Dialogue between the Fisherman and the Woodcutter

Introduction

First printed in 1559, it appears in more than thirty Ming and Qing qin handbooks

Dialogue between the Fisherman and the Woodcutter is a guqin piece also known as Yu Qiao and Jinmen Dailou. Its earliest surviving tablature is in the Xingzhuang Taiyin Xupu, printed in 1559, where it has six sections. The preface in that handbook says that rise and fall, gain and loss come and go, while the green hills and clear waters stay the same, and all the rights and wrongs of the ages are left to an idle talk between a fisherman and a woodcutter. The piece was later copied into more than thirty Ming and Qing handbooks. The version heard most often today is Wu Jinglue's reconstruction from the Qinxue Rumen, which earned him the nickname Fisherman-Woodcutter Wu, and Zha Fuxi also reconstructed it and sang it to the qin.