1 The Tonal Range of Research on the Ci Tunes

In comparison to the prosody of ci, the ci tunes are a more intuitive subject, and the research opportunities pertaining to them are more diverse. As such, this aspect has received more attention and a certain number of achievements have been made. These results can be roughly divided into the following categories.

2 The Characteristics and Development of Research on Ci Prosody

One particularly prominent feature of the research on the prosodic patterns of ci during the Republican period was that it centered around the aforementioned issue of the “four tones.” On the one hand, this was a holdover of the influence of Qing-era research on the prosody of ci and ci ti; on the other hand, it was related to a major debate that engulfed ci studies in the early 1940s. As such, the research articles on the prosody of ci during this period can be divided into two categories: standard research articles and a special category of articles related to this major debate in ci studies.

The first category covers a wide range of topics, but the main focuses are harmonics (lülü 律呂), gongdiao, and the four tones. Long Yusheng’s 龍榆生 (under the pseudonym Long Muxun 龍沐勛) article “Cilü zhiyi” 詞律質疑 analyzes the relationship between harmonics, gongdiao, and the four tones, and points out that the ci genre functions as “musical literature” (yinyue wenxue 音樂文學).⁴¹ As such, the concept of associative rhythm (xielü 協律) discussed in the past did not signify prosodic rhythm (gelü 格律) but musical rhythm (yuelü 樂律), which is more closely related to gongdiao. Xu Qi’s Ci tong series is a collection of preliminary theoretical sketches on various aspects of ci research.⁴² Among the essays in the series, “Lun zi” 論字 mainly discusses the issue of the juxtaposition of syllables in ci, while “Lun lü” 論律 analyzes the arrangement of pingze 平仄 (level and oblique tones), as well as investigating the inheritance of metrical qualities in the works of famous authors such as Wen Tingyun 溫庭筠 (ca. 801–ca. 866) and Su Shi 蘇軾 (1037–1101), and analyzing the prosody of some less recognized and noteworthy tunes. Lin Dachun’s 林大椿 (ca. 1884–ca. 1945) Ci zhi julü 詞之矩律 affirms the literary uniqueness of ci as compared to classical poetry and music, emphasizing the rhythmic nature of ci, and asserts that the creation of ci that do not violate this nature should generally be undertaken in accordance with the principles of musical expression.⁴³

During this period, Chen Nengqun 陳能群 (1882–ca. 1960) was one of the more prolific writers on the subject of ci prosody. His published articles, including “Ci yong pingze sisheng yaojue” 詞用平仄四聲要訣,⁴⁴ “Shilü yu cilü” 詩律與詞律,⁴⁵ “Lun qufan” 論曲犯,⁴⁶ and “Tianci judou ji pingze geshi” 填詞句讀及平仄格式,⁴⁷ touch on issues such as pingze patterns, the use of the four tones, harmonics and gongdiao, and rhyme breaks. However, his articles are generally quite short and superficial, aiming at popularizing knowledge.

Other articles belong to specialist research fields and mainly discuss specific questions. For example, Wu Meisun 吴眉孫 (1878–1961) mainly expressed his own views on the issue of the phonological evolution in Song dynasty ci in his “Song ci yangshang zuoqu bian” 宋詞陽上作去辨.⁴⁸ Yu Biyun’s 俞陛雲 (1868–1950) “Huafan sisheng zhi bikan” 花犯四聲之比勘⁴⁹ published under the pen name “Cunying Laoren” 存影老人, undertakes an explanatory discussion based on a very meticulous comparison of the arrangement of the four tones in Zhou Bangyan’s “Hua fan: Xiaoshi meihua” 花犯‧小石梅花 with ci to the same tune by Wu Wenying 吴文英 (ca. 1202–ca. 1260) and Wang Yisun 王沂孫 (d. 1290).

