Zui Yu Chang Wan first appears in the Ximaotang Qin Tong collection. Its authorship is disputed — no single composer has been definitively established. The piece was transmitted by Yang Ziyong, and unfolds in six sections.
The music is vigorous and bold — the fingering fluid and free, vividly imitating the sound of singing at full voice, the creak of oars in their locks. It expresses the spirit of a man who answers to no one: unrestrained, laughing at the clouds, at ease with the world and indifferent to its opinions.
This is one of the rare guqin pieces that does not seek stillness. It seeks release — the particular freedom of someone who has drunk just enough to stop pretending, and not enough to stop playing.
Recorded by Mei Yueqiang. Part of the ongoing series presenting his complete surviving recordings.
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