The tales' most common locales are Tiantai Mountain, southeast of Shaoxing in Zhejiang province,⁵ and Wuling Mountain, in northwestern Hunan province.⁶ In the story usually associated with Wuling Mountain a man goes to a peach tree spring, where he finds an idyllic society which knows nothing of history or the affairs of the world; he leaves, intending to come back, but cannot find it again. This version of the story is most famously found in Tao Yuanming's Taohuayuan Ji⁷ and Wang Wei's Taohua Xing.⁸ Further details of this are included with the introduction to the musically unrelated melody Taoyuan Chunxiao.

The story related here in the preface to Tiantai Yin, though attributed to the Wuling Mountain Scholar (later called Wuling Immortal),⁹ more closely resembles the stories generally associated with Tiantai Mountain. This confusion appears to have been rather common. The Tiantai Yin preface quotes Wu Jun's Continuation of All Writings of the Qi dynasty,¹⁰ which names the visitors to Peach Tree Spring as Liu Chen and Ruan Zhao (see painting), and says they originally lived in the 1st century CE.¹¹

The title Tiantai Yin appears in seven handbooks to 1894.¹² However, only Chongxiu Zhenchuan Qinpu (1585), which has the same lyrics, seems to have related music; its preface also says it is by the Wuling Immortal. The five later versions seem to have no musical relationship. Also musically unrelated are several pieces with titles concerning peach groves.¹³

Because of pages missing from the surviving copy of Zheyin Shizi Qinpu, the tablature for this piece ends after one line of Section Three. Although related, the 1585 version seems too different and has too many problems to be used at this time to try to recover the whole piece. In my recording I add one note at the end of the surviving portion, so that the performance finishes on the primary tonal center of the mode.

 
Zheyin Shizi Qinpu preface: ¹⁴

The Beyond-Sounds Immortal says, as for this prelude, it was created by the Wuling Mountain Scholar. The Royal Ancestor's Handbook doesn't have this prelude.

According to Peachtree Spring in Xu Jixie Ji, Liu Chen and Ruan Zhao went to Tiantai Mountain to gather medicine. By mistake they entered the Grotto of Peachtree Spring. They could see only peach blossoms on either shore; for two or three li there were no households. Continuing forward, in the flowing stream they saw that there were bits of hemp seed. Continuing forward several more dozen steps, they suddenly encountered two female immortals and were invited to their home. They presented mountain fruit, dried mountain goat meat and hempseed rice, and prepared wine and special delicacies. Then they proposed a wedding ceremony so they could get married.

After 15 days (the men) excused themselves to the immortals, (saying), "We will go home to see our parents, then return." The immortals answered, "You have both spent seven generations in this idyllic marriage, attaining immortal women as mates, and now you want to leave just because your original relations are not yet broken. (But) once you have gone, how can you come back?" Liu and Yuan insisted. When Yuan returned home seven generations of children and grandchildren (had passed and they) no longer recognized him, though they had heard of their ancestor who had gone to Tiantai Mountain to pick medicine, but never returned. Liu and Yuan then (tried to) go back, but they couldn't find the immortal women.

As a result of this, someone later wrote a poem which says,¹⁵

Thus we have this prelude. Oh! What a situation!

 
Music and Lyrics
11 Sections? All have titles and lyrics. Titles 4-11 here are from Chongxiu Zhenchuan Qinpu ¹⁶

00.00   1. A stone road in the cloudy mountains
00.51   2. Grass, trees, mists and fog
01.37   3. An old grotto with peach trees by a spring
01.52       end of surviving tablature and recording
__.__   4. Hempseed in the flowing water
__.__   5. Earthly destiny brings an immortal mate
__.__   6. The worldly attachments of the common man
__.__   7. Sadness at departure
__.__   8. Recalling Master Lang (Liu Lang? and Ruan Zhao?)
__.__   9. Returning to Tiantai
__.__   10. Traces of the Immortals are hard to find
__.__   11. Trying in vain to recall old friends

 
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. Mount Tiantai Prelude (天台引 Tiantai Yin)
5961.290 天台 mentions various actual mountains. There are a number of expressions with Tiantai concerning Buddhism, but none references a version of the present story.
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2. Zhi mode (徴調 zhi diao)
For more on zhi mode see Shenpin Zhi Yi and Modality in Early Ming Qin Tablature.
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3. Liu Chen and Yuan Zhao Entering the Tiantai Mountains, Zhao Cangyun (fl. late 13th–early 14th c.)
Currently the Metropolitan Museum of New York seems to have online only a part of the scroll with calligraphy. It is a "Promised Gift of the Oscar L. Tang Family (L.1997.24.3)". The scene above can be found in the Museum's Bulletin for Fall 2006, Recent Acquisitions. In the whole scroll, "the story unfolds as an episodic narrative, with individual scenes set off from one another by blank spaces insribed with text. In the section illustrated here, Liu and Ruan are guests at an elaborate outdoor banquet."

