Xi Xiang Ji

In Xi Xiang Ji, as written in the 13th c. CE by Wang Shifu,³ Scholar Zhang while preparing for the civil service exam comes to Buddhist monastery, where he sees and falls in love with Cui Yingying (Oriole).⁴ Her mother has promised her to another, but by defeating some bandits he gains approval to marry Oriole. However, when he then goes to take the exam the mother tries to marry her to the original suitor. Scholar Zhang returns just in time finally to marry her.

In the opera Scholar Zhang originally seduces Oriole by playing a qin song in his room while she listens from outside.⁵ The lyrics, said to have been used originally by Sima Xiangru to seduce Zhuo Wenjun, are those of the melody Wen Jun Cao (links there to recordings), also called Feng Qiu Huang (but compare another set of lyrics used with the 1549 Feng Qiu Huang).

In an ensuing aria Student Zhang mentions several other qin melodies, suggesting they are less romantic.⁶

This story can be traced back to Yingying Zhuan, a Tang dynasty short story by Yuan Zhen (799-831),⁷ where it is Yingying playing the qin. She at one stage mentions the Sima Xiangru story, but there are no relevant lyrics. A close approximation of these lyrics occurs, in the earliest surviving complete zhugongdiao,⁸ called Xixiang Ji Zhugongdiao, dating from the 12th century. Although these lyrics are also attributed to Sima Xiangru, I don't know of any earlier occurrence than this.

Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. Xixiang Ji 西廂記
The most complete translation of Xixiang Ji is Stephen H. West and Wilt L. Idema (ed. and transl.), The Moon and the Zither; Berkeley, University of California Press, 1991. A modern illustrated abridgement is The Western Chamber, Hong Kong, Hai Feng Publishing Co. 1982. The play is discussed in LXS, p.33.
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2. Image from 張國標 Zhang Guobiao, ed., 徽派版畫藝術 Art of Woodcut of the Huizhou School, 安徽省美術出版社 Anhui Publishing House, 1995, p.112 ("北西廂記").
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3. 王實甫 Wang Shifu (fl. 13th c.)
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4. 張生 Scholar Zhang; 崔永鶯鶯 Cui Yingying.
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5. Note that as she is approaching the room where he plays, Yingying speaks of the the moon as "The Palace of Spreading Frigidity" (Guang Han Gong, as in Guanghan You), and as she hears him tuning the qin she wonders if her walking is causing sound from her hanging jade pendants (huanpei, as in Tianfeng Huanpei). See West and Idema, op.cit., p.267ff.
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6. West and Idema, p. 273. The Chinese text there has Scholar Zhang singing,

"本宮、始終不同。又不是《清夜聞鐘》，又不是《黃鶴醉翁》，又不是《泣麟悲鳳》".

In the surviving qin repertoire, the first title mentioned, Qing Ye Wen Zhong, has the same melody as the third Qi Lin Bei Feng. As for the second, Huang He Zui Weng, there is a qin melody called Zui Weng Yin, but I do not know of one with the words Huang He (Yellow Crane) in the title.
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7. Yingying Zhuan 鶯鶯傳
Yingying Zhuan, by 元稹 Yuan Zhen, is translated in James Hightower, "Yuan Chen and the story of Ying-ying." Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 33, 93-103. The translation is included in several compilations, including Stephen Owen, An Anthology of Chinese Literature.
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8. 諸宮調 zhugongdiao, a type of narrative tale
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