The second category consists of specialist articles on the debate over the four tones in the early 1940s. These articles were published in the form of essays and letters in Tongsheng yuekan 同聲月刋, under the editorship of Long Yusheng. An important background to this great discussion on the four tones issue is that there was a creative tendency in ci composition at that time to rigidly maintain the four tones, to the extent that prosodic considerations were taking primacy over meaning. The debate can be traced to Mao Guangsheng’s article “Sisheng pomi” 四聲破迷 which was later renamed “Sisheng gouchen” 四聲鉤沉, published in the seventh volume of Xuelin 學林 in May 1941.⁵⁰ The author’s main intention in writing the article was also to oppose the tendency to strictly adhere to the four tones in composing ci. However, in terms of ci history, he also put forward two new viewpoints. One was that the four tones were not employed in ci composition in the Song, and, relatedly, the other was that the “four notes” (gong 宮, shang 商, jue 角, yu 羽) were not the “real four tones” of that era. These two points, especially the latter, caused controversy. Most scholars in the field of ci studies did not agree with this view and successively came forward to refute it. Among them, Xia Chengtao’s “Ci sisheng pingting” 詞四聲平亭 is the most representative and has had the greatest influence.⁵¹ Although this article does not directly refute Mao Guangsheng’s point of view, through a detailed examination of pingze and the four tones in the ci of the Song dynasty, it proves that the Song people not only understood the four tones, but that knowledge of the four tones originated in and was refined during the Song itself. However, Xia’s core argument is still basically aligned with Mao Guangsheng’s opposition to the rigid adherence to the four tones in contemporary ci composition; Xia asserts that the stylistic characteristics of ci must be respected and maintained and excessively rigid adherence to the four-tone rhythm of ci must be avoided.

Xia Chengtao’s articles were influential. Most scholars agreed with and wrote articles echoing his views. Among them, Wu Meisun was the most dedicated, and his articles on the four tones in ci – including the four-article series “Sisheng shuo” 四聲說,⁵² “Yu Xia Quchan deng lun ci shu sitong” 與夏癯禪等論詞書四通,⁵³ “Yu Zhang Mengqu xiansheng lun sisheng shu diyi tong” 與張孟劬先生論四聲書第一通, and “Yu Zhang Mengqu xiansheng lun sisheng shu di’er tong” 與張孟劬先生論四聲書第二通⁵⁴ – are particularly critical of the doctrine of “concentrating on the four tones” in ci circles. Zhang Ertian 張爾田 (1874–1945) published the two-part “Yu Long Yusheng lun cishu” 與龍榆生論詞書 in Tongsheng yuekan, expressing his agreement with the opinions of Xia Chengtao and Wu Meisun, and opposing the “Mengchuang” 夢窗 (referring to Wu Wenying, also known as Mengchuang) style in ci circles. He also published the article “Yu Long Yusheng lun sisheng shu” 與龍榆生論四聲書,⁵⁵ and participated in the discussion of the relationship between the “four tones and the five notes.” In addition, Shi Zejing 施則敬 (dates unknown) also published an article with title “Yu Long Yusheng lun sisheng shu” 與龍榆生論四聲書,⁵⁶ in which he argued against an excessive focus on the four tones. This great debate on the four tones played an important role in shifting the direction of focus of ci studies. At the same time, it also stimulated research on the four tones issue itself.

After the 1950s, due to the wider social and political context in China, research on ci prosody and related issues basically came to a standstill, and it was not until the late 1970s that it gradually picked up again. An early article in this renaissance that dealt with the issue of ci prosody was Li Yuqi’s 李玉岐 (1908–1991) “Lun ci he cilü” 論詞和詞律.⁵⁷ The author discussed the relationship between ci and ci prosody from four aspects: “distinguishing ci,” “clarifying prosody,” “composing ci,” and “performing ci.”

