Meanings
- pluralplural onlyTablature score collections for the Chinese musical instrument, the guqin.
As we look back into the early collections of qin notations, known as qinpu, we find an interesting collection of pictures in the pedagogical sections of several important qinpu.
1996, William Duckworth, Sound and Light: La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela, page 1442 more examples
In qin music the pervasive mood/mode (when one can be said to be at the fore) is the autumn/shang correlation, and in many qinpu (collections of qin notations), pieces in shang are the most numerous.
1993, Experimental Musical Instruments, volume 9, page 17A qin handbook is called qinpu in Chinese, which means literally qin tablature. Beginning from the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), many qinpu were printed after prince Zhu Chuan edited and printed the first qinpu, Shenqi Mipu (The Wonderful Esoteric Tablature).
1994, Yip Mingmei, “Review (L'art du qin by Georges Goormaghtigh)”, in Journal of the Society for Asian Music, volume 25, University of Texas Press, page 243
Origin
- Mandarin琴譜 /琴谱
- Englishqinpu
From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 琴譜 /琴谱 (qínpǔ).
More words from Mandarin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Mandarin 琴譜 /琴谱
- 琴譜 /琴谱 (qínpǔ)score collections for the guqin
Cite this entry
qinpu. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/qinpu
“qinpu.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/qinpu. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “qinpu,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/qinpu.
Source: qinpu on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.