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02. Thinking of Parents
- Standard tuning: 5 6 1 2 3 (uses only the first five strings:2) |
思親操
1
Si Qin Cao Shandong tableaux: Shun and family 3 |
Many classical sources mention Emperor Shun (22nd c. BCE), the death of his mother, and the filial piety then he showed towards his father, stepmother and stepbrother, even though they badly mistreated him. His "ploughing at Mount Li,4 fishing at Lei Marsh,5 and making pottery along the banks of the river" is almost a stock expression. Historians mostly associate these places with southwestern Shanxi province, but Shun's wide popularity is emphasized by the many other places that claim them. Thus both Mount Li and Lei Marsh have been associated with places as far apart as Shanxi and Shandong, and "the river" is generally said to be the Yellow River. In addition, as related in Annals of the Historian6 (see the melody Nan Feng Ge), Shun is also associated with Jiuyi mountain near the Hunan border with Guangdong province.
Zhu Changwen's biography of Shun gives a brief account of this story, adding that his filial piety after his mother died was described by the melody Si Qin Cao. It also tells of him composing a now-lost version of Nan Feng Ge. The biography of Shun in Annals of the Historian, though it does not mention Si Qin Cao, gives the most detailed early account of Yu Shun's filial piety. The biography there 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.
Lyrics for Si Qin Cao are included in the Yuefu Shiji, which quotes two sources on the origins of the melody:
Shun traveled to Mount Li. Seeing a bird flying he thought of his parents and wrote this song.
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.7
According to (history), before Shun was emperor he ploughed at Mount Li, fished in Lei Marsh, and made pottery along the banks of the (Yellow) river. He did his best to serve his parents. His father was obstinate, his (step-) mother was insincere, and (his step-brother) 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 lyrics9
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a
separate page)
1.
Si Qin Cao 思親操
10734.228 思親操: 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".
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2.
Tuning and mode
Taigu Yiyin does not group pieces by tuning or mode.
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3.
Image
This photo is of a tableaux at the 大舜苑文化旅遊區 Great Shun Garden Cultural Tourism Area at 南距市 Nanju in 諸城 Zhucheng, Shandong, one of the places claiming this story (from a blog article). Claims for Shun's connection to Shanxi are generally considered more historical (see next footnote).
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4.
Mount Li (歷山 Li Shan)
16702.3 歷山 has 11 mountains of this name, at least six claiming to be where Shun plowed (two each in 山東 Shandong and 山西 Shanxi, one in Zhejiang, one in Chahar [Hebei?]). Geng Li Shan is a title on some old qin melody lists, 1549 has a
Li Shan Yin, and it is mentioned in several other qin melodies, such as
Cangwu Yuan.
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5.
Lei Marshes (雷澤 Lei Ze)
43196.173 mentions marshes in 山東濮縣 Pu County of Shandong province and 山西永濟縣 Yongji country of Shanxi province, saying both are claimed as Shun's fishing places.
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6.
Shun biography in Annals of the Historian (世紀 Shi Ji)
See translation in Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe's Records, Vol. I., p.11 ff.
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7.
Tracing Si Qin Cao
See Zha Fuxi's index (12/126/236). Most use 5 strings. The eight handbooks are dated
Most use the same lyrics but a different melody; 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).
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8.
Original preface
The 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.
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9.
Original lyrics
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 .
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10.
Great net
This perhaps refers to the nets people used to trap birds: thinking of birds reminds Shun of his parents because it reminds him of the net which encompasses the basic human condition.
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11.
Strenuously ploughing
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".
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