Han Gong Qiu

However, the title Han Gong Qiu is also used for an unrelated yu mode melody connected to the same story. Versions of this latter melody, also called Han Gong Qiu Yue (Autumn Moon over the Han Palace), Han Gong Qiu Yuan (Autumn Lament in the Han Palace) and Qiu Shan Yin (Autumn Fan Intonation⁶), survive in at least 49 handbooks from 1589 to 1946.⁷

The prefaces for all these are in some way connected with the Ban family,⁸ Ban Jieyu⁹ in particular, but there are some confusing details.

Ban Jieyu came from a family already very well known, though not yet as famous as it was to become. By her skillful action she at one time rescued her brother Ban Zhi¹⁰ from a charge of treason. Ban Zhi became the father of Ban Biao,¹¹ an historian who in turn was father of Ban Gu¹² and Ban Zhao,¹³ the brother and sister who were responsible for completing the history of the former Han dynasty; Ban Gu's twin brother Ban Chao¹⁴ was perhaps China's most famous frontier general.

Gazeteers include Guanshans in Shaanxi and Shandong provinces, but it is also a common allusion to separation from home. The prelude could thus also be translated Homesick.¹⁵

The story related in the afterword to the present Han Gong Qiu is a scaled down version of a fairly well-known story about Ban Jieyu, the imperial concubine who at one time was the favorite of the Han emperor Chengdi.

Ban Jieyu had already proven her moral values by resisting the emperor's attempts to persuade her to ride with him in his chariot, her artistic talents through her ability to recite poems from the Shi Jing, and her generosity by introducing her attendant Li Ping to the emperor. Eventually, however, she lost out to Zhao Feiyan,¹⁶ after which great skill was required to survive the jealousy of Zhao and her sister. To do this Ban Jieyu first had to defend herself against accusations that she had cursed the emperor. She then found safety by arranging to serve the empress dowager in her palace.

Ban Jieyu's best poem is said to be one called Self-Commiseration.¹⁷ In it she speaks of her virtue, and her sadness at having been abandoned.

The poem about an autumn fan is in a Yue Fu style;¹⁸ in it Ban Jieyu compares herself to an autumn fan discarded after the summer heat. The expression "autumn fan" came to mean a discarded lover.

Newly cut fine white silk,
Clear and pure as frost and snow.
Made into a fan for joyous trysts,
Round as the bright moon.
In and out of my lord's cherished sleeve,
Waved back and forth to make a light breeze.
Often I fear the arrival of the autumn season,
Cool winds overcoming the summer heat.
Discarded into a box,
Affection cut off before fulfillment.

Xilutang Qintong has several melodies with lyrics in only one or two sections. This is not one of them, but these lyrics could be paired to the music of Section 5 (harmonics). This requires departing somewhat from the normal method of pairing one character with each right hand stroke.¹⁹

Original preface²⁰

Ban Jieyu of the Han dynasty lost favor and was sent to live (in the outer quarters); this was the regret (like that of) a round fan in an autumn wind. This melody also describes the meaning of her lonely desolation.

Music
Eight sections (untitled)

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Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1 18531.154: Yuan opera about Wang Zhaojun; no mention of Ban Jieyu. None of the qin prefaces mentions Zhaojun. There was an opera 班超投筆 Ban Zhao Casts Aside her Pen (see 王沛 Wang Pei, p.340.) (Return)

2 Wuyi diao (無射調)
For wuyi tuning, from standard tuning lower the first and raise the fifth strings a half step each. For more on this mode see Shenpin Wuyi Yi. For more on modes in general, see Modality in Early Ming Qin Tablature. (Return)

3 Kuian Qinpu illustration (QQJC XI/54)
The melody of the version of Han Gong Qiu accompanying this illustration is the common yu mode melody; it is thus different from that of this 1549 version. However, but this other version still connects to the story of Ban Jieyu alone in her palace. (Return)

4 Zha's Guide 21/192/-- has 32 entries, but only the first uses wuyi tuning (see also the footnote below). (Return)

5 憶關山 Yi Guanshan. (Return)

6 秋扇吟 Qiu Shan Yin (Autumn Fan Intonation)
See next and also the fan poem. Does an old melody list mistakenly call it Qiu Hu? (Return)

7 漢宮秋 Han Gong Qiu (yu mode; see illustration)
Zha's Guide has three separate entries for what (except for this, the first) are actually versions of the same melody:

21/192/-- 漢宮秋 Han Gong Qiu
32 entries; all but the first are the yu mode melody first found in 1589 but later usually called Han Gong Qiu Yue (see next); one has 秋扇吟 Qiushan Yin as an alternate title (25505.260 qiu shan #2 says "abandoned woman", giving a number of references to Ban Jieyu); three are called 漢宮秋怨 Han Gong Qiu Yuan.

