|
T of C
Home |
My Work |
Hand- books |
Qin as Object |
Qin in Art |
Poetry / Song |
Hear, Watch |
Play Qin |
Analysis | History |
Ideo- logy |
Miscel- lanea |
More Info |
Personal | email me search me |
| Performance Themes My Performances My Repertoire / Heart Sutra Lotus Society Prelude Incription on a Crude Dwelling | 首頁 |
|
Buddhism and the Qin
1
|
佛教與琴
Shoso-in qin: Buddhist theme 2 |
The traditional guqin repertoire does not have a sufficient amount of music with clearly Buddhist themes to allow a music program devoted solely to that (comment), so this page is mainly intended as a basis to explore the potential nature of a future program.
Somewhere it has been written (unfortunately I cannot recall the source) that the real development of the qin into its modern form (specifically a construction designed to produce a delicate sound, making it difficult to be performed for a general audience), and its modern ideology (an instrument to be appreciated only by refined sensibilities), took place in the period between the Han and Tang dynasties. This was the period when Buddhism first made strong inroads into China, and the author of this article speculated that one of the aims was to make it less appealing to such "foreign" influences. Throughout history there have been dictums specifying that the qin should not be played by such people as Buddhists and foreigners.3
On the other hand, it is clear that since early times there have been many Buddhists, including Buddhist monks, who play the qin. Indeed, the qin's traditional aesthetic has particular appeal to certain aspects of a Buddhist sensibility.4 Indeed, at least one famous Tang dynasty poem, Loushi Ming, has a line that mentions playing qin and reciting a Buddhist text.5
Xu Jian's Introductory History of the Qin, Chapter 6.A.1., Qin monk teachers and disciples in the Northern Song dynasty, mentions a number of players who were monks. And Zhou Qingyun's Qin Shi Xu has a special section for Transcendental Players, many of them Buddhist. Clearly there were enough players to have formed a distinctive Buddhist style.
However, there is little to indicate that the style or repertoire of Buddhist players was ever different from that of any other players. Thus, for example, Feng Ru Song Ge has lyrics attributed to the 4th century monk Jiaoran, and Bai Xue Qu has lyrics by the 10th century monk Guan Xiu, but there is nothing particularly Buddhist about these.
The programs related to Daoism and Confucius contain little that is related to rituals. Mostly they have melodies connected to stories of famous Daoists or Confucians, or they concern Daoist or Confucian principles.
In contrast, there are no known traditional melodies dealing with Buddhas or famous Buddhists (other than Pu'an). And very few melodies seem to deal specifically with Buddhist concepts. Since these are not always easy to distinguish from some Daoist ones, one might suggest that Buddhist players have not felt a need to develop a special repertoire.
On the other hand, it is quite possible that Buddhist monks or qin playing literati, in their places of quiet meditation, did not use the qin when reciting texts or otherwise engaging in meditation. That this was never written down is disappointing but perhaps not surprising.6
Buddhist guqin melody repertoire
Only the second piece listed below, Pu'an Zhou, is in the active modern repertoire. There are several versions but most are very similar; an exception is mentioned below. Beginning with #3 the listed pieces come from just a few handbooks; they were found by searching Zha Fuxi's Guide. I have made tentative transcriptions and recordings of the first two versions, called Shitan Zhang; I am not aware of any other recordings of these earliest versions.
The chart with Shitan Zhang traces the various versions of that title and Pu'an Zhou. These include what seem to be some intermediate versions between Shitan Zhang and Pu'an Zhou, at least one of which, the
Guangling school version, can be heard today. I know of no one playing it as written in the earliest sources.7
More recently some music recordings have been published on Buddhist themes, both chants and purely instrumental.9 Regarding the chants, there is no reason why old or new chants should not be paired to guqin, but without amplification the instrument would probably only be heard if the chant was done solo. As for the instrumental, to my knowledge these always include other instruments with the qin.
1.
