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Handbook List / Prefaces / Table of Contents / Additional commentary / Original Taigu Yiyin 首頁
Taigu Yiyin
Music Bequeathed from Antiquity
By Xie Lin1 and Huang Shida2
太古遺音
1511 / 1515
謝琳、黃士達

Xie Lin himself?3

Two editions of this Taigu Yiyin have survived, one by Huang Shida (1511), the other by Xie Lin (1515). The former has 36 melodies, latter adds two more; otherwise they are almost identical.

Like Zheyin Shizi Qinpu, this handbook consists of pieces with lyrics. However, they seem more genuinely to represent a sung tradition, as is discussed in the Zha Fuxi's introduction. And whereas no earlier source for the Zheyin lyrics has been found (the suspicion is that they were added because of a theory that qin music should be sung, but that the idiom is in fact purely instrumental), most lyrics here can be found in classical sources. These include two from Shi Jing and at least 20 from the Song dynasty edition of Yuefu Shiji, including all ten "qin pieces" of the Tang poet Han Yu.

This pairing of melodies with classical lyrics recalls descriptions of the work of the Song/Yuan dynasty qin player Yu Yan, but I have not heard that anyone has found specific connections.

For further information about Taigu Yiyin see:

 
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. 謝琳 Xie Lin 36661.xxx
Xie Lin had the nickname 雪峰 Xuefeng. See the commentary by He Xu.
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2. 黃士達 Huang Shida 48904.xxx
From 豸山 Zhishan (37338.xxx ?). No information on him outside his tablature.
(Return)

3. From page 3 of Xie Lin Taigu Yiyin
(Return)

 
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