Guide

Ci: Poems Made to Be Sung

Put simply: if a shi, the classical Chinese poem, is something you recite, a ci is something you sing. The form arose in the Sui and Tang dynasties and flourished under the Northern and Southern Song, and it began life as words set to music. With a ci, the tune comes first and the words second: the writer follows the tune’s long and short phrases, its rises and falls, and “fills in” the words one character at a time.

The form has gone by many names, and each catches a different side of it:

• Quzi ci (words for a tune): the name used in the Tang and Five Dynasties, meaning simply “the lyrics of a song.” Tang and Five Dynasties manuscripts discovered at Dunhuang preserve a great many of these lyrics from ordinary people.
• Yuefu and yuezhang (songs and musical pieces): because ci could be set to music and sung, they carried on the yuefu song tradition of the Han and Wei, and Song-dynasty poets often called their own collections yuefu or yuezhang—as in Su Shi’s Dongpo yuefu (Dongpo’s Songs) and Liu Yong’s Yuezhang ji (Collected Songs).
• Changduan ju (long and short lines): the lines of a shi are mostly a regular five or seven characters, while the lines of a ci run long and short in a pleasing irregularity. Qin Guan’s collection bears exactly this name: Huaihai jushi changduan ju (Long and Short Lines of the Recluse of Huaihai).
• Shiyu (what is left over from poetry): a term that caught on from the Southern Song onward, meaning the ink a poet spends once the business of poetry is done—a name with a touch of modesty in it.
• Yisheng and tianci (leaning on the tune, filling in the words): these name the method itself—you lean on the sound of the melody and fill the words into it.

Cipai: The Name of a Tune

The tune a ci is written to has a name, and that name is its cipai, or tune pattern; it is also called a cidiao (ci tune) or diaoming (tune title).

Think of a tune pattern as the melody of a pop song: the same melody can carry many different sets of lyrics, and whatever words you give it, it is still the same tune. Or think of it as a sheet of squared writing paper with the grid already drawn: how many sections, how many lines in each, how many characters to a line, which square must rhyme, which takes a level tone and which an oblique one (more on these tones below)—all of it is settled in advance, and the writer has only to set the words down in the squares.

What a tune pattern lays down is mainly this:

• How many sections: each section of a ci is called a pian, a stanza. A ci of a single stanza is called dandiao; two stanzas is by far the most common, and some have three or four;
• How many lines in all, how many characters in each line, and where each line pauses;
• Where the rhymes fall, whether they are level-tone or oblique-tone rhymes, and whether the rhyme changes partway through;
• Whether each character takes a level or an oblique tone, and which positions allow some leeway.

A single tune pattern often goes by several names—“one tune, many names.” Most of these were coined later from a line in a famous poem: Nian Nu Jiao, for instance, is also called Da Jiang Dong Qu (East Flows the Great River) and Lei Jiang Yue (A Libation to the River Moon), both taken from Su Shi’s celebrated piece to that tune. There are also patterns that share a name but not a melody—“one name, different tunes.” And a tune pattern often exists in several slightly different forms, which the formularies, the reference books that chart each pattern, list as “variant forms.”

The Skeleton of a Ci

• Pian (stanza): one section of a ci, also called a que, bian or die. A ci of just one stanza is called dandiao, such as Shi Liu Zi Ling or Yi Jiang Nan; two stanzas is the most common, conventionally called shuangdiao; there are also long tunes of three or four stanzas, the longest being Ying Ti Xu, four stanzas and 240 characters in all. At the short end, one form of Zhu Zhi has only two lines of fourteen characters, and Shi Liu Zi Ling has just sixteen.
• Que: a whole ci can also be counted as “one que,” and its first and second stanzas are likewise called the upper que and the lower que.
• Xiaoling, zhongdiao, changdiao (short lyrics, medium tunes, long tunes): Ming scholars sorted ci by character count, and the Qing scholar Mao Xianshu drew the lines: up to 58 characters is a xiaoling, 59 to 90 a zhongdiao, and 91 or more a changdiao, also called a manci. This is only a rough division; different forms of the same tune pattern often cross the boundaries.
• Huantou (changing the head): when the opening lines of the second stanza differ from those of the first, this is called huantou, or guopian (crossing the stanza). It is often where the poem’s thought takes a turn—like a song switching to a different style of singing when it reaches the second verse.
• Lingzi (leading word): long tunes often use a single character to lead the several lines that follow, like 渐 (jiàn, “gradually”) in Liu Yong’s Ba Sheng Gan Zhou: “Gradually the frosty wind grows keen and cold, the passes and rivers lie desolate, the last light falls upon the tower.” A leading word usually takes the departing tone (the four tones are explained below), which makes it sound strong, like a downbeat in music.
• Dieju (repeated lines): some tune patterns require a line or a few characters to be repeated, like “Like a dream, like a dream” in Ru Meng Ling, or “Wrong, wrong, wrong!” at the close of Chai Tou Feng.

Ci, Shi and Qu: Differences and Styles

How Ci Differs from Shi

• Lines: shi lines are mostly a regular five or seven characters; in a ci, line length follows the tune, anywhere from a single character to a dozen or so.
• Rhyme: regulated verse (lüshi, the strictest form of shi) usually rhymes only on level tones, keeping one rhyme from start to finish; in a ci, the tune pattern decides where the rhymes fall, rhymes can be level or oblique, and the rhyme can change partway through.
• Structure: a ci is divided into stanzas and has features such as the change at the head of the second stanza, leading words and repeated lines (all explained above), none of which shi have.
• Voice and feeling: shi can be chanted, while ci were originally sung to music. An old saying holds that shi is dignified and ci alluring: shi tends toward the solemn expression of one’s aims, while ci excels at delicate, elusive stirrings of the heart.

