On September 10, 2024, I had the honor of being invited by Prof. James Burns to introduce and perform the guqin for his students, and the event was a success. It took place at the Mountain View Amphitheater on campus. I thoroughly enjoyed interacting with the students. Part of the reason for this positive experience was that my husband found wireless microphones for me, so I could speak without worrying about whether the audience could hear me clearly.
I'm happy to have met Prof. Burns and his students, as well as the young composer Ah Nam (Ching Nam Cheng), Shaw 彭笑, a young lady from Beijing, and a young man from NYC whose parents are from Kaohsiung and Hualien in Taiwan.
A huge thanks to my husband for handling the sound control and to myself for the hard work.
After Prof. Burns took attendance and provided a brief introduction, I began by expressing my gratitude for the invitation to introduce this ancient Chinese instrument. I then introduced myself:
I am originally from Taiwan and came to the United States in 1997. I studied fashion design in Taiwan and later pursued merchandising management at FIT in New York. However, my life took a different direction when, at the age of 32, I met my guqin teacher in New York City. Since then, my life has completely changed. I have now been playing and teaching the guqin for 24 years.
Guqin players can generally be divided into three main categories:
Musicians and Performers (音樂家, 演奏家): The first type includes musicians who use the guqin for musical creation and performance.
Meditation and Personal Cultivation (修身養性): The second type utilizes the guqin as a tool for meditation and personal growth.
Archaeological Study (考古): The third type approaches guqin music like archaeology, exploring ancient pieces and attempting to recreate them. The guqin's unique notation system, which I will explain shortly, has played a crucial role in preserving many ancient pieces, with some dating back over 1,600 to 1,800 years.
I consider myself a blend of the second and third types, using the guqin both for personal cultivation and for studying ancient scores.
In my presentation, I introduced the guqin from three perspectives: its music, the instrument itself, and its notation. I started with the music, then integrated an introduction to the instrument’s construction and its notation, supplemented by some additional musical performances.
1. The Music:
A. 仙翁操 (Xiān Wēng Cāo)
- Literal Meaning: "Principle of an Immortal" or "The Melody of Xian Ong."
- I use this piece to warm up and prepare my mind for a formal performance. It also helps in tuning the guqin. Before playing any piece, I always check the tuning by [demonstrating]: I play harmonics to compare the same tone on two different strings. Then, I play "Xiān Wēng Cāo" to ensure that, for example, an open string note and a pressed note sound the same.
B. 平沙落雁 (Píng Shā Luò Yàn)
- Translation: "Wild Geese Flock to Sandy Shores."
- This piece has been performed by many renowned qin masters over the past 300 years. The version I play has been passed down from the lineage of my grand teacher's father. The composer of the piece is unknown. After my performance, I would love to hear your thoughts on how the melody made you feel. Did any images or emotions come to mind?
Several students gave very insightful feedback.
Key Aesthetic: One of the defining aspects of guqin music is the "after-tone." In guqin music, the "after-tone" is similar to how wine or tea experts describe an aftertaste. Just as in traditional Chinese landscape paintings or calligraphy, where we don’t focus only on where the ink touches the paper but also on the empty spaces where the ink doesn’t reach, guqin music invites us to appreciate not only the melody itself but also the lingering resonance—the after-tone. This quality allows the listener’s imagination to engage with what is left unsaid, creating a profound and evocative musical experience.
Ma Yuan - On A Mountain Path In Spring 馬遠 山徑春行圖 (台北故宮藏)
C. 流水 (Liú Shuǐ)
- Translation: "Flowing Water."
- Having finished discussing 'the greatest sound is soundless,' the next piece I played took a slightly different direction, with a busier and richer sound. It was a well-known ancient piece titled Flowing Water. In 1977, NASA's Voyager spacecraft left Earth for outer space, carrying a golden disc that represented a 'gift from humanity.' The guqin piece Flowing Water was included on this disc. The version I played was a shorter one. This piece vividly portrayed the various moods and states of flowing water: the babbling of mountain streams, surging and falling currents, and fierce waves.
