T of C 
Home
My
Work
Hand-
books
Qin as
Object
Qin in
Art
Poetry
/ Song
Hear
Qin
Play
Qin
Analysis History Ideo-
logy
Miscel-
lanea
More
Info
Personal email me search me
SQMP ToC 首頁
62. Celestial Air Defining Guxian Mode
- guxian mode; (tighten 2nd/5th/7th strings: 6 1 2 3 5 6 1)
神品姑洗意
Shenpin Guxian Yi 1

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

Melodies that use this tuning include:

  1. Feiming Yin; the first Shen Qi Mi Pu piece in guxian mode, probably a prelude to the second:
  2. Qiu Hong (conveys the same idea and, with 36 sections, the second longest piece in the qin repertoire.
  3. Jiazhong Modal Prelude and the two pieces that follow it, Yueshang Yin and Yueshang Cao.
  4. Ming De Yin and Kong Sheng Jing, Confucian hymns.

The Table of Contents adds "same as Defining Qingshang",3 while below the mode name with the modal prelude is the following explanation:

Same as gu jiazhong mode:4 tighten 2nd/5th/7th strings;
Open 7th string = 5th string stopped at 10th position;
Open 7th = 4th stopped between 8th and 9th position;
Open 4th string = 2nd string stopped at 11th position.

A modal prelude with this tuning (besides guxian, qingshang, and gu jiazhong; it is also called jiazhong [1549] and nanlü5 [1571]) can be found in 16 handbooks to 1670. In Shen Qi Mi Pu the main note is 1 (gong; open 2nd and 7th strings); the secondary note is 3 (jiao). In later handbooks the mode is usually called qingshang, and the modal prelude is different.

Like mangong, the stated tuning method required retuning three strings. However, if one normally tunes the strings as high as they comfortably can go without fear of breakage, then this tuning must be accomplished by lowering four strings (1, 3, 4, 6) instead of raising three.

Perhaps this is a main reason for the fact that, although guxian as a note and as a mode have an ancient history, since the Ming dynasty it has not much been used much: in the surviving repertoire is is only associated with the two pieces included here.

 
No commentary 6

 
One section

(00.50) -- harmonics
(01.07) -- 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. 神品姑洗意 ; cf. 6286.19 姑洗,十二律之一。。。(國語,周語)姑洗所以脩潔百物考神納賓。 (Return)

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

3. 即清商意 18003.383 五音之一; also autumn wind and a spirit name. See also in Qinshi Bu (琴史補), #39 the biography of Zhong Changtong (仲長統) which says that according to Later Han History he played a beautiful Qing Shang qin. (Return)

4. 古夾鐘 . 5997.97 夾鍾 and .103 夾鐘 seem to be same. Old note names. "pinched/lined/secret bell" (Return)

5. jiazhong 夾鐘意 (1549) and nanlü 南呂 (1571) (Return)

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

(姑息意)﹕希仙曰,
按書註云﹕姑者故也。洗者鮮也。萬物去故就新。 改柯易葉。莫不鮮明。位於辰。三月。有清明之音者。
(Guxian mode): The Beyond-Sounds Immortal says: (Return)

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