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37. Former Red Cliff Rhapsody
- Standard tuning:2 5 6 1 2 3 5 6 played as 1 2 4 5 6 1 2 |
前赤壁賦
1
Qian Chibi Fu |
| Wu Yuanzhi: Red Cliff (original at Palace Museum, Taiwan) 3 |
The Former Red Cliff Rhapsody and Latter Red Cliff Rhapsody are personal accounts (in the form of fu, poetic essay/rhapsody) by the famous poet Su Dongpo (1037 - 1101). During 1080-86 Su was in exile as a minor official at Huangzhou (main city Huanggang), on the south side of the Yangzi River in what is today Hunan province. While there he made a trip with some friends to a scenic river spot called Red Cliff.4 This was the place, according to Su's account,5 where over 800 years earlier the famous Battle of Red Cliff had taken place.6 In the rhapsodies Su contrasts the fighting that took place there then with the peacefulness of the present scene.
This setting for qin, a largely syllabic arrangement of both the preface and the fu itself (here the former fu, in the next melody the latter one), does not appear in the 1511 edition of Taigu Yiyin, but only its continuation, dated 1515. It then survives in ten further handbooks to 1802, all with the same lyrics but different music.7
This fu is also the subject of a number of famous paintings.8 For example,
There have also been a number of published translations of the poems into English.10
Original preface
11
According to Chao Buzhi's Preface to the Continuation of Li Sao,12 the former and latter parts of Red Cliff Rhapsody were written by Master Su. (During the battle in ancient times), Cao Cao with his world-conquering attitude floated large boats on the river, as far as the eyes could see there were no Wu (soldiers). Zhou Yu was a young man, Huang Gai his subordinate general, a torch was used to burn (Cao Cao's boats). (Much later) Master (Su), when demoted to a post at Huanggang, often traveled below Red Cliff, forgetting his worldy aims. Seeing the river waves rushing clean he naturally meditated on the past, and in accord with (Zhou) Yu's skills wrote this rhapsody, and so on.
Music and Lyrics: Ten sections
13
(Originally undivided; the divisions here follow later versions)
1. (Preface)
In autumn of (1082 CE), during the full moon of the 7th lunar month, I and some friends went floating on a boat, and traveled below Red Cliff....(for rest of translation see references above).
2.
3.
4.
5.
6. (harmonics)
7. (harmonics)
8.
9.
10. (harmonics)
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a
separate page)
1.
Red Cliff Rhapsody (Qian Chibi Fu 前赤壁賦)
There are at least two Red Cliffs on the Yangzi river, one upstream from Wuhan, where the battle evidently took place, and one downstream, which is where in this poem Su Dongpo imagined it took place. See further in the footnotes below.
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2.
Tuning and Mode
Taigu Yiyin does not organize melodies by mode. The version in 1539 is grouped under zhi mode, while in 1585 it is in shang mode, but these melodies are quite different from here.
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3.
Red Cliff Image
This painting dated ca. 1100 CE by 武元直 Wu Yuanzhi (late 12th c.), is sold in reproductions by the National Palace Museum, Taiwan.
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4.
Location of Su Dongpo's Red Cliff
Su Dongpo's Red Cliff was apparently down the Yangzi River from the modern city of Wuhan, near where he was posted as an official at 黃岡 Huanggang (黃州 Huangzhou). This Red Cliff is also the subject of a poem by Su Dongpo called 赤壁懷古 Chibi Huaigu (see
online translation). Photographs of this site show immediately the gap between the images by painters and the geographical reality Dongpo's Red Cliff. See, for example, the images now on 華夏 Huaxia web pages dated
2005 and
2007. See also the next footnote below.
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5.
Location of Red Cliff battle
There apparently is/was some confusion about the location of this battle. The most commonly named site is up the Yangzi River from Wuhan, near the modern Hunan border. Available online photographs of the cliff here may suggest that this location has more in common with the paintings than does Dongpo's Chibi (see previous footnote), but more panoramic photographs would also show the paintings to have been very fanciful. (See, for example, the
Chibi website.)
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6.
Red Cliff Battle
There is quite a bit of information on the internet about this battle. See, for example, Battle of Red Cliffs. The battle was fought during the winter of 208-9, shortly after the Viceroy of Wu 周瑜 Zhou Yu (175-210; Wiki) had married one of the daughters of Qiao Xuan (Wiki). At the battle Zhou, with some assistance from the soon to be famous strategist Zhuge Liang of Shu, combined to stop an attack by Cao Cao of Wei. Most famously they used a ruse suggested by 黃蓋 Huang Gai: he would pretend to surrender, and sail several boats secretly filled with incendiary devices into Cao Cao's massed fleet, then set them ablaze. In the battle Zhou Yu was wounded by an arrow; he survived but his death the following year was apparently due to infection from the wound.
Red Cliff: the film score (and guqin "duet"; see also Qin in film)
The battle at Red Cliff was the focus of a 2008 film called Red Cliff (see, for example, Answers and Wikipedia; the original film is in two parts, each over 2 hours long, of which I have seen only the first). In the film, when Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang together decide to oppose Cao Cao, they show their likemindedness by successfully playing a qin duet together. The music they play largely comes from repeating certain particularly flashy phrases from the melodies
Guangling San and the
modern Liu Shui apparently as played by 趙家珍 Zhao Jiazhen. For this music the credits say only "中國古琴作曲唐建平 Chinese zither composer Tang Jianping", with no mention of the actual player, suggesting perhaps Tang recorded (or took existing recordings of) individual passages (on a single nylon/metal or composite string qin), then himself put the bits together electronically. The film also has a passage with eerie music played in Japanese noh flute style. Otherwise, although the film seems with its costumes and story to be trying to give a semblance of historical accuracy, the film score, by Taro Iwashiro, has virtually no Chinese flavor. It is disconcerting to read some online comments on the score by people who clearly would find it odd if the characters wore Western clothing but seem to have no problem with this music.
7.
Tracing various versions of Chibi Fu
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Zha Guide 14/152/283 (Qian Chibi Fu) and 14/153/285 (Hou Chibi Fu);
28/--/-- (Chibi Fu) is a separate entry, but this must be a mistake: it only repeats three already listed under Qian Chibi Fu, and all have lyrics). The listed examples have publication dates as follows:
Note the changed tunings.
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8.
Other famous Red Cliff paintings
For a possible Japanese example see the
Metropolitan Museum website
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9.
Nelson Atkins Scroll
This long scroll is partially reproduced in Masterpieces of Chinese Paintings Overseas, Vol. I, pp. 112/3.
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10.
Translations of the Red Cliff Rhapsodies
These include,
11.
Original preface
The Chinese original is as follows:
12.
晁補之 Chao Buzhi (1053-1110; sometimes transliterated Zhao Buzhi)
14239.2 "宋鉅野人，字无咎...." Chao was a Song dynasty scholar-official from Juye (in Shandong), style name Wujiu. He was a friend and protégée of Su Dongpo. His writings included a 琴趣外篇 Qin Qu Waipian.
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13.
Original lyrics of Qian Chibi Fu (see also Hou Chibi Fu)
In Taigu Yiyin the Chinese lyrics, which pair Su Dongpo's original poem (including the introduction) to the qin tablature using the standard method, are not clearly divided into sections. However, later versions seem to suggest arranging them into 10 sections, as follows:
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