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Shiyixianguan Qinpu
Qin Handbook from the Chamber of 11 Strings 2 |
十一絃館琴譜
1
1907 |
Original cover of Shiyixianguan Qinpu3 (complete pdf) |
十一絃館琴譜Shiyixianguan Qinpu Table of Contents:
Essay 2: 劉鐵雲識文 Annotation by Liu Tieyun; XXIX/8
Essay 3: 劉鐵雲識文 Annotation by Liu Tieyun; XXIX/19
The ancient way of composing qin music falls into three main categories:
Mr. Zhang’s compositions mostly belong to the second category. His rhythms are drawn from ancient models, but his creative use is uniquely his own — suited to both ancient and modern tastes, both refined and elegant.
After I finished engraving the score of “Guangling San” I urged Mr. Zhang to append his four original compositions. He solemnly replied, “How dare I compare myself to (Ji Kang)!” I pressed him firmly, and only then did he agree.
Mr. Zhang is now seventy-two years old. In the time of Marquis Wen of Wei, there was a certain Dou Gong, a fine qin player, who lived to the age of 118. Since Mr. Zhang shares his passion, surely he will also share his long life. Then after a century, when everyone under heaven can play Mr. Zhang’s compositions, he will surely hear of it and stroke his beard with a smile, saying, “This is thanks to Liu Zi’s printing.”
In spite of what was written here, it appears that Zhang Ruishan's own pieces were not passed down directly to (or through) his own students. Could this have been be due to Zhang Ruishan having come from a background of craftsmen rather than having been himself a literatus? In any case, modern performances have thus required recreation
(dapu).
The complete original text of the Preface is in a footnote.4
- Essay: 重印十一絃館琴譜書後 After finishing a reprint of Shiyixianguan Qinpu (1953); XXIX/25
Includes three essays and eight pieces. Pieces 5 to 8 are the four created by 張瑞珊 Zhang Ruishan, Liu E's teacher. After that two later essays have been appended.
Essay 1: 廣陵夢記 Guangling Meng Ji; says 金陵汪安侯選 it was compiled (copied out?) by Wang Anhou of Nanjing; XXIX/3
Connects the short Guangling San to
1634 but see
≥1802
(details; article begins
中文 as here;
afterword)
Almost identical to ≥1802; similar to versions dating back to the 10 section
Guangling San of
1634 that has a prelude called 廣陵真趣 Guangling Zhen Qu: Guangling's True Essence
(pu).
Music is connected to 1634 but not identical; a preface to the new interpretation begins
as here;
see further
Recording.
This is tablature for music played by Liu E's teacher 張瑞珊文祉 Zhang Ruishan (張文祉 Zhang Wenzhi, perhaps also a teacher of Ye Shimeng).
Recording;
further comment
No recording; further comment
A preface for the four newly composed pieces by Zhang Ruishan that follow. After giving a summary of his understanding of the qin repertoire over history he summarizes Zhang's contribution as follows,
Recording;
original pu;
further comment here and here.
Recording;
further comment
Recording;
further comment
Recording;
further comment
Grass writing
- Essay: 十一絃館琴譜查阜西跋 Afterword by Zha Fuxi about Shiyixianguan Qinpu (1953); XXIX/26
Grass writing
Information from a webpage originally created by Julian Joseph5 | 劉鐵雲鶚 Liu Tieyun (Liu E) |
The Shiyi Xian Guan Qinpu was compiled by Liu E (style Tieyun) (1857-1909), a minor official, entrepreneur and novelist in the last years of the Qing Dynasty. It is highly personal and does not follow the format of a typical qinpu. It is significant because it appears to be the only pre-modern qinpu which contains the work of someone who was not a literatus. It contains a selection of pieces performed by Liu's qin teacher Zhang Ruishan. Among these scores are two unusual versions of the well-known qin piece Guangling San, two pieces for pipa and qin together, and four qin pieces said to have been composed by Zhang himself. Liu himself appears to have had a somewhat checkered career, on which his famous novel Lao Can You Ji is partly based.
Liu E was born in Liuhe, Jiangsu Province. His father was an official in Henan. As a boy he was wild and impulsive and made his friends among the wilder youths of the common people. He was energetic and studious but refused to write the "eight-legged essays" for the official examinations. Later in life he became a specialist in flood control. When in 1888 the Yellow River burst its banks he successfully repaired the dike. This started him on a government career in the field, reaching the rank of prefect. After differences of opinion with various officials over a railway scheme, he gave up his government career and spent the rest of his life on various unsuccessful commercial and industrial projects. His private interests included poetry, music, astronomy and medicine. He one of the first people to collect the inscribed oracle bones of the Shang Dynasty and the first to publish a book of reproductions of them.
Through the machinations of the enemies he made while he was an official, he was eventually exiled to Xinjiang, where he died.
Zhang Ruishan's son Zhang Lianfang was a well known qin maker but not a player. He is said to have made a number of fake antique qins that were so good that they were not detected.
Wang Anhou's Guangling San and its Zhen Qu seem to contain a number flatted notes (3rds especially), giving it the sound of a minor key. In this it is rather unusual. In addition, the mood of the piece seems somewhat subdued, perhaps conservative. This is however not the case for the version here in Shiyixianguan Qinpu.
