GuQin

In  this  article  I  propose  a  critical  examination of van  Gulik’s  The  Lore  of the Chinese Lute (LCL) in respect to its bibliographical sources and consequent aesthetic contentions. Despite being arguably  the first academic monograph on the ideology of qin and historically a major non-Chinese source for the study of qin in general, the LCL does not represent  van Gulik’s mature  thinking  on qin. The LCL is limited by objective circumstances surrounding its writing and flaws in van Gulik’s biblio- graphical engagement. His study of the musicology of Yueji on the basis of inaccur- ate translation and a neglect of the Neo-Confucian reading of Yueji, his hypothesis of Daoist  dominance  and Buddhist  or Indian  influence in the practice of qin with mistaken evidence, his skepticism of the truth of the literati tradition with fundamen- tal bibliographical flaws, all require reconsideration. The current lacuna in the criti- cal investigation  of the LCL not only urges contemporary researchers  to continue where  van  Gulik  left  off,  but  also  calls  for  new  research  projects  on  qin  and Chinese literati music in general.

Normally we might expect a musician player of the Chinese guqin, the instrument of the literati of historical times, to come to the instrument through a chain of people, teacher to student, over a number of generations, perhaps tracing their musical heritage back three or more generations into the past. We might normally also expect such a musician to be Chinese or, at least, East Asian or South East Asian and to speak or read Chinese. It is my goal to demonstrate how and why a Caucasian musician from the West might come to the guqin-and one strung in traditional silk rather than the more modern nylon wrapped steel, in addition to what aspects come to play to action a move from a 40 year career as a performing artist of Western Classical music to one as a performer and recording artist of the guqin; what elements of Western culture act upon the music of guqin and how the intense Western training in music plays a role in forming or allowing the musician to make this transition successfully; how a background in Historically Informed Performance of the late Lack Renaissance through to the early Classical periods of the Western musician bears upon guqin performance, whether in the approach to historicity, to intonation or mannerism. I seek to demonstrate that being a completely self-taught guqin performer with a background in Western Historically Informed Performance is indeed part of the explanation to the transition's success and to discuss and demonstrate the effect this affect has upon the outcome.

Two chapters that I wrote for a booklet about the guqin, published by the British Museum in association with the London Youlan Qin Society and the Prince's Charities Foundation (China) as part of the Four Arts series, of which only this volume on the guqin was successfully published.

Although I am largely uncredited with 'Written by Members of London Youlan Qin Society' and my acknowledgement at the end of the book misleadingly implied my contribution as simply only in translation and administrative work, I wrote about 85% of the "Philosophy and Aesthetics of the Guqin" and 100% of the "Famous Stories about Selected Qin Pieces" chapter, notwithstanding edits and amendments done by other members on them. I may have written other parts and passages but have forgotten precisely which. I also edited and proof-read the whole work a couple of times and suggested amendments and edits.

This dissertation aims to understand the significance of qin songs (songs accompanied on the qin, the seven-stringed zither) to their practitioners in late imperial China. The qin was known as an instrument for self-cultivation throughout Chinese history. However, our current knowledge of how qin music was used for self-cultivation purposes in premodern China is largely limited to the ideological aspect, awaiting to be supported or modified by investigations of specific historical practices. Looking into different qin practitioners’ works, activities, social connections, and life experiences, this dissertation shows how they made various use of qin song—the musical form and activities related to it—to achieve their goals of becoming the ideal self.
I argue that late imperial qin songs were often composed and edited for the purpose of communicating general moral principles and particular moral exemplarity to a larger community of the like-minded (zhiyin). As a result, activities related to these songs allowed the practitioners to extend their social influence on their way of pursuing sagehood. The social function of the songs challenges today’s widespread assumptions that both qin music and self-cultivation are primarily meditative and solitary.
I further argue that many qin songs emerged and evolved as a result of qin practitioners’ emphasis on the communicative power of music compared to mere words, which responded to the new changes and concerns during the late imperial period. Their continuous quest for the most effective means of moral communication may also help explain the eventual decline of qin song—as opposed to the purely instrumental form of qin music—by the eighteenth century, which awaits further studies.

The guqin (Chinese seven-stringed zither) has a long history of musical and cultural intangible oral heritage spanning millennia. One of the main preoccupations of guqin players and researchers has been the resurrection of old scores from ancient tablature collections through a process called dapu. This involves deciphering the old tablature symbols, and infusing rhythmic and temporal interpretation, in order to make these neglected scores come to life by imbuing them with musical force and agency. Although this activity has been ongoing for many years, there has never been a systematic look into the whole process of dapu, what is involved and what it really means.

