Zhu Changwen's Qin Biographies, which tells the story of the emperor Yu Shun (22nd c. BCE) composing Nan Feng Ge, does not mention this title. Neither does the Annals of the Historian, though it gives a more detailed account of Yu Shun's filial piety than the present introduction. It tells of Shun's mother dying and his father taking a new wife, by whom he had another son, named Xiang. After this the three of them treated Shun very badly, even trying several times to kill him. However, Shun always remained loyal to them. It was in part because of these filial actions that Yao chose Shun to succeed him as emperor.³

Lyrics for Si Qin Cao are included in the Yuefu Shiji, which quotes two sources on the origins of the melody:

1. Music Records Old and New says,

   Shun traveled to Mount Li. Seeing a bird flying he thought of his parents and wrote this song.

2. Xie Zhuang's Qin Lun, says,

   Shun wrote Si Qin Cao, expressing great filial respect.

The lyrics in Taigu Yiyin are identical to those in YFSJ.

This title survives in seven qin handbooks. Most use only five strings of the qin, commemorating the tradition that Shun played a five string qin, but the one in Fengxuan Xuanpin (1539) is the only one identical to here.⁴

 
Original preface (translation incomplete)⁵

According to (history), before Shun was emperor he ploughed at Mount Li, fished in Lei Marsh, and made pottery along the banks of the He river. He did his best to serve his parents. His father was obstinate, his (step-) mother was insincere, Xiang was presumptuous. But Shun acted with great filial piety and the loyalty of a younger brother. (His father) Gusou (Venerable Blind One) yielded. When later (Shun) followed the ancestral sacrifices of Yao and took over the world, his parents were no longer alive. Because he saw a bird flying he wrote this song. Its sound did not survive, but later someone through imitation made this interpretation.

 
Music and Lyrics: One Section
- Setting follows the syllabic structure (see numbers in brackets) of the YFSJ lyrics⁶

 
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. 10734.228: qin song; refers to Qin Cao, Qin Lun and Yuefu Shiji. The list of songs by 僧居月 Seng Jueyu (Song dynasty) includes it as one of the"most ancient". (Return)

2. Taigu Yiyin does not indicate mode. (Return)

3. See translation in Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe's Records, Vol. I., p.11 ff. (Return)

4. See Zha Fuxi's index (12/126/236). The eight handbooks are dated 1511, 1539, 1549 (5 sections, no lyrics), 1585, 1618, 1670, 1676/1700 (Japan) and 1802. Most use the same lyrics, but only 1539 is identical. 1585 has the same lyrics and the melody is similar, but it uses seven strings. Two Japanese handbooks, 1676 and 1700, have an unrelated Si Qin Yin (prelude). (Return)

5. Original Chinese preface begins,
  按舜未帝時耕於歷山，漁于雷澤，陶于河濱，竭力以事父母，父頑，母嚚，象傲，舜盡孝悌之道，瞽叟向化....
  The rest is not yet online. (Return)

6. These lyrics were also used for Section 5 of Yu Shun Si Qin (1549); that melody, which also uses only five strings, is related to 1546 Nan Feng Chang. The original lyrics are as follows:

1549 changes four characters: 深 to 山, 罥 to 罣, 往 to 從 and 當 to 將 . (Return)

7. The modern edition of Yuefu Shiji is punctuated to include the characters for "strenuously ploughing" together with those for "father and mother", but the melody seems to suggest they go with "by sun and moon". (Return)

Return to the , to the guqin handbook list, or to the Guqin ToC.