Guangling San Xin Pu seems to be based on a pentatonic scale, like most qin music. It is much more dynamic than Wang's, containing quiet, reflective passages as well as energetic and passionate ones. This lack of inhibition perhaps stems from his position as a folk artist rather than a literatus. Zhang also simplified the fingering, and his version is easier to play than Wang's.
A point to note is that the version of Guangling San in Guyin Zhenzong is preceded by a short piece, not divided into sections, called Guangling Zhen Qu, similar to a diaoyi. The Shiyi Xian Guan Qinpu omits this "diaoyi" for both versions.
There are two pieces which contain alternate lines of gongche notation and qin tablature:
Geng Shen Diao Wei is on two commercial CDs, one by Mei Yueqiang and one by Lau Chor Wah, but neither names a source. Both show differences from the version in Shiyi Xian Guan Qinpu. The notes to the recording by Lau Chor Wah merely say that it came from a late Qing qin score.
Zha Fuxi says these are all ensemble pieces, but as only qin tablature is given, this seems unlikely.
Liu's preface says they are "... sometimes like the call of a phoenix, sometimes like the roar of a dragon, truly exquisite...", "...the rhythm is taken from the ancient, but it is used in a subtle and original way; it suits both the old and the new, the popular and the refined...".
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a
separate page)
1.
十一絃館琴譜 Shiyixianguan Qinpu (1907; QQJC XXIX/1-26)
One folio, 8 melodies.
Listed or linked here are recordings by Chen Changlin of four melodies from this handbook.
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2.
Zha Fuxi's preface in Qinqu Jicheng
The original text begins,
The complete original text of the preface is:
本編據民族音樂研究所一九五六年據原刊本的影印本重印。
Not yet fully translated.
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3.
Image: Handbook Cover
From QQJC XXXIX/3.
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4.
Preface (to the melodies?) by Liu Tieyun
The original text is as follows (punctuation added) (see QQJC XXXIX/19)
唐以前之琴操,不可得而聞矣。然相傳之古曲,雖不與古盡合,得其意焉。前明琴學家多好自製曲。諸王中如希仙之《思妻吟》、《涵虛吟》;臞仙之《飛鳴吟》、《秋鴻》。又若中州尹芝仙《崆峒引》、《歸來曲》、《夏峯歌》、《蘇門長嘯》、《爛柯行》、《參同契》、《安樂窩》之類。三山莊蝶作《太平奏》、《禹鑿龍門》、《釋談章》、《梨雲》、《春思》、《瑤島問長生》、《早朝吟》、《空山磬》、《修竹留風》、《臨河修禊》、《八公還童》、《雲中笙鶴》、《鈞天逸響》、《梧葉舞秋風》、《栩栩曲》之類。
古今各家所製之曲,傳於今有譜可稽者,大概二百三十六操。明末國初人所製者居其半。近百年內,自製曲者未之有聞,有之,僅我大興張瑞珊先生一人而已。先生自製凡四操,曰《天籟》,曰《武陵春》,曰《鹧鸪天》,曰《小普安咒》。音節各極其妙,或如鳳哕,或比龍吟,洵佳制也。
常考古人制曲之道,不出三端:一曰以聲寫情,最上,如《漢宮秋月》、《石上流泉》、《高山》、《白雪》、《胡笳》、《搗衣》、《平沙落雁》之類是也;二曰按律諧聲,次之,如《梅花三弄》、《一撤金》之類是也;三曰以文葉聲,又次之,如《釋談》、《秋風賦》、《赤壁賦》之類是也。張先生所制之曲,大概按律諧聲之類;節奏則採之於古,妙用則獨出心裁,宜古宜今,亦風亦雅。
余既刻《廣陵散》竣,勸先生以自制四曲附之。先生肅然曰:「吾何敢上比中散哉!」予固請而後可。先生今年七十有二矣。魏文侯時,有竇公者善鼓琴,年百十八歲。先生與之嗜好既同,壽亦必同數。十百年後,天下人人皆能鼓先生自制之曲,先生聞之,當掀髯微笑曰:「此蓋劉子校印之功也。」
丁未八月中秋日
丹徒劉鐵雲識
5.
天籟 Tian Lai (Sound of Heaven, i.e, the South of Nature)
(CCL recording;
original pu)
This expression comes from the chapter 齊物論 Qi Wu Lun (Discussion on Making All Things Equal) in the book of Zhuangzi. 籟 Lai itself suggests the sound of wind through hollows (hence the bamboo radical). In that passage Zhuangzi discusses 三籟 three kinds of sound;
天籟 Sound of Heaven (cosmic wind; nature's resonance);
地籟 Sound of Nature (sound of rivers, forests, etc.)
人籟 Sound of People (sounds of humans: singing, playing music)
Especially from the Tang dynasty Tian Lai was an expression for pure transcendent sounds, perhaps from nature, perhaps from music that seems to blend with the sounds of nature. This especially would be music from the silk strings of the qin.
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6.
Julian Joseph
Julian Joseph, who translated the book title as "House of 11 Strings", is Secretary of the London Youlan Qin Society. He has done considerable work on this handbook, including reconstructing and/or playing seveal of its melodies. He used to maintain this on his own website but subsequently gave me permission to include it here.
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