How Ci Differs from Qu

Ci and qu are close relatives—alike in looks, different in temperament:

• Qu may add chenzi, “padding words,” outside the metrical pattern, which makes them more colloquial and lively to sing; ci generally do not. As the Qing scholar Wan Shu put it, qu have padding words and ci have none.
• Qu can link several tunes in the same musical mode (gongdiao, explained below) into a suite that tells a story; a ci mostly stands alone as a single piece.
• Qu rhyme more densely and speak in plainer, more direct language; ci prize restraint and implication.
• Qu are still sung today in Kunqu and other forms of Chinese opera, and their tunes remain living music; most of the scores of Song ci have been lost, and the tune patterns now survive mainly as metrical forms for words.

The Delicate and the Bold

Zhang Yan of the Ming divided ci broadly into two styles: wanyue, the delicate and restrained, and haofang, the bold and unrestrained. The delicate style is subtle and tender, writing mostly of parting, longing and the sorrows of one’s lot; Liu Yong, Qin Guan and Li Qingzhao are its representative voices. The bold style is broad and expansive, writing mostly of mountains and rivers, meditations on the past and lofty ambitions; Su Shi and Xin Qiji represent it. This is only a rough division, and many poets wrote in both manners.

From Yuefu to Ci to Qu: Every Age Has Its Songs

Chinese poetry has always gone hand in hand with music. One way to see it: yuefu were the popular songs of the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties, ci the popular songs of the Tang and Song, and qu the popular songs of the Yuan and Ming. Every age has its own songs, and its own way of writing words to them.

• Pre-Qin: the three hundred and more pieces of the Shijing (Classic of Poetry) could all originally be sung.
• Han: Emperor Wu established the Yuefu, or Music Bureau, a government office that gathered songs from every region and set them to music for performance; their lyrics are known as yuefu poems. Later, poetry and song gradually went their separate ways: what could be sung was called yuefu, and what was meant only for reciting was called shi.
• Sui and Tang: music from the Western Regions mingled with the older music of the Central Plains to form yanyue, banquet music (the yan is sometimes written with a different character of the same sound), and new tunes poured forth. Court musicians and men of letters wrote words to the rhythms of these new tunes, the lines running long or short as the melody did—and so the ci was born. Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (r. 712–756) set up the Jiaofang, an office in charge of popular music at court; of the more than three hundred tune names that Cui Lingqin recorded in his Jiaofang ji (Records of the Court Music Office), many later became tune patterns, such as Pu Sa Man, Xi Jiang Yue and Ding Feng Bo.
• Late Tang and Five Dynasties: Wen Tingyun wrote ci in great numbers. In the Later Shu, Zhao Chongzuo compiled the Huajian ji (Among the Flowers, 940), five hundred ci by eighteen poets—the earliest surviving anthology of ci by literati. Li Yu of the Southern Tang poured the grief of a lost kingdom into his ci, and with him the form’s horizons opened wide.
• Northern Song: Liu Yong wrote mostly long, slow pieces known as manci (“slow lyrics”), which were sung everywhere; Su Shi brought the spirit of shi into ci and wrote with the sweep of “East flows the great river”; Zhou Bangyan was a master of music. Under Emperor Huizong the court established the Dasheng Bureau to put the tunes in order, the number of ci tunes grew to more than two hundred, and the form reached its height.
• Southern Song: Xin Qiji wrote his devotion to his country into his ci; Jiang Kui composed his own music and left seventeen ci with their musical notation, precious material today for studying the music of Song ci. By the late Southern Song, the scores of ci were gradually being lost.
• Yuan and Ming: new music arose in the north, and sanqu (art songs) and zaju (variety plays) took over the role of the sung word. The tunes they followed are called qupai, and many qupai names came straight from ci tune patterns.
• Qing: the ci enjoyed a revival. Wan Shu compiled the Cilü (Ci Prosody); Wang Yiqing and others, by order of the Kangxi Emperor, compiled the Qinding cipu (Imperial Formulary of Ci Patterns), with 826 tunes in 2,306 forms; and Ge Zai compiled the Cilin zhengyun (Correct Rhymes for Ci). The rules of ci writing were set down in books that are still in use today.

Where Tune Patterns Came From

The four hundred or so common tune patterns came, broadly speaking, from these sources:

• Music of the court and the Jiaofang: many tune patterns began as Tang Jiaofang tunes. Take Pu Sa Man (Bodhisattva Barbarians): legend has it that when envoys from the kingdom of Nüman came to the court of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (r. 846–859), they wore their hair piled high, with golden crowns and strings of jewels hung all over them, and people called them the “bodhisattva barbarian troupe”; the court musicians wrote a new tune inspired by them.
• Folk songs: Zhu Zhi (Bamboo Branch) was originally a folk song of the Ba–Yu region, around today’s Chongqing; this book’s Ai Nai Qu (Song of the Oars) was written by the Tang poet Yuan Jie during his posting in Daozhou, modeled on the songs boatmen sang as they rowed.
• Famous lines: a line from the earliest poem written to a tune became the tune’s name. Yi Jian Mei (A Spray of Plum) comes from Zhou Bangyan’s line about a single cut spray of plum blossom, lovely in ten thousand ways; this book’s Qiu Ye Yue (Autumn Night Moon) comes from phrases in a ci by Yin E of the Five Dynasties—“the fine festival of late autumn” and “deep in the night, a few slanting beams of moonlight pierce the window.”
• People, stories and places: Nian Nu Jiao takes its name from Niannu, a celebrated Tang singer; Gan Zhou, Yi Zhou and Liang Zhou were originally daqu—the long, many-movement suites of court music—named after prefectures on the northwestern frontier.
• Tunes poets composed themselves: poets well versed in music wrote their own melodies and named them, as Jiang Kui did with Yang Zhou Man (Slow Song of Yangzhou), An Xiang (Hidden Fragrance), Shu Ying (Sparse Shadows) and Qi Liang Fan (Desolate Modulation).
• Old names, new music: an old title from Six Dynasties yuefu or an earlier age was kept and a new melody composed for it; Wu Ye Ti (Crows Cry at Night), for example, was originally an old yuefu title of the Southern Dynasties.
• Sections cut from grand suites: the daqu of the Tang and Song were very long, and a single section could be lifted out to become a tune of its own—Shui Diao Ge Tou, for example, takes the opening of the suite Shui Diao (Water Melody).
• Variations on an existing tune: adding characters, dropping characters, or changing the tempo or the mode produced new tunes, and the tune title often carries a marker of this—see the next section.

