Qing Yun Ge 卿雲歌

The commentary with this piece connects it to a song the lyrics of which survive from a third century BCE text named the Shang Shu Da Zhuan.⁵ That text, as with the commentary here in Xilutang Qintong (1525), claims that the song was actually sung by Emperor Shun (traditional dates ca. 2294 to 2184 BCE) when he announced (from his capital city, Puban in Shanxi,⁶) that his successor would be not his own son but the man who had solved the problem of the country's flooding, Yu the Great.⁷ According to tradition, Yu then became the founder of China's first dynasty, the Xia.⁸ As for the surviving melody, Zha's guide lists this title in only the present handbook, Xilutang Qintong.⁹

Two events have made the lyrics for Song of Auspicious Clouds notable in modern times. First, in 1905 the words "fu" and "dan" from this song were selected as the name of the school which became Shanghai's famous Fudan University. Here "dan fu dan" by itself means "day after day" (or "dawn after dawn"), with it being understood that, as in the poem, "fudan" refers to continuing the brilliant light of good governance, which is the subject of the whole poem.¹⁰

Then, because these lyrics celebrate someone who willingly passed government control to the person thought to be best qualified (a theme found also in the melody Kang Qu Yao), from 1913 to 1915, and again but with another melody from 1921 to 1928, the lyrics of the first section of this piece were used for the national anthem of the Republic of China.¹¹ Neither version had music related to that of the melody published in the Ming dynasty. The music of the 1920s version can be heard in several places online; the following translation is given with one such recording:¹²

How bright is the auspicious cloud,
How broad is the brilliancy
The light is spectacular with sun or moon
How it revives dawn after dawn.
(Repeat last two lines.)

My tentative translation of these lyrics plus those with the other four sections is given below.¹³

This qin piece has five untitled sections; each section begins with lyrics that indirectly praise the value of good government then continues with the qin playing solo.¹⁴ This seems to suggest that the original text suggested either five distinct songs or one song in five distinct sections. However, from the sources themselves it is not clear that this was the actual intention. Indeed, the apparent source of the lyrics seems to divide the same text into three songs, the third one combining into two sections what are here the third, fourth and fifth songs.¹⁵

Original Afterword¹⁶
The original text with my current attempt at understanding it are as follows:

舜將禪位於伯禹，倡爲卿雲之歌。百辟羣工，咸稽首進和。帝乃賡載歌以示禪代之意。
When Shun was about to yield his position to the Great Yu, he announced it in the form of Qing Yun zhi Ge. The hundred chiefs all worked together, all bowing their heads as they came forward in peace. The emperor then continued to record the song in order to make clear the idea of abdicating on behalf of another generation.

Music and Lyrics (5 sections; 聽錄音 listen with 看五線譜 my transcription; timings follow my recording) ¹⁷
Each section begins with lyrics, then continues with an instrumental solo. The original lyrics are given here with my tentative English translation; a translation into modern Chinese is given in a footnote. ¹⁸

00.00 Music of the modal prelude (taken from the end)

00.14
卿雲爛兮，糾縵縵兮。日月光華，旦復旦兮。
Qīng yún làn xī, jiū màn màn xī. Rì yuè guāng huá, dàn fù dàn xī.
The auspicious clouds are vivid,
Gathered together they circle around.
The sun and moon have brightness and splendor,
Returning dawn after dawn.
00.32 Instrumental continuation
00.57
明明上天，爛然星陳。日月光華，弘于一人。
Míng míng shàng tiān, làn rán xīng chén. Rì yuè guāng huá, hóng yú yī rén.
There is great clarity in the heavens,
Glistening are the stars displayed.
The sun and moon have brightness and splendor,
As greatness is bestowed on a single individual.
01.11 Instrumental continuation
01.41 (whole section in harmonics)
日月有常，星辰有行。四時順經，萬姓允成。
Rì yuè yǒu cháng, xīng chén yǒu xíng. Sì shí shùn jīng, wàn xìng yǔn chéng.
The sun and moon are constant,
The heavenly bodies have their circuits.
During the four seasons they continue along smoothly,
And myriad families are allowed to form.
01.56 Instrumental continuation
02.15
於乎論樂，配天之靈。遷于賢善，莫不咸聽。
Yú (wū?) hū lùn yuè, pèi tiān zhī líng. Qiān yú xián shàn, mò bù xián tīng.
Coming to a discussion of music,
It accompanies heaven's spirit.
Moved towards worthiness and benevolence,
No one is not moved to heed.
02.29 Instrumental continuation (begins with an odd gun fu)
03.01
鼚乎鼓之，軒乎舞之。精華已竭，褰裳去之。¹⁹
Chāng hū gǔ zhī, xuān hū wǔ zhī. Jīng huá yǐ jié, qiān cháng qù zhī.
"Chang" we drum it,
Spinning round ("Xuan") we dance it.
When the spirit is exhausted,
We loosen our gowns and leave it all behind.
03.15 Instrumental continuation
03.51 Harmonic coda
04.10 End

