Zhuge Liang (181 - 234),¹ also called Zhuge Kongming and the Sleeping Dragon, is one of China's most beloved heroes from antiquity. He is best known for his exploits as a strategist and military leader in support of Liu Bei,² who came from a poor branch of the Han imperial family to become the ruler of what popular history considers the legitimate successor to the Han dynasty, the Shu (or Shu Han) Kingdom, based in Chengdu, Sichuan. This view was solidified by the popular 13th century epic Romance of the Three Kingdoms (San Guo Yanyi), loosely based on the official history of the period, the Annals of the Three Kingdoms (San Guo Zhi).³

As the Han dynasty, with its capitals in Chang'an and Luoyang, was disintegrating, three centers of power arose: in Luoyang there was Cao Cao⁴ (155 - 220), a Han prime minister whose Kingdom of Wei, based in Luoyang, is considered in official histories to be the most legitimate successor of Han. In Jiankang (Nanjing) was Sun Quan⁵ (181 - 252), son of a general prominent in the Han fight against the Yellow Turbans and other rebellious grups. In Sichuan was Liu Bei (162 - 223). Liu Bei had grown up in Hebei, but was a warlord in Hubei/Hunan when he met Zhuge Liang. Zhuge Liang was from Shandong, but during the disorders had retired to a country retreat at Longzhong in Hubei province.⁶

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms does not tell the location of the town where Liu Bei, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu met, and where they became the Three Brothers of the Peach Grove, vowing to bring justice and order to China.⁷ Some time later Liu Bei (dragging along his two sworn brothers) made three trips to Zhuge Liang's retreat at Longzhong before successfully persuading him to join in Liu Bei's efforts. After Zhuge Liang joined them they become, for a time, very successful.

Zhuge Liang and the Qin

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, in its account of Liu Bei's visits to Zhuge Liang (Chapters 37 and 38), depicts Zhuge Liang playing the qin.⁸ Later Zhuge Liang's association with the qin is made more prominent through the story of the Ruse of the Empty City (Chapter 90). Here, by playing the qin on the city walls, he makes the enemy think the empty city must be well defended.⁹

I have not read the Annals of the Three Kingdoms, and so do not know exactly what it says about Zhugeliang and the qin.¹⁰ Apparently it makes no reference to this ruse. But apparently it does suggest that Liu Bei initially came to see Zhuge Liang to find some important music books from the imperial palace, taken from there by Cai Yong (133 - 192). It is perhaps for this reason that Zhuge Liang is said to have carried on the qin tradition of Cai Yong. He is also said to have created two qin melodies, Intonation of the Water Dragon¹¹ and Night Rain on the Cang River.¹² He is said to have written the qin handbook Qin Jing, and to have been particularly fond of the melody Liangfu Yin.¹³ Yuefu Shiji has lyrics for Liangfu Yin attributed to Zhuge Liang (plus poems by six others); it is in a section of Matching Songs, but elsewhere it is sometimes listed as a qin song.

Qinshu Daquan, Folio 13, #38 is a Liangfu Cao it attributes to Zhuge Liang.¹⁴ The lyrics are different from those of any of the seven Liangfu Yin in YFSJ.

The qin handbook attributed to him, Qin Jing, no longer exists. Some information about it is given in Qinshu Cunmu, #15.

Zhuge Liang's two Memorials on Dispatching the Troops have been set to qin tablature in Chongxiu Zhenchuan Qinpu (1595).¹⁵

 
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. 諸葛亮 Zhuge Liang, 諸葛孔明 Zhuge Kongming, 臥龍 Wo Long (Sleeping Dragon). Compare Flying Dragon (飛龍 Fei Long; see Cao Zhi) and Water Dragon (水龍 Shui Long). (Return)

2. 劉備 Liu Bei (162 - 223)
Liu Bei, style name 玄德 Xuande, was from 涿郡 Zhuojun (modern 涿州, just south of the modern Beijing municipality). When 15 he was sent to study with 盧植 Liu Zhi (a student of 馬融 Ma Rong), but did not stay long. Around 185 he became involved in the military struggle against the Yellow Turban. After this he became a magistrate in Pingyuan (in modern Shandong province). First an opponent then a friend of Cao Cao, around the year 200 Liu Bei joined a conspiracy against Cao Cao, the failure of which led Liu Bei to flee and join 袁紹 Yuan Shao, then also in Shandong. Eventually his struggles, with the assistance of his sworn brothers and Zhuge Liang, he made his way to Sichuan, where in 221 he declared himself emperor of the Han (Shu Han) dynasty. (Return)

3. 三國演義 Romance of the Three Kingdoms, by Lo Guanzhong, translated by C. H. Brewitt-Taylor, Tuttle, 1959.
   三國志 Annals of the Three Kingdoms. (Return)

4. 曹操 Cao Cao (155 - 220)
Cao Cao, style name 孟德 Mengde, nickname 阿瞞 Aman, also called 曹吉利 Cao Jili, was from a prominent family with close royal connections through a eunuch. Like Liu Bei he fought against the Yellow Turbans, but he then became more and more powerful in the capital through a combination of Machiavellian schemes and competent administration. Eventually he was the virtual ruler. In around 207 he ransomed Cai Wenji from her captivity in Central Asia, and married a daughter of his to the emperor. From 210 until his death in 220 his administrative center was at 鄴 Ye, northeast of Loyang.