Telltale Words in Tune Titles

First, a term that comes up often: gongdiao, the musical mode. It was the system of modes in old Chinese music, rather like saying C major or A minor today; the mode a tune belonged to determined its pitch and its color.

Tune titles often end in a word that works like a model number, telling you the tune’s length, its rhythm, or what it was varied from:

A few characters in tune titles are easy to misread. 乐, meaning a piece of music, is read yuè, as in Qing Bei Yue and Sheng Ping Yue; 更 in Geng Lou Zi refers to the watches of the night and is read gēng; 调 in Shui Diao Ge Tou means a tune and is read diào; and 幺 in Liu Yao Ling is read yāo.

Title and Content: From Writing to the Tune’s Name to Borrowing Its Mood

The link between a tune’s name and what a ci is about can be close or loose, and it changed over time.

At first, the tune title was the subject. Ci of the Tang and Five Dynasties were mostly written about whatever the tune’s name said. As Huang Sheng of the Southern Song observed in his Hua’an cixuan (Hua’an’s Anthology of Ci), Tang ci were mostly composed on their titles: a Lin Jiang Xian (Immortal by the River) spoke of immortals, a Nü Guan Zi (The Daoist Priestess) told of the Daoist life, and a He Du Shen (Spirit of the River) sang of shrines and temples. A ci written to the original meaning of its tune title was said to follow its “original sense” (benyi). Think of “Happy Birthday”: a song made to be sung on birthdays.

Later, title and content gradually drifted apart. When a lovely tune spread far and wide, people borrowed it to write about other things on their minds; as Huang Sheng goes on to say, things slowly changed, until the poems wandered far from their titles. It is like a moving melody that many people write new words to, until what is sung is no longer what the song was first about. So that readers would know what a given piece was about, Song poets began adding a title or a short preface after the tune name. Before his Shui Diao Ge Tou, for instance, Su Shi wrote: “Mid-Autumn of the bingchen year (1076). I drank happily until dawn, got thoroughly drunk, and wrote this piece, thinking also of Ziyou”—his younger brother.

Drifting apart did not mean losing touch. A tune carries feeling of its own, and a poet who knew the craft matched tune to feeling, just as no one would pair a wedding invitation with a funeral dirge: bold, stirring or tragic feeling went naturally to Man Jiang Hong or Liu Zhou Ge Tou, lingering sorrow at parting to Yi Jian Mei or Yu Lin Ling. Many poets also made a point of letting the tune title and the poem echo each other, so that the title set the poem’s undertone before a word of it was read.

This book is written the same way. The tune title and the poem often mirror each other, and after the “·” comes a title that pins down which moment, which event, the piece is about. Take Qiu Ye Yue · Before First Light: “Qiu Ye Yue” (Autumn Night Moon) spreads out the autumn night and its moonlight, while “Before First Light” brings the lens to rest on the moment when the sky is about to brighten but has not yet. Think of the tune title as the name of a song, and the title after it as the name of this particular performance.

What Tune Patterns Meant in Old China

• For singing: at banquets, farewells, seasonal festivals and birthday celebrations, singers were called on to perform ci to their tunes. The Song writer Ye Mengde recorded that Liu Yong’s ci had spread so widely that wherever there was a well to drink from, people could sing Liu Yong—like a pop song today that you hear wherever you go.
• For friendship: because a tune pattern’s form is fixed, friends could trade poems back and forth on the same tune and the same rhymes, and later poets could answer those who came centuries before them. Xin Qiji and Chen Liang exchanged poems in just this way to the tune He Xin Lang.
• For setting the mood: every tune has its own voice and feeling, so choosing a tune pattern also set the emotional undertone of a poem.
• As a set of rules: once the music was lost, tune patterns became metrical forms for words; generation after generation wrote to them, and so the ci has lived on to this day.
• As keepers of history: the tune names themselves are like a small museum, holding a Tang court dance troupe (Pu Sa Man), a famous singer (Nian Nu Jiao), the northwestern frontier (Gan Zhou, Yi Zhou), folk songs (Zhu Zhi) and tales of men of letters. To read a tune title is also to read a piece of the past.
• Opening the way for what followed: the sanqu and zaju of the Yuan and Ming, and later Kunqu opera, were all sung to qupai, a system inherited directly from ci tune patterns.

Level and Oblique: The Four Tones

Classical Chinese had four tones: ping (level), shang (rising), qu (departing) and ru (entering). The level tone formed a class of its own, called ping; the rising, departing and entering tones together formed the other class, called ze, the oblique tones. Think of a level tone as a note held long in singing, steady and open, and of the oblique tones as shorter and more clipped, with a rise or a fall. It is the interplay of level and oblique that gives a line its rise and fall.

In Standard Mandarin, roughly speaking, the first and second tones count as level and the third and fourth as oblique. Watch out, though, for characters that once had the entering tone, such as 一 (yī), 白 (bái), 竹 (zhú), 国 (guó) and 学 (xué): in Mandarin they are now pronounced with level tones, but by the old pronunciation they count as oblique. Writing to the old rhymes, based on historical pronunciation, you must check them one by one; writing to the new rhymes, Mandarin pronunciation is the standard.

