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Lament at Changmen Palace
Standard tuning (called huangzhong2): 5 6 1 2 3 5 6 		長門怨 1
Changmen Yuan

The earliest printed version of the title Changmen Yuan is to be found in Mei An Qin Pu (1931).4 However, the melody is essentially the same as the Changmen Yuan surviving in the hand-copied Longyinguan Qinpu (1799?), said to be an early Zhucheng school handbook.5

The theme of this melody is a story related in Folio 42 of the Yuefu Shiji. Three sources are given there: Han Wu Di Gushi,6 Han Shu7 and Yuefu Jieti.8

Yuefu Shiji includes poems on this title by 20 different poets.9

The preface in Mei An Qin Pu says the composition was written by Sima Xiangru during the reign of Han emperor Wudi. In it he described the misery of Empress Chen, who had been confined to Changmen Palace.

Further details not yet online. See Lieberman, A Chinese Zither Tutor, pp. 106 - 111.

 
Original afterword:
Only in the 1959 edition; translated in Lieberman, A Chinese Zither Tutor

 
 Music
Six sections plus a harmonic coda

 
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. Changmen Yuan
42022.246 樂府，楚調，曲名。 Yuefu melody in Chu mode. It then gives some details as in Folio 42.
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2. Huangzhong mode (黃鐘調 standard tuning)
In early tablature huangzhong melodies usually use a non-standard tuning, but see the 1511 Huangzhong Diao.
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3. Image
Relevant image not yet selected.
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4. Tracing Changmen Yuan
Zha Guide 44/--/-- only mentions Meian Qinpu and it does not have the afterword, as that was not included in the handbook until its 1959 edition. See also the Zhucheng school handbooks, mentioned below. The main difference in the Longyinguan Qinpu version is that section 3 and the coda begin in different places.
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5. Zhucheng school qin handbooks
These are included in a list of early Zhucheng handbooks. Of these I have only seen Longyinguan Qinpu, so do not know whether the others also they include the present melody.
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6. Han Wu Di Gushi 漢武帝故事
Not yet translated; does not mention Sima Xiangru.
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7. Han Shu 漢書
Not yet translated; does not mention Sima Xiangru.
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8. Yuefu Jieti 樂府解題
Not yet translated. Says that the empress gave Sima Xiangru 100 斤 catties of gold to write an essay describing her grief, resulting in his poetical essay called 長門賦 Changmen Fu.
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9. Changmen Yuan poems in Yuefu Shiji
See Folio 42; details not yet added here.
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Return to the annotated handbook list or to the Guqin ToC.