The identical structure of the lyrics for each section means that the same melody could have been repeated for each section, but in the 1525 version this was not in fact the case. Note also that the meaning of the words fits well into the arrangement that divides the melody into four parts instead of five.

Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. Song of Auspicious Clouds (卿雲歌 Qing Yun Ge) (III/148)
Also romanized Qingyun Ge. 2933.21#2 and 2/546 Qing Yun 卿雲 say it is the name of a song (but neither mentions the full title 卿雲歌), and both quote the same lyrics given in section one. The reference is 尚書大傳，卷二 or 尚書大傳，虞夏傳) (Shang Shu Da Zhuan, Folio 2 or Yu Xia Zhuan).
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2. Zhi mode (徵調 zhi diao)
As discussed under Shenpin Zhi Yi, pieces assigned to zhi mode often use standard tuning considered as 1 2 4 5 6 1 2, but there is also precedent for sometimes, as here, considering the strings to have the relative tuning 4 5 6 1 2 4 5. The reason is that, if one assumes the standard Chinese pentatonic scale to be the relative pitches 1 2 3 5 6 (i.e., do re mi sol la) then, when playing a melody in any particular tuning, the first step in determining the relative pitch names for the seven strings is to find which names allow the notes of the melody to avoid non-pentonic pitches. For the present piece this clearly clearly requires the tuning to be considered as 4 5 6 1 2 4 5. The tonal center is 1, the note of the open fourth string, called zhi, hence the mode name.

Although considering tuning this way allows most notes to be pentatonic, there are still some specific notes requiring further examination. These are of two types:

In two places the given fingering calles for a flatted 3: once in Section 1 (sung to the first word "旦 dan") and once in Section 4 (last column of QQJC III/148). In both cases the tablature calls for playing the note at the 12th position of the 4th string. Some reconstructions will change this to the 11th position but, as mentioned elsewhere, flatted 3s are actually not uncommon in certain modes, including zhi.
In at least five places a note with the position indicated as 八上 (old system, lit. "above 8"; this is normally 七六, i.e., 7.6 in the modern system) must be played as 7.9 instead of 7.6 to give the pentatonic note. In one case the 八上 must clearly be played as 7.9 (normally just "八" in the old system), as the resulting note must be a unison with the open 5th string. This makes one suspect that "八上" may sometimes have been written based on casual eye observation rather than theoretical correctness (further comment), so similar assumptions might be made in the four other places where 八上 yields a non-pentatonic note, and they may be altered accordingly.

The other available reconstruction, by Ding Chengyun, seems to interpret all the notes as pentatonic. My own experience suggests in the first instance the two flatted 3s are most likely intentional; as for the four questionable notes in the second instance (specifically, in Section 2, just after the song section, where 八上 gives 4 then 5#; and in the Section 5 song section, where 八上 gives 3b then 4), each non-pentatonic interpretation has its own charm and thus should be given serious consideration.
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3. Image: Calligraphy marking use of these lyrics for a national anthem
Calligraphy by 丁仕美 Ding Shimei (2007 CE) copied from an image at http://www.skyren-art.com. The opening lines "卿雲爛兮，糾縵縵兮。日月光華，旦復旦兮。" are first written in "big seal script" top to bottom and right to left. They are then repeated in smaller calligraphy, followed by the calligrapher's name.
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5. 尚書大傳 Shang Shu Da Zhuan (ctext.org)
7654.71 says this is a book surviving only in fragments, perhaps originally written in the Han by 伏勝 Fu Sheng (Wiki; www.chinaknowledge.de). To my knowledge it has not been translated elsewhere.