Ci are more exacting about tone than regulated verse. Regulated verse mostly just tells level from oblique; a ci, at certain key positions, also distinguishes the rising tone from the departing tone. Poets in the line of Zhou Bangyan, Jiang Kui and Wu Wenying were especially particular about this, because those characters had to fit the rise and fall of the melody.

Rhyme

To rhyme is to place characters with the same or similar finals—the vowel and any ending sound of a syllable—at set positions, so that they answer one another, like the note a song keeps coming back to.

• The tune pattern sets the rhyme positions: some rhyme on every line, some only every few lines.
• Level and oblique rhymes: some tune patterns rhyme on level tones, like Shi Liu Zi Ling and Huan Xi Sha; some on oblique tones, like Man Jiang Hong and Yu Lin Ling; and some alternate between the two, like Ding Feng Bo and Qing Ping Yue, both used in this book.
• Entering-tone rhymes: some tune patterns customarily rhyme on entering-tone characters—Man Jiang Hong, Nian Nu Jiao and Yu Lin Ling among them—which sound short and forceful. Mandarin no longer has an entering tone, so when you write to such a tune using the new rhymes, you choose your rhymes by today’s pronunciation.
• Changing rhyme: a ci can switch partway through from one rhyme group to another, and the formularies mark this specially.
• Within a single ci, try not to use the same rhyme character twice.

Which rhyme book to follow: Song poets had no official rhymes for ci; they broadly followed the speech of their day, which allowed more freedom than the rules for shi. In the Qing, Ge Zai compiled the Cilin zhengyun (Correct Rhymes for Ci), sorting the rhymes of ci into nineteen groups, and it became the rhyme book later writers relied on most. Many writers today also use new rhymes: the Zhonghua xinyun (New Chinese Rhymes, fourteen groups), based on Standard Mandarin, or the shisan zhe (Thirteen Rhyme Tracks) shared by Chinese opera and the folk performing arts.

This book rhymes by the Thirteen Tracks of the new rhymes. Each track gathers characters whose finals are close enough to rhyme with one another—like putting all the words that rhyme together into the same drawer:

How to Read a Pattern Chart

A formulary (cipu) gives each tune pattern as a kind of grid, marking the tone every character should take and where the rhymes fall. Formularies differ somewhat in their symbols; below we use the set found in Cipai shili (Tune Patterns Explained with Examples):

平

Level tone (píng): this character takes a level tone

仄

Oblique tone (zè): this character takes an oblique tone

平

Circled: should take a level tone, but an oblique tone is allowed

仄

Circled: should take an oblique tone, but a level tone is allowed

○

Placed beneath a character: a rhyme falls here, on a level tone

△

Placed beneath a character: a rhyme falls here, on an oblique tone

●

When the whole ci rhymes on level tones: from here, switch to a new group of level-tone rhymes

▲

When the whole ci rhymes on oblique tones: from here, switch to a new group of oblique-tone rhymes

Other formularies often use other conventions: some mark “either tone” with ⊙ or 中 (zhōng, “middle”); some mark rhymes and changes of rhyme with characters such as 韵 (yùn, “rhyme”), 叶 (xié, “in rhyme”) and 换 (huàn, “change”), and mark the pause at the end of a line and within it with 句 (jù) and 读 (dòu).

The punctuation in a chart shows the pauses: a comma or a full stop is where you pause, and the rhyme mark sits beneath the rhyming character. Below are three tune patterns as Cipai shili sets them out, from simple to complex.

Example One · Shi Liu Zi Ling (Sixteen-Character Song): The Basics

Four lines and sixteen characters in all, with level-tone rhymes on the first, second and fourth lines:

Read the two side by side. The first line is a single character, which must take a level tone and must rhyme. The second line has seven characters, of which the first and fifth allow leeway. The third line, level-level-oblique, does not rhyme. In the fourth line the first character allows leeway, and the last one rhymes. Cai Shen’s 天, 眠 and 娟 fall exactly on the three rhyme positions.

Example Two · Pu Sa Man: Level and Oblique Rhymes in Turn

Two stanzas of four lines each, forty-four characters in all. In each stanza the first two lines rhyme on oblique tones and the last two on level tones:

This tune moves through four rhymes: the first stanza opens on the oblique rhymes 织 and 碧, then shifts to the level rhymes 楼 and 愁; the second stanza takes up a new pair of oblique rhymes, 立 and 急, then a new pair of level ones, 程 and 亭. Because oblique and level rhymes alternate, every change of rhyme is plain to see, so Cipai shili needs only △ and ○, with no call for ● or ▲.

Example Three · Sao Di Wu: Oblique Throughout, with a Change of Group

Two stanzas of seven lines each, fifty-eight characters in all. Every line rhymes, all on oblique tones; in each stanza the second line repeats the rhyme character of the first; and the second stanza moves to a new group of rhymes:

The first stanza rhymes on one group of oblique rhymes—萼, 薄, 得, 弱, 幕, 落—marked with △. The second stanza changes to another group—晌, 忘, 上, 放, 向—still oblique, so the tones alone will not tell you the rhyme has changed; Cipai shili therefore switches to ▲ as a reminder. By the same logic, when a ci rhymes on level tones throughout and changes group partway, ● is used. One Thought, a Mortal Life also includes a poem to Sao Di Wu.

