Cangwu Yuan, Mengji Yin

Although this melody, and its prelude Mengji Yin,⁵ is ostensibly a lament by two wives over the death of their husband, it is more generally a lament by a country about the death of a sage king while toiling away for them in a southern wilderness. Mengji Yin survives only here; but including this occurrence in Xilutang Qintong (1549), Cangwu Yuan itself can be found in at least 18 handbooks through 1876, 12 of them dating from the 17th century.⁶ Sometimes it is called Cangwu Yin.⁷ However, if the Xilutang Qintong afterword (see below) is correct, the melody was already then very old. The "Old man Zixia" mentioned there must be Yang Zuan, a famous collector of qin melodies and the center of a group of famous qin players in Hangzhou during the 13th century. Yang Zuan is said to have collected old tablature into a handbook called Zixiadong Qinpu (Handbook of the Rosy Haze Grotto).

According to the prefaces, Cangwu Yuan concerns two daughters of Emperor Yao, E Huang and Nü Ying,⁸ lamenting the death of their husband, Shun (2317?-2208? BCE), after his death in Cangwu. Cangwu is an old name for a mountainous region of southern Hunan province, near the border with Guangdong. Here, at a town called Jiuyi, there is a temple commemorating Shun.⁹

This melody thus relates the same story as does another qin melody, Xiang Fei Yuan.¹⁰ The latter, a song more specifically in the voice of Shun's two widows, survives in 13 handbooks and is still played today, but the two pieces are musically unrelated. This story is also the subject of many poems.¹¹

According to Annal 1 of Shi Ji,¹² Shun grew up at Guirui in what is today Shanxi province.¹³ Having heard that through filial actions Shun was able to keep harmony in his family, Yao gave two of his daughters to Shun in marriage, observing how well he treated them. When Shun was 50 years old Emperor Yao made him head of state, naming him his successor. When Shun was 58 Yao died, and three years later Shun became emperor. When he was 100 he traveled south on an inspection tour, dieing while in the wilderness of Cangwu. He was buried across the river at Jiuyi.

At Jun Shan island¹⁴ near Yueyang, a city in Hunan province on the eastern shore of Dongting lake, there is a temple in honor of E Huang and Nü Ying, including their supposed grave. They are said to have cried so hard at Shun's death that their tears speckled the bamboo near his grave. Speckled bamboo is native only to an area near Yueyang in northern Hunan.¹⁵

The distance from Jiuyi to Yueyang is over 500 km. In addition, Yueyang is on the northeast side of Dongting lake, while the Xiang river flows into the southern side. I am not sure how this issue is addressed.¹⁶

More stories about Yao's two daughters are related below. Both the elder, O Huang, and the younger, Nü Ying, are associated with the Xiang River goddesses mentioned in several Chu Ci poems.¹⁷ One tradition says that the third of the Nine Songs is addressed to the older, the fourth to the younger.

Original preface¹⁸

When Emperor Yu (Shun) made a tour of the south, the two daughters of Yao followed him. When (Shun) died in the wilds of Cangwu he was straightaway buried. The two daughters (of Yao) then leaned against bamboo and cried; the water from their tears made stripes (on the bamboo). Later someone made this melody. Old Man Zixia (Yang Zuan) of the Song dynasty revised and corrected it. It is really a celestial air.

Music
Twelve sections ¹⁹

1. Phoenix carriage pursuit ²⁰
2. Tearing at one's hair while wailing and weeping ²¹
3. Sad gibbering of bereft gibbons ²²
4. A solitary snow-goose is alarmed
5. Profound separation
6. Sighs arise whether awake or asleep
7. Cherishing thoughts of Guirui
8. In the wild seeing Chonghua (Shun)
9. Tears cleanse bamboo along the Xiang river
10. Spirits freeze on the mountaintops of Chu
11. The mists come together over the Jiuyi mountains (of Hunan)
12. Deep clouds over the Seven Marshes (i.e., Chu²³)
harmonics
end

Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. Cangwu Yuan 蒼梧怨
Cangwu literally suggests the dense foliage of wu trees. For more on wu trees see wutong, a wood commonly used for making qin tops. However, dictionaries seem to refer to Cangwu mainly as a geographical term. Thus, 32425.112 has for Cangwu: 1. district in Guangxi; 2. commandery in Guangxi; 3. Mountain in a. Jiangsu and b. Hunan (also called 九疑 Jiu Yi); 4. a road in Guangxi. Only 3.b. is identified with Shun. (9/507 does not have cangwu.) The 1549 preface clearly uses "Cangwu" as a place name, but see the commentary with the Kuian Qinpu illustration. (Return)