By the turn of the new century, research on ci prosody had reached the mainstream to a certain degree. Zhang Yi’s 張毅 “Guanyu ciyue yu cilü yanjiu” 關於詞樂與詞律研究 discusses the relationship between musicality and ci prosody.⁵⁸ It introduces the discussion of the issue of musicality and pays attention to the musical characteristics of ci. In terms of discussion of the prosodic specifications of certain ci, Li Feiyue’s article “Lüci bianzheng” 律詞辨正 argues that the main feature of ci prosody is the fixed structures and rhythms of ci to the same tune.⁵⁹ These fixed patterns functioned to delimit ci tunes from their ci ti in the wake of the genre’s divergence from its musical origins. Related papers include Luo Di’s “‘Ci’ zhi wei ‘ci’ zai qi lü – guanyu lüci qiyuan de taolun” “詞”之為“詞”在其律—關於律詞起源的討論,⁶⁰ Zhu Chongcai’s 朱崇才 “Cixue shiwen” 詞學十問,⁶¹ Xie Taofang’s 謝桃坊 “Yinyue wenxue yu lüci wenti – du Luo Di ‘Lüci zhi chang, ge yongyan de yanhua’” 音樂文學與律詞問題—讀洛地《律詞之唱，歌永言的演化》,⁶² and Xie Taofang’s “Lüci shenyi” 律詞申議.⁶³ Finally, Liu Yongji’s 劉永濟 (1887–1966) Song ci shenglü tanyuan dagang 宋詞聲律探源大綱 is a posthumously published study that discusses in a concise and direct way how “sheng-lü” 聲律 (principles of sound) in classical poetry and ci were derived from the ancient poetry of the Han and Wei dynasties.⁶⁴

As for recent studies of the “four tones” debate in the Republican period, Zhu Huiguo’s article “Wushe ‘sisheng zhi zheng’ yu Minguo citi guan de zai renshi” 午社“四聲之爭”與民國詞體觀的再認識 puts forward some suggestions on the debate that took place in and around the Wu Society (wu she 午社) – one of the era’s ci societies – around 1940.⁶⁵ Zhu argues that the debate was inevitable and rational because it was essentially a manifestation of the criticism and demand for change that was being directed at ci in the style of Wu Wenying, a style – strongly adherent to the four tones – which was much admired by the poets of the Republican period. Another of Zhu’s articles, “Xia Chengtao ‘sisheng shuo’ tanlun” 夏承燾“四聲說”探論, engages with two articles by Xia Chengtao as the basis for explaining sheng-lü and its relationship to ci ti, and to clarify concepts surrounding rigidly adhering to the four tones and deviating from them in ci composition.⁶⁶

3 The Shortcomings and Future of Research on the Tunes and Prosody of Ci

Research on the tunes and prosody of ci has achieved several definite accomplishments over the past century, and especially since December 1978; nonetheless, four remaining issues to be addressed in the field can be identified. First, there is a lack of systematic and integrated research. Beginning with the more established field of ci tunes research, while research results are being generated and areas of research are proliferating, overall, there remains a lack of integration and systematicity. In terms, for instance, of the origins of the ci tunes and related research, although a great deal of effort has been expended both in the distant past and by more recent scholars, there remain lacunae. Among the approximately 800 extant ci tunes, the origins of a great deal remain indistinct, and these origins will only be uncovered and examined via extensive systematic and integrated engagement with the documentary record, which will require planning and coordination.

Second, there is a lack of substantive and in-depth research. Although the current research on ci tunes and ci prosody encompasses a great variety of aspects and many accomplishments have accumulated, most of these studies remain superficial and lack in-depth thinking on substantive content. For example, ci prosody has its own specific characteristics. The metrical arrangements of each ci tune are conditioned by the musical aspects of the form, but they are also influenced by poetic considerations. Many ci tunes contain so-called awkward lines (ao ju 拗句), which do not conform to standard prosody, and which were, presumably, mainly conditioned by considerations of musicality, alongside more conventional lines that follow the rules of poetic prosody (lü ju 律句); how can we bring these into equilibrium? This and related questions should be addressed in more depth in future research. As another example, different cipu often have discrepancies in how they record specific ci tunes. Evaluating these discrepancies requires in-depth research on specific ci tunes.

Third, research on the tunes and prosody of ci remains largely limited to the field of ci studies, and there is a lack of interdisciplinary collaboration and cooperation. Ci is a shorthand for “the lyrics for a song” (quzi ci 曲子詞), and originally it was a syncretic artform combining music and verse. Therefore, ci research, and especially research on ci tunes and prosody, fully account for this syncretic quality. The “eight aspects” of ci research, as they are known – cipu; rhyme patterns; the history of the genre; collation, correction, and analysis (jiaokan 校勘); ci tunes; the literature on ci; and the cataloguing of ci – involve various academic fields, such as ancient literature studies, manuscript studies, phonological and prosodic studies, and the history of ancient music. The knowledge structure of scholars is difficult to change all at once; nonetheless, we need to consider in the study of ci tunes and prosody how to break the divisions between disciplines and engage in joint research.

