Emperor Shun

Shun, traditional dates 2317-2208, here called Di Shun (Emperor Shun), is also called Yu Shun. The main source of information about him is his biography in Sima Qian's Shi Ji (Records of the Grand Historian).⁴ The account there relates his filial nature as a child, his marriage to two daughters of Emperor Yao, Yao's appointing Shun as emperor, and Shun's death in Cangwu (Jiuyi mountains).

Shun has a number of associations with the qin (as well as at least one with the se⁵). As his entry below indicates, he is said to have created two qin songs. Since Shun is said to have played a five-string qin these melodies all use only five strings.⁶

In addition, the commentary on at least four other melodies connects them with Shun. These use the standard seven strings:

Si Shun
Wen Wang thinks of the sage king
Xiang Fei Yuan
A song in which Shun's two wives, E Huang and Nü Ying, lament his death.
Cangwu Yuan
An instrumental melody on the same theme.
Jiuyi Yin (alternate title for Fan Canglang, prelude to Xiao Xiang Shui Yun)
Shun is not directly mentioned, but Guo Chuwang seems to have him in mind.
Xiaoshao Jiucheng, Fenghuang Lai Yi⁷
Shi Ji says that Music Master Kui⁸ played this for Shun.

Passages in Qinshu Daquan connected to Shun include the following.

Folio 11, #25 quotes a Qin Shu saying Shun created a melody called Jiu Zou.

Folio 16, #4 has the account in the Book of Rites of him playing the five-string qin

Folio 16, #8 has an account of this story from The Records of the Grand Historian;
this passage is quoted in full in a footnote to Nanxun Ge, and in part with Nanfeng Ge

Folio 16, #14 has two stories from Mencius of Shun playing the qin, including the one,
referred to here, of him playing the qin on a couch after his parents had tried to kill him.

Qin illustration 4 in Taiyin Daquanji claims to be a depiction of his 虞舜 Yu Shun qin, quoting Qin Qing Ying (by Yang Xiong). It adds the stories that he played the five string qin and the world was well ordered, and that Wen Wang added two strings.⁹ Illustration 5 is his Music Official's (伶官 Ling Guan) qin.

The Qin Shi entry is as follows, ¹⁰

Emperor Shun continued in Yao's position. Laws and governing daily became more clear, rites and music daily became more complete. Confucius stated and wrote that only during the period from 唐(堯) Tang (Yao) to 虞(舜) Yu (Shun) was the world properly in order. Before this things were not ready; afterwards nothing was improved. As emperor he was humble, using the qin to amuse himself.

Mencius said, Shun had a qin by his bed even through the difficulties with (his father) Gusou and (his brother) Xiang; in this way he could continue to play and sing, and not be troubled in his mind, and his filial nature would continue to improve. An old tradition says that the melody Si Qin Cao concerns this.

When the time came for him to be emperor he played the five-string qin and accompanied himself by singing Nanfeng Ge, and as a result the world was well-regulated. The words of this song are as follows,

Southern winds' vapors can be used to resolve my people's irritations.
Southern winds' timeliness can be used to make abundant my people's wealth.

At that time a harmonious spirit filled heaven and earth, and covered its plants and animals. Thus (Shang) Shu (The Venerated Documents) said, Panpipes Play Shao Nine Times, and Phoenixes Attend.) This is the greatest extreme of harmony.

Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. Shun or Yu Shun 舜、虞舜
31025/5 舜 Shun says to see 33531.126 虞舜 Yu Shun, which has an illustration. He is often called simply "Yu", so don't confuse this 虞 Yu with 禹 Yu. Another name is the praise name 重華 Chonghua. Anne Birrell, Chinese Mythology, discusses him in detail, translating his name as Hibiscus. See also Wikipedia.
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2. 8 lines
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3. Image Shun plays the qin
The scene above is part of the 舜帝陵景區 Emperor Shun Memorial Scenic Area in 永州 Yongzhou, 九嶷山 Jiuyi Mountains, Hunan Province (near the Guangdong border). The image is from a website called Changing Trip. The image at right is from the same area; see further at Nanfeng Ge.

There is also a Shun Memorial Temple (Emperor Shun Temple) in Shaoxing, near Hangzhou.
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4. See Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe's Records, I, p. 8ff.
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5. A story from Lüshi Chunqiu, translated in Knoblock and Riegel, is related in a footnote to Origins of the Qin.
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6. A footnote under the earliest Nan Feng Ge traces various melodies with a similar theme.
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7. Xiaoshao Jiucheng, Fenghuang Laiyi: Panpipes Play Shao Nine Times, and Phoenixes Attend
This phrase is first mentioned in Shang Shu, where it might also be translated, "When all nine parts of Xiaoshao have been completed, the male and female phoenix arrive appropriately." As a qin melody it survives first from Qinpu Zhengchuan (1547), which has the first of five qin pu with this title. See Zha Guide 18/177/-- . Alternate titles used for it are:

