Qin songs seem particularly to have appealed to amateur qin societies and to female qin players. This and related issues are further discussed on this website under such topics as Women and the Guqin and The Qin in Popular Culture: Novels and Opera.

It should also be noted that Matteo Ricci spent some time here, making the acquaintances of numerous literati. One possible outline for the program Music from the Time of Matteo Ricci imagines an "elegant gathering" where Jesuits and literati exchange melodies that could have been in the repertoire of the Jesuit musicians and the Chinese literati. Ricci apparently did take part in such gatherings, though there seems to be no record of music having been played at any of them.

Early qin melodies with Nanjing connections through players and handbooks associated with that city include:

1. Jiu Kuang (Wine Mad)
   All three sung versions were published in Nanjing handbooks (1585, 1589 and 1618). The melody has long been associated with Ruan Ji; a famous Nanjing brick relief shows him as one of the Seven Sages.

2. Xiang Si Qu (Melody of Mutual Affection)
   This melody, published first in Nanjing, appears in Japanese handbooks, showing a qin connection between Nanjing and Japan dating from Shin-Etsu (Jiang Jingshou).

3. Mozi Bei Ge (Mozi Sings with Feeling)
   Note the Matteo Ricci connection and the comment about a player named Gao Longbo.⁴

4. Saishang Hong (Wild Geese on the Frontier)
   First surviving version is 金陵鄭養居校傳 Revised by Zheng Yangju of Jinling (Nanjing) and transmitted (not reconstructed)

Two melodies with themes directly connected to Nanjing are:

1. Jinling Diao Gu ⁵ (In Nanjing Mourning the Olden Days)

2. Mudan Fu ⁶ (Rhapsody on Peonies; 1 section)

These two melodies were apparently created by Yang Biaozheng, whose Chongxiu Zhenchuan Qinpu is included the list below of handbooks associated with Nanjing.⁷

The early qin handbooks associated (some associations are tentative) with Nanjing include:

1. Faming Qinpu (1530)
   Handbook of qin master Huang Longshan, from Jiangxi but living in Nanjing (see image and QSCB, Chapter 7); the preface was written in Nanjing.

2. Qinpu Zhengchuan (1547/1561)
   Apparently printed in Nanjing by Yang Jiasen.

3. Taiyin Chuanxi (1552/1561),
   Handbook of Li Ren; tentative association with Nanjing based on its connection to Taiyin Buyi and Taiyin Chuanxi, below.

4. Taiyin Buyi (1557) and
   Handbook of Xiao Luan; association with Nanjing, tentative and perhaps peripheral, largely based on comments by Xu Jian linked above.

5. Taiyin Xupu (1559)
   Second handbook of Xiao Luan; association with Nanjing also tentative.

6. Chongxiu Zhenchuan Qinpu (1585)
   Handbook of the famous Nanjing qin master Yang Biaozheng (see image and QSCB, Chapter 7); he apparently created or adapted all of the melodies, at least two of them directly connected to Nanjing (see above).

7. Zangchunwu Qinpu (1602)
   Zangchunwu is a district of Nanjing; published by eunuchs (compare Yuwu Qinpu).

8. Zhenchuan Zhengzong Qinpu (1589 and 1609)
   Compiled by Yang Lun of Nanjing (see image and QSCB, Chapter 7)

9. Lixing Yuanya (1618)
   Compiled by Zhang Tingyu, perhaps of Nanjing

Information about famous early qin players connected to Nanjing will be added later.

 
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. Nanjing Area
A program on this theme could be expanded to include surrounding areas, such as 滁州 Chuzhou, about 100 km northwest of Nanjing, location of Ouyang Xiu's Old Toper's Pavilion (see Zui Weng Yin). (Return)

2. Images of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove 竹林七賢圖
At least three tombs in the Nanjing area have tombs with brick relief images of the Seven Sages (or Seven Worthies). The best preserved is the one discovered in 1959 in a tomb near 西善橋 Xishanqiao, a bridge on the southwest side of Nanjing. In 1968 two similar tombs, which originally also had complete sets of images, were found at 吳家村 Wujiacun (near 胡橋 Huqiao) and 金家村 Jinjiacun (near 建山 Jianshan), in northeastern 丹陽縣 Danyang county, east of Nanjing. The Seven Sages had lived near Luoyang during the time it was capital of the Wei (220 - 265) and Western Jin (265 - 317). The tombs were built near Nanjing when it was capital of the Eastern Jin (317 - 420), Liu Song (420 - 479), or Southern Qi, 479 - 502). The 晉 Jin rulers had been driven from north to south by northern tribes.
(Return)

3. To my knowledge no research has been done in this area. It is a very complex topic, and it should include analysis of how melodies published earlier and changed when published in Nanjing handbooks. I play many of these earlier versions of the melodies, but have not studied the versions published in Nanjing carefully enough to be able to discern any trends. (Return)

4. Apparently living in Nanjing at the time of Matteo Ricci: note the possible connection with Mozi Bei Ge. (Return)

5. 金陵吊古 Jinling Diao Gu (In Nanjing Mourning the Olden Days; 9)
Guide 25/212/386 lists this title only in 1585 (QQJC IV/311). The preface says that the melody commemorates returning to Nanjing with 張徵軒 Zhang Zhixuan (Zhengxuan?) during Mid-Autumn Festival of 1579, playing the qin and intoning beneath the moon.

Lyrics begin 始皇巡狩馭飛龍，遙瞻王氣在江東。疏鑿秦淮斷地脈，埋金豫鎮鍾山中....
(Return)

6. 牡丹賦 Mudan Fu (Rhapsody on Peonies; 1 section)
Guide 26/214/396 lists a Mudan Fu only in 1585 (QQJC IV/338). The introduction recalls in spring 1575 friends going together to the 都察院 Chief Censorate to see peonies. (The Chief Censorate had moved from Nanjing to Beijing around 1425 CE, so presumably this was the location of the original Ming censorate, in Nanjing. The poem, line 12, refers to the 烏臺 Wutai, another name for the 御史臺 Yushitai, i.e, censorate.) With them was a censor, 白嶽何其賢 He Qixian from Baiyue (in Anhui). The introduction also mentions 沈萬三家 the home of Shen Wansan, a man of great wealth who built a mansion in Nanjing at the beginning of the Ming dynasty.

The original introduction is as follows,

The original lyrics are 14 lines of 7 + 7 :