Fourth, the academic value of ci tunes and prosody as research fields is not well recognized. In the past, scholars have considered these to be technical matters, and rarely linked them with the advancement of ci studies, let alone have they conducted in-depth investigation and discussion of the interactive relationship between ci tunes, ci prosody, and ci history from a macroscopic perspective. This has led to a serious underestimation of the academic value of ci tunes and prosody. In reality, of course, ci tunes and prosody are intrinsic aspects of ci composition. However, the results of research on ci tunes and prosody are mainly manifested in research on the compilation of cipu. The rapid development of research on ci tunes, ci prosody, and the production of cipu has on the one hand promoted the flourishing of ci studies at the macro level, and on the other hand, it has led to a more accurate accounting of the formal characteristics of each ci tune at the micro level. In this way it has driven standardization and accuracy in ci studies; as such, its practical value and academic significance are very high.

There are many reasons for the existence of the above four problems, but the most important one is that ci tunes and ci prosody are under accounted for in ci studies and do not receive enough attention from scholars. From the perspective of the development of ci studies, the study of ci forms will receive more and more attention, because the main feature of the ci genre is its stylistic characteristics.

In addition, the research methodologies employed in the study of ci tunes and prosody must evolve in response to contemporary advancements. First of all, with the advent of the big data era, digital searching and electronic information retrieval has become more efficient, and thus the relationship between research on ci tunes and prosody and ci manuscript studies will become closer. The academic foundations of ci tunes and prosody research mainly consist of managing and summarizing of manuscript records. From the perspective of the development of research into cipu, the discovery of new ci tunes often depends on the discovery of new historical manuscripts. The accuracy of different cipu (e.g., their recording of metrical patterns) depends mainly on the completeness of the records on which they were based and the attention to detail in their collation, in addition to the learnedness of the anthology’s compiler. It is generally believed that many problems found in the extant cipu were caused by inadequacies or errors in the documents on which they were based. Over the past century, documents of diverse types have been discovered and catalogued. The available documentary record is far more diverse, complete, and accurate than it was in the Qing dynasty. This provides us with a documentary foundation that our predecessors did not have for studying ci tunes and prosody. On the other hand, society has entered the era of big data, and we also have material conditions that our predecessors did not have access to in terms of searching and engaging with the documentary record. Therefore, I foresee that fully applying electronic information retrieval to the existing documentary record will be a major trend in research on ci tunes and prosody in the future.

Additionally, research on ci tunes and prosody, especially the study of ci prosody, will in the future no longer be an exploration of prosodic principles alone (according to the principles of poetic prosody more generally). The notion of returning to the Tang and Song dynasties and tracing the origins of and thoroughly organizing ci and ci ti on this basis will become recognized by more scholars. Ci and poetry have a natural affinity, and the use of non-musical lines in ci and ci ti is very common. Therefore, the study of ci tunes and prosody often unconsciously introduces the ideas and methods of research on poetic prosody. Objectively speaking, this way of thinking is reasonable, but ultimately ci is not poetry. As a musical-cum-literary form that was originally sung with music, its patterns and rhythm are both influenced by poetic prosody and also constrained by musical considerations. Therefore, the most reasonable way to study ci tunes and prosody is to return to the actual creation of the Tang and Song ci, trace the origins of each ci tune, and show the process of the formation and development of the range of variants of each tune. This research method not only can clarify the original form of each ci tune and its relationship with its various ci ti, as well as distilling the line patterns and meters that conform to the actual creation of Tang and Song ci, but also provide ideas for “secondary ci ti” (you yi ti 又一體), that has always been difficult to deal with in the study of ci tunes and prosody.

More than 900 years ago, Li Qingzhao proposed the theory that ci was a different genre separate from poetry, which opened up the study of ci prosody. After nearly a thousand years, especially with the developments of the past hundred years, the study of ci tunes and ci prosody has made remarkable achievements, but at the same time, there are also issues like the four outlined above. Nonetheless, I am optimistic that with the deepening of research, these problems will gradually be resolved.