大還閣琴譜 Dahuan'ge Qinpu

Dahuan'ge Qinpu has 32 melodies said to have been written down as played by Xu Hong (徐谼; Xu Qingshan 徐青山; 1580 - 1650) of Taicang (near Suzhou). It is generally considered to be the second important handbook of the Yushan school (see further analysis), after the Songxianguan Qinpu of 1614. In fact, of the 32 melodies in Dahuange Qinpu, 22 were also in Songxian Guan Qinpu (1614; see its ToC). All but one appear here in the same order as there.

Because the date 1673 seems to put Dahuan'ge Qinpu later than the main focus of this website, its Table of Contents was originally listed here only under the Songxianguan QinpuTable of Contents.

However, although Dahuange Qinpu was apparently organized and edited (訂正) in 1673, this was done by a student of Xu Hong named 夏溥 Xia Pu based on tablature transmitted by his teacher. The fact that this was 20 years after his teacher had died) suggests, together with other details, that the melodies in Dahuan'ge Qinpu reached their published form quite a while before 1673. In fact, since the lives of Xu Qingshan (1580 - 1650) and Yan Cheng (1547-1625) overlapped for 45 years, and they shared at least one teacher, it may not be correct to assume that the versions of the 1673 handbook are always later than those of 1614.

Thus this introduction to Dahuange Qinpu has now been given a entry separate from Songxianguan Qinpu.

Dahuange Qinpu has 32 melodies in 6 folios. But although of these 32 melodies, 22 were also in the 1614 handbook (see its ToC), all but one appearing here in the same order. in fact these 1673 tablatures are not identical to the versions published earlier. In addition, the ten which were not included in 1614 include two melodies not known to have been previously published anywhere else. These are:

#3 和陽春 He Yang Chun (first of 12)
#28 炎凉操 Yan Liang Cao (only here and its copy in 1876)

In addition, its last two melodies, unlike any of the 1614 melodies, use non-standard tuning.

Dahuan'ge Qinpu also includes Xu Hong's important essay 溪山琴況 Xishan Qin Kuang (X/310-325; compare Lengxian Qinsheng 16 fa).

Kee Chee-Koon (紀志群 Ji Zhiqun), a Singaporean qin player, has done quite a bit of work on Dahuan'ge Qinpu, including reconstructing a number of its melodies. In 2012 he told me he planned to do further research focused on this important handbook, perhaps even write a doctoral dissertation that includes a reconstruction of all its melodies. This would be very significant. For many years Kee (has) had a music shop in Singapore called 三樂琴軒 Three Tunes, but by 2012 he was spending most of his time based in Wuhan, China. At present I do not know whether he is still working on this handbook. (See 致遠堂.)

Stylistic development of the Yushan School
Modal changes in Qiujiang Ye Bo reveal one example of stylistic development; here it is not clear to what extent the Yu Shan school was simply following general trends and to what extent it was influencing them.

To understand Yan Cheng's own changes it might of course be particularly interesting to uncover a book such as the Qinchuan Pu Hui discussed as Qinshu Cunmu #188, especially if it had somewhat differing versions of the Songxianguan Qinpu melodies.

Return to the annotated handbook list or to the GuqinToC. Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. 大還閣琴譜 Da Huan Ge Qinpu (1673; QQJC X)
Its Table of Contents are under Songxian Guan Qinpu because that is considered to be the earliest Yushan school handbook.
(Return)

Return to the annotated handbook list or to the Guqin ToC.