Zhuzhi Ci 竹枝詞

The Bamboo Branch Lyrics (Zhu Zhi Ci) are or follow a song form said to come from a Tang dynasty folk tradition in Sichuan: the region of Chengdu, or along the Yangzi river; at least 22 lyrics in this form are preserved in the Yuefu Shiji, Folio 81.⁴

The only known setting for qin of any Bamboo Branch Lyrics is the one preserved here in a Japanese handbook said to reflect qin melodies brought to Japan from China in the 1660s, after the fall of the Ming dynasty.⁵ The actual source of the melody is not known, and the anonymous lyrics do not come from among those copied into the Yuefu Shi lyrics. In fact, nothing is known either of the the author of these Bamboo Branch Lyrics or of the creator of the melody. Presumably it was the monk Jiang Xingchou who brought them with to Japan, but it is also possible he created or at least arranged the lyrics or music or both. ⁵

The tablature in a new edition of this collection, sometimes referred to as the Japanese Zhengben (TKKP), is basically the same as here, although there is some awkwardness also found in some other TKKP versions. For example, one difference can be seen on the characters "歌喉 ge hou": in Hewen the instructions are to play "挑剔 tiao ti" then "對起 duiqi", which is idiomatic, while Zhengben has only "剔 ti" then "對起 duiqi", which is not so much so. Then with "那 na" Hewen uses "夕" the ring finger to play the note in the 10th position, which is very natual, while TKKP awkwardly has the ring finger plays it at the 9th position.

Meanwhile, in her book of transcriptions of qin songs, Wang Di (#31, pp.98) includes a Zhi Zhi Ci but instead of including the anonymous lyrics in the Japanese handbook she has substituted a set of lyrics from the Yuefu Shiji collection, specifically one of the two written by the famous Tang dynasty poet Liu Yuxi (772 - 842). In doing this she omits the cluster indicating the third note after the harmonics sign (m. 10 of my transcription), then seems to make up for this by changing some notes at the end. She also ignores the unattributed lyrics that accompany the Japanese edition, instead having the melody repeated so that both two sets of YFSJ Zhu Zhi Ci lyrics by Liu Yuxi can be sung. His lyrics are as follows:

山上層層桃李花，雲間煙火是人家。
Shān shàng céng céng táo lǐ huā, yún jiān yān huǒ shì rén jiā.
On the hill layer on layer, peach and plum trees bloom;
Between clouds smoke rises from peoples' homes.
銀釧金釵來負水，長刀短笠去燒畲。
Yín chuàn jīn chāi lái fù shuǐ, cháng dāo duǎn lì qù shāo shē.
In silver bangles and gold hairpins some come to fetch water;
With long blades and short hats others go out to slash the fields.
楊柳青青江水平，聞郎江上唱歌聲。
Yáng liǔ qīng qīng jiāng shuǐ píng, wén láng jiāng shàng chàng gē shēng.
Willow trees are lush with green, the river is smooth and level.
I hear my beloved on the river singing his songs.
東邊日出西邊雨，道是無晴還有晴。
Dōng biān rì chū xī biān yǔ, Dào shì wú qíng hái yǒu qíng.
To the east the sun rises, to the west it sets amidst rain;
they say it's (or: "his heart's") not clearing up, yet somehow it may be.

The second of these poems is sung on her accompanying CD.⁶

Although the present Japanese setting (see below) does not use lyrics by Liu Yuxi, as in YFSJ they are also 7x4 and so the guqin melody can be used to sing the Liu Yuxi lyrics.

Original preface
None; has only a brief comment from "Qin Guan" saying perhaps the melody belongs in shang mode.⁷

Melody and Lyrics (see transcription; timings follow 聽錄音 my recording) ⁸
Here I play the melody twice, singing the original lyrics during the repeat. The timing and these lyrics are as follows:

Bamboo Branch Lyrics (竹枝詞 Zhu Zhi Ci)
00.00 First playing of the original melody, solo
00.44 Second playing (with singing of these, the original Zhu Zhi Ci lyrics)

非商非羽聲吾伊，宛轉歌喉唱豔詞。
Fēi shāng fēi yǔ shēng wú yī, wǎn zhuǎn gē hóu chàng yàn cí. (吾伊 3398.xxx)
Without (notes like) shang and yu my voice is no voice at all,
but through a sinuous song line I sing my passionate lyrics.
斷腸那何人不識，一腔清韻有誰知。
Duàn cháng nà hé rén bù shí, yī qiāng qīng yùn yǒu shuí zhī.
As for heartbreak, who does not know it?
But as I sing these pure tones, who truly understands?