鳳凰來儀 Fenghuang Laiyi: Phoenixes Attend (used in later qin handbooks)
神鳳引 Shenfeng Yin: Holy Phoenix Prelude (? see Zha 18/177/-- )
神鳳操 Shenfeng Cao: Holy Phoenix Lament (see YFSJ, Folio 57, #19: "also called Fenghuang Laiyi")
儀鳳歌 Yi Feng Ge: Attending Phoenix Song (Hejian Zage #7 in Qin Cao)

中文大辭典 Dictionary references mostly quote the full title:

44241/1 Shao: music of Shun; (說文 Shuo Wen) 簫韶九成，鳳凰來儀
27100.12 Xiaoshao: music of Shun; (書，益稷)簫韶九成，鳳凰來儀 with the explanation that Shao was the music of Shun, and here it is played on small instruments [the xiao being a small instrument, panpipes in the early illustration, only later an end-blown flute])
27100.13 Xiaoshao Yingfen: Xiaoshao played nine times to form a melody
25211.391 Shenfeng Cao: qin lyrics in Yuefu Shiji, also called Fenghuang Laiyi
1181.92 is only 儀鳳 Yifeng, another name for 鳳凰 fenghuang

Shi Ji says that when Music Master 夔 Kui played music for Shun to honor Yu, (GSR I, p.35) "the deceased ancestors all arrived (to enjoy the sacrifices), the lords all yielded to each other, the birds and beasts all began to soar and dance." And when he played Xiaoshao Jiucheng, Fenghuang Laiyi, the beasts danced and the officials were all in harmony. Because of this Shun wrote a song. Shi Ji adds lyrics he and others wrote and sang for this.

However, neither the surviving qin melody nor the YFSJ entry mention Shun or these lyrics. They all refer to a later event, in which Cheng Wang celebrates his success with this melody and some new lyrics. The YFSJ entry also does not mention the Qin Cao reference to Yi Feng, although it also says it is by Cheng Wang and it includes the same lyrics, plus an extra line.

The YFSJ entry for "Shenfeng Cao, also called Fenghuang Laiyi" is as follows.

Guqin Yuelu says, "At the time of Cheng Wang of Zhou "鳳皇" (sic) imperial phoenixes danced, so he wrote this song."

Xie Xiyi's Qin Lun says, "Cheng Wang wrote Shenfeng Cao 言德化之感也 to speak of the feelings of its making things virtuous."

Qin Ji says, "Fenghuang Laiyi" was written by Cheng Wang."

Cheng Wang:
鳳凰翔兮於紫庭，予何德兮以感靈。
賴先人兮恩澤臻，于胥樂兮民以寧。
(琴操，儀鳳歌 Qin Cao, Yifeng Ge adds: 鳳凰來兮，百獸晨。)
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8. Kui 夔
Kui was the music master of Shun. James Legge, The Chinese Classics, Vol.III. The Shoo King (bi-lingual; SMC Taipei reprint, pp. 47-8) first translates a passage mentioning Kui as follows:

The Emperor (Shun) said, "Kui, I appoint you to be Director of Music, and to teach our sons, so that the straightforward may yet be mild, the gentle may yet be dignified, the strong not tyrannical, and the impetuous not arrogant. Poetry is the expression of earnest thought, singing is the prolonged utterance of that expression. The notes accompany that utterance, and they are harmonized themselves by the pitch pipes. In this way the eight different kinds of instruments can all be adjusted so that one shall not take from or interfere with another, and spirits and men will thereby be brought into harmony."

Legge then adds the following comment:

Appointment of Kui to be minister of Music. It is singular how great an importance is here attributed to training in music, and that this should have been a special department regulated by imperial statutes from the eariest times. Under the Zhou dyn., the minister of Music was styled 大司樂 (Da Si Yue); see the chapter on his duties in the 'Rites of Zhou,' 春官，宗伯，第二十六. 夔 is the name of a monstrous animal, 'a dragon with one leg.' I can find no other information about the officer thus designated besides the notice here and in Bk IV., p.9 (i.e., SMC reprint p. 87; see reference).
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9. All of this is quoted from Qin Qing Ying?
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10. Original entry
The Qin Shi biography of 帝舜 Emperor Shun is as follows:

舜繼堯位。刑、政日以明，禮、樂日以僃。孔子敘、書，斷自唐、虞言，天下之治。前此則未僃，後此則無以加也。帝之在側微也，以琴自樂。

孟子曰：舜在牀琴，蓋雖更（瞽）瞍、象之難，而弦歌不絕。所以能不動其心，孝益聇也。舊傳有《思親操》，此之謂乎。

及有天下，彈五弦之琴，以歌《南風》，而天下治。其辭曰：

南風之熏兮，可以解吾民之慍兮。
南風之時兮，可以阜吾民之材兮。

當是時，至和之氣充塞上下，覆被動植。《(尚)書》曰：簫韶九成，鳳凰來儀。和之極也。
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