1. Introduction

The sayings that “a gentleman does not put aside the qin and se zithers without reason” and that one keeps “a qin to the left and books to the right” express a longstanding spiritual tradition in the poetic language of Chinese literati. An account of the instrument's origins relates that

Shennong succeeded Fuxi as ruler of the world. Looking upward, he took heaven as his model; looking downward, he took the earth. Near at hand, he drew upon the body; further afield, upon other things. He then cut paulownia wood to make a qin and twisted silk to make its strings, communicating with divine virtue and joining the harmony of heaven and earth.

The guqin, a seven-string zither, has thus long stood as a cultural symbol of Chinese tradition. In Lingnan, it served both as a musical instrument and as a vehicle for cultivating the Way. From Chen Baisha's grounding of spiritual cultivation in qin music to Huang Jingxing's later recognition as the founding figure of the Lingnan qin school, it nourished successive generations of local scholars. Their practices took root and branched into a regional musical lineage. The tablature collection Wuxue Shanfang Qinpu became an important basis for distinguishing that lineage from other qin schools.

2. Huang Jingxing and Wuxue Shanfang Qinpu in the Lingnan Qin Lineage

The Qing qin musician Huang Jingxing, also known as Weinan, completed the compilation of Wuxue Shanfang Qinpu in 1835. This landmark collection from the formative period of the Lingnan school became a central textual vehicle for its transmission. Its approximately fifty pieces were initially organized into four fascicles. Through the 1842 printing financed by Hu Jingyong, with a preface by Yang Xiquan, Li Baoguang's reprint in 1887, and subsequent versions, the collection preserved musical traditions transmitted from the Central Plains since the Song and Yuan dynasties, together with the intellectual legacy of Chen Baisha from the Ming dynasty onward. It also left relatively clear traces of the Lingnan school's teaching lineages.

2.1 Huang Jingxing and the Compilation of the Collection

Chen Baisha founded the Jiangmen school in the mid-fifteenth century and became a representative of the Guangdong tradition of learning centered on the mind, which rivaled Wang Yangming's Zhejiang tradition. His emphasis on “taking naturalness as the guiding principle” and “learning through one's own realization” laid the foundations for the Lingnan qin tradition's “distinctive theoretical system, modes of thought, and aesthetic preferences” (Xu, 2008, p. 22). These ideas nourished its musical aesthetics and cultural outlook. Huang Jingxing's publication of Wuxue Shanfang Qinpu subsequently provided a concrete basis for recognizing a school of qin music rooted in local cultural ideas.

Huang Jingxing lived from the late Qianlong period until 1842, the twenty-second year of the Daoguang reign. A native of the county town of Xinhui, Guangdong, he used the sobriquets Wuxue Shanren and Weinan. His early training came from his family. As a boy, he learned qin techniques from his father and elder brother, and the household retained his father's handwritten copy of Gugang Yipu [Surviving Tablatures of Gugang]. Frequent solitary practice from this manuscript gave him a firm foundation in performance. In 1799, the fourth year of Jiaqing, he met the Xiangshan qin musicians He Luoshu and his son He Wenxiang at the home of his fellow townsman Mo Nanqiao. He became their pupil and came to understand how musical sound and expressive meaning could be joined in performance.

Between 1816 and 1818, Huang studied at Yuexiu Academy as a stipend-supported tribute student. Outside his studies, he often played with his nephew Huang Lifeng and prepared an initial compilation of more than thirty pieces. Still focused on the civil service examinations, he had not yet undertaken detailed collation. Early in the Daoguang reign, he was appointed to teach qin at Xuehaitang Academy. In 1828, he formed a qin society with Chen Qishi, Chen Zhixiang, Mo Jizhao, and other Lingnan musicians. This is the earliest such organization in Lingnan documented in writing. He subsequently taught widely and cultivated friendships across Guangdong. Liu Zixiang of Sanshui, Hu Zhun of Xinhui, Liang Sen of Shunde, He Yuyi of Panyu, and He Yaokun of Xiangshan frequently exchanged musical knowledge with him, contributing directly to the flourishing of Lingnan qin culture during the Qianlong to Daoguang period. In 1835, after years of work, Huang transcribed fifty pieces into a four-volume manuscript. Printing was contemplated the following year, but a complete edition did not enter general circulation until 1842. Contemporaries praised it as an exemplary Lingnan collection whose balanced character combined antique refinement with clarity.

