The Song of Chu concerns the final defeat of Xiang Yu (232 - 202). From his beginning as a local headman he had won many battles and almost succeeded in overthrowing the Qin, thereby establishing a new dynasty. But instead he has lost the battle with Liu Bang, and now loses his beloved wife Yu Ji. The melody here begins with him coming to Gaixia, by the Wu River, and proclaiming the famous lines that later tradition attributed to him.

Details of this story can be found with the version of Chu Ge published in Shen Qi Mi Pu (1425). That version has no lyrics, though its re-publication in <1491 added them throughout. The melody in Taigu Yiyin is very different, though it uses a number of motifs from the earlier version. The lyrics here are almost completely different.³

The lyrics that open the version in Taigu Yiyin can be found in Yuefu Shiji,⁴ where they are attributed to Xiang Yu himself. However, Yuefu Shiji does not have the rest of the lyrics used here, and I have not yet been able to trace their source.

The original preface here is a shortened version of the one in Shen Qi Mi Pu.

 
Original preface

 
Music and lyrics:⁵ Prelude and eleven titled sections
The setting is largely syllabic; unstructured rhyming lyrics after the opening four lines

 
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1 楚歌 15473.146 Song of Chu; the song heard by Xiang Yu's forces when surrounded by Han (cf. Shi Ji). Part of this story is also retold in the opera 霸王別姬 Bawang Bie Ji (The Great King Leaves Yu Ji, often translated as Farewell My Concubine). (Return)

2 Taigu Yiyin groups melodies according to traditional chronology, not mode, but the tuning is defined at front: "tighten the second and fifth (strings) each one position." (Return)

3 In <1491 the lyrics begin, "寒風颯颯兮九月霜天，家鄉憶別兮十有餘年...." (Return)

4 YFSJ, Folio 58, Li Ba Shan Cao (p. 849). A comment says 《詩紀》卷二作〈垓下歌〉 Poetry Collection, Folio 2, calls it "Song at Gaixia". This is followed by a poem called 項王歌 Xiang Wang Ge, said to be an anonymous poem on the same subject. Its lyrics (無復拔山力，誰論蓋世才。欲知漢騎滿，但聽楚歌哀。悲看騅馬去，泣望艤舟來。) are not used here. (Return)

5 The lyrics in Chinese begin: