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First section of Youlan, showing the name of the piece: 《碣石調幽蘭第五》 "Jieshi Diao Youlan No.5", the preface describing the piece\'s origins, and the tablature in longhand form.

Jieshi Diao Youlan (碣石調幽蘭) means "Solitary Orchid in the Stone Tablet Mode" or just "Solitary Orchid" ("Secluded Orchid" or "Elegant Orchid" in some translations). It is the name of a piece of music or melody for the guqin which was written before AD 908, and is possibly the world\'s oldest surviving piece of written music.

History

The original manuscript was found in Kyoto, Japan, and was probably imported during the Tang Dynasty from China along with Buddhism. It is believed to be a copy of an earlier manuscript and contains a lot of written \'corrections\', mistakes and vagueness. Because it is damaged in some places, there has been much study into how it is played.

Notation

Chinese Wikisource has original text related to this article:

"Jieshi Diao Youlan" 《碣石調幽蘭》

The manuscript of Youlan is written in a special old form of guqin notation, known as wenzi pu (lit. "written character notation").

Tonality

The melody is noted for its use of microtones, especially at the cadences at the end of each of its four sections when three tones between ti and do (and in the case of the third section, the halfway tone between ti and do is further divided) are used. This creates a mysterious effect that sounds modern to new listeners.