The making of Wuxue Shanfang Qinpu was closely connected to Huang's teachers, fellow pupils, musical friends, and students. His core technique came from He Luoshu and He Wenxiang of Xiangshan. After meeting them in 1799, he learned more than ten privately transmitted pieces from He Luoshu, including Gaoshan [High Mountains], in its second version, Zuiyu Changwan [A Drunken Fisherman's Evening Song], and Yandu Hengyang [Wild Geese Passing Hengyang]. He Wenxiang taught him Bitian Qiusi [Autumn Thoughts beneath an Azure Sky] and Yiqiao Jinlü [Presenting a Shoe at the Yi Bridge]. When He Wenxiang's son He Yaokun heard Huang play the latter two pieces, the tone and fingering closely resembled his father's. Huang's precise command of his teachers' techniques was preserved in the pieces he included in his collection.

The Huang family of Xinhui sustained a qin tradition across several generations. The lineage passed from Huang Jingxing's father's generation to Huang himself. His elder brother Huang Guanjiong had studied and played the qin from childhood and taught him techniques. When Guanjiong's son Huang Wenyu lost his father at a young age, Jingxing took responsibility for his musical education. Huang Wenyu's son Huang Bingkun continued the family learning and was accomplished in poetry, prose, epigraphy, calligraphy, and painting as well as qin music. Works by Huang Bingkun, his father Huang Wenyu, and his great-uncle Huang Jingxing were collectively known as the Huangshi Sannong. Huang Bingkun's son Huang Xingfang and grandson Huang Shi were also skilled players, extending the family tradition through Guangdong and Yunnan. When compiling the local pieces preserved in his father's copy of Gugang Yipu, Huang Jingxing identified their sources in notes following each piece, clarifying their transmission without freely inventing or altering material.

Musical friendships also shaped the collection. Mo Jizhao and Huang were fellow pupils of He Luoshu and regularly discussed fingering. Mo's refinement of Zuiyu Changwan gave it an untrammeled character, and Huang included his friend's revision many years later. Mo Xiling of Gangzhou provided another example. His specialty, Saishang Hong [Wild Geese beyond the Frontier], was prized for its archaic, weighty style and entered the collection. In 1825, when Li Baoguang traveled to Guangzhou for the examinations, he met Huang's pupil Liu Yun'an, who showed him all fifty pieces compiled by their teacher. This encounter helped prepare the way for Li's Guangxu-period reprint. Huang's nephew Wenyu, trained by him from childhood, composed pieces that circulated independently. His fellow townsman Mo Jinjiang understood his musical intentions more fully than any other pupil. After both men died, direct local transmission was interrupted for a time. Later Lingnan musicians, including Zhao Jianfen and members of the Rong family, also inherited Huang's musical learning indirectly through the collection.

2.2 The Genealogy of Surviving Editions and Manuscripts

Scholars have variously dated the publication of Wuxue Shanfang Qinpu to 1835, 1836, and 1842. The disagreement arises from conflating three events, the completion of the manuscript, the writing of a preface, and block printing. In 1835, Huang finished organizing and transcribing the fifty pieces into a private fair copy. He Yaokun added a preface in 1836, marking the manuscript's presentation to a wider circle, but no complete printed set from that year survives. The earliest edition supported by a surviving physical copy, and the basis of subsequent manuscripts and reprints, is the four-volume edition financed by Hu Jingyong in 1842. In 1887, Li Baoguang of Nanhai organized a new collation and reprint, expanding the arrangement from four to six volumes. Both editions nominally contain fifty pieces, but differ substantially in their opening prefaces, lists of collators, volume divisions, and inclusion of the original editorial principles. Huang had assembled an initial collection of more than thirty family and teaching-lineage pieces between 1816 and 1818. He continued collecting and comparing Jiangnan tablatures over the following decades before the collection was finalized for printing in 1842.

