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148. Song Yu Mourns Autumn
- Qiliang mode 2 : 2 4 5 6 1 2 3 |
宋玉悲秋 1
Song Yu Bei Qiu Song Yu mourns: see Jiu Bian illustrations |
The Song Yu Bei Qiu (Song Yu Mourns Autumn) melody using qiliang tuning is found only in Xilutang Qintong (1549 CE). It is not related to a later piece of the same title, which uses standard tuning.3 It has the same theme as the set of poems called Jiu Bian (Nine Changes) in the Chu Ci (Songs of the South).4
Song Yu was a well-known poet in the state of Chu during the third century BCE. He is commonly said to be a nephew of Qu Yuan, but no reliable biographical information is available. Several poems in the Chu Ci are attributed to him. The set called Jiu Bian begins as follows (Hawkes' translation5),
In his preface David Hawkes says Jiu Bian begins as a
As the original preface to the qin melody makes clear, it follows the same ideas as the Chu Ci poem.
Original preface
Song Yu of Chu had talent but lost his will; he was not in tune with his times. When he felt the autumn air he sighed in misery. Later people accordingly applied this to the qin.
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a
separate page)
1 宋玉悲秋 7230.63 Song Yu only concerns Song Yu. (Return)
2 淒涼調 Qiliang Diao From standard tuning raise the 2nd and 5th strings (Return)
3 In six handbooks from 1686 to 1876. None of them has a preface. (Return)
4 九辨 Jiu Bian is translated as Nine Changes by David Hawkes (see Songs of the South, pp.207-219). Hawkes says Nine Arguments or Nine Disputes might seem a better translation; he chose Nine Changes as a title "borrowed from legend; and in the legend Jiu Bian has the sense of musical changes or 'modes'." Another translation is Nine Apologies (see Xu Yuanzhong, Poetry of the South; Changsha, Hunan Publishing Co., 1992). The original did not have sections indicated. Hawkes divides it into eleven, "following mainly the rhymes, the sense and my own intuition". Other editions may break it into nine or ten sections. (Return)
5 David Hawkes, Songs of the South, Penguin, p.209. (Return)
6 The poem/line reference numbers are based on the Penguin translation Songs of the South by David Hawkes. The illustrations by 白雲立 Bai Yunli are based on a set of nine by the scholar artist 門應兆 Men Yingzhao (active during 1736-1795). Men's illustrations were originally published in 欽定補繪蕭雲從離騷全圖 Qinting Bu hui Xiao Yuncong Li Sao Quantu, The Imperially Ordered Complete Illustrations of Li Sao Supplementing the Sketches by Xiao Yuncong. Re-published in 1935 in the Shanghai edition of 四庫全書 Siku Quanshu, it has nine illustrations by Xiao Yuncong (1596-1673) of 九歌 Jiu Ge, 54 of 天問 Tian Wen, plus one combining 卜居 Bu Ju and 漁父 Yu Fu. The supplementary illustrations, by Men Yingzhao are 32 of 離騷 Li Sao, nine of 九章 Jiu Zhang, five of 遠遊 Yuan You, 13 of 招魂 Zhao Hun, seven of 大招 Da Zhao and nine of 九辨 Jiu Bian.
The original Chinese lines selected as titles are: