Shenqi Mipu (神奇秘譜, “Mysterious Qin Score”), the oldest surviving collection of guqin music, was compiled in 1425 by Zhu Quan (朱權), the seventeenth prince of the Ming emperor Zhu Yuan-zhang (朱元璋). There are sixty-four pieces and related documents in this collection. Although we do not know how “mysterious” this collection was for the musicians of the Ming Dynasty, the notation of guqin music is certainly very mysterious to the general public in the
present time. The first page of the score of Three Statements of Plum Blossom (梅花三弄) from the Chuncaotang Qinpu (春草堂琴譜), which was compiled by Cao Shang-jiong (曹尚絅), Su Jing (蘇璟) and Dai Yuan (戴源) in 1744, is reproduced on p. 84 of the hardcopy of this book.
Among various genres of Chinese music, guqin music has the largest amount of notated scores. To understand guqin music, it is essential to understand how its notation system works. The notation of guqin music is called jianzipu (減字譜, abbreviated character notation), which is made up of radicals of Chinese characters.18 Different from the staff notation and the cipher notation, it is a kind of tablature and does not directly notate the pitch. It notates the way of playing the instrument: which string to be plucked; which finger to be used; which marker position the finger to be put on; which way of plucking the right hand to be used; as well as a very rough idea on the rhythm. Music details that are most explicitly notated in staff notation, including the rhythm, metre, and dynamics, are not notated in jianzipu.
The notation of guqin music is made up of ideograms. Like traditional Chinese prose, it is read from the top to the bottom, from the right to the left. Each ideogram is made up of several radicals from Chinese characters. See Example 4.1 for an explanation on how this notation system works.
Example 4.1 An Example of an Ideogram in Jianzipu
夕十
─── Direction for the left hand：the ring finger positions on the tenth marker
勻
─── Direction for the right hand：the middle finger plucks the second string inward
Each ideogram is made up of an upper half and a lower half, representing how the left hand and the right hand play respectively. The number in the upper half indicates the marker on which the left hand finger is to be placed, and the number in the lower half indicates the string that the right hand finger plucks (see
18 This notation system has a long history and is self-contained (see Extended Knowledge 4.3: A History of Guqin Notation).
Table 4.1 for an explanation of the radicals). There are numerous fingerings in guqin playing. In the chapter of “Fingerings” in the Chuncaotang Qinpu, there are forty-five right-hand fingerings and sixty-seven left-hand fingerings. On p. 84 of the hardcopy of this book, a facsimile of the first page of the section on “Right-hand Fingerings” from this collection is reproduced. Table 4.1 explains some of the fingering techniques. Figure 4.1 shows the first phrase from the piece Three Statements of Plum Blossom (梅花三弄) with an explanation of each ideogram.
Table 4.1 Some Common Symbols in Guqin Notation
Symbol Original Chinese Character(s)
Pronunciation Meaning
ㄅ 勾 gou the right-hand middle finger plucking
inward
乚 挑 tiao the right-hand index finger plucking
outward
木 抹 mo the right-hand index finger plucking
inward
乇 托 tuo the right thumb plucking outward
尸 擘 pi the right thumb plucking inward
早 撮 cuo two right-hand fingers plucking two
strings simultaneously
厂 歷 li a right-hand finger plucking two
strings in quick succession
卄 散 san plucking an open string
夕 左手無名指 the left-hand ring finger stopping the
string at a specified position
中 左手中指 the left-hand middle finger stopping
the string at a specified position
卜 綽 zhuo a left-hand finger sliding up to a
specified position
シ 注 zhu a left-hand finger sliding down to a
specified position 十
(left hand)
十徽 a left-hand finger positioning on the
tenth marker of a specified string 三
(right hand)
三弦 a specified finger of the right hand
plucking the third string 二
(right hand)
二弦 a specified finger of the right hand
plucking the second string
Figure 4.1 Explanation of the Jianzipu of the First Phrase of the Qin Piece Three Statements of Plum Blossom (梅花三弄)
The right-hand middle finger plucks the open third string inward.
The right-hand index finger plucks the open fourth string outward.
The right-hand middle finger plucks the open third string inward.
The right-hand index finger plucks the open seventh string outward.
The right-hand middle finger plucks the open sixth string inward.
The right-hand index finger plucks the open seventh string outward.
The right-hand index finger plucks the open fourth string inwardly, and then the middle finger plucks the fourth string inward.
The right-hand middle finger plucks the open fifth string inward.
The right-hand index finger plucks the open seventh string outward.
In jianzipu, the rhythm, metre and dynamics are not notated. Some may think that it is not as precise as Western staff notation and therefore is somehow inferior. We may then ask, why has it been used for over a thousand years? Is there an advantage in this notation system so that it cannot be replaced by other notation systems?
It is true that an important function of musical notation is to record and transmit music. Yet, is it necessary to learn notation in order to play music? Music scholars have studied this issue for a long time. In many non-Western cultures, including Chinese culture, it is often not necessary to learn musical notation to play music. In these cultures, students learn music through imitating the teacher’s playing. Some Chinese musical genres, such as traditional pipa solo, operas and some ritual music, use gongche notation (工尺譜) – the Chinese solfège – to record music. The notation only functions as a reminder to the performer and is not precise. This way of transmission of music is known as “oral transmission.”
Since the notation of guqin music is not precise in notating rhythm and some other elements that are explicit in staff notation, some may think that it is not ideal
for preserving guqin music. This point of view arises from a misunderstanding of the function of guqin notation. In this genre, the rhythm, metre, tempo and dynamics are the aspects which allow the individuality of the player to be expressed.
The notation is not precise in these aspects so that the players are able to give new blood to this genre from generation to generation. Bell Yung (榮鴻曾), a music scholar on guqin, aptly describes the ultimate function of jianzipu being not to notate the notatable.19