Songxianguan Qinpu Preface

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Songxianguan Qinpu
Qin Handbook of Pine String Hall

松絃館琴譜
1614

Preface
by Zha Fuxi, edited by Wu Zhao.¹
from Qinqu Jicheng, Vol. 8
Beijing, Zhonghua Shuju Chuban Faxing, 1989

(This preface makes comments on problems with different editions; it is not clear exactly how this affects the reliability of the music that has been reconstructed from here.)

[This is a] hidden old stored book from the late Qing period in the collection of the Music Research Bureau of the Chinese Academy of Arts. It was "compiled" by the Ming dynasty founder of the Yushan Qin School, Yan Cheng of Changshu. The original book was printed in Ming Wanli emperor's jiayin year (1614 CE), with the original volume stored with the Yan family in Changshu. Because of meeting the ravaging and burning by soldiers at the end of the Ming dynasty, "half the printing blocks went missing", Yan Zheng's grandson Yan Bing, in the Qing Shunzhi emperor's bingshen year (1656) "examined the original manuscript in the family collection and by hand wrote out the missing parts, contributing these for the transfer to printing blocks, editing them to form the complete book". (For this writing see in afterword by Yan Bing in the Songxuanguan Qinpu rare volumes in the collection of the Shanghai and Nanjing libraries). Yan Zheng's own preface indicates that the original "engraving wood(blocks)" had only only twenty-two (surviving) pieces (see Yan Zheng's own preface to "Songxianguan Qinpu"), or twenty-three pieces (the piece Guan Ju was also from Yan Zheng's own engraving wood(blocks) added - see the postscripts to Guan Ju in each edition (VIII/138). However, after Yan Bing's patchwork, the original version increased to twenty-eight or twenty-nine tunes. Moreover, since the early Qing Dynasty, the Yushan Qin School has been considered the generational leader, and Yan Zheng is the founder of the "Qinchuan Society" in Yushan, and the first person in the society to compile qin tablature collections, therefore, since the early Qing Dynasty, "Songxianguan Qinpi" have included both reprinted editions and fake editions. Not only are there differences between the individual tablature indications within each piece, but there are also discrepancies in the content, materials and repertoire. Even as early as the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the governor of Jiangsu Province had already removed the printed version of Yan Bing's postscript and put it into the original version. This book is the only one with musical notation from the Ming Dynasty in the "Sikuquanshu" (the Wenyuan Pavilion edition is now in the National Library).

The "Songxianguan Qinpu" that has been circulating during the past hundred years was probably compiled from a mixture of patchwork editions, re-editions, fragments and fake copies. As for the original that was first carved during the Wanli period (1563-1620), not only is it not known to exist whether at home or abroad, but there is also no clear description of the "original" in the guqin documents that have been extant for three hundred years. In order to carefully select (the version to publish here), this editor used the old copies belonging to Ye Qian at the Music Research Institute among the existing "rare books" in public and private collections - re-engraved and re-engraved copies. This is a copy that has been collected by qin scholars. Although it is also a re-engraved copy with some rotten boards, it was printed earlier. Comparing the (? two volumes not clear), for example, in the sixth paragraph of "Yang Chun", the Ye volume wrote (at VIII/85 see last cluster of the first line of Section 6 continuing on to the next line - cannot copy that here) ) while the Fu volume had (also cannot copy). In other words the latter volume is missing the words "shang liu" (go up to the sixth position) , so it should obviously be corrected from the Ye version. And in "Dongtian Chun Xiao (VIII/somewhere between 77 and 83), where Ye volume originally wrote "fei guang" the Fu volume changed it to "tu guang". As for the postscript to the melody "Guan Ju", Ye originally wrote "Wanli Bingchen Spring on the first day of the first lunar month" but the Fu volume changed thisto "Wanli Bingchen Chun on the first day of the first lunar month". Therefore, although the Ye version is not ideal, after all, there are fewer errors, so this editor used that version as the correct one, and all the unseen content and materials were appended from the Fu version as reference.

The original text is:

中國藝術研究院音樂研究所藏清末葉潛舊藏本。明常熟人虞山琴派宗師嚴嚴澂所「集」。原書刻於明萬曆甲寅（1614年），原板藏在常熟嚴家。因遭明末兵燹，「極闕其半」，嚴澂之孫嚴炳，於清順治丙申（1656年）間「簡家藏原稿，手錄所闕，捐貲付梓，訂成全書」（文見上海及南京圖書館所藏善本《松弦館琴譜》中的嚴炳跋文）。嚴嚴澂自序中指明最初「鋟梓」者，止二十二曲（見各本《松弦館琴譜》中的嚴澂自序），或二十三曲（《關雎》一曲也是嚴澂在鋟板過程中自己增加的，見各本《關雎》的曲跋）。但經過嚴炳補板以後之本，已增至二十八曲或二十九曲之多。又因自清初起，虞山琴派為世所宗，而嚴澂是虞山「琴川社」創始人，又是社中最早著集琴譜之人，故自清初以來《松弦館琴譜》既另有翻刻，亦另有贋本。其中不僅各曲的指法譜字間有分歧，而且內容材料和曲目也每有出入甚至早在清乾隆間江蘇巡撫採進之本就已經是抽去了嚴炳跋文的補板印本，並把它著為《四庫全書》中唯一的明代琴譜（文淵閣著錄本，今存國家圖書館）。

近百年來流傳的《松弦館琴譜》，大概都是用補板、翻板、殘本、贋本混合雜湊而成。至於初刻的萬曆原本現今不僅未聞海內外有存，即三百年來存見的古琴文獻中亦從未見有「原本」的明確著錄。為了慎重選擇，本編在現存公私庋藏「善本」——補刻與翻刻各本中，採用了音樂研究所的葉潛舊藏本。這是一個經過琴學考據家珍藏之本，它雖然也是存有部分爛板的補刻之本，但刷印較早。經與翻刻之傳惜華藏本相較，如《陽春》第六段，葉本作「* 四上六二立」，傅本作「*四二立」。後者脫漏「上六」兩字，顯然應以葉本為正。另《洞天春曉》，葉本作「飛廣」處，傅本均改作「土廣」。《關雎》曲跋，葉本作「萬曆丙辰春正月既望」，傅本改作「萬曆丙辰春正月吉旦」。因此，儘管葉本並不理想，畢竟訛誤較少，故本編以此本為正，另將其未見的內容材料，一律用傅本補附於後，作為參考。

("*" represents qin tablature that would be too complicated to reproduce here.

Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. From QQJC VIII/i. See further comment about the authorship.
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