Qiu Hong

Qiu Hong, the second longest piece in the qin repertoire, does not appear to be an ancient title, though there are references to wild geese in autumn in earlier poetry. As for the word hong⁴ (wild geese), the first poem in the third Xiao Ya section of the Book of Songs (#181) begins, "The wild geese (hong and yan) are flying." A commentary adds that a large goose would be called hong, while a smaller one would be called yan, and books can be found illustrating this hong, but eventually the word hong came to be commonly used only for its extended meanings, like"large" or "grand".

The range of geese is great: Section 9 of Qiu Hong mentions Yanmen Guan (Goose Gate Pass⁵), in Shanxi province at the western end of the northern Hengshan mountain range. The poem included here, and several section titles, mention places in the southern Hengshan mountain range,⁶ thought to be the southern end of geese migration. It runs along the Xiang River in Hunan province from Changsha south to Hengyang.

The migratory habits of geese (usually yan) have led Chinese literati to use them as an allusion to exile. The southern Hengshan range is is part of the old kingdom of Chu, a region often associated with exile.⁷

Like the other guxian mode piece, Feiming Yin (though not in Zheyin Shizi Qinpu), this piece is sometimes attributed to either Zhu Quan himself or to Guo Chuwang of the Song dynasty. It is also considered by some to be a predecessor of the very popular Pingsha Luo Yan, though that title is not applied to a complete melody until after 1600, though there seems no melodic connection between the two.⁸

The poem included with the preface (below) is also often attributed to Zhu Quan. After the poem, Zhu seems to say he wrote either the poem, the music, or both. It is quite likely that Zhu Quan in Nanchang considered himself something of an exile.⁹

Sections 15 and particularly 27 have instructions such as are not found in other early (or perhaps late) qin pieces. What Zhu seems to be saying here is that there is a particular way of playing this piece, and to get it right, one really should have a teacher who knows how to play it. This, together with Zhu's strenuous efforts to make corrections to the tablature in his possession, is a strong argument that the aim of the handbook is to recreate the way pieces were played in the past (or at least by one's teacher).

Unfortunately there is no information about who were Zhu Quan's qin teachers and what he actually learned from them.

Unlike the only longer piece, Guangling San (see Folio I),¹⁰ Qiu Hong obviously was actively played during the Ming and Qing dynasties: the changes in the 32 versions to 1910 which survive prove that. By the end of the Ming dynasty it had already changed quite a lot.

Wu Wenguang has made two partial recordings of the Shen Qi Mi Pu version (about nine minutes each). Yu Shaoze has recorded 16 of the 36 sections from Tianwenge Qinpu.¹¹

Original Preface¹²

The Emaciated Immortal says,

of the long qin melodies, this can be called the longest piece besides Guangling San. (Qiu Hong) draws on lofty and far-reaching ideas, with the mind wandering in the cosmos, so that one's aim is in the Milky Way. The man of distinction and the elevated scholar, with their other-worldly talents, (but) equipped with knowledge from the common world, (feels he is living) in a time inappropriate (to his talents); knowing that the Dao is not prevailing, and believing this Dao is about to be destroyed, he remains nobly detached from his own distress; wanting to flee to a place where he can hide in secret, and feeling ashamed to mix with ordinary society, he seeks to emulate the wild geese of autumn, rising into the bright empty (sky), going into the azure mist, extending his journey over the four seas, finding release amongst the rivers and lakes, and keeping himself pure throughout the world; and thus was this melody written.

Based on this I have written the following prose poem (fu).

"There is a bird that can spend autumn as a guest,
knowing the time, it flies south;
it bursts through the Milky Way to pass above it,
sounding out loudly as it crosses rivers;
to avoid hot weather regions¹³ it migrates north,
(but) then the dark trees lose (their leaves) and they are alarmed at the frost;
(so) this draws the whole flock to move to the western frontier area,
looking only for a few fields of rice and millet;
how distant are the mountain passes and rivers,
but they still do not forget their old home!
even 10,000 li doesn't seem such a great distance,
yet they seldom go much farther (south) than Heng Yang mountain;
because of xin (faith) they are never lost among the mountains and rivers;
because of yi (duty) they won't give up on the places they usually go to;
because of li (rites) there is natural order as arrange themselves (while flying),
otherwise how could they proceed in an orderly fashion?

Spreading their powerful wings they fly up high,
heading into the autumn sky;
crossing the (Yangzi Chang)jiang and Han (rivers) below,
they rise to touch the dark sky above.
They face the empty bright green sky,
their apparently small figures break through the boundless expanse;
sometimes they reside at a southern river bank,
sometimes they fly far off and settle down by the Xiao and Xiang rivers;
sometimes they fly into a cloud to avoid revealing their shapes (to hunters),
sometimes (on the ground) they hold catkins in their beaks so as to conceal themselves;
(the wild goose's) aims are different from those of swallows or other small birds,
its ren (need to take care of each other) ranks it with phoenixes;
in its eyes the four seas are as nothing,
but it considers everything in all directions;
furthermore, (the wild geese) are comparable to noble men,
who know when to come out into society or when to be reclusive;
impulsively they will soar off to keep distant (from danger),
and they would feel ashamed to hurry off to hot and cold places
(i.e., they will never sponge off wealthy friends while avoiding the poor).

I sigh over the confusions of society:
how can one live an ordinary life with vulgar people!
Because I value these lofty ideals,
I have written this composition to praise (the wild geese);
thus I composed it for the qin,
to nurture my passionate soul so that it becomes brighter.
Should anyone ask who composed this,
if it is not someone who has been a long time in qin circles,
who else could (thus) extol (the wild geese)?
Actually, I am just a lazy old man on the west side of the river,
just a "child of heaven" (i.e., member of the royal family) who is crazy about poetry.
while somewhat tipsy I wrote this to describe my happy feelings,
and so I made some pleasant sounds over this."

