Dong Tinglan

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Dong Tinglan
- Qin Shi #130

董庭蘭 ¹
琴史 #130 ²

Dong Tinglan (695 - ca. 765) was a famous qin player particularly connected with several melodies. These include Yi Zhen and one or more versions of Hu Jia.³

Xu Jian's Qinshi Chubian discusses Dong Tinglan in Chapter 5, as follows:

"Dong Tinglan (ca.699-ca.765) from Longxi, was a famous teacher during the flourishing Tang dynasty Kai Yuan (713-42) and Tianbao (742-56) reigns. At that time the qin schools in vogue were Shen family sound and Zhu family sound.⁴ He studied from Chen Huai(gu),⁵ who was then serving in the army at Fengzhou, (thus) obtaining the tones of these two (qin) schools, and also organized in qin tablature the piece Hu Jia, in which he was skilled. His student Zheng You,⁶ having a keen sense of hearing, tuned strings "to the greatest degree", "was especially good at the Shen sounds and Zhu sounds". Another student, Du Shanren (Du Ling⁷), was also rather capable of exceeding his teacher. Rong Yu⁸ praised him in a poem, 'The Shen school and Zhu school all reach their limit.' Several decades later the qin piece Xiao Hujia as played by Jiang Xuan ⁹ was described (by Yuan Zhen¹⁰) as follows, 'The mournful reedpipe slowly points to the Dong family volume.' At this time Dong Tinglan's fame and influence already exceeded and replaced that of the Shen and Zhu schools. Du Ling. According to

"Dong Tinglan's performing skills had then reached the pinnacle of perfection. Li Qi ¹¹'s poem 'Listening to the Great Dong Play the Hujia Sound' vividly describes how 'Slow to fast was all appropriate; as he moved around it seemed emotional.' This means that when changing from slow to fast tempi it was all appropriate to the feelings, and that as the melodies came and went they were all very expressive. Beautiful music drew the poet into a fanciful territory. 'Hidden in seclusion the changing tones suddenly float like wine; a sustained breeze blows through the forest, rain falls on the roof tiles. The spring gushes by, flying along the tree trunks; wild deer bleat as they stroll past my pavilion.' The expressive power of the music was as rich and moving as this. If it were not for the outstanding performance of Dong Tinglan, this famous poem by Li Qi describing the music would not have come into being.

"The prestige of Dong Tinglan's qin art was very high, receiving at that time the praise of many people...." (translation incomplete; Xu Jian goes on to discuss other poems praising Dong Tinglan's art).

References in Qinshu Daquan include:

Folio 16, #44 (Li Zhao's Guoshi Bu.
Folio 17, #20 (Sounds of the Shen and Zhu schools)
Folio 19B, #41 (A poem, Listening to the Great Dong Play Hujia)

Further details in preparation.

Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. 董庭蘭 Bio ; Xu Jian p.55 (Return)

2. 16 lines (Return)

3. See also Yunzhu Ta (Return)

4. Shen and Zhu schools
These qin schools are also discussed in QSDQ, Folio 17, #20. As for the sounds of the Shen and Zhu schools, Van Gulik, Lore, p.94, fn.44, concludes that no one really knows to whom or what this refers. His own guess is to the music theorist 沈約 Shen Yue (441-513), and a qin player apparently famous about that time 祝象賢 Zhu Xiangxian (Bio/xxx). (Return)

5. 陳懷古 Chen Huaigu, AKA 陳懷 Chen Huai
Chen Huaigu, as mentioned in QSCB, Chapter 5, was a teacher of Dong Tinglan. Chen's handbook is QSCM #p31 (Return)

6. 鄭宥 Zheng You
This Zheng You is not the same as the 鄭祐 Zheng You of Qin Shi Xu (Return)

7. Du Ling 杜陵
Du Ling (Bio/xxx) is better known as 杜山人 Du Shanren (Mountain Recluse Du), a student of Dong Tinglan. Rong Yu wrote about Du Ling in a poem (Return)

8. 戎昱 Rong Yu (8th c.)
Rong Yu: Bio/500 says he was an official as well as a poet. The poem mentioning Du Shanren is in QSDQ, Folio 19B, #61 (Return)

9. 姜宣 Jiang Xuan (Return)

10. 元稹 Yuan Zhen (799 - 831)
Yuan Zhen, style name 微之 Weizhi, was "one of the most celebrated poets and statesmen of the mid-Tang period" (ICTCL, p.949). His short story 鶯鶯傳 Yingying Zhuan (discussed at length in ICTCL) is mentioned in Wenjun Cao and Feng Qiu Huang. Liu and Lo, Sunflower Splendor, translates several of his poems, but I haven't yet found his 小胡笳引 Xiao Hujia Prelude. (The quote above is "哀笳慢指董家本"; 41049.1226 has another quote: 雷氏金徽琴，王君寶重輕千金。) (Return)

11. 李頎 Li Qi
Li Qi (14819.1463) has several lyrics referenced on this site, including

'Listening to the Great Dong Play the Hujia Sound'
Xiang Consorts
(Return)

. (Return)

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