The phrase "wu mei" means "no (marriage) go-between", and so it seems likely that this modal prelude is intended specifically for the two melodies that follow it, #154 Lingqiong Yin and #155 Feng Qiu Huang. This tuning survives only in this set of three pieces and in #156 Gu Guan Yu Shen (Encountering Spirits in an Isolated Mansion), and these four melodies survive only in Xilutang Qintong. The main tonal center is la (6) with mi (3) as its secondary note. However this sometimes shifts to do (1) with so (5) as the secondary note.

The name Wumei Diao is also used for the mode of the surviving version of a melody called Baitou Yin, which continues the story of Sima Xiangru and Zhuo Wenjun. However, that tuning is completely different.³

 
Original preface

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One section (untitled)

 
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1 Wumei Diao (無媒調); from standard tuning lower 3rd and 6th strings. 19580.502 and 7/141 wumei both give early reference to what happens when there is no go-between; also can refer to no one to give a general recommendation; nothing about music. (Taiyin Daquanji, Folio 5, #9 (QQJC I, p.83) lists Wumei twice, in the first instance saying to lower the 3rd and 6th strings, in the second saying to lower the 2nd and 6th string. Note that the wumei tuning for Baitou Yin (see below) calls for raising the 2nd and 6th strings. (Return)

2 Zha Fuxi's index (22/-/-) has it only in Xilutang Qintong. (Return)

3 Wumei mode as used in Baitou Yin
Baitou Yin, surviving only in 1618 (QQJC VIII, p.298), has a tuning that is also named Wumei, but it calls for tightening the second and sixth strings (compare above), giving 1 3 4 5 6 2 2, though according to my understanding of the melody this should be transposed to 2 4 5 6 7 3 3. By this reckoning, the tonal centers are 6 and 3, with a heavy emphasis also on 7. The melody altogether has about 229 notes, with 164 (71%) of them being 6, 3 or 7 (this counts as singles the doubled notes, all of which are unisons and almost all of which are on 3 but are secondarily on 7). There are 60 occurrences of 6, 48 of 3 and 56 of 7, resulting in a rather open sound, with the melody making many leaps of a fourth or a fifth. I have written out a transcription, but have not yet been able to make it into what I would consider a natural melody. It is a song throughout, the lyrics being Stanza 1 of the short form, then stanzas 2 - 4 of the long form of a poem in the Yuefu Shiji attributed in Zhuo Wenjun, said to have been written when Sima Xiangru was about to take a concubine.

This second wumei tuning is rather puzzling, as it seems unnecessarily to put a strain on the 6th string. Since the sixth string is never played by itself, the melody can be played without raising the 6th string by changing all the 跳/踢 tiao and ti outward strokes on the seventh and sixth string together into 雙彈 shuangtan outwards double strokes on seven, and changing the 勾 gou inward strokes on the sixth and seventh together into 蠲 juan inwards double strokes on seven. This would mean the sixth string was completely unplayed. It also suggests there may have been some philosophical rather than musical reason for using this tuning. (Return)

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