Music: 36 sections ¹⁴

(00.00) 01. Flying clouds while crossing a river
(01.15) 02. Knowing it is time to become an autumn guest (in the south)
(01.47) 03. Settling down on an islet in the bright moonlight
(02.11) 04. Calling out to the flock to gather together
(02.55) 05. Calling out in the willows as they spend the night
- - - - - - - ("the melancholy calls make the willows turn white" [with sadness])
(03.27) 06. Realizing the season (and so) mourning because it is autumn
(03.56) 07. Gathering at night on the flat sand
(04.24) 08. Going south and thinking of Dongting lake
(05.02) 09. Looking north towards Yanmen Pass (in Shanxi province)
(05.50) 10. Reed blossoms on a moonlit night
(06.21) 11. Looking at themselves and mourning for each other
(06.48) 12. Soaring up through the autumn sky
(07.25) 13. The wind is stirred up and the geese must fly obliquely
(08.06) 14. Figures of birds look like writing in the autumn sky
(08.51) 15. Descending on a remote sandbank
- - - - - - - ("This section is very profound; as with Section 27 below
- - - - - - - one must receive personal instruction")
(09.46) 16. Alarmed by the frost and calling to the moon
- - - - - - - ("the sound of calling to the moon should be strong and loud")
(10.14) 17. Stretching the necks to get close together
(10.52) 18. Knowing the hour and calling it out
(11.18) 19. Fighting over the grass and crying back and forth
(11.43) 20. The flock all fly away from the islet
(11.55) 21. They push away clouds as they go across a mountain pass
(12.08) 22. In one flight traveling 10,000 li
(12.41) 23. Lining up horizontally across the sky
(13.09) 24. (On ground) carrying grass in their beaks, (in the sky) avoiding hunters' arrows
(13.39) 25. Settling together and caring for each other
(14.06) 26. Affections like brotherly love
(14.26) 27. The lonely figure of a solitary bird in the clouds
- - - - - - - ('This section is very profound. One must receive personal instruction to
- - - - - - - avoid the problems of not playing smoothly and continuously, of being
- - - - - - - choppy, and of getting the phrasing wrong. In this it is like section 15 above')
(15.20) 28. Wanting news from Heng Yang
(15.37) 29. Carrying a message 10,000 li
(16.07) 30. Entering the clouds to hide their shapes (from hunters)
(16.36) 31. Flying in formation because alarmed by the cold
(17.26) 32. Arriving in the south but thinking of the north
(18.02) 33. Flying in formation through the clouds
(18.41) 34. Knowing autumn is coming they enter the mountain pass
(19.01) 35. Flying a great distance high in the sky
(19.52) 36. (harmonics)The sound causes the clouds over Chu to break up
(20.20) --- 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. 47821 鴻 hong defines it as either 鴻鵠 honggu, a sort of bean goose (including a sketch apparently by Swinhoe, who gave it the Latin name anser segetum serrirostris); or 黃鵠 huanggu, a large crane-like bird. For both there are several classical references.
25505.616 秋鴻 Qiu Hong has no musical references; it quotes several poems, one by 沈約 Shen Yue (441-513). Xu Jian, Qinshi Chubian, discusses the melody on pp.135-8.
(Return)

2. For more on Guxian mode see Shenpin Guxian Yi; for early modes in general see Modality in Early Ming Qin Tablature.
(Return)

3. The painting, by Edgar Francisko Jimenez, shows autumn geese flying over the grave of Zhu Quan.
(Return)

4. Hong: Wild Geese 鴻
47821/1 has an illustration (鴻圖 hong tu, which usually means "far-reaching plans") identifying the hong as anser segetum serrirostris, a term (and perhaps illustration) apparently taken from Robert Swinhoe, who saw one near Xiamen in about 1870; this bird is more commonly called anser fabalis, or Chinese bean goose. 47821/2 then gives the above quote from The Book of Songs (鴻鴈于飛 hong yan yu fei), explaining that this hong refers to 黃鵠 huanggu, a type of snow goose.
(Return)

5. 鴈門關 (or 雁門關) Yanmen Guan
Yanmen Pass is at the western end of 恒山 Hengshan, a mountain range in northern 山西 Shanxi province that is considered the northern "sacred mountain". It was traditionally considered to be the northernmost point to which geese went in summer.
(Return)

6. 恒山 Hengshan (in Shanxi); 衡山 Hengshan (in Hunan)
(Return)

7. Zhu Quan apparently considered his post in Nanchang a form of exile.
(Return)

8. See Xu Jian, op.cit., Chapter 7.B. (p.139). Section 15 of Qiu Hong is Yuan Luo Pingsha (遠落平沙).
(Return)

9. The painting above shows someone playing the qin at Zhu Quan's grave near Nanchang as ghostly geese fly overhead.
(Return)

10. A few similarly long pieces occur at intervals in surviving handbooks. Most, like the 38 section version of Shenhua Yin (see Qinyuan Xinchuan Quanbian [1670; IV. p.419]) occur only once (note, however, that 1670 often prints old tablature, and specifically calls this old.)
(Return)

11. e.g., one of the recordings by Wu Wenguang has sections 1-5, 15-24 and 36 with some omissions and elaborations.)
(Return)

12. See the original Chinese preface.
(Return)

13. Zhurong 祝融
25230.115 祝融峰 Zhurong feng is the highest peak in 南嶽衡山 the Heng Shan range in central Hunan; it is named after 祝融 Zhurong, the fire god, giving zhurong the extended meaning of hot weather.
(Return)

14. See the original Chinese section titles. <1491, with the identical melody, adds lyrics throughout.
(Return)

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