Songxianguan Qinpu has 29 melodies plus two more in an addition. All use standard tuning. Most can be found in earlier handbooks; I have reconstructed the three that appear here for the first time (see also Dongtian Chunxiao), as follows:⁸

Thus, at least two of those three are clearly revisions of an earlier melody.

Also of particular note are the three melodies in Songxian Guan Qinpu that appear first in other handbooks published around the same time, as follows:⁹

Of these three, the handbook where the first and third originally appear, Zangchunwu Qinpu (1602) of Hao Ning, includes them among its four melodies attributed to Shen Taishao.

The only melody with lyrics is the last item in the Songxian'guan Qinpu Addition, the Buddhist chant Pu'an Zhou. These are placed in front of the tablature, not alongside it. Yan Cheng was, in fact, quite critical of the way qin songs were created.

It might also be noted that, whereas many earlier handbooks preceded long melodies with shorter ones that might serve as preludes, Songxianguan Qinpu does the reverse, always placing the shorter pieces at the end of each modal section.

As for general characteristics of the music in Songxianguan Qinpu, based on my own reconstruction of the three melodies which appear first in that handbook as well as a casual look at other melodies published there, it reflects a style quite different from that of anything played today as "Yushan school". I suspect that a systematic study of all the melodies in this handbook would show a similar contrast. It is thus particularly important also to study the second handbook of the Yushan School, Dahuan'ge Qinpu (1673),¹⁰ said to reflect the style of Xu Hong, a younger contemporary of Yan Tianchi. Xu's handbook includes melodies that are faster and more complex than those in Songxianguan Qinpu (see comment).

In fact, to understand the development of the Yushan style it is essential to examine all the melodies as published in both of these handbooks, then compare these with the same and other melodies as published in earlier, contemporary and later handbooks. Only then will we have a good understanding of how the style of play in this school emerged and evolved.¹¹

 
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. Songxian Guan 松絃館
14897.xx; QQJC VIII, pp. 69 - 166. There is some discussion in Qinshu Cunmu #196.
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2. Image of Yan Tianchi
This image of Yan Tianchi (below) is from the edition of Jinyu Qinkan as printed in Qin Fu, p. 1163.
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3. Yu Shan Qin School (虞山琴派 Yushan Qinpai)
This school is discussed in some detail in Xu Jian's Qinshi Chubian, Chapter 7. See also my additional comments, which also discuss the apparently second important handbook of this school, Dahuange Qinpu.
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4. Yu Shan 虞山
Yushan (Mount Yu) is a large hill overlooking the city of 常熟 Changshu (next footnote), north of Suzhou in Jiangsu province.
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5. Changshu 常熟
"Shu" (熟 19791; 7/242 "ripe, experienced") is also sometimes pronounced "shou", and so sometimes Changshu can be seen written as Changshou, leading to potential confusion with the 長壽 Changshou in Sichuan province.
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6. Shu School (熟派 Shu pai)
See Yushan school.
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7. Yan Cheng 嚴澂 (1547-1625; sometimes written 嚴徵 Yan Zheng)
Yan Cheng was also known as 嚴天池 Yan Tianchi; his biography in Qinshi Xu does not seem yet to have been translated.
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8. Three new melodies in Songxianguan Qinpu
In September 2002 a conference commemorating Yan Cheng took place September 2002 in 蘇州 Suzhou (many players claiming connection to the Yushan school live in Suzhou, which is less than 50 km south of Changshu). In preparation for this conference I learned directly from Songxianguan Qinpu the three melodies whose titles have their first appearance there, listed above, then presented them at the conference. Unfortunately, at the Suzhou conference no one else tried to play any melodies precisely according to Yan Cheng's handbook.

On the brighter side, a Dapu conference scheduled for May 2011 in Changshu has stated that it will require participants to reconstruct Songxianguan Qinpu melodies precisely according to tablature. This should be very interesting.
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9. Three melodies published just before Songxianguan Qinpu
One of the three listed here is in fact closely related to the melody Jishan Qiu Yue, which appears first in 1589. As for these three giving particular clues to the formation of the Yushan style, in order to do this properly one must of course carefully reconstruct all the Songxianguan Qinpu melodies as well as the other versions of these as played at that time.
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10. 大還閣琴譜 Dahuan'ge Qinpu (1673) (QQJC X/291-464 and ZGSD facsimile reprint)
See Table of Contents. Following Songxianguan Qinpu (1614), this handbook is generally considered the second important handbook of the Yushan school (see further analysis). This handbook was compiled by 夏溥 Xia Pu based on the tablature of his teacher Xu Hong (徐谼; Xu Qingshan 徐青山). This and other information suggests that, although 1673 is quite a long time after 1614, the melodies in Dahuan'ge Qinpu reached their published form quite a while before 1673. In fact, since the lives of Xu Qingshan (1580 - 1650) and Yan Cheng (1547-1625) overlapped for 45 years, and they shared at least one teacher, it may not always be correct to assume that the versions of the 1673 handbook are always later than those of 1614.

The handbook has 32 melodies in 6 folios; 22 of these 32 melodies were in the 1614 handbook, all but one appearing here in the same order. However, their tablature is not identical to the earlier versions. The ten which were not included in 1614 inlude two new melodies, #3 和陽春 He Yang Chun (first of 12) and ＃28 炎凉操 Yan Liang Cao (only here and its copy in 1876); and two melodies that, unlike any of the 1614 melodies, use non-standard tuning.

Dahuan'ge Qinpu also includes Xu Hong's important essay 溪山琴況 Xishan Qin Kuang (X/310-325; compare Lengxian Qinsheng 16 fa).

The melodies in the 1673 handbook have been listed separately, under the 1614 Table of Contents. Further analysis needs to be added.
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11. Stylistic development of the Yushan School
Modal changes in Qiujiang Ye Bo reveal one example of stylistic development; here it is not clear to what extent the Yu Shan school was simply following general trends and to what extent it was influencing them.

To understand Yan Cheng's own changes it might of course be particularly interesting to uncover a book such as the Qinchuan Pu Hui discussed as Qinshu Cunmu #188, especially if it had somewhat differing versions of the Songxianguan Qinpu melodies.
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Return to the annotated handbook list or to the Guqin ToC.