Wuzhizhai qinpu 五知齋琴譜

Wuzhizhai qinpu 五知齋琴譜 "Pieces for the zither from the Five-Knows Studio" is a collection of tablatures for the small zither (qin 琴) collected during the Qing period 清 (1644-1911) by the music master Xu Qi 徐祺 and his son Xu Jun 徐俊.

Xu Qi, courtesy name Dasheng 大生, style Gulang laoren 古瑯老人, and his son Xu Jun, courtesy name Yueqian 越千, traveled widely around to visit the most important masters of the zither, and collected their tunes. The Qinpu was finished in 1667, but it was only printed in 1724, after several revisions.

Figures 1. Charts of the Wuzhizhai qinpu 五知齋琴譜

Image naming the different parts of a zither (right); illustration of finger movements (left). According to Guangming zhi men 光明之門.

Their book has a length of 8 juan. The first two of them are an introduction into the music instrument, and the rest of the book includes the tablatures of 33 tunes. They commented theses tunes as "should be adopted in the original form" (ke yin可因) or "can be altered" (ke ge 可革). Its great difference to other collections of zither scores is that the compilers commented on each single tune and explained the origin of the melody and its various interpretations by zither players of the whole empire. The two masters laid stress on the continuation of the ancient traditions, but also praised those who contributed with new inventions, playing techniques and interpretations. To which school Xu Qi and his son belonged, is a matter of dispute, some scholars say belonged to the Guangling School 廣陵派, while the modern scholar Zha Fuxi 查阜西 (1895-1976) says they belonged to a school of the region of Anhui and Jiangsu.