is considered to be unique in the world.Shen Chongsui put Zhou Deqing ahead of Guan Hanqing, Wang Shifu and other famous scholars in the Preface of the Notes to Duqu, The Surnames of the Scholars of Ci Studies.It can be seen that his achievements in Sanqu were highly recognized at that time.[3]
