Fengxuan Xuanpin, compiled by Ming prince Zhu Houjiao, has 101 melodies, the second largest number in any surviving Ming dynasty handbook, after Xilutang Qintong. 34 have lyrics. Most of the melodies here were apparently collected from earlier sources. In many cases it seems clear that the tablature was copied from either Shen Qi Mi Pu (SQMP) or Taigu Yiyin (TGYY).² For the rest there seems to be no obvious way to determine whether the tablature was newly written down, transcribing an actual performance, or copied from an earlier individual tablature or handbook no longer surviving. None of the melodies has any commentary.

Fengxuan Xuanpin has its melodies organized by mode. However, unlike a number of other early Ming handbooks, it does not pair short melodies with longer ones on the same theme.

Here are some statistics on the 101 melodies in Fengxuan Xuanpin.

• 18 melodies have their earliest surviving tablature here: 16 of these have titles first found here; two (one with lyrics, one without) have titles found earlier (in SQMP), but associated with completely different melodies. Of the 18, 11 have lyrics, 7 do not. Zha Fuxi's index says that 11 of the 16 new titles are pre-Ming, attributing nine to historical personages. The index says the other five are Ming, attributing one (#40) to Zhu Houjiao himself. However, no basis is given for any of these attributions (except where it seems to be based on the lyrics).
• 60 are titles of melodies first surviving in SQMP. SQMP has 64 titles in all, the missing ones all being modal preludes (SQMP #12, #21, #37, and #55). Of the 60 found here, 37 are identical or very similar to the versions in SQMP, 21 are noticably different, though some of these are still quite similar (3 of them add lyrics), and two are completely different (FXXP #2 and #49).
• 19 are titles of melodies first surviving in TGYY. TGYY has 38 melodies in all. Of these 19, eight have the same lyrics and music as TGYY, four have similar music and lyrics, five have the same lyrics but different music, one has almost the same lyrics but different music, one has related but quite different music and no lyrics.
• 5 are titles of melodies first surviving in Zheyin Shizi Qinpu. The 1539 versions are all related but not identical to the earlier versions. Of these, four have no lyrics, one has different lyrics.
• 1 is the title of a melody first surviving in Faming Qinpu. The melody is similar but the lyrics are different.

So far I have learned nine melodies according to their versions in Fengxuan Xuanpin. All are melodies whose earliest version survives from here: six of the seven without lyrics and three of the 11 with lyrics.

The six of seven without lyrics are:³

The three of 11 with lyrics are:⁴

 
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1 44734.148 Fengxuan Spread like the wind (Return)

2 Since the compiler of SQMP says he copied most of all of his music from earlier sources, one must consider the possibility that in some cases FXXP was copying from the earlier sources rather than SQMP itself. The origins of the tablature in TGYY is less clear. (Return)

3 The other one without lyrics is:

4 The other eight with lyrics are:

My preliminary studies indicate the following:

Return to the annotated handbook list or to the Guqin ToC.