In this project, which comprises of a folio of transcriptions, the process of dapu will be explored with a focus on three musical scores from the Tianwenge Qinpu (1876) attributed to Zhang Kongshan, the famous guqin player of the Shu School, that have not survived into the modern lineage tradition. This offers an opportunity to explore the reconstruction (attempting to strictly follow the tablature and play the pieces as close to how it was originally played at the time of creation) and recreation (aiming to use the original tablature as a basis but allow creative input into its interpretation) dynamics of transcription by making two transcriptions of the same piece in these two ways and enables reflection upon the whole activity of dapu in a new perspective.

The results demonstrate an evolving process where both dynamics play a part in determining the end, but ultimately the reconstructed transcriptions will stay as they are, whereas the recreated ones will continue to be revised, changed, and developed, as has always traditionally been done for guqin music.

Keywords: guqin, transcription, Zhang Kongshan, Tianwenge Qinpu, reconstruction, recreation.

古琴（即中華七絃琴）有數千年的音樂與非物質文化遺產歷史。在廣汎的古琴技術傳統之中，一般彈琴者與研究人員皆參與復活文獻所藏古樂譜，解讀古琴減字譜符號、重新詮釋節拍和時間、及參照和加入被忽略的現代樂譜資料的「打譜」工作。打譜令古代琴曲賦予音樂力量和特質而音響重見光明。但是從對打譜的整個過程、所涉及的內容和其真正含義的問題，未曾有進行真正的系統研究。

由此本打譜叢集論卷中，用《天聞閣琴譜》（1876年序）中歸於蜀派著名古琴家張孔山的未曾融入現代蜀派傳統流傳的《瀟湘夜雨》、《漁樵問答》及《化蝶》琴曲，將三首琴曲經過兩次打譜過程去探討了打譜技術中所謂「復興」與「翻新」角式的觀念。「復興」就是用嚴格和準確見解的規則重建琴曲，試圖恢復琴曲的原貌聲響，又使其接近於創作時期的原始彈奏方式。而「翻新」就是用原本曲譜為基礎出發點，並加打譜者自己的創造力量入曲中，重新創建琴曲與彈奏方式。以上的目標就是理解打譜的步驟，並以新的視角反思打譜的技術。

論卷結果證明了打譜的技術是一個不斷發展的過程，並且兩種觀念的推動力都決定打譜的效果。但最終復興式的打譜是保持原樣而已，而翻新式的打譜像傳統的古琴音樂一樣，繼續不斷被修改、改變和發展。

關鍵詞：
古琴、打譜、張孔山、《天聞閣琴譜》、復興、翻新。

Supervised by Dr Andrew Killick. Marked as 83/100 (High Distinction). Overall degree was awarded with Distinction.

As global capitalist consumerism pervades our methods and choices in this global information age, we need to review the pedagogy and information presented to students in the 21st century. As lamented by Tam and Nan (in Lau, 2010) and more optimistically observed in Burgin's (2017) field studies, guqin instruction as a traded commodity and regulated by modern institutions has all but replaced traditional magi-magister immersion education methods, and an increasingly standardized and 'mechanized' modern pedagogy removes all but a façade of a preserved tradition. This paper criticizes and diverges from this viewpoint that rather than the modern guqin 'industry' destroying tradition, the quality and content of this 'industry's' uniform production fall short to the demands and expectations of a personalized, pluralized digital modernity and its consumption habits, material and intellectual. This paper will attempt to:
1. Provide a critique of both the modern Chinese musical pedagogy in conservatory and commercial environments, as well as the imagination of the “traditional magi-magister” counterpoint as an extension of an Orientalist approach.
2. Provide observations and comparisons of qin learning patterns amongst students of Canadian and Chinese education background, based on teaching experiences in Toronto, Canada from 2005 to 2018, and
3. Provide suggestions towards building a China-centered, holistic approach to guqin curricula, particularly with more focus to integrating musicology and its historical development to its practical application in performance and pedagogy.

Music has always held an important place in Chinese culture and it has been deeply related to philosophy for ages.
In fact, one could say it played a key role in creating Chinese culture and civilisation. It could be assumed that one
of the most important concepts of this culture—the Harmony—has its roots in music-making practice and musical
terminology. Music was very strongly related to the official social ideology/philosophy of the empire, the
Confucianism. As an integral part of the rituals, it became one of the elements ensuring social order. Besides its
social/global function, music was an issue of great importance in the practice of achieving one’s personal
excellence. There is a strong correlation between music and the Chinese idea of a sage, which in the Middle
Kingdom is associated with the sense of hearing (not with sight, as it is in the Mediterranean tradition). The musical
instrument guqin became an inalienable attribute of a sage and the practice of playing this instrument became a way
to wisdom, allowing to improve one’s cognition and action. This paper will present the relations between playing
the qin, philosophy, and learning wisdom.