There are also other paintings on this theme, some apparently copies of the Zhao Cangyun painting.
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4. Some further examples are mentioned in connection with the exhibition Fantastic Mountains.
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5. Tiantai Mountains (天台 Tian Tai or 天台山 Tiantai Shan) (Wikipedia)
The Tiantai mountains are about 100 km southeast of Shaoxing in Zhejiang province. The melody Taoyuan Chunxiao tells a similar story to here, but is connected to the Wuling mountains.
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6. Wuling Mountain (武陵 Wuling)
16823.254 武陵 (no 山 shan) lists this as mountains in Jiangxi, Hubei and Guizhou; a river in Guangxi; and a district of Hunan and Jiangsu; and counties in Hubei and Hunan. The relevant Wuling here is probably the one in Hunan. No references are given to a Wuling Shanzi or Wuling Xianzi. The are also entries for 武陵春 Wuling Chun, 武陵桃源 Wuling Taoyuan and 武陵源 Wuling Chun, all referring to the Tao Yuanming story.

See also Wuling Mountain Scholar. Does the poetic reference Man of Wuling (武陵人 Wuling ren) refer to this story, suggesting someone who has disappeared, hopefully to a valley of immortals? See, for example, Fenghuang Taishang Yi Chui Xiao.
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7. 陶元明 Tao Yuanming, 桃花原記 Taohuayuan Ji
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8. 王維 Wang Wei, 桃花行 Taohua Xing
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9. Wuling Mountain Scholar (武陵山子 Wuling Shanzi)
Elsewhere: Wuling Immortal (武陵仙 Wuling Xian or 武陵仙子 Wuling Xianzi
16823.254 only 武陵 Wuling; there are no references to a real person of this name. In addition, "Wuling Shanzi" seems to be a term used only here, whereas later versions such as 1585 credit "Wuling Xianzi". Wuling Xianzi is also said in some prefaces to have composed 羽化登仙 Yuhua Deng Xian (one of the "five great melodies" [大曲 daqu])
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10. 28686.85 續齊諧記 Xu Qi Jieji, one folio.
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11. Liu Chen and Ruan Zhao 劉晨、院肇
2270.754 劉晨 Liu Chen says that during the Latter Han dynasty he went to Tiantai Mountain with Ruan Zhao.
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12. Tracing Tiantai Yin
The Appendix, Chart Tracing Tiantai Yin, is based on Zha Fuxi's Guide 11/114/190.
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13. Qin melodies concerning peach groves or springs
See further comment. Examples include 桃李園 Tao Li Yuan (Zha Guide) and 桃源吟 Taoyuan Yin (Guide) as well as 桃源春曉 Taoyuan Chunxiao.
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14. Original Preface
The original Chinese preface can be seen under 天台引.
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15. Lyrics in the Preface
These lyrics are not set to the present melody. In Chinese they are:

16. Original section titles and lyrics
For the original section titles see 天台引. The original lyrics begin:

The rest is not yet online, but see this .pdf file (from Zha Guide 190 [714]). It includes the present lyrics plus those from 1585: compare the first three sections.
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Return to the Zheyin Shizi Qinpu index or to the Guqin ToC.
 

Appendix: Chart Tracing Tiantai Yin
based mainly on Zha Fuxi's Guide 11/114/190

琴譜     (year; QQJC Vol/page)	Further information (QQJC = 琴曲集成 Qinqu Jicheng; QF = 琴府 Qin Fu)
1.   浙音釋字琴譜       (<1491; I/191)	徵調 Zhi mode; only first two sections and beginning of third, then missing pages
2.   重修真傳琴譜       (1585; IV/451)	11 sections; lyrics almost the same as <1491 (q.v.); melody quite similar attributed to Wuling Xianzi
3. 琴香堂琴譜       (1760; XVII/89)	商音 shang yin; 13 sections; opening is quite different, and in general it seems to be a different melody
4. 自遠堂琴譜       (1802; XVII/337)	徵音; 15 sections; starts like 1760
5. 蕉庵琴譜       (1868)	Facsimile II #6; attributed to Wuling Xianzi; 徵音 zhi yin; 15 sections; starts like 1760
6. 天聞閣琴譜       (1876)	Commentary says from 1802
7. 琴學初津       (1894)	Commentary says from 1802, also called 武陵遊 Wuling You, an ancient melody.