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Guqin and its Music

Ⅱ-34Traditional MusicShaanxiBatch 5 (2021)Extension ItemFeatured

01 · Historical Records

The guqin was called simply the “qin” throughout ancient China and was named the “guqin” only at the beginning of the twentieth century.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The art of the guqin is a typical representative of China's excellent traditional culture and an important musical manifestation of ancient Chinese spiritual culture. Historically Xi'an was not only one of the important birthplaces of the Chinese guqin but also an important place of its formation, development and flourishing, holding an irreplaceable historical position in the history of Chinese qin. With the development of the history of Chinese musical civilisation the art of the guqin blended here with the musical culture of the Silk Road and travelled eastward, scattering to the countries and regions surrounding Asia and producing a far-reaching influence. The chief performing forms by which the art of the guqin has been transmitted to the present are the qin solo, the ensemble of qin and xiao and the qin song, and its practice is chiefly embodied in the making of the instrument. In the long course of Chinese history the art of the guqin formed an independent and complete disciplinary system called “qin study”. Qin study originated in China and afterwards spread throughout the world, and is therefore called “Chinese qin study”, of which the Xi'an area is one of the important birthplaces. Chinese qin study takes qin making, the performance of qin pieces and qin theory as its main content and carries the realm and value of the aesthetic and intellectual traditions of traditional musical culture. The guqin art of Shaanxi has not only inherited the beginning of qin making by the Yan and Huang emperors, the laws and measures of King Wen and King Wu of Zhou, the legends of Jiang Ziya and the First Emperor of Qin, and the great work in qin study of such worthies as Liu Xiang, Yang Xiong, Cai Yong, Cai Yan, Ban Gu, Huan Tan, Dong Tinglan and Li Mian, but has also carried on the achievements in qin study of Zhang Youhe, Chen Yaoting, Min Zhiting and Li Mingzhong. The earliest records of the “qin” are found in such documents as the Book of Songs and the Book of Documents, and it has a history of more than three thousand years, with wide influence in the history of Chinese music, aesthetics, culture and thought. The guqin originally had five strings, and by the Zhou dynasty it already had seven. In the Guanzhong area many sages of former ages were good at the qin and understood it; they either set out laws and measures for making qin, or created qin pieces, or used the qin to narrate history.

Chinese Qin Study

Taking qin making, the performance of qin pieces and qin theory as its main content and carrying the realm and value of the aesthetic and intellectual traditions of traditional musical culture.

The Three Performing Forms: Qin Solo, Qin-and-Xiao Ensemble and Qin Song

The chief performing forms by which the art of the guqin has been transmitted to the present, its practice being chiefly embodied in the making of the instrument.

The Lineage of Qin History in the Guanzhong Region

The guqin art of Shaanxi inherits the laws and measures of King Wen and King Wu of Zhou and the qin study of such worthies as Liu Xiang, Cai Yong and Dong Tinglan, and continues the achievements of Zhang Youhe, Chen Yaoting, Min Zhiting and Li Mingzhong.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The art of the guqin is distributed in Shaanxi mainly in the Xi'an area.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The guqin art of Shaanxi takes research into qin making, the exploration of performance and educational transmission as its main content; takes rescue and protection together with the exploration of performance, academic research and exchange, concert display and exchange, qin making and research, and educational transmission as its main modes of practice; takes the knowledge communities in the fields of music and traditional culture as its main body, educational and research institutions as its chief vehicles and other circles of society as auxiliary in its group structure of practice; and has as its main characteristics the academic, intellectual, educational, research, cultural and practical. In the Three Kingdoms period the form of the guqin with seven strings and thirteen studs had already become basically stable and has been transmitted to the present. At present it is transmitted by the master-to-apprentice method of oral instruction together with school education. The art of the guqin has been transmitted for a thousand years, and the accumulation of more than three thousand years of history has given it a profound influence among the Chinese people and especially among men of letters, whence the sayings that “a scholar never lays aside his qin and se without cause” and that “a gentleman must have his qin at his left and his books at his right”. Its content is broad and profound, and its core elements—qin instruments, qin players, qin pieces, qin notation, qin history, qin theory and qin temperament—are important vehicles of Chinese philosophical thought, humanistic history, literature and art and traditional music, possessing relatively high historical, cultural and artistic value.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

  1. Guqin and its Music (Shaanxi) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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