Music

An encore to the reference work: six pieces of traditional Chinese instrumental music by Shi Zhi-you, each dedicated to a plum blossom. Every time you open this page, one of them is picked at random.

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About the music

The six pieces form a complete album: 雪梅 (“Snow Plum”), released in 1995 on the Taiwanese label 風潮音樂 (Wind Music) as part of the eight-volume series 花樂 (“Flower Music”), each volume dedicated to one plant. The instruments are xiao (bamboo flute), guqin (zither) and transverse flute. Each piece pairs a poetic image with a variety of plum — from the wild plum 江梅 to the mandarin-duck plum 鴛鴦梅.

The album was composed by Shi Zhi-you (史志有, 1956–2020), a Chinese composer and conductor trained at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. The album credits him together with Yang Xiu-lan and Ouyang Qian without listing their roles individually. The name has nothing to do with the Yiquan term Shili (试力).

The plum blossom (梅) stands for steadfastness in China because it flowers in winter. Beyond that motif, however, nothing connects this music to Yiquan: it is neither doctrine nor a source for this reference work, simply something to read along to. The recordings are hosted on the YouTube channel Daochayru; this page only points to them.