Shen Qi Mi Pu includes Jiu Kuang in the section called Celestial Airs of Antiquity, consisting of the melodies Zhu Quan considered most ancient: he could find no one who played them, so he simply copied out the tablature as he found it. As is common with melodies in this section, Jiu Kuang is copied in 1552, and survives in similar versions dated 1539 and 1549 (where it is called Liu Shang).⁵ After this comes the version dated 1585, with lyrics; it is very different musically.⁶ The other two surviving versions, dated 1589 and 1618 (see appendix), also have lyrics; they are similar to each other and much closer to the SQMP version than to the 1585 version.

All of these later versions have different endings. The versions with section titles all name their last section "Bend over and exhale", but none of these later endings has a passage similar to the SQMP coda translated here as "The sound of the immortal exhaling his wine."⁷

Liu Shang⁸ (Floating Goblets), the 12th piece in Xilutang Qintong (1549), opens with the same basic melody, but this then alternates with a somewhat different interlude, and it adds two new sections at the end. The afterword connects the piece with a ceremony called Xiuxi,⁹ in which (particularly on the 3^rd day of the 3^rd lunar month) scholars would relax along a stream as wine-laden goblets floated by; if a goblet stopped in front of a scholar he had to compose an appropriate poem or drink from the goblet. The music of Liu Shang can be quite evocative; passages where the melody glides up and down, like goblets floating in a stream, alternate with interludes where the music seems to swirl around, like goblets bobbing in front of an attentive scholar.

The Jiu Kuang in Yang Lun Taigu Yiyin (1589) is particularly interesting, because it turns the SQMP melody into a quite singable drinking song.¹⁰ Its preface is somewhat different from those in SQMP and Xilutang Qintong, but it still concerns Ruan Ji and the other sages trying to stay away from the machinations of the Sima clan, who controlled the Jin dynasty. The lyrics can easily be sung in duple rhythm, but not in triple rhythm. The basic theme of the lyrics is that we enjoy drink, but we drink in a refined manner because we are gentlemen; this is different from the way the vulgar masses drink. The section titles are also quite evocative.¹¹

Ruan Ji, said by Zhu Quan to be the author, came from his village south of Kaifeng to be an official in the Wei capital of Loyang, but then left office to be a recluse. He was, like Xi Kang, one of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove. There are many Chinese paintings of this group in their bamboo grove outside the city. A well-known poet famous for his iconoclastic ideas, Ruan Ji is often depicted listening to Xi Kang playing the qin.¹² Apologists say he drank in order to express his contempt for the corrupt officials of his day; if someone asked him to work in the government, he used his enjoyment of wine to say he was not capable of doing it.

As with other seemingly older pieces such as SQMP #16 Yi Zhen, #43 Wu Ye Ti and #47 Da Hujia, the Jiu Kuang tablature marks off the beginning and ending of certain phrases with evocative words (the first phrase has the word "mad" at the front and "song" at the end, then has them repeated later ("play again from 'mad' to 'song'"), sometimes several times. Other melodies such as #6 Liu Shui, #8 Xuan Mo and #15 Xiao Hujia also do this, but to a lesser extent.

With at least 15 recordings, today Jiu Kuang is one of the most commonly played qin pieces. When Yao Bingyan originally reconstructed it in the 1950s he used double rhythm, but later he changed this to triple rhythms. Triple rhythms are not a known part of traditional Chinese music, but, according to what Yao wrote in an article,¹³ there were triple rhythms in poetry, the Tang qin master Chen Zhuo described music that could be played triple rhythm,¹⁴ and Jiu Kuang sounds good in triple rhythm, so he felt that this was a correct interpretation. Other players have almost exclusively followed this, though perhaps making the tempo irregular, so as to represent the idea of drunkenness.

Yao's reasoning is very interesting. Sometimes I have played Jiu Kuang that way and enjoyed the triple rhythms. However, I don't find Yao's reasoning convincing enough to be comfortable that everyone should play it that way. In addition, I find it more difficult to make the later versions mentioned here fit into triple rhythm.¹⁵ So without saying Yao is wrong, my own recording uses predominantly 4/4 rhythms.

