Nan Pu Yue

The present melody survives only through tablature preserved in Japan.⁴ Its lyrics are attributed to He Zhou (Song dynasty),⁵ but there seems to be very little written about him - elsewhere you can read that these lyrics are anonymous.

The Nan Pu in the title could simply mean "riverbank", it could refer to a specific place, or it was also the name of a cipai. As for the origins of Nan Pu Yue itself as a ci form, this is not yet clear.⁶ It has clear relationships with the ci form called 點降脣 Dian Jiang Chun (A Touch of Red Lips), but the relationships are not always there, or clear.⁷

The clear part of the connection occurs when the lyrics here have the same structure as those of Dian Jiang Chun in 1682 (滴瀝新晴，高秋雲薄渾如削....) as well as in the melody Cao Tang Yin (XII/), where it is #2. However, a comparison of the actual tablature suggests that the two melodies had quite different rhythms. And both titles also can be found with quite different structures.

The opera Xi Xiang Ji has several songs said to be accompanied by a melody named Nan Pu Yue, though with what look like shortened versions of the lyrical pattern.

Nan Pu Yue is also transcribed in Wang Di (#40, pp.104).

Original preface
None

Music (看五線譜 see transcription; timings follow 聽我的錄音 my recording)
The lyrics are as follows (compare with 點絳唇 Dian Jiang Chun here and below)

00.01
鶯踏花翻，亂紅堆徑無人掃。 (鶯 yīng is sometimes written 鸎 yīng [same meaning])
Yīng tà huā fān, luàn hóng duī jìng wú rén sǎo.
Where orioles tread flowers are muddled,
chaotic red clumps dot the path but no one sweeps it up.
杜鵑來了，梅子枝頭小。
Dù juān lái liao, méi zi zhī tóu xiǎo.
Cuckoo birds (rhododendrons?) have come,
plum tree branch tips are small.
撥盡琵琶，總是相思調。
Bō jǐn pí pá, zǒng shì xiāng sī diào.
Plucked heartily on the pipa,
They always are songs of mutual affection.
知音少。
Zhī yīn shǎo.
Friends who really know you are few.

暗傷懷抱，門掩青春老。
Àn shāng huái bào, mén yǎn qīng chūn lǎo.
Hidden distress through cherished hugs,
The gate shuts as youth grow old.
00.54

This translation is quite tentative. As for the form of the lyrics, there are 41 characters structured as follows:

4+7
4+5
4+5
3
4+5

No translation yet. As for the structure, it is the same as that of the Dian Jiang Chun discussed here, but different from Nan Pu, as discussed here.

Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. South Bank Moon ( Nan Pu Yue (QQJC XII/201)
References include:
2798.371 南浦 nanpu (no 南浦月 Nan Pu Yue) gives the basic meaning "southern bank of a river", but then also gives it as the name of a number of places, districets, streams and so forth. No mention of a cipai.

1/897 南浦 Nan Pu (no mention of 月 yue) says it is 詞牌名 the name of a cipai, tracing it to a Tang dynasty song called 南浦子 Nanpuzi and adding that in the Song dynasty they borrowed the name for a new melody that was 雙調，分一百零二字平韻及一百零五仄韻兩體 was a shuangdiao of two types with 102 and 105 characters respecitvely.

For further references see also

See also in 四庫全書 under (?).
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2. The handbook calls the mode 商音 Shang Yin. (Return)

3. Image: Original tablature for Nan Pu Yue
Copied from QQJC XII/201.
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4. Tracing Nan Pu Yue
Zha Guide 35/--/506 lists this title only in Japan.
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5. 何籀 He Zhou
Bio/xxx; Song dynasty. This website says only that he was from what is today Hebei and only one poem of his exists, 宴清都 Yan Qing Du (the name of a cipai), which it then quotes. 何籀(Zhòu)，字子初，信安（今河北霸縣）人。現存詞一首。何籀的詩詞全集

《宴清都》年代:宋代作者: 何籀
細草沿階軟。遲日薄，蕙風輕藹微暖。春工靳惜，桃紅尚小，柳芽猶短。羅幃繡幕高卷。又早是、歌慵笑懶。憑畫樓，那更天遠，山遠，水遠，人遠。堪歡。傳粉疏狂，竊香俊雅，無計拘管。青絲絆馬，紅巾寄淚，甚處迷戀。無言淚珠零亂。翠袖滴、重重漬遍。故要知、別後思量。歸時覷見。

It is thus not clear how this poem of his was set to music and published in Japan.
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6. Nan Pu and Nan Pu Yue as cipai
Further study required, but see next footnote.
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7. 點降脣 Dian Jiang Chun references
49065.47 says Dian Jiang Chun is both a cipai and a qupai. It does not mention Nan Pu Yue.

For poems called Dian Jiang Chun see also:

Section 2 of the melody Cao Tang Yin (XII/219; "細雨斜風...."). Linked here are a recording (01.18) and transcription (page 2).
A Dian Jiang Chun in 1682 (滴瀝新晴，高秋雲薄渾如削....). Not yet reconstructed.
One by Jiang Kui (not one of his 17 ci.
姜夔《點絳唇．丁未冬過吳松作》
Jiang Kui (Rouged Lips; Passing by Wusong in the Winter of 1187)
燕雁無心，太湖西畔隨雲去。
數峰清苦，商略黃昏雨。
第四橋邊，擬共天隨住。今何許？
憑欄懷古，殘柳參差舞。
Translated by Joseph Lam, Ménage, p.626.
By Li Qingzhao.

點絳唇 is also written 點降脣
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