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Intonation on Listening to the Qin
Shang mode:2 1 2 4 5 6 1 2 |
聽琴吟
1
Ting Qin Yin |
| Du Jin: Listening to Reverend Ying play the qin 3 |
This melody, like the painting at right, is connected to a
poem by
Han Yu called Listening to
Reverend Ying Play the Qin; the melody uses as its lyrics the text of that poem.4 Reverend Ying was a well-known qin player of Han Yu's time.
This title is found in four handbooks. The second one, published in 1802, was probably copied from the present version, though some adjustments have been made. I have not been able to examine the other two.5
Requiring particular comment is a phrase added to the melody just before the closing harmonic coda (see Melody and lyrics, Section 3). The phrase, "When playing, to meet someone knowledgeable of music one keenly feels so filled it is painful," is not in Han Yu's original poem (q.v.). The tablature at this point indicates a multiple finger technique (tao cuo san sheng) often found at such endings. The inappropriate nature (from a literary standpoint) of this additional phrase can only be explained by understanding the pairing rules, described elsewhere, that require lyrics whenever notes are plucked. The effect created is that someone set Han Yu's lyrics to music very nicely, then someone later decided that the tao cuo san sheng needed lyrics as well, so they created some.6
Preface7
Not yet translated: after crediting the poem by Han Yu, it mentions Reverend Ying's playing skills, then refers to stories about
Minzi and
Cai Yong that concern true expression on the qin.
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a
separate page)
1.
Intonation on listening to the qin (聽琴吟 Ting Qin Yin (VII/73)
This melody is unrelated to Ting Qin Fu. Regarding the lyrics, see the Melody and Lyrics.
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2.
Shang mode
Shang mode is commonly associated with autumn and sadness. See more under Shenpin Shang Yi.
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3.
Du Jin: Listening to Reverend Ying play the qin 杜堇:聽穎師彈琴圖
For Du Jin see in Wikipedia.The painting is part of a series 古賢詩意圖 Poetic Feelings of Ancient Immortals. The original is the the Palace Museum, Beijing; there are many online images, but none of them is complete, showing the relationship between the upper and lower strips. The lower strip to the left says "qin song", while to the right it has the text of Han Yu's poem. The upper strip to the left has the title, Listening to Reverend Ying Play qin. To the right is a poem by Li Bai called 把酒問月 With Wine in Hand Asking the Moon, translated in Sun Yu, Li Po, a New Translation, p. 232, as Questioning the Moon While Drinking. A melody of this name in Lixing Yuanya (1618; QQJC VIII/235) has a setting of these lyrics for seven-string qin.
The following online commentary about the painting does not say why Li Bai's poem was included with Du Jin's painting:
《古賢詩意圖》
明杜堇紙本墨色縱28釐米橫1079.5釐米北京故宮博物院藏
本幅無款印。共九段,每段有金琮書詩,卷未金琮跋雲:“□□索僕書古詩十二首,將往要杜檉居為圖其事,檉居無訝僕書敢佔其左,以漬痕在耳,他玉圖成必有謂珠玉在側,覺我形穢者,僕奚辭焉。弘治庚申六月廿八日,金琮記事。”全卷畫幅,杜堇細心體會詩意,作出巧妙構思,人物突出,情景交融。人物用白描法,線條流暢,稍有輕重提按,含蓄秀雅。山石樹木安排簡潔而自然,山石用側鋒斧劈皴,近馬遠、夏圭,但用筆卻縝密透逸,具元人韻致。此圖為其白描巨構佳作。
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4.
Listening to Reverend Ying Play the Qin (聽穎師彈琴 Ting Ying Shi Tan Qin)
See text.
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5.
Tracing Ting Qin Yin
See Zha Guide 29/226/433 : first of four: others are 1802 (XVII/528; almost identical), >1802 and
1828
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6.
Added phrases
To me adding the lyrics here is like "adding feet on a snake". In contrast, though, this same melody in three places has a two-note passage at the beginning of a phrase with no lyrics attached. These are clearly passing tones that should not require lyrics, but often such lyrics would be applied anyway because of the pairing rules described elsewhere.
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7.
Original Chinese preface
The original preface in the 1589 Yang Lun Taigu Yiyin of Zhenchuan Zhengzong Qinpu is as follows:
按是吟,乃大唐韓文公所作也。公以文名卓冠當時,想于聲音之理,已熟諳矣。是以一聞穎師之奏虞弦,而獨契於心,始焉名壯其音之幺,既焉摩寫其指之清,終焉感嘆音之戚而發其哀痛之思,非知道者,其能然乎?昔閔子驚于取鼠,蔡邕駭于沸捕蟬。公之聽,其似之矣。
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8.
Original lyrics for Ting Qin Yin
My transcription of this melody includes under the respective notes the original Chinese characters of the poem by Han Yu, under this their pinyin romanization, then under this a word by word translation, with the a copy of the original tablature at bottom. My translation here is based on that in Egan, Controversy (p.48), but altered so that it can fit into this word for word structure.
The melody of Ting Qin Yin arranges Han Yu's original lyrics into three titled sections, as follows. Titles are not sung. Phrases with // at both ends are repeated: the tablature does not make clear whether the lyrics should be repeated or only the music. And note the added phrase at the end of the penultimate line.
2. 指入焞準繩
3. 感音興涕
Return to the top or to the
Zhenchuan Zhengzong Qinpu intro.
//昵昵兒女語,//恩怨相爾汝。
劃然變軒昂,勇士赴敵場。
浮雲柳絮無根蒂,天地闊遠隨飛揚。
//喧啾百鳥群,//忽見孤鳳凰。
躋攀分寸不可上,失勢一落千丈強。
嗟余有兩耳,未省聽絲篁。
自聞潁師彈,起坐在一旁。
推手遽止之,濕衣淚滂滂。(added: 彈遇知音痛感傷。)
(泛音)潁乎爾誠能,無以冰炭置我腸。
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