Ci lyric are generally given the title of the original song. Well known examples are the eight-line ci said to be "to the tune Endless Longing" (Chang Xiang Si³). These generally have the syllabic pattern 3,3.7.5 repeated once. Apparently Chang Xiang Si was originally a song, but long after the melody was lost the lyrics and therefore the syllabic structure remained.

Logic suggests that the belief that a ci structure could give some clue about the rhythms of the original melody was most likely based on an assumption that the original song had two specific characteristics: not just one note for each syllable, but also a known length for each note.⁴ On the other hand, the pairing method actually used in the Ming dynasty suggests that one might have taken a structure such as the 3,3.7.5 mentioned above and treated these numbers as though they represented not numbers of syllables per phrase, but numbers of what might be called "musical accent points". If one could create rules for determining such accent points within the music or its score, then these accent points might be used in the pairing ci lyrics to music.

Pairing lyrics and music

Ming dynasty tablature pairs lyrics with qin melodies following a formula that in a way finesses the issue of rhythm: instead of aligning the lyrics to a note pattern, the qin tablature aligns them to the points (dian?⁵) in the tablature where there are the stroke indications. Perhaps this is just a coincidence rather than intentional, but since qin tablature does not indicate rhythm, this pairing method finesses the issue of rhythm.

The system worked more or less as follows (there were inconsistencies). For pre-existing lyrics, qin tablature applied one right hand stroke for each Chinese character. Left hand plucks generally were also assigned a character, but here the method was not used systematically. For example, although characters generally were not applied to left hand slides, occasionally they were.⁶ And there was even more inconsistency in determining what was considered as a left hand pluck.⁷ In certain places or times there may have been rules about this, but at present such rules can not be determined.⁸

This method seems generally to have been followed for all qin songs prior to the modern period. As a result, almost all qin songs were very word-intensive.⁹

This word to note method was also used in reverse: if tablature for the melody came first, then for each plucked note one character could be applied. Thus the fact that this method could serve to allow people to apply lyrics to melodies that were lost meant that it could also be used for melodies they had never heard: they only had to have copies of the tablature. This may well have been the case for the earliest surviving qin melodies with lyrics, in Zheyin Shizi Qinpu (<1491; see the commentary as well as lyrics that can be applied to Shen Qi Mi Pu melodies). Someone experienced in writing ci lyrics could easily adapt its method (as described above) to the stroke numbers in old qin tablature.

As for actual ci, one might suspect that qin melodies would have been composed following ci patterns. The resulting melodies could then be applied to any poems following that pattern. As yet, however, I have found no evidence to corroborate a belief that this was actually done. Instead what one gets is the pairing of a variety of melodies (over time) to a single a set of lyrics.

Some qin melodies that have the names of ci patterns (not all of the melodies are songs) are listed below.¹⁰

1. Feng Ru Song (surviving ci of this name have a different structure)
2. Zui Weng Yin (surviving ci of this name seem to have the same structure as here)

Qin songs with the name of ci patterns seem to have been most common in Japan. Examples include:

1. Qing Ping Yue (also in China, but different melody and lyrics)
2. Langtao Sha
3. Dongfeng Qi Zhuo Li
4. Fenghuang Taishang Yi Chui Xiao
5. Libie Nan
6. Yi Wangsun
7. Chang Xiang Si

1. 詞 ci; contrast with the 辭 ci of 楚辭 Chu Ci (Songs of Chu). Ci patterns are called 詞牌 ci pai.
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2. I know of no published studies on this subject.
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3. Structure of 長相思 Chang Xiang Si
42022.324 長相思 Chang Xiang Si says 詞牌名 name of a cipai. The surviving qin melody of this name (Zha Guide 35/--/510), in Japanese handbooks such as Hewen Zhuyin Qinpu (QQJC XII/216), uses lyrics by 馮延巳 Feng Yansi, subtitled 春閨 Chun Gui, that do actually follow the accepted ci pattern (3,3,7,5 repeated once). There are two verses, with different music for each verse.
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4. Unfortunately I do not have a deep familiarity with this subject and so do not know if anyone has ever tried to analyze what the ci structures might say about musical structures. Thus, I have not seen any arguments actually made that the pairing assumed that each syllable had one note of equal or fixed length, that each syllable had a fixed number of notes, or any other permutation on such structured pairing. Nor have I seen arguments that stated simply that if a poetic structure such as 3,3,7,5 fit a certain melody, any poem with that structure should fit that melody, acknowledging that nevertheless this told us nothing about the actual structure of the melody.
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5. Dian 點 and Ju 句
In at least one qin handbook, Yingyang Qinpu (which has no melodies with lyrics), the phrasing is emphasized by putting the beginning of each phrase on a separate line, and stating at the beginning of each section of every melody how many ju and how many dian it has. These dian seem to correspond to the points on old tablature at which lyrics could be paired, but the aim seemed to be only to help the student learn the melodies correctly. If the aim had been to show how lyrics could be paired, then it would have been more helpful to say how many dian there were in each ju.

Speaking more generally with regard to punctuation of qin melodies, in the same way that early Chinese literary text often had no punctuation, early qin tablature quite likely also had none. Thus, there was no puncuation for many of the melodies in the earliest surviving edition of Shen Qi Mi Pu, Folio 1. I do not know what term might have been used for such musical punctuation. "Dianju 點句" (12/1350: dots that stop the continuation of "ju", phrases) is a Chinese term for punctuation that seems to date from the Song dynasty. A more common term is "biaodian 標點" (4/1269: put up marks [dots] to indicate phrases), also with references dating from the Song dynasty.
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6. There are no right-hand slides. The right hand equivalent of a slide would be a symbol that represented multiple notes, such as a 袞拂 gunfu. A gunfu could go from the 7th string to the 1st and back, a total of 13 or 14 notes played in rapid succession. These could be paired inconsistently. Often they were assigned two characters (one for gun and one for fu), but sometimes it was three, four or even more.
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7. For example, the left hand pluck 對起 dui qi was usually assigned one character, but the <1491 handbook (again see the commentary) generally attached to it two meaningless syllables such as 的那 de na. And multiple stroke techniques such as 搯撮三聲 taocuo sansheng could be assigned a widely varying number of characters.
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8. In tablature for the period I have studied, i.e., until the end of Ming dynasty, left hand plucks generally are assigned characters but slides generally are not. However, both of the two surviving examples from before the Song dynasty, Gu Yuan and Huang Ying Yin are syllabic settings, with the former adding characters to slides, and the latter having no slides.
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9. Although one can find criticism during the Ming dynasty for the lyrics to music pairing method using the one-character-per-stroke method throughout (see, e.g., in QSCM, Chapter 7a2), I have not yet found a handbook that pairs multiple stroke techniques to each syllable. The only exceptions I have found are in Xilutang Qintong. This handbook uses the same pairing method, but for a number of melodies has lyrics with only one or two sections of a longer melody.
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10. The most convenient way I have found so far of finding other poems that use these ci forms is to go the to McGill/Harvard-Yenching Ming Qing Women's Writings website - I don't know of a comparable site for all writings that include male writers. To do the search, go to the search page, then under Section II "Browse a List" select "Poem Title" and then type in the ci pattern name, e.g., feng ru song (quotation marks are not necessary and it does not seem to be case sensitive, but it seems to be important that each syllable be written as a separate word.
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