Preface for Zangchun Qinpu

In the collection of Music Research Bureau of the Literary Arts Institute of the Ministry of Culture, six folios. A specialized collection of qin tablature assembled by Hao Ning and others. Before the tablature there are prefaces by Li Dai and Dong Futing dated 1602. After the prefaces there is a table of contents, followed by General Rules of Qin Play, and a General Index of Qin Playing Strokes.³ After the tablature there are afterwords by Yan Cheng (1602) and Hao Ning (undated). Altogether it includes 66 melodies.

This tablature collection was revised by Hao Ning, Yan Cheng and Wang Ding'an. Hao Ning and Wang Ding'an were both eunuchs in the imperial palace. Yan Cheng was 貴公子 an honored gentleman (see Songxian Guan Qinpu, 1614). They all honored a qin master then teaching in Beijing, Shen Yin (style name Shen Taishao). The tablature collection records several newly created melodies and transmitted tablature by Shen Yin. Beyond this it mostly includes the qin melodies of Zhang Jinchao's Yuwu Qinpu, also recording Zhang Jinchao's Gneral Rules of Qin Play. This also shows clearly that in the Ming dynasty the palace continued to absorb melodies from among the people, and qin schools were constantly changing through communication.

Shen Yin was from Zhejiang. He created the three long melodies 洞天春曉 Dongtian Chun Xiao 溪山秋月 Qishan Qiu Yue and 鳳翔霄漢 Feng Xiang Xiao Han. The three versions of these melodies in Zangchunwu Qinpu were 嫡傳 directly handed down by him. Dongtian and Qishan subsequently had over 300 years of continuous transmission. Qishan was later mistakenly called Jishan Qiu Yue, based on the contents of the story of the recluses Chao Fu and Xu You as discussed in the early melody Dunshi Cao.⁴

Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. QQJC VI, front.
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2. 查阜西 Zha Fuxi; edited by 吳釗 Wu Zhao.
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3. The actual preface mentions the table of contents last and adds "etc", but the reprinted volume has no other sections.
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4. It is not clear why this preface does not mention that this melody had already been published in 1589 as Jishan Qiu Yue
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Return to the Zhangchunwu Qinpu intro, to the annotated handbook list or to the Guqin ToC.