How to Look Up a Tune Pattern in Cipai shili

• Find it: the book is arranged by character count, from fewest to most, with a stroke-count index at the back, so you can find the page by the number of strokes in the tune title. The list of 422 tune patterns at the end of this page follows the book’s order as well.
• Read it: each entry gives, in order, the tune’s other names, its origin, a description of its form (how many stanzas, how many lines, how many characters, which lines rhyme, and whether on level or oblique tones) and the chart, followed by an example poem—usually the earliest one—with the author named in parentheses at the end.
• Use it: read the description first, to get the outline in mind; then go through the chart, matching the tone and rhyme marks character by character; finally, set it against the example poem and see which character each mark falls on.
• Go further: a tune pattern often has several forms, and the book generally gives just one. To see the others, turn to the Qinding cipu and the Cilü.

How to Write a Ci

Writing a ci is like singing from a score: the score is fixed, but the feeling you sing into it is your own. Roughly, you can take it step by step:

1. Decide what to write about: the matter you want to set down and the mood you want to carry.
2. Choose a tune: pick a tune pattern whose voice suits the feeling, or one whose title echoes your theme. Beginners do well to start with short lyrics (xiaoling) such as Shi Liu Zi Ling, Yi Jiang Nan, Ru Meng Ling, Chang Xiang Si, Huan Xi Sha and Zhe Gu Tian.
3. Find the pattern: look the tune up in a formulary such as the Qinding cipu, the Cilü or Cipai shili, choose one of its forms, and copy out the pattern.
4. Read model poems: first read a few famous pieces written to the tune, to get a feel for its phrasing, its pauses and the turn at the head of the second stanza.
5. Settle the rhyme: choose a rhyme group (this book uses the Thirteen Tracks) and list the rhyme characters you can use before you start.
6. Fill in the words by the pattern: check level and oblique tones line by line, taking leeway where either tone is allowed; use departing-tone characters for leading words where you can; and keep the pauses within each line in step with the pattern.
7. Look it over: count the characters, check the tones, check the rhymes and any change of rhyme, and make sure no rhyme character is used twice.
8. Read it aloud: ci were made to be sung, and only when a poem flows easily off the tongue, with a rise and fall, has it truly found its tune.

Further Reading

To go deeper, you might read: the Qinding cipu (Imperial Formulary of Ci Patterns); Wan Shu, Cilü (Ci Prosody); Ge Zai, Cilin zhengyun (Correct Rhymes for Ci); Yan Jianwen, Cipai shili (Tune Patterns Explained with Examples); Long Yusheng, Tang Song ci gelü (Metrical Patterns of Tang and Song Ci); Wang Li, Shici gelü (Metrical Patterns of Shi and Ci); and Shi Zhecun, Cixue mingci shiyi (Terms of Ci Studies Explained).

Four Hundred and Twenty-Two Tune Patterns

Below are the 422 tune patterns collected in Cipai shili, compiled by Yan Jianwen, arranged by character count from fewest to most—from short lyrics of a dozen or so characters all the way to the 240-character Ying Ti Xu. Those highlighted in color are used in this book; select one to read that poem.

