For more information see Modality in Early Ming Qin Tablature.²

This mode and its two melodies,Shen Hua Yin and Zhuang Zhou Meng Die use the standard tuning, so it is a mystery why it has been included in Folio III. One might guess that, because Folio I has 48 double-pages, Folio II has 50, and Folio III (including the shangjiao pieces, which take up 4) has 46, Zhu Quan was balancing things out, but this doesn't explain the mystery of why it is inserted after the two pieces in qiliang mode, but before Chu Ge, which is in chushang mode, and why the modal prelude isn't listed in original Table of Contents.

This apparently confused the compiler of Zheyin Shizi Qinpu: although it has exactly the same melody as Shen Qi Mi Pu, it directly places Chu Ge in shangjiao mode, reinforcing the view that the person who added the lyrics did so without understanding the music. Likewise, Yang Biaozheng's Chongxiu Zhenchuan Qinpu (1585), which includes so many Zheyin Shizi Qinpu (and Shen Qi Mi Pu) pieces, though altering the melodies, also puts Chu Ge in shangjiao mode, giving it a completely new melody which in fact uses standard tuning. Usually Yang takes his lyrics from Zheyin, but here they come from Taigu Yiyin. One is inclined to suspect that Yang , seeing the position of Chu Ge in these two earlier handbooks, thought it used shangjiao tuning, but couldn't make sense out of it, so he created a new melody using standard tuning. However, Taigu Yiyin, although it doesn't list modes, clearly gives the correct Chu Ge tuning.

With do (1) as the main note plus mi and la (3, 6) as the secondary notes, shangjiao is modally similar to the jiao mode. However, like the shang mode, it plays the first string as do; jiao mode uses the third string as do.

The two pieces in this mode both deal with the same Zhuangzi story, so the first, Shenhua Yin, with three sections, might be seen as a prelude to the second, Zhuangzhou Meng Die, which has eight. There are, however, no motifs in common between the two.

The only piece later added to shangjiao mode is Mu Ge (Song of the Herdsman).³

 
No original commentary⁴

 
One section

(00.33) -- harmonics
(00.49) -- Modal prelude ends

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

 
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1 神品商角意 ; cf. 3834.42:shangjiao商角，燕樂角聲七調之第七運， 與林鐘角同。（詞源）夷則閏宿命商角。 (Return)

2 See also Qin Tunings, some theoretical concepts. (Return)

3 First in Qinpu Zhenchuan, which does not identify the mode. Taiyin Xupu and Wenhuitang Qinpu do, but both Qinpu Zhenchuan and Taiyin Xupu preface it with a short piece called 芻牧 Chumu Yin (Intonation on Grazing), which has a melody almost identical to that of Yin De. Yin De is always included with shang mode melodies. (Return)

4 Although SQMP modal preludes have no prefaces, those in Zheyin (which all have identical music) do. In Zheyin the preface to the shangjiao modal prelude is as follows:

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