The History of Guqin

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Guqin is also called the seven-stringed Qin. The body is a long and narrow sound box made of wood. Generally speaking, it is 130cm long, 20cm wide and 5cm thick. The surface is generally made of paulownia wood or China fir, and has seven strings stretched along it. On the edges are 13 inlaid jade markers. Catalpa wood is used for the base, and there are two holes, one big and one small (called the "phoenix pool" and "dragon pond", respectively) to emit the sound. The fingering techniques are known as recital, rubbing, plucking, concentration, floating notes and harmonious notes (same measure, five measure and octave). The instrument is rich in tone color, with airy, floating notes, and simple and solid scattered notes.
Guqin is a representative instrument of traditional Chinese musical culture. Because it embodied

the traditional cultural values of clarity, fineness, simplicity and far-sightedness, Guqin, along with chess, calligraphy and painting, headed the list of four subjects scholars trained themselves in. Throughout history, philosophers and artists such as Confucius, Cai Yong and Ji Kang were all masters of the instrument. Old records contain a large number of treatises on Guqin, and thousands of pieces of music for this instrument have been preserved.

In recent times, a dozen or so masters of Guqin have emerged in China, including Wang Lu, Guan Pinghu, Zha Fuxi, Zhang Ziqian, Wu Jinglue, and Gu Meigeng. They have mastered the strong points of the various schools of this instrument and grasped the interpretation of a large number of pieces of Guqin music, manifesting not only their musical skill but also their deep esthetic appreciation.

古琴

琴，在汉魏（公元前206年——公元265年）时期定型，款式有：仲尼式、落霞式、蕉叶式。一般琴有130厘米长，20厘米宽，厚大约5厘米。面板用桐木，背板用梓木，下面有大小两个出音孔。大孔为“龙池”，小孔命“风沼”。通常琴都是黑色的，但也有少数用棕色或红色。琴的面板上有13个小圆徽，用来标记音的位置，上面镶嵌着贝壳，讲究一些的有用玉石或者是纯金来镶嵌。

早期的琴是用来为歌咏伴奏的，有名的曲目有《阳关三叠》、《胡笳十八拍》。单是古琴曲，自古流传下来的有三千首之多。琴曲可以表达非常细腻的心情，也可以描绘大自然的景象，1971年8月20日，由美国宇宙飞船带往太空的众多曲目中，中国的代表曲目就是由古琴演奏的，描写大自然风光的名曲《流水》。

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