2. Jiao Yi (Defining Jiao Mode)
#53, Jiao Yi, as a modal prelude, does not have its own commentary. The melody here is clearly related to that of Shenpin Jiao Yi of 1425 (q.v.). This version published in 1549 seems to be directly connected to #54 Mengji Yin (see next footnote), which in turn is a prelude to Cangwu Yuan. In fact, these three seem to be a set. In jiao mode the primary note is equivalent to the open third string, called jiao. Like Xiang Fei Yuan (shang mode), Cangwu Yuan is one of the few Chu theme melodies to use standard tuning. (Return)

3. Kuian Qinpu illustration (QQJC XI/31), by Xu Dan
徐澹 Xu Dan (or Tan; Bio/xxx, but see Wu Zhao's commentary). The illustration shows someone gazing into the distance; a servant stands nearby, holding a qin. Almost invariably in such illustrations the people are a male scholar and his 琴僮 "qin boy". However, here the person in the scholar's position is a woman. The inscription in the upper right corner (see closeup below), as reprinted in QQJC, is not very clear. It seems to say,

"倚蒼梧，欲問青天。月沉西，寥寥群雁，露濕芙蓉，令人悲怨，恨夜偏長，風還以前。古吳徐澹並題。
Leaning under the dense foliage of a wu tree, wanting to make enquiries to heaven. The moon is sinking in the west, fewer are the flocks of geese, dew dampens the hibiscuses, causing grief and resentment. Regret that the evening is so long. The breeze returns as before (?). Xu Dan of old Suzhou also added comment (to his illustration)."

The use of cangwu (for more on which see the footnote above) to refer to "the dense foliage of a wu tree", as with the depiction of a single female qin player, perhaps indirectly alludes to the story of Nü Ying and E Huang, but the commentary with the illustration seems to make no direct reference to the story. (Return)

4. This quote is from "The 'Final' Valedictory Edict" of the Kangxi emperor. See Jonathan Spence, Emperor of China; New York, Vintage Books, 1988; p. 171.
(Return)

5. 蒙棘引 Mengji Yin (Covered Brambles Prelude)
#54, Mengji Yin (32287.xxx; Guide 19/--/-- : only here), as a prelude to Cangwu Yuan, does not have its own commentary. The commentary on Cangwu Yuan does not mention thornbushes, and as yet I have not found what the connection is between the title Mengji Yin and the Cangwu story. 32287.120 蒙棘 Mengji gives only a brief reference, to the first line of verse 2 (of 4) of 葛生 Ge Sheng (The Cloth-Plant Grew), #124 in the Book of Songs; it is a poem about an absent lover; otherwise I have found no commentary making a connection between it and Cangwu or its story. Note that in the first verse the cloth-plant covers not mengji but mengchu (32287.xxx); this makes the use of mengji here even more puzzling. (Translation is by Arthur Waley.)

葛生蒙楚， The cloth-plant grew till it covered the thorn-bush;
蘞蔓于野。 The bind-weed spread over the wilds.
予美亡此， My lovely one is here no more.
誰與獨處？ With whom? No, I sit alone.

葛生蒙棘， The cloth-plant grew till it covered the brambles;
蘞蔓于城。 The bind-weed spread across the borders of the field.
予美亡此， My lovely one is here no more.
誰與獨息？ With whom? No, I lie down alone.
(Return)

6. Zha's Guide 19/184/-- (蒼梧怨 Cangwu Yuan); see also next footnote.
(Return)

7. 蒼梧引 Cangwu Yin (Cangwu Prelude)
For the title Cangwu Yin Zha's Guide gives five listings under 28/221/--, in handbooks dated 1596, 1609, 1634, 1647 and 1692. However, the only Cangwu Yin that is not in fact a version of Cangwu Yuan is the one published in 1596 (see in its ToC), where it is the title of an unrelated short melody, apparently the original version of Liang Xiao Yin (from 1614; see the footnote there).
(Return)

8. E Huang and Nü Ying
The dictionary references to Nü Ying (女英 6170.135) and E Huang (娥皇 6487.7) are mostly from the Lienü Zhuan and other later sources; see also Xiangjun (湘君 18223.30) and Xiangling (湘靈 18223.86). Chu Ci has a poem about the Xiang River goddesses, apparently predating their identification with the wives of Shun. It was during the Ming dynasty that their name was given to a species of speckled bamboo. See also Anne Birrell, Chinese Mythology, p.167. (Return)