1. 001竹枝词Zhu Zhi Ci
2. 002十六字令Shi Liu Zi Ling
3. 003闲中好Xian Zhong Hao
4. 004纥那曲He Na Qu
5. 005梧桐影Wu Tong Ying
6. 006拜新月Bai Xin Yue
7. 007罗唝曲Luo Hong Qu
8. 008醉妆词Zui Zhuang Ci
9. 009南歌子Nan Ge Zi
10. 010回波乐Hui Bo Yue
11. 011三台令San Tai Ling
12. 012舞马词Wu Ma Ci
13. 013晴偏好Qing Pian Hao
14. 014一点春Yi Dian Chun
15. 015塞姑Sai Gu
16. 016柘枝引Zhe Zhi Yin
17. 017花非花Hua Fei Hua
18. 018摘得新Zhai De Xin
19. 019渔歌子Yu Ge Zi
20. 020章台柳Zhang Tai Liu
21. 021潇湘神Xiao Xiang Shen
22. 022忆江南Yi Jiang Nan
23. 023赤枣子Chi Zao Zi
24. 024解红Jie Hong
25. 025捣练子Dao Lian Zi
26. 026桂殿秋Gui Dian Qiu
27. 027欸乃曲Ai Nai Qu
28. 028杨柳枝Yang Liu Zhi
29. 029金缕曲Jin Lü Qu
30. 030八拍蛮Ba Pai Man
31. 031春莺啭Chun Ying Zhuan
32. 032十样花Shi Yang Hua
33. 033小秦王Xiao Qin Wang
34. 034字字双Zi Zi Shuang
35. 035水调歌Shui Diao Ge
36. 036阿那曲E Nuo Qu
37. 037甘州曲Gan Zhou Qu
38. 038醉吟商Zui Yin Shang
39. 039干荷叶Gan He Ye
40. 040抛球乐Pao Qiu Yue
41. 041踏歌词Ta Ge Ci
42. 042江南春Jiang Nan Chun
43. 043法驾导引Fa Jia Dao Yin
44. 044蕃女怨Fan Nü Yuan
45. 045一叶落Yi Ye Luo
46. 046忆王孙Yi Wang Sun
47. 047金字经Jin Zi Jing
48. 048遐方怨Xia Fang Yuan
49. 049调笑令Tiao Xiao Ling
50. 050诉衷情Su Zhong Qing
51. 051如梦令Ru Meng Ling
52. 052西溪子Xi Xi Zi
53. 053天仙子Tian Xian Zi
54. 054定西番Ding Xi Fan
55. 055长相思Chang Xiang Si
56. 056思帝乡Si Di Xiang
57. 057何满子He Man Zi
58. 058风光好Feng Guang Hao
59. 059相见欢Xiang Jian Huan
60. 060误桃源Wu Tao Yuan
61. 061上行杯Shang Xing Bei
62. 062望梅花Wang Mei Hua
63. 063醉太平Zui Tai Ping
64. 064感恩多Gan En Duo
65. 065长命女Chang Ming Nü
66. 066怨回纥Yuan Hui He
67. 067酒泉子Jiu Quan Zi
68. 068生查子Sheng Zha Zi
69. 069醉公子Zui Gong Zi
70. 070蝴蝶儿Hu Die Er
71. 071春光好Chun Guang Hao
72. 072昭君怨Zhao Jun Yuan
73. 073女冠子Nü Guan Zi
74. 074纱窗恨Sha Chuang Hen
75. 075醉花间Zui Hua Jian
76. 076点绛唇Dian Jiang Chun
77. 077归国遥Gui Guo Yao
78. 078浣溪沙Huan Xi Sha
79. 079恋情深Lian Qing Shen
80. 080沙塞子Sha Sai Zi
81. 081水仙子Shui Xian Zi
82. 082清商怨Qing Shang Yuan
83. 083伤春怨Shang Chun Yuan
84. 084霜天晓角Shuang Tian Xiao Jiao
85. 085菩萨蛮Pu Sa Man
86. 086采桑子Cai Sang Zi
87. 087后庭花Hou Ting Hua
88. 088卜算子Bu Suan Zi
89. 089好时光Hao Shi Guang
90. 090谒金门Ye Jin Men
91. 091柳含烟Liu Han Yan
92. 092华清引Hua Qing Yin
93. 093天门谣Tian Men Yao
94. 094散余霞San Yu Xia
95. 095好事近Hao Shi Jin
96. 096清平乐Qing Ping Yue
97. 097忆秦娥Yi Qin E
98. 098更漏子Geng Lou Zi
99. 099巫山一段云Wu Shan Yi Duan Yun
100. 100望仙门Wang Xian Men
101. 101占春芳Zhan Chun Fang
102. 102朝天子Chao Tian Zi
103. 103落梅风Luo Mei Feng
104. 104江亭怨Jiang Ting Yuan
105. 105眉峰碧Mei Feng Bi
106. 106阮郎归Ruan Lang Gui
107. 107乌夜啼Wu Ye Ti
108. 108贺圣朝He Sheng Chao
109. 109喜迁莺Xi Qian Ying
110. 110珠帘卷Zhu Lian Juan
111. 111画堂春Hua Tang Chun
112. 112喜长新Xi Chang Xin
113. 113金盏子令Jin Zhan Zi Ling
114. 114谪仙怨Zhe Xian Yuan
115. 115三字令San Zi Ling
116. 116摊破浣溪沙Tan Po Huan Xi Sha
117. 117忆余杭Yi Yu Hang
118. 118撼庭秋Han Ting Qiu
119. 119洞天春Dong Tian Chun
120. 120人月圆Ren Yue Yuan
121. 121庆春时Qing Chun Shi
122. 122海棠春Hai Tang Chun
123. 123眼儿媚Yan Er Mei
124. 124双鸂鶒Shuang Xi Chi
125. 125伊州三台Yi Zhou San Tai
126. 126双头莲令Shuang Tou Lian Ling
127. 127梅弄影Mei Nong Ying
128. 128桃源忆故人Tao Yuan Yi Gu Ren
129. 129朝中措Chao Zhong Cuo
130. 130武陵春Wu Ling Chun
131. 131河渎神He Du Shen
132. 132双韵子Shuang Yun Zi
133. 133归去来Gui Qu Lai
134. 134醉乡春Zui Xiang Chun
135. 135极相思Ji Xiang Si
136. 136柳梢青Liu Shao Qing
137. 137荷叶杯He Ye Bei
138. 138满宫花Man Gong Hua
139. 139少年游Shao Nian You
140. 140滴滴金Di Di Jin
141. 141忆汉月Yi Han Yue
142. 142西江月Xi Jiang Yue
143. 143烛影摇红Zhu Ying Yao Hong
144. 144梁州令Liang Zhou Ling
145. 145盐角儿Yan Jiao Er
146. 146怨三三Yuan San San
