According to a story from the Han dynasty book of Liezi, a young man went to the seaside every morning and hundreds of birds all came right up to him. When his father heard of this he asked his son to bring some home. However, the next time the boy went to the seashore the birds hovered about but would not come down to him.⁴ According to another version the old man himself never noticed the birds as he fished, so they came right up to him. One night he decided he should catch one, but the next day when he went out the birds would not come near. In his own preface Zhu Quan seems to combine both of these two storie.

This title (with several variants) has been very popular, appearing in 48 surviving handbooks from 1425 to 1961.⁵ However, only the first five (plus two related versions with other titles) to 1585 are musically related to the melody played here.⁶ The other 41 evolved from a completely unrelated Oulu Wang Ji (Seabirds [trust those with] No Ulterior Motives) first published in 1620. This latter melody became the version still played today, still usually called Oulu Wangji.⁷ Xilutang Qintong (1549) has the old version but also calls it Oulu Wangji. The other two titles for surviving versions of the old melody are Teng Liu Yin⁸ (Melody of Teng Liu, deity of snow), and Jin Shan Yin⁹ (Completed Skills Intonation).

The reputed composer Liu Zhifang,¹⁰ from Tiantai in Zhejiang province, is also credited with a piece called Wujiang Yin.¹¹ He was a student of Guo Chuwang and thus one of the qin players in the Zhe(jiang) School of the Southern Song Dynasty, which flourished in Hangzhou during the 12th and 13th centuries. Yang Zan, who collected a large number of qin pieces in his now-lost Rosy Cloud Cave Handbook, was particularly impressed when he heard Guo's pieces in the shang mode.¹²

Other than my own, there are no other recordings of any of the early versions of this theme.¹³

 
Original Preface¹⁴

The Emaciated Immortal says

this piece was written in the Song dynasty by Mr. Liu Zhifang of Tiantai. Some say its meaning follows that of Liezi's story about the Old Man of the Sea, who had no ulterior motives, and so birds didn't fly (away from him). The fingers are used to achieve this. Perhaps it has the same flavor as sitting down and forgetting meanings.

 
Music
Two sections (Titles from Chongxiu Zhenchuan Qinpu ¹⁵)

(00.00) 1. The ulterior motives stop
(00.51) 2. Sitting in tranquility
(01.58) -- harmonics
(02.11) -- Melody ends

Return to the Shen Qi Mi Pu ToC or to the Guqin ToC.

 
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. Wang Ji references
10543.54 忘機，心無紛競，淡焉漠焉，謂之忘機 ; calm and detached, quotes poem by Li Bai. No mention of qin
48240.41 鷗鷺忘機: qin melody title; quotes the story from the book of Liezi
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2. Standard tuning is also considered as 5 6 1 2 3 5 6. For further information on shang mode see Shenpin Shang Yi and Modality in Early Ming Qin Tablature.
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3. No images yet available.
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4. Liezi: see the Book of Lieh-Tsu, Yellow Emperor, translated in A. C. Graham, pp.45/6
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5. See Zha Guide, three entries:

Although there is no version in 1491, the lyrics from 1585 can be made to fit the 1425 version (Section 1, badly; Section 2, easily). This perhaps suggests that the original edition of 1491 included this melody.
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6. Tracing Wang Ji
The four versions of the apparently Song dynasty Wang Ji melody, plus the three related melodies discussed in the text above, are in handbooks dated:

1. 1425 (Wang Ji; 2 sections)
2. 1539 (Wang Ji; identical to 1425)
3. 1549 (Oulu Wang Ji; 3 sections)
4. 1551 (Teng Liu Yin; 3 sections)
5. 1557 (Teng Liu Yin; identical to 1551)
6. 1561 (Jin Shan Yin; 2 sections)
7. 1585 (Wang Ji; 2, lyrics, gong mode and rather different, but still related to 1425)
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7. No Ulterior Motives regarding Seabirds (鷗鷺忘機 Oulu Wang Ji), modern version
Oulu Wang Ji as played today can be traced to a melody first surviving from Sizhaitang Qinpu (1620), a handbook compiled by the wife of a late Ming dynasty prince. That version has no commentary, so its origins are unknown, but it has continued to be connected to the same story from Liezi told with the SQMP version and its six related versions, the last of which was published in 1585. The 1620 version, in 3 sections, is printed in QQJC IX/29; versions related to it can be found in almost 40 Qing dynasty handbooks (Zha Guide, 4/42/64), but the one commonly played today is said to be based on the one published in 1802 (also in 3 sections; see in Guqin Quji, I/250). Although the 1620 and 1802 versions are clearly related, there are also noteworthy differences: the 1620 version is somewhat shorter, missing, for example, the opening glissandos.

Xu Jian discusses this later Oulu Wang Ji under Qing dynasty melodies (QSCB, Chapter 8). After summarizing the story from Liezi he mentions the Song dynasty Wang Ji Qu by Liu Zhifang, saying that the Qing dynasty version was both shorter (according to my analysis this statement is incorrect) and a completely new piece, different in both style and content. He continues,

I am not sure what this example is intended to "try" to show. Note that there are many recordings available of modern versions related to this.
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8. 滕六吟 Teng Liu Yin (Intonation of Teng Liu, deity of snow)
18466.2 Teng Liu 滕六﹕雪神名。見古書《幽怪錄》。 This version of Wang Ji survives only in 太音傳習 Taiyin Chuanxi (1551; QQJC IV/63) and Taiyin Buyi (1557; QQJC III/327); the two are identical, and both are used as a prelude to Bai Xue (White Snow). An old story book called Youguai Lu (幽怪錄 9411.59xx uncanny, spooky) tells of a deer, knowing a notorious hunter is after him, who prays to the diety of snow. The next day there is heavy wind and snow so the hunter does not come out.
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9. 盡善吟 Jin Shan Yin (Intonation of the Perfectly Good)
23556.36 盡善 jin shan refers to .37 盡善盡美 (perfectly beautiful and perfectly good), quoting Lun Yu, 八佾 Bayi/25 (D. C. Lau, p. 27). In that passage Confucius uses these terms to describe the Shao music of Emperor Shun. This version of Wang Ji survives only in Qinpu Zhengchuan (1561; QQJC II/517), where it has two sections and is used as a prelude to Xiaoshao Jiucheng Fenghuang Laiyi.
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10. 2270.xxx 劉志方 Liu Zhifang, from 天台 Tian Tai, near the coast about 150 km southeast of Hangzhou, is discussed in Xu Jian p.89: 郭楚望; 楊瓚; 紫霞洞譜十三卷; 毛敏仲; 吳江吟. Xu Jian gives as reference a 胡長孺，紫外譜琴序.
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11. Wujiang Yin 吳江吟
Wujiang is a town about 25 km south of Suzhou. 3453.xxx has no references to music, nor is this title included in any handbooks or melody lists.
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12. There is further discussion of Liu Zhifang and his Hangzhou contemporaries in QSCB, Chapter 6a3. See also Shen Qi Mi Pu: A General Introduction.
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13. My own version is included in my Shen Qi Mi Pu recordings.
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14. For the original text see 忘機.
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15. For the original titles see 忘機.
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