|
T of C
Home |
My Work |
Hand- books |
Qin as Object |
Qin in Art |
Poetry / Song |
Hear Qin |
Play Qin |
Analysis | History |
Ideo- logy |
Miscel- lanea |
More Info |
Personal | email me search me |
| XLTQT / ToC | Listen to my recording 聽錄音 |
|
096. Jade Sheng, Heavenly Crane
- Yu mode, standard tuning: 5 6 1 2 3 5 6 |
瑤天笙鶴
Yao Tian Sheng He 1 Enlarge these images |
This melody, found only in Xilutang Qintong, evokes the image of Wangzi Qiao2 (often read as Wang Ziqiao3), usually depicted as a right, riding on a crane while playing the sheng mouth organ. This is a Daoist image often seen in folk art, and the story of Wangzi Qiao is perhaps the source for later poetic references to a jade sheng imitating the sound of a crane. The eldest son of King Ling of the Zhou dynasty4 (traditional reign period 571-544 BCE), he is said to have studied the Dao at Songshan,5 one of China's five sacred mountain ranges (in modern Henan province) and long a famous center of Daoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. From here he ascended into immortality.6
The earliest surviving biography of Wangzi Qiao, in the Biographies of Immortals (probably late Han), has details of this.7 The preface to Yao Tian Sheng He is largely a quote from the first half of his entry in this volume. The complete biography, which is quoted in the Yuefu Shiji,8 is as follows.
In some editions this is followed by a poem.13 Yuefu Shiji does not have this poem, but it does include five sets of lyrics about Wangzi Qiao. The second of these, by Jiang Yan (444-505) can be sung to the music of section 8 of the present melody. However, the pairing of lyrics to music does not quite fit the then-standard practice of one character for each right hand stroke or left hand pluck.14
The earliest known mention of Wangzi Qiao is perhaps in the Chu Ci (Chu Lyrics) poem Yuan You (also a qin melody), traditionally attributed to Song Yu (ca. 290- ca. 223). On line 54 the author speaks of "following Wang(zi) Qiao for pleasure", apparently suggesting a search for immortality; and on lines 61/2 he speaks of asking Wangzi "about the balance made by unifying essence."15
Modern scholarship suggests that the poem Yuan You was not written until well into the Han dynasty. Another Chu Ci poem, this one probably dating from the late Han dynasty, describes Wangzi Qiao and another immortal, Chisongzi, as playing the se 52-string zither.16
I know of no recordings of this melody.
1
21646.xx, but 4/618 瑤天 yao tian says it describes the beauty of the heavens or refers to an abode of the immortals; 21646.43 瑤笙 yaosheng says it can make the sound of a crane; there are several poetic references, but none mentions Wangzi Qiao. 5961.1343 天鶴座 tianhe zuo is the name of a constellation. 姚品文 Yao Pinwen's 朱權研究 Study of Zhu Quan (Nanchang, 1993), pp.251-2, discusses an opera by Zhu Quan entitled Yao Tian Sheng He; the libretto is lost, but it describes the present story.
(Return)
2
王子喬 Wangzi Qiao (See images)
3
21295.23/1 says 王子 wangzi means "son of a king"; /2 says it is a double surname. Early sources may also refer to him as 王子 Wangzi, 王喬 Wang Qiao (see the 楚辭 Chu Ci), or 子喬 Ziqiao (Yuefu Shiji).
(Return)
4
3597.904 周靈王 Zhou Ling Wang does not mention a surname.
(Return)
5
嵩山 Song Shan, in Henan province.
(Return)
6
Alan Berkowitz, Patterns of Disengagement, p. 50, says the aim of an immortal was "existence beyond that which mortal men could normally expect. This goal eventually is reached either by leaving the world behind and joining the empyreal ranks of the godlike, or by staying in the world and achieving the state in which the body also becomes divinely transcendent....Chisongzi and Wangzi Qiao (are examples) of the former." 赤 松 子 Chisongzi, according to Giles, was "A being who controlled the rain and wind in the legendary age of Shen Nung. Among other feats, he was able to pass unharmed through fire." (See also 37843.105). According to Yü Ying-Shih, "Life and Immortality in the Mind of Han China." Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 25 (1964-5), pp.80-122, immortality cults became very important after the Qin unified China and many 方士 fangshi came to the capital. Gradually the emphasis was placed on extending life in the present world.
