Zhi Zhao Fei

From my CD listen to a recording 聽錄音 / 首頁

42. Pheasant's Morning Flight
- Yu mode, standard tuning:² 5 6 1 2 3 5 6

雉朝飛 ¹
Zhi Zhao Fei
Zhi Zhao Fei, from Kuian Qinpu ³ see also a Print by Fu Dongli

The connection of the (ringed) pheasant with human relationships can be traced to poems in the Classic of Poetry. For example, in Wings Flapping (Mao #197) a pheasant cooing in the morning to its mate reminds the narrator, a woman, of her lonely state. In the Zhi Zhao Fei preface the woodcutter (or wood gatherer), makes a similar observation.⁴

The earliest mention of this title as a qin melody is in Qin Cao, the list of qin melodies attributed to Cai Yong (133-192).⁵ Later editions of this list have commentaries which relate the story given below, except that the old man has become Du Muzi himself (Warring States period; also called Mu Duzi), at the age of 70. King Xuan of Qi lived 378-323 BCE.⁶

Folio 57, #23 of Yuefu Shiji⁷ collects seven different poems under the title Zhi Zhao Fei, with attributions ranging from Du Muzi himself to Zhang Hu of the Tang dynasty. The fifth poem, by Li Bai, connects the story to spring time. This is perhaps one reason that the prelude to Zhi Zhao Fei in Xilutang Qintong is Chunxiao Yin.⁸ The sixth poem, by Han Yu, is set to a short melody (seemingly unrelated to here) in Taigu Yiyin. A later example is a poem by the Song dynasty's Cao Xun in his own collection called Qin Cao.

The Yuefu Shiji introduction includes commentary from four early sources.

The first of these, Yang Xiong's Qin Qing Ying,⁹ relates the story of the governess of a woman of Wei. On her way to marry a prince of Qi, the woman of Wei learned that he had died. She committed suicide "to protect her virginity" and changed into a pheasant. This saddened her governess, who then wrote Zhi Zhao Fei.

Yuefu Shiji then quotes Cui Bao's Notes Old and New,¹⁰ which tells the Du Muzi story. It adds that in the time of Cao Cao¹¹ (ca. 200 CE) a woman in the palace named Ms. Lu, who was good at new sounds, was able to play this piece; she apparently also married late.

The third quote is three lines from a poem identified as Qin Song by Bo Ya.

Finally there is a quote from "Yuefu Jieti" about emperor Jianwen of Liang.¹² He is connected to the aforementioned story of Ms. Lu.

Zheyin writes out nearly identical codas for both Zhi Zhao Fei and #43 Wu Ye Ti, with harmonics strangely ending on 5 (so) instead of the 6 (la) that one would expect in the yu mode. In SQMP both pieces end with the instruction to play the harmonics at the end of the modal introduction for the yu mode, and these properly end on 6. The yu prelude included in Zheyin is identical to that in SQMP, so the written out ending on 5 -- the open first string -- perhaps corresponds with some ancient principle, now lost.

It is also interesting to note that Gufeng Cao, also in yu mode throughout, suddenly ends on gong; however, it is said to be in gong mode.

Zhi Zhao Fei was quite a popular melody, surviving in 40 handbooks through 1876.¹³ On the other hand, there are occasionally some negative comments to the effect that the music is too exciting.¹⁴

The Zheyin Shizi Qinpu version is melodically quite different from SQMP, and also adds lyrics as well as section titles. This version is recorded only in my CD Music Beyond Sound. In addition to my recording of the SQMP version, there is also one by Chen Changlin available of his own reconstruction; his interpretation is somewhat different from mine.¹⁵

Original Preface ¹⁶

The Emaciated Immortal says,

according to Cui Bao's Notes Old and New,

(Zhi Zhao Fei) was written by Du Muzi. During the time of King Xuan of Qi a local citizen named Min Xuan, though 50 years old, still had no wife. While going out (to collect) firewood in a frontier region he saw a male ringed pheasant accompanying a female pheasant as he flew, instinctively moving him to sadness. He looked up to heaven and sighed, saying, "God in heaven has been merciful to grass and trees, fowl and wild beasts, but has left me alone and without a wife." So he created a song.

(The song) says,

The ringed pheasants fly in the early morning;
They cry back and forth to each other.
Male and female fly together beside a mountain slope.
I am the only unfortunate one, as yet I have no wife.
I am approaching my sunset years -- what am I to do?
Alas, the sunset years -- what am I to do?

Du Muzi was very much aggrieved at this, so someone used the meaning to create this melody.

