ABSTRACT
Zhang Dai (1597–1680?) was a prominent aesthete, essayist, historian, and musician of late Ming China. Contemporary historians and literary scholars have delved into his preserved oeuvre for cultural, historical, and literary facts and insights, glossing over music details as irrelevant. 1 Contemporary musicologists have read the author’s essays for musically specific data on late Ming qin (seven-string zither) music and operas, glossing over what it might inform on broad issues of Chinese time and place. 2 Scholars study Zhang Dai with diverse questions which are, however, not unrelated. 3 For example, questions on his musicality evoke cultural and historical issues of late Ming China. Were his music activities typical or atypical of his time and society? How did his being the scion of an elite Shaoxing family shape his music life? What, why, and how did he write/dream about music as a Ming loyalist?
