Lou Shi Ming: Inscription on a Crude Dwelling

From 1539 to 1878 at least 12 qin handbooks survive with musical settings of Loushi Ming, a poem by Liu Yuxi (772 - 842) proclaiming the nobility of rustic living.⁴ The traditional method of pairing lyrics to qin tablature (word-intensive with no purely musical interludes⁵) ensures that they all have a similar music structure to that of this earliest surviving version, in Fengxuan Xuanpin (1539), but the actual melodies are mostly quite different.⁶

Liu Yuxi was a poet noted for his "folk-style poems" (see Wikipedia), and the earliest surviving preface to this melody, in the 1609 setting,⁷ emphasizes Liu Yuxi's respect for the simple life. First the preface attributes Loushi Ming to Liu Yuxi. It then adds that Liu wrote this to satirize people who lived in luxury but were themselves crude. It concludes,

"I sympathize with the simply stated sincerity of his words, and so have matched them to music, so that people who later take their qins and play it, observing the words and taking nourishment from the virtue, will also not be ashamed if their own dwellings are crude, that's all."

Although the 1609 melody is very different from that of 1539, one might presume that the intention was the same.

Original preface

None

Music
One Section, set to lyrics by Liu Yuxi ⁸

Mountains are not only about height: they are only famous if immortals live there.
Seas are not only about depth: they only have spirit if a dragon lives in them.
Thus is my simple hut, with only the fragrance of my own virtue.
Green lichen is coming up the steps, the color of grass comes through the neutral window screen.
Talk and laughter have erudition, no ignorant people pass to and fro.
One can play a simple qin, or read the Diamond Sutra.
There is not the jarring sound of common music, no straining over work files.
Nanyang had the cottage of Zhuge Liang, Western Sichuan had the pavilion of Yang Xiong.
Confucius said, If a gentleman lives there, how can it be crude?

Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. References
42549.14 quotes Liu Yuxi's poem and also one of the same title by 崔沔 Cui Mian (673 - 739; Bio/2158). ICTCL discusses Liu Yuxi in detail but does not mention this poem.
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2. For further information on shang mode see Shenpin Shang Yi and Modality in Early Ming Qin Tablature.
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3. No appropriate image yet available
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4. Tracing Loushi Ming
Zha's Guide 15/162/355 has this title in 12 handbooks published as follows,

1539 (II/149)
1585 (IV/339; new melody)
1591 (V/492; related to 1539)
1609 (VII/191; new melody)
1611 (VII/454; like <1609)
late Ming (IX/463; like <1609)
1738
1739 (facsimile)
1802 (XVII/529; like <1609)
1828
1876
1878.
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5. Almost all qin songs have one Chinese character for each right hand stroke and left hand pluck; no words paired to slides.
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6. I have not been able to examine the 19th century versions.
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7. The introduction with the Loushi Ming in 楊掄伯牙心法 Yang Lun, Boya Xinfa, is as follows:

作陋室銘者，唐劉禹錫也。夫公豈惡居華屋，博名于陋室哉？緣當時尚靡麗，競雕巧，故作是文諷之，以為陋巷樂賢，衡門棲士，在潤身，非潤也。予憐其文之簡切，遂合之音律，俾後之援秦而鼓者，睹其文，養其德，尚不愧於室陋云爾。
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8. A note on the translation
The poem has been translated by Herbert Giles as My Humble Home. It is included in Minford and Lau, Classical Chinese Literature, Vol. I, p. 1009. I consulted this in my own translation, presented above. Giles' translation uses a prose structure and skips the lines about ignorant people and the qin.

The original poem is as follows:

劉禹錫﹕陋室銘

山不在高，有仙則名。
水不在深，有龍則靈。
斯是陋室，惟吾德馨。
苔痕上階綠，草色入簾青。
談笑有鴻儒，往來無白丁。
可以調素琴，閱金經。
無絲竹之亂耳，無案牘之勞形。
南陽諸葛廬，西蜀子雲亭。
孔子云，君子居之，何陋之有。
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Return to the annotated handbook list or to the Guqin ToC.