As for the Shang Shu itself, www.chinaknowledge.de says it may have been compiled in 宋 Song, a small state of the Warring States period in what is today southern Henan; Song traced its ancestral roots to the Shang dynasty.

The present lyrics are in 虞夏傳 the biography of Yu of Xia from Folio 1 (also ctext.org). Section 1 of Folio 1 cites its source as 伏生《書傳》有《虞夏傳》 Yu Xia biography in Fu Sheng's Shu Zhuan (i.e., Shang Shu Da Zhuan). Section 2 then begins,

堯為天子，丹朱為太子，舜為左右。堯知丹朱之不肖。。。。
Yao was emperor, Danzhu (Wiki) was his heir apparent; Shun was an attendant. Yao knew that Danzhu was unworthy....

The lyrics, in Section 16 of the ctext rendition, are interspersed with commentary. This section, now concerning Emperor Shun, begins (numbered and divided here for ease of reading),

於時俊乂百工，相和而歌《卿雲》。帝乃倡之曰：

卿雲爛兮，（注：和氣之明者也。）糾縵縵兮，（註：教化廣遠，或以為雲出岫，回薄而難名狀也。）
日月光華，旦復旦兮！（〖注：言明明相代。〗）
八伯咸進稽首曰：
明明上天，爛然星陳，日月光華，弘於一人。
帝乃載歌旋持衡曰：
日月有常，星辰有行，四時從經，萬姓允誠；
於予論樂，配天之靈，遷於賢聖，莫不咸聽；
鼚乎鼓之，軒乎舞之，菁華已竭，褰裳去之。

於時八風循通，卿雲叢叢；（註：叢或為蔟，言和氣應也。）。。。。

These lyrics do not appear in the Shang Shu itself.
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6. 山西蒲坂 Puban in Shanxi
32271.45 has references from commentaries on the Shu Jing (唐書，虞典) and Shi Jing (威風疏); the Shu Jing commentary says that Yao sent his two daughters to Shun from 嬀汭 Guirui, a stream that flowed down to Puban. (浦城 32271.98 says Pucheng is west of here, in 陝西 Shaanxi). Puban was apparently in the southwest corner of what is today Shanxi province. A footnote to its mention in Annal 5 of the Shi Ji (see The Grand Scribes Records, Volume 1, p.115, footnote 321) says that during the Warring States period it was on the east bank of the Yellow River about 10 miles west of 運城永濟 the modern city of Yongji in Yuncheng municipality. If there was an archaeological site there it presumably would be not far from the modern "Pu Crossing Historic Site Museum (蒲津渡遺址博物館 Pujindu Yizhi Museum), which claims to be sited near the ruins of an ancient crossing of the Yellow River.
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7. 舜 Shun passes the throne to 大禹 Yu
帝舜 Emperor Shun, according to tradition, had been appointed by 帝堯 Emperor Yao to be his successor. His decision likewise to appoint 大禹 Yu the Great as his successor is outlined in Wiki, Yu the Great, as follows:

"King Shun, who reigned after Yao, was so impressed by Yu's engineering work and diligence that he passed the throne to Yu instead of to his own son. Yu is said to have initially declined the throne, but was so popular with other local lords and chiefs that he agreed to become the new emperor, at the age of fifty-three. He established a capital at Anyi (Chinese: 安邑), the ruins of which are in modern Xia County in southern Shanxi Province, and founded what would be called the Xia Dynasty, traditionally considered China's first dynasty."

For other early texts that seem to advocate meritocracy over dynastic succession see Sarah Allan, Buried Ideas.
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8. Xia dynasty
夏; Wiki. It thus seems that Yu did not continue the practice of naming the most worthy person as his successor.
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9. Tracing 卿雲歌 Qing Yun Ge
See Zha's Guide 20/186/372.