147. 147四犯令Si Fan Ling
148. 148桂华明Gui Hua Ming
149. 149促拍采桑子Cu Pai Cai Sang Zi
150. 150折丹桂Zhe Dan Gui
151. 151城头月Cheng Tou Yue
152. 152花前饮Hua Qian Yin
153. 153破字令Po Zi Ling
154. 154导引Dao Yin
155. 155惜分飞Xi Fen Fei
156. 156思越人Si Yue Ren
157. 157探春令Tan Chun Ling
158. 158越江吟Yue Jiang Yin
159. 159燕归梁Yan Gui Liang
160. 160秋夜雨Qiu Ye Yu
161. 161伊州令Yi Zhou Ling
162. 162木笪Mu Da
163. 163醉红妆Zui Hong Zhuang
164. 164思远人Si Yuan Ren
165. 165望江东Wang Jiang Dong
166. 166倾杯令Qing Bei Ling
167. 167入塞Ru Sai
168. 168醉花阴Zui Hua Yin
169. 169浪淘沙Lang Tao Sha
170. 170金错刀Jin Cuo Dao
171. 171卖花声Mai Hua Sheng
172. 172天下乐Tian Xia Yue
173. 173江月晃重山Jiang Yue Huang Chong Shan
174. 174安阳好An Yang Hao
175. 175撷芳词Xie Fang Ci
176. 176鬓边华Bin Bian Hua
177. 177鹦鹉曲Ying Wu Qu
178. 178南乡一剪梅Nan Xiang Yi Jian Mei
179. 179一七令Yi Qi Ling
180. 180河传He Chuan
181. 181木兰花Mu Lan Hua
182. 182金莲绕凤楼Jin Lian Rao Feng Lou
183. 183夜行船Ye Xing Chuan
184. 184鹧鸪天Zhe Gu Tian
185. 185虞美人Yu Mei Ren
186. 186玉楼春Yu Lou Chun
187. 187瑞鹧鸪Rui Zhe Gu
188. 188市桥柳Shi Qiao Liu
189. 189翻香令Fan Xiang Ling
190. 190遍地锦Bian Di Jin
191. 191清江曲Qing Jiang Qu
192. 192楼上曲Lou Shang Qu
193. 193鹊桥仙Que Qiao Xian
194. 194南乡子Nan Xiang Zi
195. 195家山好Jia Shan Hao
196. 196夜游宫Ye You Gong
197. 197一斛珠Yi Hu Zhu
198. 198临江仙Lin Jiang Xian
199. 199踏莎行Ta Suo Xing
200. 200倚西楼Yi Xi Lou
201. 201扫地舞Sao Di Wu
202. 202小重山Xiao Chong Shan
203. 203蝶恋花Die Lian Hua
204. 204寿山曲Shou Shan Qu
205. 205荷华媚He Hua Mei
206. 206黄金缕Huang Jin Lü
207. 207一剪梅Yi Jian Mei
208. 208寻梅Xun Mei
209. 209锦帐春Jin Zhang Chun
210. 210钗头凤Chai Tou Feng
211. 211南楼令Nan Lou Ling
212. 212后庭宴Hou Ting Yan
213. 213定风波Ding Feng Bo
214. 214渔家傲Yu Jia Ao
215. 215破阵子Po Zhen Zi
216. 216苏幕遮Su Mu Zhe
217. 217金蕉叶Jin Jiao Ye
218. 218明月逐人来Ming Yue Zhu Ren Lai
219. 219甘州遍Gan Zhou Bian
220. 220别怨Bie Yuan
221. 221怜薄命Lian Bo Ming
222. 222麦秀两歧Mai Xiu Liang Qi
223. 223酷相思Ku Xiang Si
224. 224解佩令Jie Pei Ling
225. 225谢池春Xie Chi Chun
226. 226玉梅令Yu Mei Ling
227. 227行香子Xing Xiang Zi
228. 228感皇恩Gan Huang En
229. 229青玉案Qing Yu An
230. 230钿带长中腔Dian Dai Chang Zhong Qiang
231. 231三奠子San Dian Zi
232. 232看花回Kan Hua Hui
233. 233拾翠羽Shi Cui Yu
234. 234连理枝Lian Li Zhi
235. 235江城子Jiang Cheng Zi
236. 236小镇西犯Xiao Zhen Xi Fan
237. 237三登乐San Deng Yue
238. 238卓牌子近Zhuo Pai Zi Jin
239. 239檐前铁Yan Qian Tie
240. 240千秋岁Qian Qiu Sui
241. 241粉蝶儿Fen Die Er
242. 242师师令Shi Shi Ling
243. 243郭郎儿近拍Guo Lang Er Jin Pai
244. 244隔浦莲近拍Ge Pu Lian Jin Pai
245. 245百媚娘Bai Mei Niang
246. 246风入松Feng Ru Song
247. 247传言玉女Chuan Yan Yu Nü
248. 248越溪春Yue Xi Chun
249. 249下水船Xia Shui Chuan
250. 250扑蝴蝶Pu Hu Die
251. 251荔枝香Li Zhi Xiang
252. 252婆罗门引Po Luo Men Yin
253. 253韵令Yun Ling
254. 254春声碎Chun Sheng Sui
255. 255御街行Yu Jie Xing
256. 256离亭宴Li Ting Yan
257. 257侧犯Ce Fan
258. 258祝英台近Zhu Ying Tai Jin
259. 259阳关引Yang Guan Yin
260. 260一丛花Yi Cong Hua
261. 261安公子An Gong Zi
262. 262金人捧露盘Jin Ren Peng Lu Pan
263. 263拂霓裳Fu Ni Chang
264. 264柳腰轻Liu Yao Qing
265. 265南州春色Nan Zhou Chun Se
266. 266蓦山溪Mo Shan Xi
267. 267洞仙歌Dong Xian Ge
268. 268秋夜月Qiu Ye Yue
269. 269踏青游Ta Qing You
270. 270华胥引Hua Xu Yin
271. 271江城梅花引Jiang Cheng Mei Hua Yin
272. 272劝金船Quan Jin Chuan
273. 273醉思仙Zui Si Xian
274. 274惜红衣Xi Hong Yi
275. 275石湖仙Shi Hu Xian
276. 276鱼游春水Yu You Chun Shui
277. 277醉翁操Zui Weng Cao
278. 278塞翁吟Sai Weng Yin
279. 279法曲献仙音Fa Qu Xian Xian Yin
280. 280露华Lu Hua
281. 281薄媚摘遍Bo Mei Zhai Bian
282. 282东风齐着力Dong Feng Qi Zhuo Li
283. 283满江红Man Jiang Hong
284. 284四犯剪梅花Si Fan Jian Mei Hua