14 sections
(Titles are from Zheyin¹⁷)

(00.00) 01. The sky is comforting and the sun is warm
(01.01) 02. The green wheat is in rows
(01.22) 03. Red feathers (on the body) and long headfeathers
(01.46) 04. Male and female pheasant fly together
(02.16) 05. Stopping and flying at the appropriate times
(02.44) 06. They fly back and forth in a pair
(03.13) 07. Together in life and death
(03.50) 08. Min (Xuan) goes out to get firewood
(04.24) 09. Touched by the animal, the man thinks of himself
(05.15) 10. He looks up to heaven and cries out
(05.36) 11. How are people different from other things?
(06.28) 12. The evening of life
(06.48) 13. A faithful relationship from beginning to end
(07.25) 14. Using a qin to record the affair
(08.03) --- play harmonics of this mode
(08.18) --- Piece ends

Return to the Shen Qi Mi Pu ToC or to the Guqin ToC.

Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1 42936.20 雉朝飛 (see also 14705.127 朝飛操, which quotes Cui Bao) says "qin melody" and quotes Yuefu Shiji, including some of the poems. Seng Juyue (the monk Ju Yue) lists it as "most ancient". See also Xu Jian, pp. 8-9. (Return)

2 For further information on yu mode see Shenpin Yu Yi and Modality in Early Ming Qin Tablature. (Return)

3 Kuian Qinpu illustration (QQJC XI/57)
There is no inscription. (Return)

4 See Waley/Allen, The Book of Songs, Grove Press, 1996, #197; the original Chinese for lines 3 and 4 of verse 5 is 雉之朝雊，尚求其雌. See also #33, Male Pheasant. Here a woman seems to compare her missing love to a male pheasant flying about; he then suggests a better comparision in the sky is the sun or the moon: always there. (Return)

5 See TKW Qin Fu, p. 743. Qinyuan Yaolu, pp.4-5 has a somewhat longer version. (Return)

6 For 齊宣王 King Xuan of Qi (in Shandong) see Watson, tr. Records of the Grand Historian, Vol.II, pp. 14 & 356. For Du Muzi (犢牧子) / Mu Duzi (牧犢子 or 沐犢子) see Qin Shi #46. (Return)

7 See Zhonghua Shuju edition, pp.835-837. (Return)

8 Xilutang Qintong pairs short and long melodies, giving them both the same preface. Its preface to Zhi Zhao Fei is identical to the one in Shen Qi Mi Pu (Return)

9 揚雄《琴清英》，衛女，齊太子。 Yang Xiong (55 BCE - 18 CE); oldest surviving qin treatise. See VG. p.30 and 琴書存目 Qinshu Cunmu, Folio 1, #9, which relates part of this story in discussing Yang Xiong and the book. The story is also in Qin Shi Bu #31, Wei Nü Fu Mu (not to be confused with the Wei Nü in Qin Shi.) (Return)

10 崔豹《古今注》，盧女。 Cui Bao (fl. ca. 300 CE) was a famous antiquarian (Van Gulik, Lore, p. 142, has Ts'ui Piao). Notes Old and New collected his comments into eight categories, one of which was music. Nienhauser, Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, p.485, says the music section has "anecdotes and background information concerning 27 yuefu poems ...(and)... passages concerning two kinds of early music...." The book is still extant. (Return)

11 曹操 Cao Cao (155-220) is also known as 魏武帝 Emperor Wu of Wei. The Wei dynasty begins in 220, but because of Cao Cao's work establishing it he was posthumously called its first emperor. (Return)

12 《樂府解題》曰﹕若梁簡文帝「晨光照麥畿」，但詠雉而已。
He is also said to have written lyrics for Chunjiang Qu. (Return)

13 Zha's Guide 7/66/104 (Return)

14 Xu Jian, QSCB, p. 8, last line, says that the Ming dynasty qin master Chen Aitong was especially good at playing Zhi Zhao Fei, but that the editor of Songxianguan Qinpu (1614) disliked its rhythms, which he considered too rushed, and so he did not include it in his handbook. I have not found any mention of this in Songxianguan Qinpu (e.g., QQJC, VIII, pp.69ff, 155ff or 166). Perhaps the comments by Xu Hong in Dahuange Qinpu are relevant (Zha Guide, p. 313/69: he says he 不欲漫傳於世，因留譜焉 did not want to casually pass it on to society, so he passed on the tablature [which people should follow carefully]). Xu Jian's original is,

明代陳愛桐最擅長此曲，而松絃館琴譜的編錄者卻嫌它節奏急促，沒有收入....
(Return)

15 See Chen Chang-lin, Min (Fujian) River Qin Music, Hugo HRP 7129-2, Track 2. (Return)

16 For the original text see 雉朝飛. (Return)

17 For the original section titles see 雉朝飛. (Return)

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