Preface to Taiyin Daquanji
by Zha Fuxi¹
(with added comments on Xinkan Taiyin Daquanji²)
Qinqu Jicheng, Second Series, Vol. 1, pp. iv-v;
Beijing, Zhonghua Bookstore Publishing Co., 1981 (printed in Shanghai)³

In the collection of the Beijing Library, (this is a) printed volume from the Ming dynasty Zhengde reign (1506-22). In all the book has five folios. Folios one to four (about 85 sheets [double pages]) form the front collection; folio five (about 30 sheets) forms the back collection.⁴ According to the preface (i.e., summary introduction) at the front of the book, the editor, as a

Because this (originally two page?) introduction is missing the last page(s), the name of the editor is lost. On the other hand, in the fifth folio there is a commentary by Yuan Junzhe, in which he mentions the matter of his being "a traveling official to north and south"⁵. From this we can know that Yuan Junzhe was the editor of this book.

Mr. Yuan lived during the Ming dynasty Zhengtong period (1436-50). Yang Biaozheng, in his Chongxiu Zhenchuan Qinpu (1585; cf. Vol. IV, p. 261), says that he "commented on Yiyin." First comparing this with fragmentary Taigu Yiyin volume, it makes it clear that Yuan Junzhe was the commentator of Taigu Yiyin, and also the reorganizer.

As for Xinkan Taiyin Daquanji, a Jiaqing (1521-67) edition printed by the Wang Family's Golden Terrace Bookstore⁶, altogether in six folios⁷, this book in reality used Mr. Yuan's Taiyin Daquanji as its mother volume, made by adding some few editorial materials.⁸. The preface at the front of the book by Zhu Quan is perhaps the book merchants taking it away (from somewhere else), thus planning advantage by making a fabrication.

From looking at not a few of the finger technique characters in this book, there are many places with printing errors in the Xinkan (edition). Therefore this edition decided to photocopy Mr. Yuan's entire Taiyin Daquanji, and then at the back add Zhu Quan's preface from Xinkan Taiyin Daquanji, for reference.

Return to Taiyin Daquanji index page,
to the annotated handbook list
or to the Guqin ToC.

 
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. 查阜西 Zha Fuxi; edited by 吳釗 Wu Zhao. See also Zha Fuxi, "Taigu Yiyin Kao" in Yinyue Yanjiu, 1958, no. 1, pp. 70-77. (Return)

2. 新刊太音大全集 Xinkan Taiyin Daquanji (Return)

3. Also included in 中國古代板畫叢刊 Zhongguo Gudai Banhua Zhongkan (Shanghai 1961, Vol. 5 and again Shanghai 1988 Vol.1), this is the Yuan volume referred to by Tong Kin-Woon and used for the missing parts of the Taigu Yiyin in his Qin Fu (QFTGYY). The main difference between these two editions is that QFTGYY makes no mention of the Emaciated Immortal, has fewer Yinshi, has only 26 of the 38 "historical qins", but adds two poems at the end of Folio 2 and one attributed ot Yuan Junzhe near the beginning of Folio 3. (Return)

4. There is a possible connection here with the two folios of Zhu Quan's edition, though a division as here is very unlikely (14 + 22 + 34 + 17 versus 29 sheets). Also the table of contents of the two-folio Taigu Yiyin remnant printed here in Qinqu Jicheng Folio 1 shows a very different ordering of sections. (Return)

5. This is in his 琴操辨議 Qincao Bianyi (Return)

6. This Xinkan Taiyin Daquanji (see footnote) is the edition in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, reprinted in the 1963 Qinqu Jicheng. (Return)

7. The fifth and sixth folios are comparable to the five folios here, while the five folios of QFTGYY are comparable to the first five folios of the six folio edition, except that QFTGYY gives the folios titles: Ren, Yi, Li, Zhi and Xin. (Return)

8. Specific differences: the Xinkan edition has some slight reordering, particulary of the qin diagrams; "Ten friends of the dais" is moved from Folio 1 to Folio 4; the break between Folios 1 and 2 is earlier; the few extra articles are brief. (Return)