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Guqin and its Music

Ⅱ-34Traditional MusicGuangzhou, GuangdongBatch 2 (2008)Extension ItemFeatured

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 Lingnan school guqin art circulates mainly in Guangzhou city, Guangdong, and its surrounding area, and its origin may be traced back to the Southern and Northern Dynasties. At the end of the Southern Song, when the Yuan armies invaded the Central Plains, the Song emperor moved south from Lin'an to Gangzhou and Yashan, and a body of Central Plains qin manuals flowed with them into Gangzhou. In the Ming dynasty Guangzhou produced qin players in every generation—Chen Baisha, Liang Qiyun, Shi Wenyi, Kuang Lu, Chen Zizhuang and Chen Zisheng were all famous for a time. By the Qing the Lingnan qin school was increasingly renowned.

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. During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, Chen Yongzhuo, a bureau director in the ministry of personnel of the Southern Han, completed the Ten Volumes of the Datang Orthodox-Sound Qin Register, fully recording the comments of qin players and the affairs of famous ancient qin masters. Ancient Gangzhou is present-day Xinhui county, Guangdong, and it is said that the Gu Gang Yi Pu of Xinhui is a survival from that time. In the Daoguang reign Huang Jingxing, a native of Xinhui, Guangdong, compiled the Wuxue Shanfang Qinpu, collecting fifty qin pieces and concentrating the artistic achievements of the Lingnan qin school of that period. Besides the above, Yun Zhigao, He Luoshu, He Yaokun and Yang Xiquan were also qin players of relatively great influence in the Lingnan school. Influenced by Confucian and Daoist thought, the Lingnan school guqin art formed a style at once clear and harmonious, quietly elegant, gentle and mellow, refined and tranquil in its repertory, musical structure, tone colour and performing technique. Its qin pieces mostly lament the affairs of the world and lodge feeling in mountains and waters, pursuing a realm of central harmony and utter quiet; representative works include Roving East of the Water, A Spring in the Green Ravine, Dialogues of Fisherman and Woodcutter and The Prelude of Divine Transformation. In addition the Lingnan school possesses such famous qin as “Tianxiang”, “Songxue”, “Zhenyu” and “Shuixian”, so that clear and elegant playing and the transmitted classical pieces illuminate one another. The playing of the Lingnan school guqin creates a mood of clear, subtle, light and distant, constructing a hall in which the traditional man of letters gives vent to feeling, cultivates his character and purifies his mind, with a rich Chinese national character. With the acceleration of modernisation the influence of foreign culture steadily grows, and such traditional national arts as the guqin show an ever greater tendency to wither.

Roving East of the Water

A representative work of the Lingnan school guqin art, lodging feeling in mountains and waters.

A Spring in the Green Ravine

A representative piece of the Lingnan school, typical of its clear, harmonious and tranquil style.

Dialogues of Fisherman and Woodcutter

A representative piece of the Lingnan school of guqin art.

The Prelude of Divine Transformation

A representative piece of the Lingnan school of guqin art.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

In qin manuals and qin theory the Lingnan school also made many contributions; the chief documents of the school include Yun Zhigao's Liaohuai Tang Qinpu (1686), Huang Jingxing's Wuxue Shanfang Qinpu (1836), He Binxiang's Qinxue Huicheng (1869), Rong Qingduan and Lin Zhixian's Qinse Hepu (1870) and Zhu Qilian's Egong Ci Shuo Qin (1898).

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Together with the reasons that the guqin is “hard to learn”, “hard to transmit” and “hard to find a kindred spirit”, the guqin art of the Lingnan school faces the danger of being lost and urgently awaits rescue and protection. (Associated bearer recorded in the official archive:) Xie Daoxiu, who has always devoted himself to the oral and personal transmission of the art of the guqin. Male, Han, born January 1940, died February 2019, a native of Guangzhou city, Guangdong. He is a representative bearer of the third batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, the art of the guqin (Lingnan school).

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

  1. Guqin and its Music (Guangzhou, Guangdong) · China ICH Official Project Archive
  2. Xie Daoxiu · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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