Here the melody begins with "The courier station's willows are hidden".⁵ It then it directly quotes and expands upon the famous poem by Wang Wei, Weicheng Tune, Seeing Yuan Er off to Anxi.⁶ This Wang Wei poem is then used in each section. Each section also has a refrain. Such repetition of lyrics is not typical of qin songs, at least in their printed form. It might be added that classical texts are rather silent when it comes to the relationship between the printed texts of the songs and the actual performance of them.⁷

Yangguan is one of the most famous Chinese melodies, often played on other instruments. As a qin melody it occurs in 29 handbooks from <1491 to 1961 (see Tracing Chart.⁸) As for the two basic versions of this piece, in early handbooks the short one is usually called Yangguan Sandie. The longer one, however, though also originally called Yangguan Sandie, is more often called Yangguan Qu or simply Yangguan; later it was also known as Yangguan Cao, Da Yangguan, Qiujiang Songbie (Autumn River Parting) or Chunjiang Songbie (Spring River Parting).

Both versions include Wang Wei's lyrics above, and both use variations on the same melody. The earliest surviving one, the Yangguan Sandie in Zheyin Shizi Qinpu, as is typical of the long version, has eight (nine including the coda) sections.

The long version survives in eight handbooks through 1623, then again crops up in two 19th century handbooks. This short version survives in 21 handbooks. Four handbooks have both versions.

Although this version in Faming Qinpu is very similar to the version commonly played today, it uses a different tuning. Modern versions all use ruibin (raised fifth string) tuning, but early tablature (including that in Zheyin Shizi Qinpu) may use either ruibin or qiliang (raised second and fifth strings). Some handbooks say or imply they use qiliang, but actually use ruibin. It is easy to convert from one tuning to the other, because the second string is not used much. Main cadences are on 6 (la), as is common in ruibin mode.

Yangguan Sandie is played today largely as printed in Qinxue Rumen (1864). The music, still in three sections, is very similar to that of this short version in Faming Qinpu, but the lyrics (other than the Wang Wei poem) are quite different. In addition, the lyrics are not written alongside the tablature, instead being placed at the end of the Yangguan Sandie tablature. This is perhaps one reason it is rarely sung today. In fact the lyrics there can easily be paired to the music by following the normal formula of one character for each right hand stroke and certain left hand strokes.⁹

 
Preface

None. See the Zheyin Shizi Qinpu version.

 
Music and Lyrics¹⁰
Three Sections, untitled

 
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. 42673.380 Yang Guan San Die refers to .381 Yangguan Qu (曲), "another name for the melody 渭城曲，送元二出便安西 Weicheng Qu, Seeing Yuan Er off to Anxi"; neither entry mentions the qin or qin melody. (Return)

2. See further comment on tuning and mode.
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3. See further comment.
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4. See the commentary on the version in Zheyin Shizi Qinpu; its section titles can be translated as follows:

5. 長亭柳陰陰。 Changting liu yin yin. This line is sung three times in each verse. "Changting" (42022.292 in olden days, the courier stations that occurred every ten li on roadways) are not mentioned in the Long version. This courier station must be at Weicheng, the port town for Chang An on the Wei river.
(Return)

6. The Wang Wei poem 渭城曲，送元二出便安西 as found in 300 Poems of the Tang Dynasty, is as follows:

7. In general qin tablature places the lyrics next to the tablature, pairing the two on the basis of one character for each right hand stroke, as well as one for certain left hand techniques. The standard method of singing these songs today is for the voice simply to follow the qin melody, making adjustments only to keep the voice within its natural range. This sort of unison singing is not common in other Chinese genres, where the music tends to be more heterophonic. I know of no ancient texts describing how the songs might have been sung, but my personal tendency is to try to expand beyond this unison singing. In addition, the brevity of some song suggests that in performance the intention was that they be expanded. Once again, however, I know of no classical texts outlining how this might be done. There is some further discussion of this in the Introduction to Zheyin Shizi Qinpu.
(Return)

8. The Chart Tracing Yangguan Sandie is based largely on Zha Fuxi's index 12/124/222, 14/149/258 and 41/--/560.
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9. In the Qinxue Rumen version the Wang Wei lyrics appear in exactly the same place as in the Faming Qinpu version. Most of the other lyrics are different, but they have almost the same pattern as those in Qinxue Rumen. Thus the Faming Qinpu lyrics (see below) can easily be sung to the Qinxue Rumen tablature. It might also be noted that in the Qinxue Rumen tablature there are no instrumental interludes, only music with song, but some players add a few notes at the front and/or repeat a phrase or two without repeating the lyrics.
(Return)

10. In Chinese these Faming Qinpu lyrics are as follows:

Return to Faming Qinpu or to the Guqin ToC.