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(Wild Geese Flock to Sandy Shores) 
Wild Geese Flock to Sandy Shores has been played by many famous qin masters for the last three hundred years. Like a number of other famous qin pieces, the authorship of the work is not that clear-cut, but respect for its antiquity can be seen from the different attributions, one dating back to the 8-9th centuries of the Tang. "Wild Geese" was first published in a Ming dynasty qin handbook of 1634, the Gu Yin Zheng Zong Qin Pu  (Orthodox Qin handbook) and at one time was said
to be the work of one of the following qin masters: the Ming dynasty Prince Ning (Zhu Quan  , died
1448), Mao Minzhong  of the late Southern Song (1127-1279) and Chen Zi'ang  of the Tang dynasty
(618-907 A.D.). Found in both painting and poetry, geese were taken as symbols of a lofty mind and high aspirations. The contemporary qin master Wu Zhaoji  (died 1997) borrows this image to describe what is deep in
a scholar's heart:In the crisp autumn weather, the wind is silent over the level sands, The clouds stretch endlessly across the horizon, the wild geese calling.  In this piece, one can hear the sound of geese taking off, landing, beating the wings in the wind, and the geese calling to each other. Older Version (1634) Later Version (Wumen Qinpu) | ||||