01.30 End

These original lyrics are unattributed, and as yet I have not been able to find their source. The singing, of course, is very tentative.

Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. Bamboo Branch Lyrics (竹枝詞 Zhu Zhi Ci) (XII/222; TKKP IV/45)
Zhu zhi ci were a Yuefu type of poem originating in a song form popular during the mid-Tang dynasty in what is today eastern Sichuan province. Picked up first by 劉禹錫劉禹錫 Liu Yuxi (772-842) then popularized by Bai Juyi (772-846), they dealt with such topics as "landscape, nature, local customs, love, and sentiments" (ChinaKnowledge.de, which has a good account of Zhuzhi Ci). They originally had a regular form (7,7,7,7.) but did not follow strict tonal patterns (ci pai), a form found in many of the qin melodies Jiang Xingchou apparently brought to Japan. By this time zhuzhi ci had already evolved into various forms and so, although sometimes referred to as a cipai, strictly speaking it is not.

26424.104 竹枝詞 references Liu Yuxi, but it has no mention of a cipai and does not quote any lyrics.

26424.103 竹枝 gives more detail, saying zhu zhi were poems in the Songs of Recent Times (近代曲辭 Jindai qu ci) section of Yuefu Shiji. Here Yuefu Shiji actually has 22 lyrics in this pattern ([7+7] x 2): one by Gu Kuang, nine plus two by 劉禹錫 Liu Yuxi, four by Bai Juyi, four by 李涉 Li She and two by 孫光憲 Sun Guanxian (see Folio 81).
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2. Yu mode
The mode is not very focused, but with relative tuning 5 6 1 2 3 5 6 the melody ends on la (yu, 6).
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3. Image: Zhu Zhi Ci as preserved in Japan
From the Meiwa edition (QQJC XII/255/6). See also the Hewen (XII/215) and TKKP (IV/37) editions.
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4. Form of 竹枝詞 Zhu Zhi Ci
Here the poetic structure is (7+7) x 2. In this regard it is interesting to compare the opening four notes of the melody called Zhu Zhi Ci published in Jiang's handbook with the opening four notes of another melody from the same handbook, Yi Wangsun (XII/215). The main difference seems to be that in most of the surviving editions of Yi Wangsun the first two clusters are played in harmonics. Doing the same for Zhu Zhi Ci would provide a more easily singable note sequence, but none of the surviving Zhu Zhi Ci editions does this.

Nevertheless, the connection or comparison between Zhu Zhi Ci and Yi Wangsun is also interesting because of their relative structures (絕句 jueju? 詞 ci?). In this regard, I am not clear if these lines are universally accepted either as 絕句 jueju or as 詞 ci. More under Poetry with lines of regular length. In any case,

Zhu Zhi Ci has a paired 7+7 character couplets structure (7,7;7,7.)
The Yi Wangsun structure seems to be a variant on this structure (7, 7; 7+3, 7.).

In the reconstruction of Yi Wangsun an effort was made to treat that 3-character variant on the jueju form not as a separate line but as an extension of the third line; in the third line the note values can be changed so that the 10 characters fit into the four bars per line structure. Likewise, with the Zhu Zhi Ci melody, it is possible to repeat the last three characters of the third line in such a way as the overall rhythm is similar to that of the adjusted Yi Wang Sun.
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5. Tracing 竹枝詞 Zhu Zhi Ci
Zha Guide 35/--/510: only surviving in Japan.
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6. Recording based on Wang Di transcription
Other recordings can be found on the internet (search for "竹枝詞" "古琴").
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7. Preface
Also no preface in the other editions, but after the title is the following comment,

琴川公云，斯曲恐配商音乎.
Master Kinzen says, this melody perhaps belongs with shang mode."

Here "琴川公" perhaps refers to 杉浦琴川 Sugiura Kinzen (1671-1711), sometimes said to have been an early editor of this handbook. The handbook had placed this melody in yu mode, but see my transcription and the comment at the top of it.
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8. Melody
Recorded in the Studio for Seeking Solitude, December 2020. The close observer will note I sing "非 fei" on the upbeat. This is based on the way I would speak it. The Liu Yuxi lyrics, on the other hand, do not suggest beginning with such an upbeat.
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