Two original printed editions survive. Other witnesses consist of later manuscript facsimiles, extracts, and incomplete copies. They belong to two principal textual branches, the Daoguang first edition and the Guangxu reprint, and can be divided into four groups.

2.2.1 The Four-Volume First Edition Financed by Hu Jingyong in 1842

The ancestral edition is held by the Sun Yat-sen Library of Guangdong Province. It formerly belonged to the late Qing Lingnan scholar Zhu Qilian, whose descendants donated his collection to the library. Arranged in four volumes and seven fascicles, it preserves the four early prefaces by Zhao Gunong, Huang Jingxing, He Yaokun, and Yang Xiquan, together with a clear record of the local musicians involved in collation. Its printing is legible and provides the most authoritative basis for studying Huang and the original text. The surviving copy is incomplete, however. Eight pieces are missing from the third volume, and the contents list yields forty-nine pieces. Its distinctive treatment of Gaoshan includes both the widely circulating Chuncaotang version and the privately transmitted He-family version (Zhang, 2022, p. 29). Guangzhou Dadian used this copy as its facsimile base.

2.2.2 Li Baoguang's Six-Volume Reprint of 1887

Copies of the reprint are held by the National Library of China and the documentary collections of the Chinese National Academy of Arts. Li Baoguang of Nanhai organized its collation and recutting, rearranging the work into six volumes and six fascicles. The reprint removed the early prefaces by Zhao Gunong and Yang Xiquan (Zhang, 2022, p. 31) and replaced the original list of collators with late Qing local participants. It also omitted the editorial principles and added Li's own postface. All fifty pieces are preserved. He Zeng, a provincial examination graduate from Foshan, supplied the title inscription. Neatly printed and widely circulated in the late Qing period, this became the base for most subsequent manuscript facsimiles.

2.2.3 Manuscripts Derived From the Daoguang Edition

Yao Shou's incomplete manuscript of 1886 was copied from the Daoguang edition. Only the first volume, containing eleven pieces, survives; the other three are lost. Held in the Zha Fuxi Special Collection at the Central Conservatory of Music (Zhang, 2022, p. 29), it permits textual comparison of the first half of the volume but cannot support a complete reconstruction of the collection.

Ni Hexuan's complete manuscript facsimile from Yunnan served as the reproduction source for modern editions in Qinqu Jicheng [Collected Qin Tablatures] and Lingnan Qinxue Congshu [Collected Works on Lingnan Qin Studies] (Zhang, 2022, p. 30). It reproduces all four volumes and fifty pieces. Copied by a Yunnan musician during the Republican period, it incorporates performance annotations by Li Menggeng of eastern Guangdong. Chen Zhongping, a Yunnan scholar, altered the notation of fractional hui marker positions and reorganized sections in some pieces. Numerous corrections and copying errors mean that its text differs from the original Daoguang printing. Its principal role is as a widely used modern reproduction source.

2.2.4 Manuscripts and Selected Extracts Derived From the Guangxu Reprint

Zhao Jianfen's complete manuscript facsimile of 1956 reproduces the six-volume Guangxu edition (Zhang, 2022, p. 32). His dated colophon at the end records the practice of copying old tablatures among Lingnan musicians in the early People's Republic.

Zhao Jianfen's Gugang Yipu extracts constitute a selection from Wuxue Shanfang Qinpu, rather than an independently transmitted ancient collection. Zhao assembled six representative local pieces to emphasize the Gugang repertoire. The manuscript is divided between two documentary institutions, whose holdings must be consulted together to recover its complete contents. It is a compact primary resource for studying representative Lingnan pieces.

3. The Organization of the Zhonglü Yun Repertoire

During the Qianlong, Jiaqing, and Daoguang reigns, the deaths of older Lingnan musicians placed locally transmitted pieces at risk. Oral performance alone provided no stable written record, and the possibility of complete loss motivated Huang's compilation. The prefaces and colophons clarify its chronology. He completed the fifty-piece fair copy in 1835, He Yaokun wrote his preface in 1836, and the earliest demonstrable complete printing is the four-volume edition financed in 1842 by Hu Jingyong of Shunde. This became the source of later copies and reprints. Li Baoguang of Nanhai expanded the arrangement to six volumes in his 1887 reprint. Although both editions list fifty pieces, their prefaces and postfaces, collators, volume structure, and inclusion of the editorial principles differ markedly. Huang had brought together family and teaching-lineage pieces in an initial draft between 1816 and 1818, subsequently adding and correcting material over decades through comparison with Jiangnan collections before publication in 1842.

