The melody here is related to the one called Longshuo Cao in Shen Qi Mi Pu and that occurs in about 17 handbooks from 1425 to 1618.³ It is connected to a story about the beautiful Wang Zhaojun being sold to a foreign prince and having to live in the wastelands of Central Asia.

Taigu Yiyin mentions only Wang Zhaojun in its attribution of the melody, but the lyrics appear in the same order as they do in Folio 59, #1 of the Yuefu Shiji.⁴ There they are attributed to seven different people, Wang Zhaojun herself, Wang Shuying nee Liu (sister of Liu Xiaochuo), Chen Shubao, Bai Juyi, Zhang Hu, Liang Shiqiong and Yang Ling.⁵

For more information see comments on the version published in Shen Qi Mi Pu (1425), called Longshuo Cao.

 
Original preface ⁶

Translation incomplete.

 
Music: Thirteen Sections ⁷
A largely syllabic setting of the poems

 
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. See Zha Guide 7/73/113 and Longshuo Cao. (Return)

2. Taigu Yiyin does not mention tuning or modes, so this information must be determined by internal analysis or comparison with related versions. Here the mode is clearly Wuyi, also called Huangzhong. To achieve this tuning, slacken 1st, tighten 5th strings each a half step from standard tuning. For more details on this mode see Shenpin Wuyi Yi. For more on modes in general see Modality in Early Ming Qin Tablature. (Return)

3. See the related chart. (Return)

4. See pp.853-5. (Return)

5. These are outline under Music, below. Folio 29 of YFSJ also has poems on the Wang Zhaojun theme, including one by Guo Yuanzhen (p.429). However, there seem be no surviving settings of these for qin. (Return)

6. Begins, 按明妃傳... According to the biography of Mingfei.... (Return)

7. The seven poems used here as lyrics (see also Yuefu Shiji pp. 853-5) begin:

	(1 & 7):	王嬙	秋木萋萋，其葉萎黃....
	(2 & 8)	梁王叔英妻劉氏	一生竟何定，萬事最難保....
	(3 & 9)	陳後王	圖形漢宮裏，遙聘單于庭....
	(4 & 10)	白居易	明妃風貌最姱婷，合在椒房應四星....
	(5 & 11)	張祐	萬里邊城遠，千山行路難....
	(6 & 12)	梁氏瓊	自古無和親，貽災到妾身....
	( 13 )	楊凌	漢國明妃去不還，馬駝弦管向陰山....

(Return)

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