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Guqin and its Music

Ⅱ-34Traditional MusicDaxing, BeijingBatch 4 (2014)Extension ItemFeatured

01 · Historical Records

According to such ancient books as the Lüshi Chunqiu and the Book of Rites, the making of the guqin originated with Fuxi and Shennong in the Central Plains of high antiquity, was completed in the Wei and Jin, flourished in the Tang and Song, and continued without break through the Yuan, Ming and Qing. The Juntianfang method of making qin may be summarised in ten great steps—selection of material, shaping, hollowing the belly, joining the qin, applying the ash coat, grinding, fixing the studs, polishing, fitting the feet and stringing—each with a number of details, and taking from two to five years.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The art of the guqin is an important musical manifestation of ancient Chinese spiritual culture. The guqin is the traditional instrument of the Han Chinese. Cultural relics unearthed from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng at Suixian, Hubei, and from the Han tomb at Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunan, confirm that the making of the guqin has a history of nearly three thousand years. This heritage item is distributed in Henan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Beijing. In Beijing the collecting of famous qin has been prevalent through the ages, and the restoration of surviving guqin drove the transmission of the craft of guqin making. Since reform and opening up the instrument-making speciality of the conservatories has collated ancient qin texts and revived traditional making techniques, and one branch of the guqin-making craft has been carried on in the form of the conservatory instrument-making speciality. Juntianfang makes qin from fine paulownia from the area south of Beijing, transmitting the making craft, and has become one of the representative transmitting bodies of guqin making in the Beijing area. The traditional guqin-making craft of Beijing is an ancient handicraft that uses old paulownia (or old China fir) and catalpa with raw lacquer, deer-antler frost, cinnabar, rosewood and silk thread, and fuses traditional woodwork and lacquerwork. The shaping of the guqin has the roundness and grandeur of Tang qin, while in detail it does not lose the clear elegance and restraint of Song qin; its tone is central and harmonious, satisfying the taste of the man of letters yet accomplished in traditional craft, and having the characteristics both of qin made by men of letters and of qin made by specialist makers. Juntianfang insists on using traditional natural materials for its instruments: whether green paulownia, chair paulownia or old China fir, all are old materials whose wood nature has fully dispersed, the precious rosewood fittings are exacting in material, and it has at the same time studied and revived the making of the traditional silk strings of the guqin.

The Ten Steps of Juntianfang Qin Making

Selection of material, shaping, hollowing the belly, joining the qin, applying the ash coat, grinding, fixing the studs, polishing, fitting the feet and stringing—each with a number of details, taking from two to five years.

The Traditional Guqin-Making Craft of Beijing

A handicraft using old paulownia (or old China fir) and catalpa with raw lacquer, deer-antler frost, cinnabar, rosewood and silk thread, fusing traditional woodwork and lacquerwork.

The Transmission Lineage of Chuan-School Qin Making

Traceable to the Qing dynasty Chuan school qin player Zhang Kongshan and transmitted through Gu Jun, Gu Meigeng and Zhao Guangyun to Wang Peng, founder of Juntianfang.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The transmission of the art of the guqin in the Beijing area centres on Juntianfang and other qin-making bodies; it is distributed mainly in the Daxing district of Beijing and the area south of the city, and also circulates in such urban districts as Dongcheng and Xicheng where guqin culture is relatively concentrated.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

This heritage item is transmitted in orderly fashion, having developed to the present through master-to-apprentice transmission, and may be traced back to the Qing dynasty Chuan school qin player Zhang Kongshan, who imparted it, by both written record and oral instruction, to the modern Chuan school qin player Gu Meigeng. While teaching at the Shenyang Conservatory of Music, Gu Meigeng wrote the Essentials of Qin Study, which was afterwards collated and transmitted by Zhao Guangyun of that conservatory and imparted through regular conservatory professional education to Wang Peng, founder of Juntianfang. The Juntianfang guqin fuses woodwork, lacquerwork, carving and many other fine and complex traditional handicraft qin-making techniques and embodies the wisdom and creativity of qin players through the ages; it has a certain value for transmitting the art of the guqin and the traditional Chinese culture of ritual and music, and also a certain academic reference value for the study of traditional Chinese scholar culture, musical culture and traditional handicraft. (Associated bearer recorded in the official archive:) Wang Peng, male, Han, born May 1966, a native of Fengcheng city, Liaoning. In 1987 he entered the instrument-craft department of the Shenyang Conservatory of Music, learning qin making under Zhao Guangyun and qin playing under the Chuan school qin player Gu Meigeng and the Guangling school qin player Mei Yueqiang. In 1990 he entered the Beijing National Musical Instrument Factory and in 2001 founded the guqin workshop Juntianfang. In qin making he inherits the ancient methods and blends in innovation, has restored more than a hundred historic famous qin and created more than a hundred new qin forms. His instruments have been played at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and in theatres in many parts of the world. His playing has a vigorous and ancient breath and a rigorous and fine technique. He is a representative bearer of the fifth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, the art of the guqin. He has founded a qin-study editorial office, the Juntian Qin Academy and the Juntian Yunhe ensemble, and has published many qin manuals and audio-visual products, training numerous students.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

  1. Guqin and its Music (Daxing, Beijing) · China ICH Official Project Archive
  2. Wang Peng · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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