Can Xing Cao

This is an ancient melody title, found in Cai Yong's Qin Cao (number 10 of the 12 Laments). The introduction to the surviving preface of that title tells a story somewhat different from that told here. According to that account,⁴

Once when Zengzi was playing the qin, Mozi stood and listened from the outside. At the end of the piece Mozi came in and said, That's marvelous. When you play the qin I can see that a body that is already complete but the head is not yet formed. Zengzi responded, While taking a nap (I imagined that) I saw a wild cat. I could see its body but I could not see its head. When I got up, I expressed this on the strings, the result being (the melody) Partial Form.

The lyrics (see Yuefu Shiji, p.842) are by Han Yu (768-824) in the voice of Zengzi.⁵

Zengzi was a follower of Confucius so famous for his filial piety that he was said to be the author of the Canon of Filial Piety (Xiao Jing, apparently written in the Latter Han dynasty). This canon was one of the first books young people would memorize as part of their studies.

Zengzi also has a biography in Zhu Changwen's Qin Biographies.

According to the present story he once dreamed of a headless fox. When he awoke he didn't know what it suggested, so he wrote this song. The title is on the list of ancient melodies, but it survives only as a short song in two handbooks.⁶ The introduction in Qin Cao

The poem consists of four couplets in which the narrator tells of dreaming about the headless fox, and wondering about the omen.

Original preface⁷

According to the Qin Record (Qin Lu), "Can Xing was written by Zengzi." Once when Zengzi slept during the daytime he dreamed he saw a fox without a head. As he thought of it upon awaking, he didn't know what the omen was predicting, so in disappointment he wrote this song.

Music and lyrics: One section⁸
A largely syllabic structure, following the structure of the lyrics ([5+4] x 4)

There is a wild beast like a fox.
In a dream .... (translation incomplete)
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. 16860.56 Yue Fu melody by Zengzi
(Return)

2. Taigu Yiyin does not group melodies by mode.
(Return)

3. No image yet available.
(Return)

4. The original Chinese text of the Qin Cao introduction can be found in Tong Kin-Woon's Qin Fu, I/743.
琴操，殘形操（見唐健垣，琴府, I/743）

殘形操者曾子所作也。曾子鼓琴，墨子立外而聽之。曲終，入，曰﹕善哉。鼓琴身已成矣，而曾未得其首也。曾子曰﹕吾晝臥見一狸，見其身而不見其頭。起而為之弦，因而殘形。
(Return)

5. Giles, Tseng Ts'an (14627.6 曾參), does not mention the headless fox story or the resulting lyrics.
(Return)

6. Zha Guide 13/140/248: the other, in 1585, has the same lyrics but quite different music.
(Return)

7. Original preface
Chinese preface is as follows （太古遺音解題如下）:

按琴錄，“殘形，曾子所作也。”曾子嘗晝寢，夢見一狸而無首，醒而思之，莫知所兆，乃惻然而作是操。
(Return)

8. Original lyrics
The Chinese lyrics are Han Yu's poem (see also in YFJS).

有獸維狸兮我夢得之。
其身孔明兮而頭不知。
吉凶何為兮覺坐而思。
巫鹹上天兮識者其誰。
(Return)

(Return to top)