Qin Shi Chubian 5b1

The "hujia" was originally a wind instrument from minority ethnic groups in the northern parts of our country. During the Han dynasty it was transmitted into the (Han regions) and developed into the Tang-dynasty bili and today's guan. Due to its loud volume, it was used in martial music to raise morale. "The old Han-dynasty 'Record of Zheng (zither) and Di (flute) Melodies' (Zheng Di Lu) included this melody" (Song Shu: Yue Zhi). During Jin dynasty ceremonial music, when carriages stopped, Xiao Hujia was played; when carriages departed, Da Hujia was played (Song Zhi referring to Jin Xian Can Yi Zhu). During the Northern and Southern dynasties, the "Da Hujia Resonance" and "Xiao Hujia Resonance" included in Xianghe Qu were played with qin, zheng, sheng, zhu (flute), and other instruments. Shen Family Sounds (Shenjia Sheng) and Zhu Family Sounds (Zhujia Sheng), popular in the early Tang dynasty, were represented by the melodies Da Hujia and Xiao Hujia (Guoshi Bu). Because at the time, "only qin players still conveyed the old sound of Chu and Han", it is possible that these two melodies were kept out of Xianghe Qu (neither one is in YFSJ, only Hujia Shibapai and Hujia Qu). Through the dispersion of the houses of Shen and Chu, and especially the organization and teachings of Dong Tinglan during the peak of the Tang dynasty, they became popular in qin circles. Tang-dynasty poets vividly illustrated its artistic expression and many qin musicians considered it a mandatory melody, thus rendering it the most representational melody of Tang dynasty.

The content of Da Hujia is in accordance with Cai Yan's Beifen Shi (Poem of Angry Grief). During the chaos of war near the end of Han dynasty, (his daughter) Cai Yan stayed with the Southern Xiongnu for twelve long years. Though she married Prince Zuoxian, she still missed her homeland dearly. Yet when Cao Cao sent a delegate to bring her back to interior China, she was reluctant to leave the two children she had borne and raised there, thus her joy of returning home was submerged by her grief of parting with her family and she was endlessly ambivalent. The poet Li Qi, in his poem "Listening to the Great Dong Play Hujia", began by leading the reader into such a mood: "Miss Cai once created the sounds of Hujia, playing it altogether in eighteen sections. The Hu dropped tears on the grass and the Han delegate grieved for the returning guest." Her sentiment at parting deeply touched the Hu but also brought grief to the Han delegate sent there to bring her home. 戎昱 Rong Yu, in "Listening to Du Shanren Play Hujia", also grasped this most contradictory and penetrating scene: "looking south to see the Han moon, one'e eyes brighten; yet caring for the Hu child kills the heart inch by inch." Returning south is clearly what she has looked forward to for a long time, but looking at the child she was about to abandon, she felt great emotional pain. There is no doubt that music's expression of this complicated emotion is especially touching.

Based on this understanding, Liu Shang of Tang dynasty wrote the long poem Hujia Qu. In his preface, he wrote "The Hu recalled Wenji in admiration and made a jia out of reed leaves to express their grief. Later on, Dong (Tinglan) created the sound of Hujia with qin in 18 sections that are now called the Hujia melody." He believed that in the beginning, "the Hu recalled Wenji with admiration" and created this, reflecting the friendship between these two peoples. Regarding the belief that this was expressing friendship between the two ethnic groups, Liu Shang and Li Qi had a consensus. Yet, he never mentioned the story of Cai making the Hujia sounds, instead returning credit for their creation to the Hu people. The two poets differ on this point. Who is correct? It seems that in the Song dynasty Zhu Changwen was correct in Qin Shi: "the sound of Hujia that has been passed down through generations was created by Wenji; this is its essence."

Liu Shang in his poem preface wrote, "Later on, Dong created the sound of Hujia with qin in 18 sections that are now called the Hujia melody." This is also basically in accord with the truth, because the popular Hujia melody then really was organized and written down by Dong Tinglan. He elevated a "sound" to a "melody". However, it is not appropriate for those later on to believe that Dong was the creator. This is because Dong Tinglan inherited the Shen family sounds and Zhu family sounds, thus it would be more historically accurate to say that he was a combiner.

Da Hujia is a pure-instrumental piece that is not directly related to works of literature. The poems of Li Qi and Rong Yu only wrote of performance and never of singing. Liu Shang's long poem, though it was also 18 sections long, was only for reading and not singing, which is why Qinshu Daquan said that it was "popular everywhere; women and children could both recite it with familiarity." Surviving qin handbooks refer to Liu's poem lines as titles for each chapter, but only for reference regarding the understanding of the music, not because it is a qin song. Because the two differ too much in form, as Liu's poem lines are orderly while the melodic (phrases) vary in length, some paragraphs differing by five times. Thus they cannot possibly be sung in combination.

The tablature for Da Hujia uses Liu's poem for section titles, but this is not the case for the Hujia Shiba Pai (Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Reed Pipe) that was passed to later generations, because this piece had not emerged in the Tang dynasty, not even its name. Although Da Hujia had eighteen sections, it was called Hujia Sheng (Sounds of a Nomad Reed Pipe), Hujia Nong or Hujia Qu (Nomad Reed Pipe Melody). Liu Shang's poem at the time was only called Hujia Qu. As for Guo Maojing of the Song dynasty naming it Hujia Shiba Pai in Yuefu Shiji, that came later on.

The Hujia Shiba Pai that emerged in the southern Song dynasty had both lyrics and melody; it was an excellent melody while the lyrics were a good poem. The integration of the Hujia Shiba Pai lyrics and melody is fairly compact, which can be considered to have been influenced by Da Hujia. However, it is not the same piece as the Tang-dynasty Da Hujia and there were few similarities in musical structure or melodic style, thus they should not be confused.

Although Xiao Hujia was smaller in scale than Da Hujia, the general sentiment expressed in the two melodies is the same. Yuan Zhen described this in his "Preface to Xiao Hujia":

"The Hu geese swallow their mournfulness; the windlass around one's fingers is round. To swallow one's hatred and contain one's anger is too reckless; one's emotions of the mountains of his country are clear."

In accord with this content understanding, in existing tablature, the section titles of Xiao Hujia are:

Yan Gui Si Han (The geese are returning, so she thinks of China),
Chui Jia Su Yuan (Blowing on the reed pipe to express her grief),
Wu Suo Kong Su (She cannot control her words), and
Yang Tian Chang Tan (Offering up a great sigh to heaven).

This, too, expresses, through the returning south of seasonal geese, her longing for her country as she remains away. This not only characterizes Cai Yan but in general those who live on the frontier and their nostalgia. This is how frontier poetry took shape in music at the time. To some degree, one can see it as an accusation against "Emperor Wu's mind still remaining on warfare".

The earliest surviving Da Hujia and Xiao Hujia tablature are both found in Shen Qi Mi Pu. Da Hujia is arranged in the second folio of Xiawai Shenpin as one of the melodies that the editor personally learned. On the other hand, Xiao Hujia, along with Guangling San and other old melodies, is arranged in Folio I of Taigu Shengpin, as "secrets not passed down from the past". The tablature for the latter also lacks punctuation and had obviously not been played for a long time. Thus, its style of recording is more primitive, retaining more characteristics of Tang-dynasty music. There are three main points: