The theme of this melody is one of the numerous ghost stories involving Xi Kang (223-262), a famous writer who was unable to keep clear of political intrigue and ended up being executed. He is often depicted in paintings playing the qin in the middle of gatherings of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, and he is credited with having written several qin melodies.³ The Xi Kang ghost stories usually involve him meeting ghosts while playing the qin. One of the most famous stories says that he learned part of Guangling San from a ghost (see commentary accompanying an illustration) who made Xi Kang promise not to pass it on to anyone else.

R.H. van Gulik relates two of these ghost stories in his book on qin lore.⁴ In one a ghost appears in chains while Xi Kang is playing the qin; Xi Kang thinks it must be the ghost of Cai Yong, who died in chains. In the other a figure that looks ten feet tall appears in black while Xi Kang is playing qin; Xi Kang extinguishes his lamp, saying one should not emulate the light coming from a goblin.

Liexian Quanzhuan, a greatly expanded later edition of the Liexian Zhuan, also has a version of the present story. Again it tells of eight ghosts, identifying themselves as former Zhou dynasty court musicians, appearing before Xi Kang in a mansion, but in that account the mansion belongs to a man named Wang Botong,⁶ rather than Wang Bolin.⁷ In addition, it relates how one of these ghosts then taught Xi Kang part of Guangling San.⁵ And that re-telling does not include the ghosts later re-appearing to thank Xi Kang in a dream.

The fourth, fifth and sixth sections of the present melody are noteworthy both for their brevity and their attempts to imitate, in succession, strange winds, thunder and lightning, then the sound of shouting at ghosts.

This melody survives only in Xilutang Qintong (1549).⁸

 
Original preface⁹

 
Twelve sections¹⁰
(Partially titled; timings are from my online recording [聽錄音])

00.00     1. (No title)
00.58     2. Sit up straight
01.50     3. Seeing ghosts
02.16     4. Strange winds
02.20     5. Thunder and lightning
02.25     6. Shouting at the ghosts
02.31     7. The ghosts complain
02.59    (7.a. Responding to the ghosts? ¹¹)
03.27     8. The ghosts depart
03.56     9. A call to heaven ¹²
04.40   10. Dawn's early light
05.08   11. The rooster crows
05.28   12. Beating a drum ¹³
06.02         Melody ends (no harmonics)

 
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. 7111.224 and 4/228 Gu Guan say only that this means a lonely palace; nothing about spirits or qin. 遇神 yu shen 39870.xx. (Return)

2. 無媒調 wumei diao. Lower the third and sixth strings. Wumei generally means "no go-between" for a potential marriage. It can also mean there is no one who can give a general recommendation, but it seems something of a stretch to suggest that this tuning was used here to remind us that it is unlikely that there would be a go-between involved when a human meets a ghost. (Return)

3. See for example Guangling San and Feng Ru Song Ge. (Return)

4. Van Gulik, in Lore of the Chinese Lute, (in an otherwise wonderful book Van Gulik mistranslates qin as lute rather than the organologically correct "zither"), relates these two stories as #12 and #13 among the 22 qin stories he translates on pp.153-167 from either 青蓮舫琴雅 Qinglianfang Qinya (ca. 1641; see Lore, p.180) or 天聞閣琴譜集成 Tianwenge Qinpu Jicheng (1876); he doesn't identify which is from which, and adds that some stories might be more complete in their original sources. (Return)

5. Van Gulik, in Hs'i Kang, p. 48, says the story is in Chapter 4 of 列仙傳 Liexian Zhuan, but clearly he is referring to the Ming dynasty 列仙全傳 Liexian Quanzhuan, where it is part of Xi Kang's entry (23rd enty in Folio IV). Apparently a relatively short version is also in 語林 Yu Lin, and perhaps it is also in one of the later Daoist hagiographies such as the 4th C. 神仙傳 Shenxian Zhuan (84 or 92 more detailed biographies), the 10th c. 續仙傳 Xu Xian Zhuan, or the 16th c. 列仙全傳 Liexian Quanzhuan. (Return)

6. 王伯通 Wang Botong 21295xxx; 538.269 gives Botong as nicknames for several people, but none is surnamed Wang. In the Liexian Quanzhuan account a ghost predicts Wang will become 太守 governor, and that in fact he does. (Return)

7. Wang Bolin 21295.xxx; I have not found any other mention of the name Wang Bolin, and the 伯林 Bolin mentioned in the Chu Ci poem Tian Wen (see Hawkes, p.149) is probably unconnected . (Return)

8. Zha Guide, 22/196/-- . There are recordings by Zeng Chengwei (who learned it from Yu Shaoze) and by Yao Gongbai. (Return)

9. For some reason the punctuated version in Zha Guide, p. 196, changes the characters 八 (8) in the text to 幾 (several). (Return)

10. The original Chinese section titles are:

1. (無題)
2. 端坐
3. 鬼見
4. 怪風
5. 雷電
6. 喝鬼
7. 鬼訴
   (應鬼?)
8. 鬼出
9. 呼天
10. 曙景
11. 雞唱
12. 擊鼓
    (Return)

11. Section 7, which is the longest in this melody, can easily be divided in two parts. For me the second part, beginning with stopped sounds in a low register, evokes responding to the ghost's request (應鬼?) by digging up the bodies (掘骸?). (Return)

12. 3570.3 呼天 hu tian says that this means calling to heaven with a request. However, the logical sequence of the story suggests that here either it suggests Xi Kang thanking heaven for the ghosts' departure, or it refers to the ghosts (having gone from hell to heaven) thanking Xi Kang in the dream thanking Xi Kang. As I play I prefer the latter imagery. The harmonic passage passes all the way from the top end of the qin to the bottom, reminding me of their all gathering around Xi Kang to bow to him. (Return)

13. Does 擊鼓 beating a drum suggest Xi Kang 神其事 marveling at the affair? (Return)

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