The credited compiler of Yuwu Qinpu is Zhang Jinchao,² a eunuch at the imperial court in Beijing who had studied qin from Cui Xiaotong of Henan.³ The handbook has 52 melodies, three with lyrics. Seven melodies appear for the first time here, but four of these are modal preludes.⁴

As the Preface to Yuwu Qinpu by Zha Fuxi⁵ points out, this is just one of several qin handbooks published by court eunuchs.⁶ He writes further that the music here is very different from that of Wugang Qinpu, published by a eunuch 30 years earlier, but he mentions two places where parts of this handbook are later copied in Zangchunwu Qinpu (1602), also published by eunuchs, though apparently in Nanjing instead of Beijing.

Comparing Yuwu Qinpu and Zangchunwu Qinpu in more detail, the former has 52 melodies while Zangchunwu Qinpu has 65. Only one of the 52 is not in the latter handbook, its last melody, Da Ming Yi Tong. Of the 14 melodies in the latter handbook that were not in Yuwu Qinpu, four appear for the first time there, all attributed there to a qin master named Shen Taishao. The other 10 are all versions of melodies found in other handbooks. The melodies that occur in both handbooks seem to be identical to each other in all details.

Return to the Guqin ToC

 
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1 玉梧琴譜 Yuwu Qinpu 21296.xxx; 4/xxx; Yuwu may have been a nickname for Zhang Jinchao (see next). QQJC VI. (Return)

2 張進朝 Zhang Jinchao "Zhang who entered the palace"; Bio/xxx (Return)

3 崔小桐 Cui Xiaotong; bio/xxx (Return)

4 See the ToC. There are

5 查阜西 Zha Fuxi; edited by 吳鉊 Wu Zhao (Return)

6 In both Beijing and Nanjing? (Return)

7 (Return)

Return to the annotated handbook list or to the Guqin ToC.