The image in my mind as I play Jiu Kuang is of a comic figure (chou) in Chinese opera, staggering along in a pleasant stage of tipsiness. Although there was in fact an opera called Ruan Bubing (a nickname of Ruan Ji), it is of a later date (17th century) and there is no evidence suggesting that there is a specific connection between Jiu Kuang and any opera.¹⁶

 
Preface:

The Emaciated Immortal says

this piece was written by Ruan Ji; he sighed because the Dao was not being followed, and he was not in accord with the people of his era. So he forgot about the anxieties of society (by putting them) out of his mind and body; he made it his goal to rely on his enjoyment of being tipsy in order to enjoy his whole life. The meaning of the piece is like this; it is not really talking about being infatuated with wine. There is some profound Dao in this piece, but it is very subtle here, intentionally not explained to common people; (only) the most wise can attain this.

 
Music
Four sections, untitled (here expanded to seven titled; plus a coda.¹⁷
The timings here follow my CD (listen)

(00.00)   1. (Enjoying wine and forgetting troubles)
(00.29)   2. (Drunkenly dancing like a flying immortal)
(00.51)   3. (Singing loudly to earth and heaven)
(01.12)   4. (Loving wine and forgetting the body)
(01.34)  (5. Dashing off calligraphy on art paper)
(01.53)  (6. Bending over to exhale wine)¹⁸
(02.07)  (7. Hold up wine and feign madness)
(02.18)       Coda: Sound of the immortal exhaling his wine.
(02.41)       End

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Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. Jiu Kuang references
40665.70 酒狂 mentions drunken madness in the 漢書，蓋寬饒傳 Han Shu biography of Gai Kuanrao, in 白居易，閑處覓春詩 the poem Dwell in leisure while looking for spring by Bai Juyi, and in 高允，酒訓 Jiu Xun (Wine Standards) by Gao Yun. None has a musical reference, nor does the tale called Jiu Kuang in Liaozhai Zhi Yi.

The complete poem by Bai Juyi is as follows:

The third line mentions spring as well as drunken madress.
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2. Gong mode (宮調 gong diao)
For more on gong mode see Shenpin Gong Yi. For more general comments see Modality in Early Ming Qin Tablature.
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3. Tracing Jiu Kuang
The appendix below is based on Zha Fuxi's Guide 3/31/36 and 19/180/--. These six versions are musically related but no two are identical. Three have lyrics, but none of these can be matched to the SQMP music.
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4. 姚丙炎 Yao Bingyan. There are many recordings by Yao and others, all with metal strings (see my comments under silk strings. Bell Yong, Celestial Airs of Antiquity, 1997, has a transcription and some discussion, but there is no mention of the metal strings or of the oddity of the triple rhythm.

Xu Jian, QSCB, Chapter 3.B. (pp.36-7) mentions the triple rhythms as though they are an inherent part of the melody, rather than Yao Bingyan's interpretation from the 1950s.
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5. The 1539 and 1549 versions have more differences from SQMP (1425) than do their versions of most pieces from SQMP Folio I.
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6. By tradition qin melodies are learned from a teacher, not from tablature. If a melody does not change through several tablatures this may be evidence that it was played from the tablature. There is some discussion of this in the article Historically Informed Performance (see in particular the section Traditional Chinese HIP?).
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7. 仙人吐酒聲 Xianren Tujiu Sheng (The Immortal Exhales his Wine) and 低地吐酒 Didi tu jiu (Bend over and exhale):
For didi 539.18 says low sound, quoting 西廂記 Xi Xiang Ji. Tu jiu can also mean "retch wine" (嘔 ou), but my interpretation of "tu" here comes from 3359.39 吐納 tu na, a Daoist 修煉 ascetic skill by which people expell impurities (bad qi) inside themselves; there is an example in Qinshu Daquan, Folio 17, #53. Another idea is that this tu might resemble the way Daoist priests spray wine from their mouths during religious ceremonies.
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8. 17762.316 流觴 liu shang describes the custom, but has nothing about music. The linked Xilutang Qintong version has an Afterword which says, "During the Yonghe period (345-357) all the sages had a xiuxi at the Orchid Pavilion. It was mellow and sophisticated pleasure, a feast such as might occur once in a thousand years. Later people commemorated it with this piece. With the high flavor of the region along the north bank of the (Yangzi) River, one can broadly imagine it."
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9. Xiuxi 修禊
805.226: 古代民俗于農歷三月上旬的已日（三國魏以後始定為三月初三）到水邊嬉戲以撥除不祥。
"The people of ancient times had a custom whereby during the first third of the third month according to the agricultural calendar [after the Wei dynasty of the Warring Kingdoms it became fixed on the third day of the third month] they would go play/sport by waters' edge in order to eliminate anything inauspicious." (Another reference says that from the Song dynasty there are indications that the same thing was done in the seventh month of the agricultural calendar.)

