The Records of Music: Confucian Ideology, Cosmology, and Self-Cultivation Practices in Western Han China

Abstract

This thesis investigates the Records of Music (Yue Ji 樂記), a treatise considered to be the earliest fully developed text on musical theory in Chinese history. Compiled during the Western Han dynasty (206 BCE-9 CE), it was the work of Liu De 劉德, King Xian of Hejian 河間獻王, and his circle of Confucian scholars. The text provides a comprehensive discussion of the Confucian proper music (yayue 雅樂) system, including how music expresses and evokes human emotions, its interaction with self-cultivation (xiushen 修身), state politics and the universe. This thesis reveals that how texts, knowledge traditions, and politics were intertwined in early imperial China through three topics. Chapter 1 explores different versions of the Records of Music, showing how the transmission process reflects the mutual influence between imperial and local authorities, and between Confucian scholarship and politics during the Western Han period. In Chapter 2, this thesis examines the cosmological narratives in the Records of Music through two lenses: content and rhetoric. It argues that the text’s reception of the prevalent correlative cosmology is intended to delineate a sage king who, through rituals and music, governs a harmonious and orderly cosmos that aligns with the Confucian ideal, serving as a model for regulating the real Han dynasty rulers. Chapter 3 further explores the proper music on a microcosmic level: the moral and rational classification of music highlights the unique role of the heart-mind (xin 心) alongside other sensory organs, demonstrating a subtle mind-body dualism through the interplay of music and rituals in self-cultivation.