The collection is organized around prefatory and concluding texts, editorial principles, and a catalogue of pieces. The prefaces and colophons reveal how it took shape; the editorial principles explain its methods and guiding decisions; and the catalogue identifies the musical subjects and their specific presentation.

3.1 Zhonglü Yun Within the Seven-Yun Organization of Qin Music

Yun is a foundational term in Chinese pitch organization. It denotes a grouping of pitches or a complete scalar system and rests on the principle that each of the twelve pitch standards can serve in turn as gong. Zhao explains that the term

originally referred in astronomy to a region of the cosmos occupied by fixed stars. After passing from astronomy into musical acoustics, it denoted a series consisting of seven successively generated pitches. This series is usually arranged as a seven-note scale beginning on gong and named after the pitch standard occupied by that initial gong. … These are comparable to the different tonal regions indicated by key signatures in modern staff notation. (Zhao, 2001, p. 211)

In pre-Qin writings, the term initially referred to fixed pitch sequences for ritual instruments such as bells and the sheng, emphasizing the relative intervals of an entire scale. Later usage distinguished three levels. Yun designated the overall pitch framework, diao the modal structure, and yin the principal concluding tone or modal final. This distinction gradually developed and was refined in the compilation of qin tablatures.

Both Hu Jingyong's 1842 edition and Li Baoguang's reprint organize the fifty pieces according to the same principle, first separating seven yun and then distinguishing the five tones. Each piece is assigned to a yun by its pitch framework and then classified under gong, shang, jue, zhi, or yu. The opening of every piece specifies its yun and the complete tuning procedure. This provided a broader classification of qin pitch frameworks suited to Lingnan performance.

Huang states this approach at the outset of his editorial principles.

The collection is divided into seven yun, and then differentiated by the five yin. Its method derives from Chuncaotang, but Chuncaotang uses only five tunings. Taicu and Nanlü are added here. Although they appear similar to Jiazhong and Yize, respectively, each differs in whether a string is tightened or loosened. (Song & Feng, 2010, p. 15)

Earlier qin collections generally placed the tuning category and its string adjustments directly beneath each piece's title. Wang Yuanbo made an important change in Zhixinzhai Qinxue Lianyao during the Qianlong period, using yun as the principal category and identifying the pitch framework beneath the title. Chuncaotang Qinpu, compiled by Su Jing and others in 1744, adopted Wang's five-yun division and further differentiated its levels. In addition to yun, it distinguished five modal categories within each pitch framework, gong, shang, jue, zhi, and yu. It also introduced yin as a criterion requiring consistency in the principal concluding tone. Together these formed a three-level distinction among yun, diao, and yin.

Huang revised the collection's labeling conventions accordingly. Following Wang, he used yun to organize tuning categories across the collection. He adopted the three-level distinction developed in Chuncaotang Qinpu and expanded its five-yun classification by adding Taicu and Nanlü to accommodate Lingnan practice. The resulting organization brought seven pitch frameworks together with three levels of tonal description. The Zhonglü yun repertoire demonstrates this development most fully.

Zhonglü yun, also written with an alternative Chinese form of Zhonglü, is a central pitch framework in the Qing qin tuning tradition. It is the formal pitch designation for what later musicians commonly called zhengdiao, or standard tuning. Established within Wang Yuanbo's five-yun classification, it was consolidated in Su Jing's Chuncaotang Qinpu and retained in Huang's seven-yun arrangement. It takes the pitch standard Zhonglü as gong. The strings remain in their basic tuning, with open strings one to seven assigned to Huangzhong, Taicu, Zhonglü, Linzhong, Nanlü, upper Huangzhong, and upper Taicu. The third string, Zhonglü, serves as gong for the scale. Associated with the aesthetic ideal of balanced and harmonious sound, it is the most frequently used basic tuning in both the five-yun and seven-yun classifications.