Buddhism and the Qin 佛教與琴
On the other hand, 徐芃 Xu Peng, in her article
Courtesan vs. Literatus, writes (p. 413) tantalizingly of "Jin Shiqing’s 金式卿 Buddhist-inspired qin playing style", referencing Wuji Baimei 吳姬百媚, 2.53a–b, a photo-reprint copy in the Regenstein Library of the University of Chicago. She adds,
"百媚 Baimei" literally means "100 Seducers", i.e., courtestans. I have not yet seen these resources and so do not know what they say with regard to qin and/or Buddhism.
2.
Shosoin qin (正倉院琴)
"When we now ask ourselves which period in Chinese history could be expected to produce such a dual representation, we immediately think of the Northern Wei period. Under the rulers of this outlandish dynasty, who were fervent Buddhists, Buddhist art reigned supreme...."
Van Gulik identifies the upper instrument as a "qin pipa, a forerunner of the Japanese biwa". It actually looks to me more like an ancient ruan. 25578.168 秦琵琶 qin pipa gives as its earliest reference the 10th century 舊唐書 Old Book of Tang; 42492 阮 says that the ruan as a music instrument was the same as 42492.36 阮咸 ruanxian, for which its earliest reference is the 唐書 Book of Tang (10th or 11th c). Claims have been made for its being indigenous to China, for its being brought from Central Asia, and for its being adapted in China from a Central Asian original.
If Van Gulik's analysis is correct, and the qin was made during the Northern Wei dynasty (386 to 534), it must be the oldest surviving qin in existence. That the other instrument depicted on the inlay might have been of Central Asian origin, even though the image was inlaid on a qin, might also seen as representing the continuing tentative nature of the connection between Buddhism and the qin.
3.
Criticism of allowing Buddhists to play qin
Van Gulik, Lore, discusses these prohibitions on pp.62-4, quoting
(Yangchun Tang) Qin Jing as saying "沙門子不宜鼔琴". The original can be found in QQJC VII/275: this is the title of a short essay rather than part of a list. It begins "按雅調玄徽唯不宜於塵俗而溜流衲子寔崇....").
On pp. 63-4 Van Gulik tells several stories in which Daoists refuse to teach Buddhists.
4.
Traditional aesthetic
5.
Meditating with qin?
6.
Unwritten Buddhist meditations with qin?
7.
Performing Shitan Zhang
8.
Lyrics for Prelude of the Lotus Society (蓮社引 Lian She Yin
杖策招隱，
樂天命而適性，勝金丹以駐顏。
守丹爐之眞汞，自九轉而回還。
（泛音起）歸去來兮，維斯社之可游。
門無俗客，溪有停舟。
已矣乎，
離拘謝希逸，思舊向子期。
乃瞻衡宇。
引壺觴以自酌，眄庭柯以怡顏。
雲無心以出岫，鳥倦飛而知還。
（泛音起）歸去來兮！請息交以絕遊。
或命巾車，或棹孤舟。
已矣乎！
當貴非吾願，帝鄉不可期。
Although the lyrics of Lian She Yin are almost completely new, the character count of each phrase is almost identical in both sets of lyrics: Lian She Yin seems to be short by two characters:
The significance of this is unclear. In 1893 the lyrics are written after the melody rather than alongside it, and in order to pair them it was necessary to consult the similar melody in 1589, which did. On the other hand, they can still easily be sung with the earliest surviving melody (1511), In fact, to my ears they pair better with the earliest version than they do with later ones, both for the meaning of the original poem and for providing a melody that complements the meaning.
9.
New Buddhist musical settings including qin
This leaves open the question of why there is so little actual old or new qin music on Buddhist themes, why modern examples are usually so different from the traditional qin aesthetic (see above), and why, especially, a melody such as Se Kong Jue, with its lovely setting for the Heart Sutra, could disappear so quickly, and not be followed by others.
Distantly related to Pu'an Zhou, this is a chant with qin accompaniment. Tradition says it resulted from someone over 400 years ago writing down music from (or perhaps for) a Buddhist chant, but I have not yet heard of modern attempts to try to reconstruct said chant from the qin melody. This tracing chart shows that there were versions of either Shitan Zhang or its descendant Pu'an Zhou in over 50 handbooks from 1589 to the present.
