Three Variations on Yangguan
Yangguan Sandie (阳关三叠) is among the most widely circulated short pieces in the Chinese guqin repertoire and is almost universally recommended as a first art song for beginning players. The text is drawn from the Tang poet Wang Wei’s (王维, 701–761) quatrain Seeing Off Yuan the Second on a Mission to Anxi (送元二使安西), also known as Weicheng Qu (渭城曲):
Morning rain in Weicheng has dampened the light dust; the willows by the inn are green and freshly bright. Drink, my friend, one more cup of wine — west of Yangguan, there will be no old friends.
In Tang-Song song practice the term die (叠) denotes a repeated stanza; Sandie therefore signals a threefold repetition. The original poem has only four lines; the qin setting elaborates each repetition with additional clauses, producing a layered progression that follows the speaker from the parting pavilion outward to the distant frontier road.
Historical Versions
The actual Tang-dynasty melody of Yangguan Qu has long been lost. The earliest surviving qin tablature for Yangguan Sandie appears in Zheyin Shizi Qinpu (浙音释字琴谱, 1491), and the piece is subsequently transmitted in Faming Qinpu (发明琴谱, 1530) and Fengxuan Xuanpin (风宣玄品, 1539), among others. The reading published in Zhang He’s Qinxue Rumen (琴学入门, 1864) is the version most commonly performed and taught today, and it functions as the de facto standard for modern practice.
Note that the Ming and Qing transmissions of Yangguan Sandie differ substantially among themselves in both lyrics and melodic detail; this is not one fixed composition but a small family of related settings sharing a common literary source.
Performance Notes
- Structure: three die (variations), each consisting of the four lines of the original poem followed by elaborating couplets; about six minutes in total.
- Vocal-instrumental relationship: traditionally a qinge (琴歌, qin art song) — the text may be sung against the qin’s accompaniment, with each tone of the lyric mapped to a tone of the melody.
- Idiomatic figures: alternating use of san (open string), an (stopped), and fan (harmonic) sonorities; the harmonic passage in the third variation evokes the cool, distant air of the frontier.
- Tuning: F-key standard tuning (仲吕均 zhonglü).
- Pedagogical value: clear melodic line, modest fingering demands, and a complete sung text against which to anchor rhythm — one of the best vehicles for cultivating a beginner’s sense of qin phrasing and recitation.
About This Score
The version on this page is based on the Qinxue Rumen (1864) reading. All fingerings are encoded in the Qixianpu (七弦谱) format and can be opened directly in the online editor for further editing, annotation with numerical (jianpu) notation, or export to PDF.
Further Reading
- Gong Jigu, Zheyin Shizi Qinpu (浙音释字琴谱, 1491) — the earliest surviving collection containing Yangguan Sandie
- Zhang He, Qinxue Rumen (琴学入门, 1864) — the source of the modern standard reading
- Wang Di (ed.), Qinge (Renmin Yinyue Press) — modern qin-song collection with parallel jianpu notation
出处文献
- 浙音释字琴谱（1491）
- 风宣玄品（1539）
- 琴学入门（1864）