Of the fifty pieces in Wuxue Shanfang Qinpu, thirty are classified under Zhonglü yun, including two supplementary pieces, accounting for 60%. Huangzhong yun contains eleven pieces, or 22%; Jiazhong two, or 4%; Taicu one, or 2%; Yize one, or 2%; Nanlü one, or 2%; and Wuyi four, or 8%. Zhonglü thus forms the principal body of repertoire across the collection's seven pitch frameworks. Its predominance follows from its role as the reference framework for an entire tuning and its suitability for the largest body of pieces. Local works from Gugang Yipu and many Guangling pieces from Jiangnan use it as their basis. Unlike altered tunings such as Huangzhong and Yize, Zhonglü requires no loosening or tightening of strings. Its balanced and complete scale arrangement makes it readily accessible in performance. It carries forward the pre-Qin principle of rotating the gong while accommodating the restrained, contemplative ideals of Ming and Qing literati self-cultivation. Huang retained it as the central reference category when expanding the classification to seven yun.

Within Zhonglü yun, Huang further classifies the pieces according to the five modal categories, gong, shang, jue, zhi, and yu. Table 1 lists these groups.

The Zhonglü yun pieces display relationships among the five pentatonic modes and their tonal colors through a chain of perfect fifths. Its pitch-generating sequence runs from gong through zhi, shang, and yu to jue. This is both a numerical sequence for generating the five tones and a measure of modal proximity and audible character. Distance along the chain and the number of successive pitch-generating steps distinguish the relationships and qualities of the five modes. In this repertoire, the arrangement produces opposing yin and yang, yielding and firm, tonal characters. Shang occupies the center and combines qualities of zhi and yu. From this center, aesthetic preferences extend in both directions. The zhi and gong modes yield, respectively, a zhi color and an intensified zhi color. These are more prominent than the yu and intensified yu colors of the yu and jue modes. The relationships among the pieces thus connect pitch distance, modal proximity, and audible color. Gong and zhi occupy one pole, yu and jue the other, with shang mediating their contrasting qualities. Read through the Chinese procedure of generating fifths by adding or subtracting one-third of a sounding length, this organization explains the coexistence, transitions, and aesthetic differences of the pentatonic modes in Zhonglü yun. It offers an indigenous numerical account of the development of traditional melodies, qin pitch frameworks, and specific musical forms beyond an interpretation based on Western harmony in thirds.

3.2 Principal Sources of the Zhonglü Yun Repertoire

Huang's editorial principles state that the collection “draws widely on celebrated tablatures and on pieces received through direct instruction from teachers, selecting fifty that preserve their essence and accord with antiquity” (Song & Feng, 2010). The thirty Zhonglü yun pieces share this diversity of sources. Their annotations, colophons, and fingering notation reveal the main bodies of material Huang selected, together with his teaching lineage and editorial preferences. Two local lines of transmission were fundamental. His father's handwritten Gugang Yipu supplied four ancient pieces passed down locally, while instruction from He Luoshu and He Wenxiang during the Jiaqing period supplied several privately transmitted works. Together they formed the principal body of Zhonglü yun pieces in the early Daoguang draft. Huang then collected major tablature books from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, incorporating the repertoire and musical thought of Guangling, Yushan, and Hangzhou through expansion and systematic collation. The final thirty pieces draw on three broad sources, ancient local Lingnan transmission, established Jiangnan printed collections, and the private repertoires of contemporary teachers. These combined mainstream Jiangnan pitch organization and musical forms with Xinhui's inherited qin culture and less widely circulated pieces. Huang's revisions to modes, sectional divisions, and fingering brought northern and southern inheritances into a collection with a distinct Lingnan aesthetic.