This is the only clearly Buddhist melody in the modern repertoire. The popular version (mainly from the
Peng family tradition) is played without chant text. Interpretations vary in length, but there is little melodic difference between most of them.
At least two handbooks have settings of the original Heart Sutra text:
Although the text of both is almost the same, the music seems unrelated. Both seem more a hymn than a chant.
Only in 枯木禪琴譜 Kumu Chan Qinpu (1893; XXVII/136; reconstructed by
Tony Wheeler)
14950.6 枯木 kumu does not give the Buddhist meaning, for which see
Soothill, p. 304:
"withered timber....applied to a class of ascetic Buddhists, who sat in meditation, never lying down."
Only in 枯木禪琴譜 Kumu Chan Qinpu (1893; XXVII/137; see previous and next)
40173.51 那羅那里 Buddhist term: 那羅 naluo is the 男性 male essence,
那里 nali the female essence.
No chant text; Soothill, p.248, has naluo meaning "nata", dance.
Only in 枯木禪琴譜 Kumu Chan Qinpu (1893; XXVII/143; see previous two)
Guide 43/---/571; the melody is that of
Gui Qu Lai Ci, with
lyrics altered/re-written into a Buddhist text
Begins 歸去來兮，蓮社之樂胡不歸....; the Lotus Society (32496.43) is said to have originated
with the famous monk Huiyuan (慧遠法師; 334 - 417)
Only in 雙琴書屋琴譜集成 Shuangqin Shuwu Qinpu Jicheng (1884; location uncertain) and 十一絃館琴譜;
Shiyixianguan Qinpu (1907; XXIX/24)
Apparently a qin version of a Pu'an Zhou for the pipa; no chant text.
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a
separate page)
As mentioned above, although there are only a few melodies (mostly no longer in the active repertoire and not, to my knowledge, reconstructed) on a purely Buddhist theme, other melodies express sentiments that would naturally appeal to certain Buddhist ways of thinking.
(Return)
This is a photo of an image inlaid onto the top of what is said to be one of the earliest known surviving qins, in the storehouse at the Shoso-In in Nara, Japan; here it is copied from Cecilia Lindquist,
Qin, p.141. The qin is discussed at length in Van Gulik, Lore. After establishing that the overall motif is of a literary gathering such as the famous one at the Lanting Pavilion, Van Gulik continues (pp.207－8):
(Return)
The mere fact of such comments can be seen as evidence of Buddhists playing guqin.
(Return)
Very little seems to be known about the aesthetics of early Chinese Buddhist music, and the fact that there seems little in common between the flavor of traditional guqin music (as expressed in through its
ideology) and that of the modern Buddhist chant recordings with synthesizers, so commonly played in or around Chinese temples today, does not help in pursuing this line of enquiry. (For the guqin equivalent see the Longyuan recordings listed below.)
(Return)
Whether or not the meditations are strictly Buddhist, there is much reason to think that far more melodies were played than were ever written down. This is in part because qin music has never been a "composed" tradition (music written down by someone for someone else to play). Rather it was an oral tradition, with people (perhaps especially students) writing down the way a master (perhaps their teacher) played a particular melody. One can particularly imagine that apparently simple settings of poetic texts were often created on the spot and often varied.
(Return)
Two reasons for not publishing such music could be that it was constantly changing, depending on mood of the day, or that it did not follow the apparently accepted syllabic setting almost exclusively used in the past for qin melodies with lyrics.
(Return)
François Picard has had an ensemble perform his reconstruction of the early Shitan Zhang. A qin is included in the ensemble, but I am not sure how prominent it is. The rhythms he uses are quite different from those on my reconstruction. According to my understanding, he based his rhythms on Buddhist texts as they are chanted today. I made mine by comparing several early versions, analyzing the ornamentation indicated in the tablature, assuming that they were related to a single original, then trying to find a rhytm that fit all this data.
(Return)
The Lotus Society (32496.43, also called 白蓮社
White Lotus Society, is said to have originated with the famous monk Huiyuan (慧遠法師; 334 - 417)
The left column lyrics are only in 枯木禪琴譜
Kumu Chan Qinpu (1893; XXVIII/143; Zha Guide [1095] 571;
in tracing chart)
Not yet translated; compare them with those of Gui Qu Lai Ci, at right (Zha Guide [775] 251 and
translated).
