332 t He y uan, m i ng, anD q i ng Dy na s t i e s
C 1 6. 2
To the Tune “The Song of Shouyang” [shuangdiao key]Things in my heart,
2 To him I did impart.
“It’s finished between us!” his reply came quick, as always.
4 How can such cruel words be “just a joke,” as you said.
Should I not be afraid?
[QYSQ 1:247]【雙調】壽陽曲
([shuāng diào] shòuyáng qŭ)
heart inside thing 心間事
(xīn jiān shì)
say to him 說與他 △
(shuō yŭ tā)
move no move early speak one another finished 動不動早言兩罷 ▲
(dòng bú dòng zăo yán liăng bà)
finished word [particle] sad can can you say be joke 罷字兒磣可可你道是耍 ▲
(bà zì-r chĕn kĕ kĕ nĭ dào shì shuă)
my heart inside afraid that not afraid 我心裡怕那不怕 ▲
(wŏ xīn lĭ pà na bú pà)
Again, we can ignore the italicized syllables and extract the tune pattern of the
song:─ ─ │
(│) │ ─ △
│ ─ (─) , │ ─ ─ │ (fourth tone) ▲
(─) ─ │ ─ (─) │ │ (third tone) ▲
│ ─ (─) , │ ─ ─ │ (fourth tone) ▲
The tonal patterns of lines 3 and 5, │ ─ (─), │ ─ ─ │ (fourth tone) ▲, and of line 4,
(─) ─ │ ─ (─) │ │ (third tone) ▲, are common in seven-syllable lines of the song
poem, but are not found in those of the ci and the lüshi. One cannot but wonder
if it was not the different characteristics of the musicality of the song poem that
brought about these new types of seven-syllable lines, whose tonal patterns deviate
so much from the norms of the ci and the lüshi.
The rhyme scheme of the song poem also claims our attention. As can be seen
from the two preceding examples, only one rhyme is allowed in a song poem.
Since the Yuan sanqu writers used the northern vernacular, they did not follow the
archaic rhyme categories used in the lüshi and the ci but adopted a new system
that reflected more accurately the realities (not the least of which was the disap-
pearance of the entering tone) of the living language. Unlike in the lüshi and the
ci, level tones and oblique tones can be rhymed in song poems. This did not mean,