29/227/436 漢宮秋月 Han Gong Qiu Yue
18 entries from <1609 (which is also the earliest of four with lyrics: 昭陽昭陽昭陽殿，嚴鎖深邃宮....; none uses the poem attributed to Ban Jieyu)

38/--/-- 秋怨 Qiu Yuan
One entry (1691)

There is a recording by 丁紀元 Ding Jiyuan of one version of this latter melody; it is based on 顧梅羹 Gu Meigong's interpretation from Wuzhizhai Qinpu. See Art of Qin Music I, Hugo HRP 7136/2. (Return)

8 Ban 班;
The Ban family, which traced its origins to the state of Chu, had become wealthy through an ancestor who moved around the beginning of the Han dynasty to the northern frontier. See John E. Wills, Jr., Portraits in Chinese History, p.90ff. (Return)

9 Ban Jieyu 班婕妤 (Former Han; Bio/1827)
Jieyu was a rank meaning something like "favored beauty"; her actual given name is unknown. Her biography in 列女傳 Lienü Zhuan mentions her propriety, not her love. A poem attributed to her concerns a bird from the Kunlun mountains in the remote west. (Return)

10 Ban Zhi 班稚 (Former Han; Bio/1827)
Ban Zhi, father of Ban Biao, was once accused of treason. He was rescued by his sister, Ban Jieyu. (Return)

11 Ban Biao 班彪 (3 - 54 CE; Bio/1826)
Ban Biao, with his son Ban Gu (next footnote), was the principal author of 漢書 The History of the (Former) Han, which continued where 司馬遷 Sima Qian's Shi Ji ended, ca. 100 BCE. (Return)

12 Ban Gu 班固 (32 - 92 CE; Bio/1826).
Ban Gu, with his father Ban Biao (previous footnote), was the principal author of 漢書 The History of the (Former) Han. Originally it began where Sima Qian's work ended, but Ban Gu's idea was to make the work into a unified history of the entire former Han. It was thus a model for the later official histories. He was also a poet: his 兩都賦 Two Capitals Rhapsody is translated by Knechtges in Wen Xuan, Vol.1. He also wrote 白虎通 Baihu Tong (or Bohu Tong, Discourses in the White Tiger Hall), "a record...of discussions on the classics and on Confucian themes held at the court of the Han Emperor Zhang (r.75-88 C.E.) in 29 C.E.)." (Sources of Chinese Tradition, I, p.344.) (Return)

13 Ban Zhao 班昭 (ca.49 - ca.120; Bio/1826)
Ban Zhao, daughter of Ban Biao, is most famous for her essay Nü Jie (女誡), Lessons for Women (see translation by Nancy Lee Swan in The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Poetry, p.534ff; compare with Cai Yong's Nü Xun). Some of the later prefaces to Han Gong Qiu say Ban Zhao wrote it, not Ban Jieyu. (Return)

14 Ban Chao 班超 (32 - 104; Bio/1826)
Son of Ban Biao, he led a quiet life until he brother helped him get a good official post. He distinguished himself so well at this that he was sent with 竇固 Dou Gu to western China. Dou Gu then the Emperor himself sent Ban Chao on further, into Central Asia, where he spent 31 years, to great distinction. (Return)

15 42402.10 Guanshan: 關與山 "mountain pass", and 鄉里 "native place". For the first it quotes several poems including 滕王閣序 Preface to 'Pavilion of Prince Teng' by 王勃 Wang Bo (649-676) (a melody in 1585); translated in Columbia Anthology, p.552. For the second it quotes 關山月詩 Moon over the Mountain Pass by 徐陵 Xu Ling (507-583); not in his New Songs from a Jade Terrace. 42402.11 has more Guanshan Yue poems. (Return)

16 趙飛燕 Zhao Feiyan. Her biography is also in the Lienü Zhuan. (Return)

17 Zi Dao Fu (自悼賦). See David Knechtges, Wen Xuan, I., pp.33 and 505. It is translated in Burton Watson, Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry, p.75. (N.Y., Columbia U, 1984), and Albert O'Hara, The Position of Women in Early China according to Lieh Nü Chuan (Taipei, Mei Ya, 1945). (Return)

18 Yuan Ge Xing 怨歌行, attributed to 班婕妤 Ban Jieyu (also called 秋扇怨 Lament of the Autumn Fan)
This poem is in the Yue Fu lyrics section of Wen Xuan (p. 1196) as well as in YFSJ, Folio 13 [p.616]; there are further poems about her on p.626ff. These are not in a qin section but with Xianghe Ge, originally a type of folk song. There are several translations of Yuan Ge Xing, including by Watson, p.77. The original is,

新裂齊紈素，鮮潔如霜雪。
裁為合歡扇，園園似明月。
出入君懷袖，動搖微風發。
常恐秋節至，涼飆奪炎熱。
棄捐篋笥中，恩情中道絕。 (Return)

19 See, for example, #34 Xing Tan and #155 Feng Qiu Huang. (Return)

20 The original Chinese text is not yet online. (Return)

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