Guqin and its Music
01 · Historical Records
It is confirmed by the materials so far recovered by archaeology that the form of the guqin was already complete by the Han dynasty at the latest. The Zhucheng school guqin art, also called “Langya school guqin”, took shape in the middle of the nineteenth century and, through the exploration and development of several generations of qin players, gradually formed a guqin school with a distinctively marked artistic individuality and a specific repertory and transmission of notation.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The guqin, also called the “qin” or the “seven-stringed zither” and otherwise known as the “green damask” or the “silk paulownia”, is a flat-lying plucked string instrument. The art of the guqin is the oldest and most artistically accomplished of instrumental performance forms in Chinese history and the one most marked by national spirit, aesthetic taste and traditional artistic character; besides the solo it also includes the qin song, in which singing and playing go together, and the ensemble of qin and xiao. Through the creative development of qin players and men of letters of successive generations the art of the guqin grew steadily more mature and complete; it entered into a close relationship with social life, history, philosophy and literature, and made great achievements in the accumulation of pieces, performing technique, the study of temperament, modes of transmission and the craft of making qin, displaying a rich humanistic content. Zhucheng city in Shandong is both the home of the Zhucheng qin school and one of the birthplaces of the Chinese guqin. Wang Lu and Wang Binlu each served as instructors in guqin at Peking University and the Nanjing Higher Normal School, spreading the influence of the Zhucheng school throughout the country and even far overseas. The modal system of the Zhucheng school guqin takes the third string as gong and names the modes by the tempered pitches; its artistic style is firm with a toughness, dense with a certain sparseness, substantial with an emptiness, flowing in one breath, heavy yet not sluggish, displaying the classical beauty of an empty and echoing quality. Its qin manuals divide the rhythm and append the numbered notation, the rhythm being fixed and the standard unified: the Qinpu Zhenglü compiled by Wang Lengquan contains twenty-one qin pieces; the Tongyin Shanguan Qinpu handed down through three generations, from Wang Jifu to Wang Xinyuan to Wang Xiunan, contains sixteen; the Yuhe Xuan Qinpu compiled by Wang Lu contains thirty; and the Mei'an Qinpu transmitted by Wang Binlu contains fourteen. Lament of the Long Gate, Words of the Autumn Wind and The Moon over Guan Mountain are pieces unique to the Zhucheng school. During the Cultural Revolution it suffered severe damage together with the other guqin arts.
Lament of the Long Gate
A piece unique to the Zhucheng school, among its distinctive representative repertory.
Words of the Autumn Wind
A piece unique to the Zhucheng school of guqin art.
The Moon over Guan Mountain
A piece unique to the Zhucheng school of guqin art.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Zhucheng school is one of the representative schools of the art of the Chinese guqin; its representative figures include Wang Puchang (Jifu), Wang Yumen (Lengquan), Wang Zuozhen (Xinyuan), Wang Lu (Xinkui) and Wang Binlu (Yanqing), known as the “five heroes of Zhucheng qin history”. Historically the Zhucheng school guqin art had an important influence in Chinese qin circles and was a guqin school that fused the ancient and opened the modern, of a distinctive character of its own.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Today, under the influence of Western culture and the modern media, people are much estranged from the traditional arts of the Chinese nation such as the guqin, and the Zhucheng school guqin art faces the predicament of having no successors; its rescue and protection brooks no delay.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Zheng Minzhong 02-0263
- Chenzhanglin 02-0264
- Wu Zhao 02-0265
- Yao Gongbai 02-0266
- Liu Chicheng 02-0267
- Li Fan 02-0268
- Wu Wenguang 02-0269
- Lin Youren 02-0270
- Li Xiangting 02-0271
- Gong Yi 02-0272
- Li Yuxian 03-0832
- Liu Zhengchun 03-0833
- Liu Shanjiao 03-0834
- Xie Daoxiu 03-0835
- Wang Yongchang 04-1511
- Zheng Yunfei 04-1512
- Xu Xiaoying 04-1513
- Yu Qingxin 04-1514
- Zhao Jiazhen 04-1515
- Ding Chengyun 04-1516
- Cheng Gongliang 04-1517
- Lin Chen 05-2054
- Wang Peng 05-2055
- Zhu Xi 05-2056
- Ma Weiheng 05-2057
- Guishimin 05-2058
- Liu Changshou 05-2059
- Xu Yi
- Xu Junyue
- Qujunhong
- Li Mingzhong
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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