(b 1536; d 1611). Chinese scholar, mathematician and music theorist. Heir apparent of the sixth prince of Zheng under the Ming dynasty, Zhu Zaiyu probably formulated the first system of equal temperament in world history.
Zhu’s achievement was based on the studies of his father, Zhu Houhuan (1518–91), He Tang (1474–1543) who taught his father, and many Song and Ming dynasty scholars. Zhu studied widely, as is evident from the long bibliography in his Yüelu quanshu (Collected works of music theory), which he presented to the court in 1606. The 15 individual treatises in the collection were completed over a period between 1551 and 1606: for example, the Lüxue xinshuo (New theory of musical pitches), which represents Zhu’s theory and calculation of pitches of equal temperament, was completed by 1584; the Lülü jingyi (Essentials of music theory), which preserves Zhu’s important comments on the experiments of many Song and Ming music theorists, was written between 1584 and 1596. The collection includes a substantial amount of notated music, including pieces for the state sacrifice honouring imperial ancestors and antiquarian songs with qin accompaniments to folk tunes of his time, as well as a series of pictograms illustrating the choreography of ritual dances.
See also China, §II, 5.
F. Kuttner: ‘Prince Chu Tsai-yu's Life and Work: a Re-evaluation of his Contribution to Equal Temperament Theory’, EthM, xix (1975), 163–206
K.G. Robinson and C. Fang: ‘Chu Tsai-yu’, Dictionary of Ming Biography, ed. L.C. Goodrich (New York, 1976), 367–70
K. Robinson: A Critical Study of Chu Tsai-yu’s Contribution to the Theory of Equal Temperament in Chinese Music (Wiesbaden, 1980)
Huang Xiangpeng: ‘Luxueshi shangde weida chengjiu jiqi sixiang qishi’ [A great achievement in the history of temperamentology and its intellectual inspiration], Yinyue yanjiu (1984), no.4, pp.2–12
Dai Nianzu: Zhu Zaiyu: Mingdai di kexue yu yishu juxing [Zhu Zaiyu: a star of Ming dynasty science and arts] (Beijing, 1986)
JOSEPH S.C. LAM