(Return)
7
The Biographies of Immortals (列仙傳
Liexian Zhuan) was traditionally attributed to 劉向
Liu Xiang (ca.79-ca.06 BCE); modern scholarship suggests that it was probably written one or two centuries later. See Nienhauser, Companion, p.566. The biography is in Liexian Zhuan, A.1, A.23-24.
(Return)
8
This biography of Wangzi Qiao from Liexian Zhuan is also included in 樂府詩集 Yuefu Shiji, Folio 29, p.437. The biography is followed by lyrics (see below).
(Return)
9
The 伊 Yi and 洛 Luo rivers join just east of Luoyang, then flow into the Yellow River.
(Return)
10
Master Fuqiu
11
I haven't found other references to 桓良 Huan Liang (15061.xx).
(Return)
12
Modern maps show a 緱氏 Goushi (see 28328.3) town on the northern side of Songshan, but I haven't located any of the specific places claiming to be the spot from which Wangzi Qiao flew away.
(Return)
13
This poem, as yet untranslated, is as follows,
妙哉王子，神遊氣爽。
14
Yuefu Shiji, pp. 437 - 439, after the biography of Wangzi Qiao from
Liexian Zhuan, has five Wangzi Qiao poems, ordered chronologically:
The lyrics by Jiang Yan form four couplets, the structure being (5+5) x 4. The stroke count of section eight of Yao Tian Sheng He is 5+5, 7+4, 5+6, 8+5. By using more than one stroke per character, and by pairing characters to slides, the melody and lyrics can be matched quite musically. Jiang Yan's lyrics are as follows:
My preliminary tentative translation is as follows,
15
See David Hawkes, Songs of the South, pp. 195 and 200. Hawkes says Wangzi Qiao is not mentioned in any pre-Han source.
(Return)
16
See Sorrow for Troth Betrayed (惜誓 Xi Shi) in David Hawkes, Songs of the South, p.240. His translation says, "the two Masters held zithers tuned in perfect concord (while he) sang the Qing Shang air". For Chisongzi, see footnote 6 above.
(Return)
17
西麓堂琴統，瑤天笙鶴解題﹕周靈王子王（子）喬好吹笙，作鳳鳴。遊伊洛間函道，大浮丘公引之入嵩亮山，授以長生之道。遂有此曲。
(Return)
Return to the annotated handbook list
or to the Guqin ToC.
Nine sections
(untitled)
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8. (See the potential lyrics)
9.
end (playing time: about 6 minutes)
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a
separate page)
21295.39/1 王子喬 says Wangzi Qiao is the name of a melody
(q.v.), then it quotes a passage from the 古今樂錄 Gujin Yuelu. /2 has his biography. It says his name was 晉 Jin (Wangzi Jin), his original surname was 姬 Ji (same surname given the Yellow Emperor), and he became a commoner. It then relates basically the same information given in Liexian Zhuan (see below). It also has an illustration of Wangzi Qiao on a crane. Giles 2240 has mostly the same information. (He is also mentioned in the section titles of Yuan You.)
(Return)
The Master of the Drifting Mound (Fuqiu Gong 浮丘公 17924.37) is mentioned in various ancient sources. These have him living in different periods, beginning with the time of the Yellow Emperor. Several other names are said to refer to the same person, such as 壺丘子 Huqiuzi in Liezi. The Liexian Zhuan biography of Wangzi Qiao mentions Fuqiu Gong. And like Wangzi Qiao, Fuqiu Gong is sometimes said to have played a sheng mouth organ while riding a crane at Songshan. Fuqiu is also mentioned in connection with the melody Pei Lan. For further information on Fuqiu Gong see Robert Hymes, Way and Byway: Taoism, Local Religion and Models of Divinity in Sung and Modern China, pp.59-60.
(Return)
笙歌伊落，擬音鳳響。
浮丘感應，接手俱上。
揮策青崖，假翰獨往。
(Return)
控鶴去窈窕，學鳳對巑岏。 Kong he qu yao tiao, xue feng dui cuan wan.
山無一春草，谷有千年蘭。 Shan wu yi chun cao, gu you qian nian lan.
雲衣下躑躅，龍駕何時還？ Yun yi xia zhi zhu, long jia he shi huan?
Riding a crane he went to remote places, studying how a phoenix faces mountain peaks.
Mountains don't have grass just one spring, valleys can have 1,000 year orchids.
Clothed in clouds he is hesitant to descend, riding a dragon when would you ever return?
(Return)