This 1525 melody has been reconstructed by 丁承運 Ding Chengyun both as a qin solo and as a duet for qin and se (with his wife 付麗娜 Fu Lina; online recordings are available).
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10. 復旦大學 Fudan University (Wikipedia)
Here is a blurb for this melody, to be used to advertise a performance at Fudan:

The Song of Auspicious Clouds, as reconstructed and recorded by John Thompson, survives only in a handbook published in 1525 CE. Its lyrics include the expression "fudan", "continuing dawns". referring to the continuing prosperity that will occur if there is good governance. During the Han dynasty it was claimed that the lyrics were originally sung by Emperor Shun when he passed over his own son in favor of Yu, the man who had solved the problem of the country's flooding. The message of these lyrics led to the lyrics of the first verse being set to new melodies and used for post-imperial China's first two national anthems, from 1913 to 1915, and again from 1921 to 1928.

117 words
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11. National anthem
The Wikipedia page Song to the Auspicious Cloud concerns the use of Qing Yun Ge as the national anthem of the Republic of China from 1913 to 1915 (Wiki) then, with another melody, from 1921 to 1928 (second period of the Beiyang government, Wiki). Both have six lines of music, the former setting first the four lines of the first poem then adding two lines of new lyrics (時哉夫，天下非。一人之天下也。), the latter setting first the four lines of the first poem then repeating the last two lines.

The Wikipedia page Historical Chinese Anthems gives details on other texts used for the national anthem before "三民主義 San Min Chu-i" was adopted in 1937 (Wiki).

See also this Baidu web page
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12. Alternate translations of the lyrics for Section 1
The above translation came with this YouTube recording. Another translation for Section 1 was published here together with the calligraphy example at top.

Beautiful colorful rosy clouds,
colored silk-like covered the sky.
Radiance of the sun and the moon, ah, shine on the earth,
day by day no end

A more complete but still partial translation (from www.yqxwdx.cn, which divides the song into three parts, 4x4 + 4x4 + 4x12) is as follows:

We celebrate the bright clouds
that are gathering and are yielding a peaceful atmosphere.
We enjoy the brightness of sun and moon light
day after day.
The sky and the stars
are both bright.
The brightness of the sun light and moon light
is increased by one person.
("A song sung by the emperor in which it says that everything is going well in the nation.")

The .pdf file downloaded from www.yqxwdx.cn, called 古谣谚.pdf, includes a number of other poems from the same source.
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13. Translation of lyrics for sections 2 to 5
Thanks to Lau Shing-Hon for assistance with this.
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14. Song structure of the qin melody Qing Yun Ge
With almost all qin melodies published in the Ming dynasty, and apparently in the Qing dynasty as well, if a melody has lyrics the lyrics are paired throughout following a relatively fixed method. In contrast, Xilutang Qintong, although it follows the same method in its 18 melodies with lyrics, 14 them have lyrics in only part of the melody.
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15. Lyrics in Shang Shu Da Zhuan
China Text Project (in 古逸, the first section of a volume called 古詩源; a Qing anthology: see www.chinaknowledge.de) has:

5. 卿雲歌：卿雲爛兮，糾縵縵兮。日月光華，旦復旦兮。 (4x4)
6. 八伯歌：明明上天，爛然星陳。日月光華，弘于一人。 (4x4)
7. 帝載歌：日月有常，星辰有行。四時從經，萬姓允誠。 (4x6) + (4x6)
於予論樂，配天之靈。
8. 遷于賢善，莫不咸聽。
鼚乎鼓之，軒乎舞之。菁華已竭，褰裳去之。
9....

卿雲歌歌詞（翻成現代漢語）
The alignment above is thus different from the 1525 alignment, which is as follows (compare translation to modern Chinese; see both in this pdf):

卿雲爛兮，糾縵縵兮。日月光華，旦復旦兮。
明明上天，爛然星陳。日月光華，弘于一人。
日月有常，星辰有行。四時順經，萬姓允成。
於予論樂，配天之靈。遷于賢善，莫不咸聽。
鼚乎鼓之，軒乎舞之。精華已竭，褰裳去之。

As can be seen, the original version (according to its format in the China Text Project) arranges the lyrics into three titled songs:

卿雲歌 Qing Yun Ge ([4x4]x1)
八伯歌 Ba Bo Ge ([4x4]x1)
帝載歌 Di Zai Ge (in two parts, [4x6] + [4x6])

1475.181/1 八伯 Ba Bo has a long commentary that seems to say this refers to the leaders of eight regions. 9064.160 帝載 Di Zai says it is the same as 帝業 imperial enterprises.