Lian She Yin and later versions of Gui Qu Lai Ci were divided into six sections: the lines in red
蓮社引
歸去來兮，蓮社之樂，胡不歸？
念人生之如寄，況世態之堪悲。
步東林之遺跡，慕先賢之可追。
幸餘生之尙在，覺六十之前非。
顧知白而守黑，思彈冠而振衣。
（泛音起）超塵寰以遐逝，憑造化之幽微。
世途何奔。入淸淨室，
登解脫門。萬法俱寂，
一眞獨存。奇香滿鼎，
甘露盈樽。
匪知止而何定，須靜後而能安。
道悟元機之妙，禪參鈍根之關。
萃精神以習靜，杜耳目之閒觀。（泛音止）
睎雲霞而飄緲，盻猿鶴而盤桓。
樂泉石之幽趣，捨此境而何求。（泛音止）
玉芝茹以益壽，萱草種以忘憂。
晤聖賢於典籍，話桑麻於田疇。
誠康莊之道路，非險巇之坑坵。
爽籟隨夫風發，淸音出乎泉流。
孰謂蒙莊至樂，即茲佳景無休。
流生若夢能幾時，胡爲名利苦縈留，
噫嘻，往者姑舍之。
涵性天以導劷，修心地而培耔。
居澹泊以明志，彂微言而爲詩。
從此無生頓悟，共返天眞，更莫疑。
歸去來辭
歸去來兮，田園將蕪，胡不歸？
既自以心為形役，奚惆悵而獨悲。
悟已往之不諫，知來者之可追。
實迷途其未遠，覺今是而昨非。
舟遙遙以輕颺，風飄飄而吹衣。
（泛音起）問征夫以前路，恨晨光之熹微。
載欣載奔，僮僕歡迎，
稚子候門；三徑就荒，
松菊猶存，摧幼入室，
有酒盈尊。
倚南窗以寄傲，審容膝之易安。
園日涉以成趣，門雖設而常關。
策扶老以流憩，時矯首而遐觀。（泛音止）
景翳翳以將入，撫孤松而盤桓。
世與我而相違，復駕言兮焉求？（泛音止）
悅親戚之情話，樂琴、書以消憂。
農人告余以春及，將有事於西疇。
既窈窈以尋壑，亦崎嶇而經丘。
木欣欣以向榮，泉涓涓而始流。
善萬物之得時，感吾生之行休。
寓形宇內，（能）復幾時？曷不委心任去留？
胡為胡？遑遑欲何之？
懷良辰以孤往，或植杖而耘耔。
登東皋以舒嘯，臨清流而賦詩。
聊乘化以歸盡。樂夫天命﹕復奚疑？
噫嘻，往者姑舍之。 instead of 胡為胡？遑遑欲何之？
(Return)
Here are two examples with which I am familiar:
Track 10 of the metal string CD
Art of Qin Music, Vol. 3
Arranged and performed by 黃永明 Huang Yongming, with her qin accompanied by xiao flute, erhu fiddle, gong, chime and muyu ("wooden fish" a wooden idiophone). This is said to be based on or in the style of chants in the 佛光寺 Foguang Temple tradition of Taiwan. The setting is quite melismatic, i.e., it does not follow the syllabic setting almost exclusively used in the past for qin melodies with lyrics.
巫娜 Wu Na, 龍源音像 Longyuan Sound, HD-036, 2010
Also called "Zen Sky", this is one of a series of New Age/meditative CDs from 龍院佛音 Longyuan Buddhism. All tracks have metal string qin with other instruments, often including synthesizer and sound effects. The other titles include
Spatial Mountain with Quietness (空山寂寂 Kongshan Jiji),
Seven Stringed Music (七絃清音 Qixian Qingyin),
Spring Flow Under the Moon (月下流泉 Yuexia Liu Quan) and so forth.
(Return)
Return to the Guqin ToC