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, four with lyrics. Ten of the melodies seem to appear for the first time here: three new titles, four new melodies for older titles, and three modal preludes with new names.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.⁷ 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.

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Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. 玉梧琴譜 Yuwu Qinpu (Jade Tree Qin Handbook; QQJC, Volume VI)
21296.xxx; 4/xxx; Yuwu may have been a nickname for Zhang Jinchao (see next). The "tong" usually refers specifically to a wutong tree.
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2. Zhang Jinchao 張進朝
Bio/xxx; a 太監 eunuch apparently at the court in Beijing, his name means "Zhang who entered the palace"; 玉梧 Yuwu seems to have been a nickname. The preface by Wang Zudi refers to an Attendant-in-ordinary Yuwu (玉梧常侍 Yuwu changshi). The preface by Hu Zhili says Zhang was 易水之毓秀自髫年入內庭 from Yishui (in Hebei). (For 毓秀 Yuxiu: 7/xxx; 17108.3 gives only an unrelated nickname; 育秀 6/xxx; could yu be "born" and xiu "cultivated".) When very young he entered the inner court. According to his own afterword, Zhang was then a eunuch in the Directorate of Imperial Horses within the palace.
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3. Cui Xiaotong 崔小桐
Bio/xxx; the preface by Hu Zhili says Cui was a qin historian (琴史 !) from Henan; the preface by Wang Honghai refers to a 中州崔益甫氏 Cui Yifu of Henan (Yifu 23498.24 nickname of unrelated people).
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4. New Melodies in Yuwu Qinpu
See the ToC. There are

5. 查阜西 Zha Fuxi; edited by 吳鉊 Wu Zhao
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6. In both Beijing and Nanjing?
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7. 沈太韶 Shen Taishao
Discussed in Qinshi Xu together with Yan Cheng.
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Return to the annotated handbook list or to the Guqin ToC.