From my understanding of the text, this (original?) arrangement is somewhat more coherent than the division given with the 1525 song setting. In addition, it does seem that "Qing Yun Ge" originally referred specifically to the first of several songs.
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16. Afterword
The original 1525 commentary was here copied from http://www.qinzhijie.com. If it not made clear whether this text is quoting an earlier original source.
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17. Music and Lyrics
Regarding the lyrics see two possible alignments above.

As for the music, the modality is discussed further above. Also of special note is the 滾拂 gunfu glissando (q.v.) that begins the instrumental part of Section 4. The instructions there ("余玄並艹", i.e., "余絃並散 the other strings are played open") seem to say that the first four notes of the gunfu are played with the strings stopped in the 10th position, then the rest of the notes until the last note of the fu are played on open strings. I have not yet seen such instructions elsewhere.
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18. 卿雲歌：現代漢語（看原文） Translation into Modern Chinese
Aligned as with the present song arrangement into five sections:

卿雲燦爛如霞，瑞氣繚繞呈祥。
日月光華照耀，輝煌而又輝煌。
上天至明至尊，燦爛遍布星辰。
日月光華照耀，嘉祥降於聖人。
日月依序交替，星辰循軌運行。
四季變化有常，萬民恭敬誠信。
鼓樂鏗鏘和諧，祝禱上蒼神靈。
帝位禪於賢聖，普天莫不歡欣。
鼓聲鼚鼚動聽，舞姿翩翩輕盈。
精力才華已竭，便當撩衣退隱。

This translation along with some explanatory notes (e.g., "旦復旦：謂光明又復光明。旦，明亮。") can easily be found on the internet by searching for "卿雲燦爛如霞" (simplified characters example; standard characters example). Some sites say that the translation was just downloaded from the internet and that the translator into modern Chinese is unknown, but in general the sites seem mostly just to copy each other without added comment. (Note that the character "鼓" begins sections 4 and 5 of the translation, but in the original "鼓" is only in section 5.)

與錄音聽 Listen to my recording together with the original lyrics and modern translation (in brackets; see also this pdf).
The timings show where the singing would end in each section.

00.14
卿雲爛兮，糾縵縵兮。日月光華，旦復旦兮。
（卿雲燦爛如霞，瑞氣繚繞呈祥。日月光華照耀，輝煌而又輝煌。）
00.32
00.57
明明上天，爛然星陳。日月光華，弘于一人。
（上天至明至尊，燦爛遍布星辰。日月光華照耀，嘉祥降於聖人。）
01.11
01.41
日月有常，星辰有行。四時順經，萬姓允成。
（日月依序交替，星辰循軌運行。四季變化有常，萬民恭敬誠信。）
01.56
02.15
於予論樂，配天之靈。遷于賢善，莫不咸聽。
（鼓樂鏗鏘和諧，祝禱上蒼神靈。帝位禪於賢聖，普天莫不歡欣。）
02.29
03.01
鼚乎鼓之，軒乎舞之。精華已竭，褰裳去之。
（鼓聲鼚鼚動聽，舞姿翩翩輕盈。精力才華已竭，便當撩衣退隱。）
03.15
03.51（泛音）
04.10（曲終）

No sung version yet available.
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19. Drumming and dancing
Regarding 鼚乎鼓之, 49351 鼚 chang says "鼓聲 sound of beating". As for 軒乎舞之 "Xuan" (spinning, soaring) we dance it, 39038.33 軒軒 says 舞貌 quoting 淮南子，道應訓 Dao Ying Xun, a chapter of the Huainanzi (Major et al, Responses of the Way, 12.42 軒軒然方迎風而舞 "spinning round and round as if welcoming the winds in dance"). I have not yet found a reference to 軒 specifically being used as a dance title.
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