Clouds over the Xiao and Xiang

Introduction

Guo Mian is said to have written it when clouds over the Xiao and Xiang rivers hid Mount Jiuyi from his view.

Xiaoxiang Shuiyun is a guqin piece traditionally attributed to Guo Mian, styled Chuwang, a late Southern Song qin master regarded as the founder of the Zhe school. It first appears in print in the Shenqi Mipu, the qin collection that Zhu Quan completed in 1425. The preface there explains that whenever Guo wished to gaze at Mount Jiuyi, the clouds over the Xiao and Xiang rivers blocked his view, so he poured that longing into the music. Guo had moved to the Ningyuan area of Hunan and often went boating on these waters. The Shenqi Mipu version has ten sections, opening with Mist and Rain over Dongting, while later handbooks expanded it to thirteen or eighteen. In the twentieth century Zha Fuxi became so closely linked with the piece that he was nicknamed Zha Xiaoxiang, and Wu Jinglue and Yao Bingyan also played or reconstructed it.