285. 285凄凉犯Qi Liang Fan
286. 286高平探芳新Gao Ping Tan Fang Xin
287. 287六幺令Liu Yao Ling
288. 288芙蓉月Fu Rong Yue
289. 289玉漏迟Yu Lou Chi
290. 290水调歌头Shui Diao Ge Tou
291. 291满庭芳Man Ting Fang
292. 292扫地游Sao Di You
293. 293白雪Bai Xue
294. 294二色莲Er Se Lian
295. 295双瑞莲Shuang Rui Lian
296. 296徵招Zhi Shao
297. 297凤凰台上忆吹箫Feng Huang Tai Shang Yi Chui Xiao
298. 298骤雨打新荷Zhou Yu Da Xin He
299. 299黄莺儿Huang Ying Er
300. 300熙州慢Xi Zhou Man
301. 301天香Tian Xiang
302. 302汉宫春Han Gong Chun
303. 303剑器近Jian Qi Jin
304. 304早梅香Zao Mei Xiang
305. 305八声甘州Ba Sheng Gan Zhou
306. 306醉蓬莱Zui Peng Lai
307. 307夜合花Ye He Hua
308. 308夏初临Xia Chu Lin
309. 309长亭怨慢Chang Ting Yuan Man
310. 310暗香An Xiang
311. 311被花恼Bei Hua Nao
312. 312松梢月Song Shao Yue
313. 313梦芙蓉Meng Fu Rong
314. 314玉京谣Yu Jing Yao
315. 315绿盖舞风轻Lü Gai Wu Feng Qing
316. 316采明珠Cai Ming Zhu
317. 317声声慢Sheng Sheng Man
318. 318燕春台Yan Chun Tai
319. 319黄河清慢Huang He Qing Man
320. 320并蒂芙蓉Bing Di Fu Rong
321. 321扬州慢Yang Zhou Man
322. 322双双燕Shuang Shuang Yan
323. 323舞杨花Wu Yang Hua
324. 324万年欢Wan Nian Huan
325. 325陌上花Mo Shang Hua
326. 326宴山亭Yan Shan Ting
327. 327三部乐San Bu Yue
328. 328梦扬州Meng Yang Zhou
329. 329琐窗寒Suo Chuang Han
330. 330月下笛Yue Xia Di
331. 331丁香结Ding Xiang Jie
332. 332聒龙谣Guo Long Yao
333. 333十月桃Shi Yue Tao
334. 334催雪Cui Xue
335. 335蜀溪春Shu Xi Chun
336. 336念奴娇Nian Nu Jiao
337. 337解语花Jie Yu Hua
338. 338垂杨Chui Yang
339. 339八音谐Ba Yin Xie
340. 340大椿Da Chun
341. 341采绿吟Cai Lü Yin
342. 342惜寒梅Xi Han Mei
343. 343高阳台Gao Yang Tai
344. 344渡江云Du Jiang Yun
345. 345东风第一枝Dong Feng Di Yi Zhi
346. 346剪牡丹Jian Mu Dan
347. 347喜朝天Xi Chao Tian
348. 348玉烛新Yu Zhu Xin
349. 349翠楼吟Cui Lou Yin
350. 350湘月Xiang Yue
351. 351霓裳中序第一Ni Chang Zhong Xu Di Yi
352. 352疏帘淡月Shu Lian Dan Yue
353. 353花发状元红慢Hua Fa Zhuang Yuan Hong Man
354. 354水龙吟Shui Long Yin
355. 355台城路Tai Cheng Lu
356. 356宴清都Yan Qing Dou
357. 357曲游春Qu You Chun
358. 358湘春夜月Xiang Chun Ye Yue
359. 359恋芳春慢Lian Fang Chun Man
360. 360石州慢Shi Zhou Man
361. 361瑞鹤仙Rui He Xian
362. 362雨霖铃Yu Lin Ling
363. 363还京乐Huan Jing Yue
364. 364探春慢Tan Chun Man
365. 365升平乐Sheng Ping Yue
366. 366眉妩Mei Wu
367. 367二郎神Er Lang Shen
368. 368倾杯乐Qing Bei Yue
369. 369永遇乐Yong Yu Yue
370. 370惜余欢Xi Yu Huan
371. 371拜星月慢Bai Xing Yue Man
372. 372绮罗香Qi Luo Xiang
373. 373南浦Nan Pu
374. 374宴琼林Yan Qiong Lin
375. 375霜花腴Shuang Hua Yu
376. 376澡兰香Zao Lan Xiang
377. 377向湖边Xiang Hu Bian
378. 378送我入门来Song Wo Ru Men Lai
379. 379绕池游慢Rao Chi You Man
380. 380曲玉管Qu Yu Guan
381. 381西河Xi He
382. 382秋霁Qiu Ji
383. 383暗香疏影An Xiang Shu Ying
384. 384清风八咏楼Qing Feng Ba Yong Lou
385. 385望远行Wang Yuan Xing
386. 386泛清波摘遍Fan Qing Bo Zhai Bian
387. 387解连环Jie Lian Huan
388. 388夜飞鹊Ye Fei Que
389. 389望海潮Wang Hai Chao
390. 390角招Jue Shao
391. 391泛清苕Fan Qing Tiao
392. 392折红梅Zhe Hong Mei
393. 393一萼红Yi E Hong
394. 394无愁可解Wu Chou Ke Jie
395. 395杜韦娘Du Wei Niang
396. 396过秦楼Guo Qin Lou
397. 397风流子Feng Liu Zi
398. 398疏影Shu Ying
399. 399高山流水Gao Shan Liu Shui
400. 400斗婵娟Dou Chan Juan
401. 401惜余春慢Xi Yu Chun Man
402. 402期夜月Qi Ye Yue
403. 403沁园春Qin Yuan Chun
404. 404紫萸香慢Zi Yu Xiang Man
405. 405摸鱼儿Mo Yu Er
406. 406贺新郎He Xin Lang
407. 407吊严陵Diao Yan Ling
408. 408金明池Jin Ming Chi
409. 409画屏秋色Hua Ping Qiu Se
410. 410白苎Bai Zhu
411. 411春雪间早梅Chun Xue Jian Zao Mei
412. 412兰陵王Lan Ling Wang
413. 413破阵乐Po Zhen Yue
414. 414大酺Da Pu
415. 415多丽Duo Li
416. 416六丑Liu Chou
417. 417六州歌头Liu Zhou Ge Tou
418. 418夜半乐Ye Ban Yue
419. 419穆护砂Mu Hu Sha
420. 420三台San Tai
421. 421哨遍Shao Bian
422. 422莺啼序Ying Ti Xu