As Table 2 shows, Gugang Yipu is the central source of the local Lingnan repertoire. Its formation is rooted in the transition from the Song to the Yuan dynasty. As the Southern Song court and numerous scholar-officials from the Central Plains moved south to Gangzhou, now Xinhui in Guangdong, ancient pieces accompanied them. Successive generations copied and transmitted these locally, bringing them together as Gugang Yipu. The complete collection had disappeared by the late Qing period; surviving witnesses consist of later extracts whose contents vary. Four principal groups can be distinguished, the Rong family copies, Zhao Jianfen's extracts, the Yang Xin transmission, and the copy made by Huang Jingxing's father. The Rong family copy contains five pieces, only three of which overlap with the Huang family text. These textual differences are substantive. Huang selected pieces from his father's manuscript for the complete collection, including Huaigu [Reflecting on Antiquity], Oulu Wangji, Bijian Liuquan, Yuqiao Wenda, and Yushu Linfeng [A Jade Tree in the Wind]. Huaigu belongs to Huangzhong yun; the other four belong to Zhonglü yun. These local ancient pieces distinguish Lingnan musical practice from the Yushan and Guangling traditions.

Most Zhonglü yun pieces draw on two representative mid-Qing Jiangnan collections, Su Jing's Chuncaotang Qinpu and Wu Shibai's Ziyuantang Qinpu. Huang selected material according to his own performance aesthetics and seven-yun organization. He revised modal classifications, section lengths, and the complexity of fingering to establish his own performance practice.

Ziyuantang Qinpu is one of the principal sources, with nine Zhonglü yun pieces sharing its lineage. The two collections name pitch frameworks differently. The earlier one retains traditional modal terminology, whereas Huang uses his seven-yun nomenclature, but their principal melodies closely agree. Changes are concentrated in performance detail. Huang reduces fine-grained fractional hui indications, simplifies elaborate yin and nao vibrato gestures, and adds instructions on weight, pace, and intensity. Some pieces have sections divided or combined according to the logic of performance.

Chuncaotang Qinpu supplies the collection's principal basis for pitch organization. Its classification by five yun and five yin became Huang's point of departure. He added Taicu and Nanlü to construct seven categories and corrected omissions in modal judgments. Approximately three Zhonglü yun pieces share a source with Chuncaotang. Their principal fingerings are largely retained, while modal classification and structure receive independent treatment. In Yuge, Huang preserves all eighteen sections instead of adopting Su Jing's removal of the final five. His assessment balances the excessively simple fingering of Chuncaotang against the profuse yin and nao of Wuzhizhai. In Jinfeng Luoye, the fingering is largely the same as in Chuncaotang, with some sections combined.

Huang also used Lingnan qin society networks to collect pieces passed privately from teacher to pupil. Five Zhonglü yun pieces came through He Luoshu and He Wenxiang of Xiangshan, Gaoshan, Qingye Wenzhong, and Yiqiao Jinlü under gong, and Zuiyu Changwan and Yandu Hengyang under shang. Mo Jizhao, Huang's fellow pupil, revised these five pieces before their inclusion. Their grand, archaically refined performance style and particular tablature variants differ from those preserved in Jiangnan printed collections. Other privately transmitted works include Shuixian Cao, in shang, from Shen Taishao of Zhejiang and Zhang Wenzhuo of Xinhui, and Yanluo Pingsha, in yu, from Chen Shitang of Panyu. These less widely circulated pieces supplied subjects absent from mainstream Jiangnan collections and expanded the collection's stylistic range.

4. Conclusion

Wuxue Shanfang Qinpu provides a central textual basis for understanding the emergence of Lingnan qin music as a distinct school. Compiled by Huang Jingxing of Xinhui during the Daoguang reign, it marks the tradition's formative period, and its Zhonglü yun repertoire has long served as a core vehicle of transmission. Existing accounts of its compilation, editions, repertoire sources, and pitch organization contain imprecise claims and historical errors. Comparison of original printed witnesses with the collation of modern manuscripts clarifies the stages of compilation, the two principal editions, and the descent and adaptation of later copies. It also traces the diverse sources of the repertoire and explains the expansion of pitch classification through seven yun and three levels of tonal description. Huang brought together Yushan, Guangling, and Zhejiang musical learning while grounding his aesthetic choices in local practice. The collection records the reciprocal exchange through which Lingnan qin music developed in relation to the leading schools of Jiangnan.

References

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