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Areas and specific places

Many melodies can be associated with specific regions or places:

  1. Chu/Hunan (South Central China)
    Note in particular the characteristic tunings.

  2. North and Central Asia (including the Silk Road)
    About nomad problems, not trade; again note the characteristic tunings

  3. Lower Jiangnan (within a 200 km radius from Shanghai)
    Almost all melodies use standard tuning.
    For Hangzhou in particular, see Music from the Time of Marco Polo.

  4. Anhui Province
    Special focus on She county

  5. Henan Province
    Includes the ancient capitals Loyang and Kaifeng

  6. Xi'an (and southern Shaanxi province)
    Most related melodies are connected by early stories

  7. Nanjing
    Many important mid- and late-Ming qin handbooks were published here

  8. Japan
    The earliest surviving qin music was brought to Japan in the 17th c.; never localized

  9. Korea
    The qin was often imagined in literature and painting, but no known music

  10. Vietnam
    The qin was often mentioned in literature and painting, but no known music

  11. Other Areas
    Other melodies connected to specific known locations include

    1. Gui Qu Lai Ci (Come Away Home, set near Jiujiang, in Jiangxi)
    2. Linqiong Yin (Prelude of Linqiong, in Sichuan), and
    3. Xing Tan (Apricot Forum, where Confucius taught in Qu Fu, Shandong).

For some melodies the related places may be multiple, and/or the specific place may not be so easy to locate. Examples include

  1. Kongtong Wen Dao (Discussing the Dao at Kongtong Mountain, in Henan or Gansu)
  2. Mingde Yin and Kongsheng Jing (Bright Virtue Prelude / Sacred Confucian Canon; the latter is set to the text of the Great Learning; the former has Zhu Xi's commentary, probably written at the Yuelu Academy, a teaching institute (now also a museum) he had founded in Changsha, Hunan)
  3. Qingjing Jing (Canon of Purity and Tranquility; this chant is a morning lesson sung at a Daoist monastery in Wudang Mountain in northwest Hubei, but also elsewhere)
  4. Yu Hui Tushan (Emperor Yu had his capital in Henan but the Meeting at Mount Tu was supposedly near Shaoxing in Zhejiang).

 
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