Qin or Gu Qin is a very traditional music instrument in China with nearly 3000 year-long history. In China, when we talk about Qin, we naturally connect it with the ancient Literati class – the prestigious intellectual group of scholar-officials. To some extent, Qin is the representative of this class and it also endows this beautiful instrument with some insightful meanings.
At the beginning, Qin had only 5 strings, which corresponded to the 5 elements in Chinese culture: Gold(Jin), Wood(Mu), Water(Shui), Fire(Huo) and Earth(Tu). Later, during the Zhou Dynasty, the Emperor Wen( Zhou Wenwang) and then Emperor Wu (Zhou Wuwang) added two stings to the 5-stringed Qin. Since then, the Qin has 7 strings until today.
When we look at the body of Qin we find an arch-shaped upper side under the strings and a flat baseplate. This is a reflection of Chinese Tianyuan Difang philosophy, literally meaning that the sky is round and the earth is square. Therefore, the upper side of the Qin represents the round sky, and the flat square baseplate references the earth.
Some of you may be familiar with a famous Chinese music piece called Gaoshan Liushui, High Mountain and Flowing Water in English. Behind this beautiful piece there’s a touching story about friendship.
Back in the Spring and Autumn period (770-476 B.C.), there was a brilliant Qin playing master named Boya Yu. One day he was playing in a wild field. A woodman called Ziqi Zhong happened to be passing by, and when he heard the music, he felt moved and immediately said: ‘magnificent like great mountains, mighty like flowing rivers!’. Boya was surprised by how much this man understood him and soon after that they became very close friends. That’s how the piece Gaoshan Liushui was created. After Ziqi passed away, Boya believed no one could ever understand him as well, so he destroyed his Qin and never played again.
Of course, they are so many other wonderful pieces and stories about Qin. If you are interested, we can write about them next time.
Author: Yuting Jiang
Yuting has been playing Zheng since the age of 7. Graduated from Xi’an Conservatory of Music in 2018, she now studies at Minzu University of China as a postgraduate, majoring in Historical Musicology with the focus on modern music of Western Countries. She also teaches Zheng in our short courses and participates in Goldsmiths Confucius Institute outreach activities.