In 220 Cao Cao's son Cao Pi (see below) formerly established the 魏 Wei dynasty in Loyang, thus ending the Han dynasty. Cao Pi posthumously called his father 魏武帝 Wei Wudi (Emperor Wu of Wei).

曹丕 Cao Pi (188 - 227)
Cao Pi, style name 子桓 Zihuan, became 魏文帝 Emperor Wen of Wei in 221. (Giles calls him Ts'ao P'ei [Cao Pei]; ICTCL, p.794, focuses on his writing.) The second son of Cao Cao and the older brother of Cao Zhi (see below), he was himself a noted writer. A letter in which he mentions qin is included in QSDQ, Folio 16, #46.

曹植 Cao Zhi (192 - 232)
Cao Zhi, style name 子建 Zijian, is mentioned in connection with a story about Huan Yi; see Meihua Sannong. Qinshu Daquan includes something he wrote mentioning a Flying Dragon Melody (Fei Long Nong). 1692 connects him to the melody Yushu Linfeng. (Return)

5. 孫權 Sun Quan (181 - 252)
Sun Quan, style name 仲謀 Zhongmou, was the son of 孫堅 Sun Jian, a military leader prominent in the Han fight against the Yellow Turbans and other rebellious groups. After executing Liu Bei's loyal friend Guan Yu in 219, he declared allegiance to Cao Cao and in 222 was made prince of Wu, but in 229 he declared himself 吳大帝 Wu Dadi Great Emperor of the Wu dynasty, based in Nanjing. (Return)

6. 隆中 Longzhong is now a "hill resort" about 10 miles west of 襄樊 Xiangfan (the former 襄陽 Xiangyang) in northern Hubei province. (Return)

7. 桃園 Tao Yuan (Peach Garden) has no connection to 桃源 Tao Yuan (Peach Tree Spring).
   桃園節義 15099.137 Oath of the Peach Garden talks about the meeting of Liu Bei with 張飛 Zhang Fei and 關羽 Guan Yu. Liu Bei and Zhang Fei were both from Zhuojun in Hebei; Guan Yu was from Shandong, but also traveled to Zhaojun. They were also all in Shandong, but I have as yet found no indication that the Peach Garden was in either place. Most writings about this seem to be studiously unwilling to suggest where the Peach Garden actually was. (Return)

8. Brewitt-Taylor, Tuttle, p.389ff. He calls the qin a lute. (Return)

9. The Ruse of the Empty City is also a popular Chinese opera story. (Return)

10. The information in this paragraph comes from Hsu Wen-Ying, The Ku-Ch'in, pp.124-8. Her references are to the biography of Zhuge Liang in the San Guo Zhi. Unfortunately her English is a bit difficult to follow. (Return)

11. 水龍吟 Shui Long Yin: Water Dragon Intonation
The tablature for this melody survives in 11 handbooks, but only from 1591 to 1751 (Guide 26/218/419; lyrics from 1609). The preface in the earliest surviving version of the melody, in Yuwu Qinpu (1591) quotes Zixiadong Pu as having said 孔明 Kongming (i.e., Zhuge Liang) composed it; several later tablatures make this connection as well. However, 17458.780 水龍 Shui Long does not mention Zhuge Liang, and .781 Shui Long Yin, an 詞牌 opera theme, does not concern him. (Return)

12. 蒼江夜雨, Cangjiang Yeyu (Return)

13. 梁甫吟 Liangfu Yin (see also Liangfu Cao below)
15135.85 梁甫 Liangfu says it is same as 梁父: a mountain in Shandong near Taishan (Mount Tai, the east sacred mountain, associated with Confucius.
15135.86 梁甫吟 Liangfu Yin says it is a Yuefu Xianghege (see YFSJ, Folio 41, pp.605-8).

YFSJ, under this title and 泰山梁甫吟 Taishan Liangfu Yin, has lyrics attributed to seven people. The first, attributed to Zhuge Liang himself (no doubt incorrectly), is translated in (Birrell, Popular Songs, pp. 98 - 9). The original is as follows:

Old lists of qin melodies include the title Liangfu Yin. See QSDQ, Folio 12; QYYY, Qin Shu list; Qinqu Pulu. The latter also lists a 梁甫引.
(Return)

14. 梁父操 Liangfu Cao (see also Liangfu Yin above)
15135.85 and .86 do not mention a cao. The lyrics, in Qinshu Daquan, Folio 13, do not correspond with any of those in YFSJ. (Return)

15. 出師表 Chushi Biao (Memorial on Dispatching the Troops)
David Knechtges, Wen Xuan, I, p.43, discusses 表 memorials by Zhuge Liang and others. The setting of both Qian Chushi Biao and Hou Chushi Biao for qin survives only in Chongxiu Zhenchuan Qinpu (QQJC IV, pp. 327 - 333). Lixing Yuanya (1618) has Qian Chushi Biao (QQJC VIII, pp. 318 - 322), with the same lyrics, but it is set for 9-string qin. (Return)

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