The aesthetic of guqin - the idiom of Chou Wen Chung's music

Guqin or qin (古琴) is a plucked seven-string Chinese zither. Chou music is inspired by qin music. To dig deep into Chou's music understanding its aesthetic is critical. I would use a thesis, The 24 Sprites of Qin (溪山琴況) by Xu shangying (徐上瀛,1582-1662) in 1641 to explain the aesthetic of qin.

A picture of qin


7 open strings on qin

The origin of qin according to Xu (1641), the myth origin, the deity made qin as a tool to cultivate human beings, to combine one's morals and spirituality. This echoes my previous articles about the function of music in China.

Xu organized 24 sprites as the basis of the aesthetic of qin. His thesis is long, people summarised the 4 most important points from his thesis.

  1. Harmonious (和), the instrument has to be well-tuned. The primary rule is open strings have to harmonize with each other, then the pressed notes come to secondary. The harmonics and pressed should be referring to each other, which implies that the tuning should fit into the harmonic series. The tuning scheme should be adjusted to just intonation for pure intervals, not equal temperament.
  2. Stillness (靜), this word has a double meaning. When changing notes or finding new notes, the process has to be precise. To archive it, the player's mind has to be still and meditative.
  3. Clearness (清), describes the requirement of tone color, crisp and clear. It can also be expanded to different musical parameters, clear interpretation of phrasing, articulation, rhythm, tempo, etc.
  4. Farness(遠), is an abstract philosophical pursuit of the best qin playing. The player performs on the instrument and projects the understanding beyond music (求之弦中如不足，得之弦外則有餘也。), using music to bring players' and audiences' spirits to the nature. (至於神游氣化，而意之所之玄而又玄。)
The thesis depicted the ultimate goal of playing qin music, throughout history, qin has been a must-learn instrument for intellectuals. It is useful for understanding the cultivation and education side of Chinese music. 

Xu, S. Y. (1641). The 24 Sprites of Qin (溪山琴況). [online] Available at: https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=gb&chapter=559317 (Accessed: 23rd Jan, 2022)

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