9. Jiu Yi 九疑、九嶷
There is a 九疑 Jiuyi (25° 21' N by 112° 05' E) on modern maps in the 寧遠縣 Ningyuan district of Hunan province; some of these maps show a 舜廟 Shun Temple here. Nearby are the 九嶷山 Jiuyi Mountains. The source of the 瀟 Xiao river is also near here. (Return)

10. 湘妃怨 Xiang Fei Yuan; also called 湘江怨 Xiang Jiang Yuan and 二妃怨 Er Fei Yuan. 18223.27 Xiang Fei says that this refers to the two wives of Shun. The earliest extant version of this melody dates from 1511. As with Cangwu Yuan it is one of the few Chu theme melodies to use standard tuning: it is generally grouped under shang mode. No version of Cangwu Yuan has lyrics, but Xiang Fei Yuan always has them (" 落花落葉落紛紛 ...."). (Return)

11. See Yuefu Shiji, pp.825-8. First there is an essay named Xiang Fei which quotes four sources for more details to the story; particularly noteworthy are the comments by 韓愈 Han Yu connecting the women with passages in 楚辭 Chu Ci. Then there are 10 short poems on this theme: Xiang Fei by 劉長卿 Liu Changqing and 李賀 Li He; Xiang Fei Yuan by 孟郊 Meng Jiao (751-814) and 陳羽 Chen Yu; Xiang Fei Lienü Cao by 鮑溶 Bao Rong; and 湘夫人 Xiang Furen by 沈約 Shen Yue, 王僧孺 Wang Sengru, 鄒紹先 Zou Shaoxian, 李頎 Li Qi and 郎士元 Lang Shiyuan. In addition, Xiang Fei Yuan always has lyrics (" 落花落葉落紛紛 ....") and the 蒼梧引 Cangwu Preface dated 1620 also has them. None of these is related to the Yue Fu lyrics, and Cangwu Yuan never has lyrics. (Return)

12. 史記 translation in GSR I, pp. 8 - 16. (Return)

13. Guirui 媯汭
"Guirui" (6888.4) is sometimes translated Bend in the Gui River; sometimes Gui and Rui are considered two rivers. They (or it) flowed from 歷山 Mount Li, where Shun farmed, into the Yellow River in southwest Shanxi province. (Mount Li is featured in such qin melodies as Si Qin Cao, Li Shan Yin and Geng Lishan.) (Return)

14. 君山 Junshan. 17777.56 says an alternate name for Jun Shan is 洞庭 Dongting. David Hawkes (see below) translates 君山 as Goddess Island and 湘君 Xiang Jun as Goddess of the Xiang. (Return)

15. There is an image of speckled bamboo under Xiang Fei Yuan, as well as a link to a related site. (Return)

16. Birrell, op.cit., quotes a source saying E Huang and Nü Ying lived at Dongting mountain, "a further 120 leagues southeast" from Dongting lake. (Return)

17. See David Hawkes, trans., The Songs of the South, p.104f, etc. (Return)

18. Chinese original not yet online. (Return)

19. The original Chinese section titles are:

鳳駕追從
攀髯號泣
斷猿淒語
孤鵠驚魂
幽冥相隔
寤寐興嘆
有懷媯汭
恍覿重華
淚浣湘筠
神凝楚岫
九疑煙合
七澤雲深
(Return)

20. Phoenix carriage: 鳳駕 47631.199: chariot for an emperor or an immortal. (Return)

21. 攀髯 pan ran 13204.28 "喻悲悼人 suggests wailing for someone", then quotes Shi Ji #28, Feng and Shan sacrifices (RGH II/37). 髯 ran (whiskers) seems to refer to men; compare 鬢 bin, which could be a woman's sidelocks. (Return)

22. 斷猿 Bereft Gibbons: 13929.139 says this is a qin melody mentioned in Pipa Ji. (Return)

23. 4.453 七澤 (Qize) says 在湖北省竟內 within the borders of Hubei; it then refers to 雲夢七澤 (43170.576 a marsh in 安陸 Anlu district, northeast of Wuhan). It quotes 子虛賦 Rhapsody of Sir Vacuous by Sima Xiangru (see Knechtges translation of Wen Xuan, II/55: "I have heard that Chu has seven marshes, but I have seen only one of them....). The quote seems to suggest that Qize evokes the old Chu region. (Return)

Appendix: Closeup of Kuian Qinpu inscription
Here is a closeup of the inscription to the right of the illustration above:

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