Xie Lin Taigu Yiyin ends with a section called "Newly added". This is followed by what appear at first glance to be four melodies, the titles of what are given below as sections 1, 2, 3 and 8. What makes it clear this is all one melody are the instructions, also given below, to repeat certain sections. There is no attribution and no preface.

This was obviously considered one melody in later handbooks, and it became quite popular, surviving in at lesat 24 handbooks to 1899.² Fifteen of these have lyrics and all are related, but there are many differences between them, further evidence of the melody's popularity: it was actively played, not simply copied down out of respect.

Some later handbooks attribute the lyrics to Liu Ji² (1311-1375). The melody and lyrics have no apparent connection to Evening Talk by a Snowy Window

 
Original preface

None.

 
Music and lyrics: Ten sections (re-divided according to later handbooks)
- some section titles are added from 1585
- the setting is largely syllabic throughout, with the lines of the poem irregular in length

 
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1 7293.xxx; 5890.228 yehua has quotes from Li Bai and Su Shi. (Return)

2 Zha's Guide 14/153/286 does not include 客窗新語 Kechuang Xinyu from <1509, but it has basically the same music with new lyrics (Return)

3 劉基 Liu Ji (1311 - 1375) was a noted essayist. (Return)