A melody called 修禊吟 Xiuxi Yin occurs in nine handbooks beginning wtih Xilutang Qintong (1549), but none has an appended explanation. It is the third title in Xilutang Qintong, where it serves as a prelude to Yang Chun (Bright Spring). As with Liu Shang, Xiuxi Yin is in the gong mode, and it also sounds very appropriate as an prelude to Liu Shang. However, there is no overt connection either in Xilutang Qintong or any later handbook.

Attempts have been made to revive the custom of Xiuxi. An annual event is organized at the Lanting Pavilion near Shaoxing. It seems particularly popular with Japanese, who have also constructed a Lanting Pavilion on Kyushu, the southern island of Japan.
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10. Commentary on the qin song Jiu Kuang in Yang Lun Taigu Yiyin, 1589 楊掄太古遺音琴歌《酒狂》 is in a separate article. See also the appendix.
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11. The lyrics and section titles for Jiu Kuang in Yang Lun Taigu Yiyin, 1589, are included with my commentary there, both the Chinese original and my translation.
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12. Ruan Ji himself is also said to have played the qin, though some sources apparently say it was the zheng zither.
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13. See Yinyue Yishu, 1981 #5; this and some other related articles by Yao are listed in the bibliography.
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14. See Qinshu Daquan (1590), in QQJC Vol.V, p.171. Chen Zhuo writes things like "A four character phrase where the rhythm has three", but it is not clear to me what this means.
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15. To my mind it is quite clear that Liu Shang and the qin song versions of Jiu Kuang should not have triple rhythm. An argument that they are appropriate for the 1425 Jiu Kuang should thus center on the fact that the tablature is in SQMP, Folio I, melodies for which Zhu Quan said he could find no players. Perhaps at some time prior to the Ming dynasty the melody truly was played in triple rhythms, so the double rhythms used in the Ming dynasty were their incorrect interpretation. However, I do not know of any evidence to support this argument.
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16. Jiu Kuang and Chinese opera
The role type I have in mind is the 丑 chou, a comic figure immediately identifiable because the area around the nose and mouth is painted white. For more on the opera Ruan Bubing see under Ruan Ji.
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17. Original section titles
There being none in Shen Qi Mi Pu, these section titles are as those in Yang Lun Taigu Yiyin, as follows:

1. 天地鴻茫
2. 醉舞飛仙
3. 浩歌天地
4. 嗜酒形骸
5. 花牋草掃
6. 低低吐酒
7. 托酒徉（佯？）狂

To this Shen Qi Mi Pu adds: 仙人吐酒）；終。

To make the seven sections, the fourth section of 1425 is sub-divided into four sections. This division of SQMP into 7 sections plus a coda shows clearly one method of pairing it with the version published in 1589, making a combined melody about 6 minutes in length. To do this, alternate versions, beginning with SQMP Section 1, then playing 1589 section 1; continue like this, ending with the SQMP coda. If the 1589 version is sung, one can clearly distinguish between the two and thus gain a basic understanding of the relationship between them.
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18. Fengxuan Xuanpin (see QQJC, II, pp.73 - 74) adds a section break here, calling it Section 5.
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Appendix: Chart Tracing 酒狂 Jiu Kuang
Based mainly on Zha Fuxi's Guide, 3/31/36 and 19/180/--.

琴譜	Page numbers refer to indicated volume in 琴曲集成 Qinqu Jicheng
1.   神奇秘譜       (1425; I/114)	4 sections + coda "the immortal exhales his wine" (仙人吐酒); none of the later lyrics fits 2nd edition adds some phrasing
2.   風宣玄品       (1539; II/73)	5; very similar except ending; writes out repeats
3.   西麓堂琴統       (1549; III/73)	8; called Liu Shang (流觴, Flowing Goblets); similar to 1425, but sections 7-8 are different; explanation connects piece with the 修禊 Xiuxi ceremony)
4.   太音傳習       (1552; IV/52)	Music and preface are copied from 1425
5.   重修真傳琴譜       (1585; IV/325)	6 titled sections; lyrics; added musical opening, then related but very different esp. at end; no coda; Sec 6: Bend down and exhale wine (低地吐酒 di di tu jiu)
6.   真傳正宗琴譜       (1589; VII/61)	The song Jiu Kuang, in 楊掄太古遺音 Yang Lun Taigu Yiyin; 7 titled sections; lyrics (see translation); quite different from 1585; music related to 1425 & 1549, but another different ending
7.   理性元雅       (1618; VIII/188)	titles and lyrics are same as the 1589 version; the melody is very similar; precedes new Yang Chun

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