About the Instrument
Construction and Characteristics:
- The guqin is traditionally made with a top board of Paulownia or Chinese Fir, and a bottom board of harder woods like Catalpa, Zelkova, Chinese Toon, or Rosewood.
- 漆 (Lacquer): Used to seal and protect the wood.
- Structure: The guqin typically has a consistent structure, though variations in the shape of the outer contour or sound holes may exist. Some guqins have names engraved by skilled calligraphers and carvers.
Strings and Techniques:
- The guqin features strings without movable bridges or frets, a long effective string length, and a vibration frequency longer than many other stringed instruments, including the double bass. This results in prolonged after-tones and a wide range of overtones.
- Unlike most string instruments that focus on plucking, the guqin combines plucking with rich sliding and vibrato techniques created by the left hand. These techniques add depth and color to the sound and prolong the lingering tones. Its relatively soft volume means that its subtle and rich sounds are best appreciated in a quiet environment.
Since ancient times, the guqin has been cherished by scholars as a solo instrument for self-cultivation and meditation.
D. 神人暢 (Shén Rén Chàng)
- Translation: "Harmonize Between Human and Spirit."
- This piece is an ancient melody that dates back to no later than 1525. The composer is unknown, and in ancient times, people often attributed its creation to a legendary deity. As I mentioned earlier, the qin produces three types of sounds: harmonic sounds, pressed string sounds, and open string sounds. The harmonic sound is symbolized as the "heaven tone" (天音), the pressing sound as the "human tone" (人音), and the open string sound as the "earth tone" (地音). This piece primarily uses harmonic (overtone) sounds to create a feeling of our spirit communicating with the heavens. However, It ends with the earth tone, symbolizing our grounding or return to the earthly realm.
The Music Notation
Qin Notation System:
The qin notation system, in use for at least 900 years, resembles Chinese writing and captures the overall character of a sound with a single symbol. Unlike Western notation, which specifies pitch, duration, tempo, and volume, qin notation focuses on fingering, hand positions, and strumming techniques. The exact pitch and note length are left to the player's interpretation.
Traditional vs. Modern Tablature: I have brought books showing both traditional qin tablature and modern approaches, which include numerical scores or Western staff notation alongside qin fingering notation. Traditional tablature provided essential characters and symbols but lacked detailed instructions, relying on oral explanations from teachers. Today, learning the qin often still requires a teacher for comprehensive understanding. Self-study might leave some aspects incomplete.
Q&A
Student questions included:
- Whether the instrument is called "guqin" or "qin? (Originally, it was called "qin," but later people added "gu," which means "ancient," to emphasize its status as a very old traditional instrument.)
- What is the part of playing the qin that cannot be learned without a teacher? (I demonstrated the subtle nuances of note connections.)
- Do you play artificial harmonics? (I wasn't familiar with the term at first, but after the students explained it, I understood it as using one finger of the left hand to touch the string while another finger of the left hand plucks the string simultaneously. I don’t play artificial harmonics myself, but I have seen some young qin players use this technique.)
- Why do you prefer the qin over the zheng? How are they different? (The tone quality. The zheng has a brighter sound, but I prefer the more subtle and nuanced tone of the qin.)
- What do you primarily use the qin for? (Meditation and concentration)
- Why do players use both sides of the string for harmonics if they sound the same? (Perhaps to balance out the performance)
- Does the qin play with other instruments? (Yes, the most common duet is qin and xiao bamboo flute. I’ve also seen duets with piano, cello, and violin.)
- Perhaps the double bass and qin could make a good duet. (However, I think their tone qualities might be too similar, as both are in the lower range. A brighter-toned instrument might complement the qin better, which is why it often pairs with the Chinese bamboo vertical flute—like a Yin and Yang combination.)
