Zheng or Guzheng is a traditional music instrument in China with over 2500 years of history. During the long time development of Zheng, there are 6 different schools of Han people established according to their regions and styles. So today, we’re going to talk about these brilliant 6 schools of Han Zheng.
Zhejiang School
Zhejiang School is mostly welcomed in Zhengjiang province, a southeastern province in China. Its music perfectly depicts the scenery of southeastern China and the lifestyle of people in this region: quiet, elegant and peaceful. The mostly known piece of this school is Gaoshan Liushui (High Mountains and Flowing Waters), through which we can get a glimpse of the beautiful sights of Zhejiang province.
Chaozhou School
Chaozhou school is popular in Chaozhou area, Guangdong province. The most spectacular features of this school are its notation system and tonalities. The notation system is referred to as Er’si Pu, marked by the Chinese character of numbers. And its tonalities are based on the notation system, giving the music various types of personalities full of changes.
Kejia School
According to different scholars with different taxonomy, we can also divine this school into Kejia school and Fujian school. Kejia people is a branch of Han people who in the past migrated from central China to the South. And Fujian is a province in southern China where many Kejia people live. Broadly speaking, these two schools share a common history, but when the people from middle China settled in different parts of southern China, their culture blended with different locals, so that the taste of these two schools are also a little bit different. But generally speaking, the musical styles of these two schools have preserved the presence of music of Han people in ancient middle China, so that we can still hear the voice of our ancestors from long time ago.
Shanxi School
Shanxi is a northeastern province of China, and this is highly probably the region where Zheng was born. The music here is quite distinguished from others, especially the ones with Kuyin scale (the scale of bitter). When you listen to the music in this scale, you can really hear the sound of sadness, cry and inner anger and bitterness of the people.
Henan School
Henan is a province in middle China, adjacent to Shanxi province. The Chinese traditional opera arts are highly developed here, so its music is largely influenced by that. In addition, the dialect here has also influenced its music largely, so the tunes of language people speak here are reflected in the musical pieces.
Shandong School
Shandong is a province located in Shandong peninsular, the music here embraces the temperament of nature, just like the Shandong people, honest and simple, warm and hearty. Shandong Zheng music owes its good reputation to a rich repertoire and varied performance techniques.
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.