The thesis describes my compositional conceptions.  At first, I  propose that the fundamental issue of musiking is to listen. My pursue in my music is to illuminate the void (i.e., emptiness and silence, "留白") in the presence of listening. Void, as a type of artistic concept and technique, is often found in Chinese art, as a type of expression of harmony.  It is possible that listeners or viewers may be able to project their imagination onto the void, if effectively implied by minimal amount of the pitch materials (虛實佈白).  Music or treatise on the concept and technique of the void are often those for the voice or for the plucked instruments based on the phonology and the psychoacoustic.  Music composition "Tideleaf"(潮葉) for solo Pipa and "Intermezzo-Tsan"(間奏曲-參) for Guqin and 10 Western instruments are analyzed, showing the permutation of the elements, form, orchestration, and concluded by the discussion on the perception of time, sonic unit, and memory in these works.

This book was specially compiled as material to accompany the teaching of beginners’ level guqin at a five day summer school or other similar occasions, or as a preliminary guide during the first stages of teaching. It therefore has to be used in conjunction with formal instruction as it contains only exercises and practice pieces rather than detailed instructions such as those that can be found in standard teaching manuals.

袁桷 (1266-1327)， 字伯長，號清容居士，是元代文壇的傑出人物
之一，《元史》列傳卷一百七十二即記載《袁桷傳》。要領會袁桷對於琴所認識，可直接參考他所編纂不同題目的書籍，包括南宋的琴派、琴譜、琴人等。袁桷特別研究當時代琴曲和琴調的來源，以及被南宋時期的琴師對所謂浙派起源的實際貢獻，以上研究都體現出他當時候的懷疑和信仰，尤其對於楊纘編的《紫霞洞譜》（今已佚傳）。  袁桷表示《紫霞洞譜》 裡收藏的曲 (共468首) 不是楊纘　｢自制｣， 楊氏有意不提自己所參考的資料。袁氏進行不同琴譜的比較，卻發現《紫霞洞譜》裡《蔡氏五弄》等曲， 是來自南宋琴人張嚴所遺的。南宋著名琴人郭楚望為張嚴的清客，早就得到張氏收藏的琴譜， 併進行整理。袁桷對張嚴與郭楚望的貢獻表示極深尊重 (可見袁氏《述郭楚望〈步月〉〈秋雨〉琴調二首》)，其有關琴書的目標就是對祖師奠定實際重要性和影響力。

Yuan Jue (1266-1327), courtesy name Bochang, pseudonym Qing Rong Jushi (Retired Scholar of Refined Demeanor), was one of the most distinguished scholars during Yuan dynasty, his biography record can be found in the 172nd chapter of the official biographies in the History of Yuan Dynasty.  To understand Yuan Jue’s knowledge of Qin, is possible to refer to some of his works concerning different aspects of Qin tablatures, schools, masters of the Northern and Southern Song periods. Yuan Jue makes some special remarks on the original source of some melodies played during his own time, pointing out the effective contributions of some of the most relevant Qin masters during Southern Song Dynasty in the formation of the so-called Zhe School, underlining his doubts and believes, especially over master Yang Zuan, the author the Zi Xia Dong tablatures (now lost). According to Yuan Jue, some of the melodies collected in the Zi Xia Dong pu where not made Yang Zuan himself: after some  comparisons, he discovered  that the Cai Shi wunong (Five melodies by Cai [Yong]) were mostly identical to the same tablature transmitted by Zhang Yan from Southern Song Dynasty.  The famous Qin player Guo Chuwang has been a hanger-on of Zhang Yan’s household; after receiving the tablatures collected by Zhang himself, he underwent a further reassembling and passed them down to later generations, till Yuan Jue’s days. Yuan Jue displays deep respect towards Zhang Yan and Guo Chuwang contributions (Yuan Jue also wrote two poems on Qin melodies written by Guo Chuwang), and the main aim of his texts on Qin is evidently to clarify and attest the real importance and influence of his past masters.

In the public conscious, music is usually about performing, especially with a large audience in mind. Any music made in private is mostly seen as only ‘practicing’ for the purposes of that end, rather than an end in itself, and that such private music-making activities are not ‘real music’ or even viewed as indulgent ‘self-pleasuring’ (Killick 2006). However, far from being unimportant, making music in private or solitude can form an enriching and useful function in our lives beyond the concert hall or jam session.

For an instrument which embodies the private musicking paradigm the most, the guqin Chinese seven-string zither could arguably be considered the most representative. An instrument of the literati, it has a history of a different ideology and purpose compared to other instruments in that it was seen as an instrument of self-cultivation, only played by and for oneself, or with a few appreciative friends as the only audience, or before a crane, the Moon, or with plum-blossoms listening in.

From examining the guqin and its traditional culture, we can glimpse many aspects of music which are usually ignored or forgotten about: the meditative and self-cultivatory aspects of the music, music solely for one’s enjoyment, music and nature’s intertwinement, and music for music’s sake. In restoring importance to private music-making, we may be able to infuse and inform other outwardly-focused music-making traditions to look inwards and discover things they might not have realised were possible or important as before.

Presented at the BFE Annual Conference 2022, 7th April, 1700 BST.

In the public conscious, music is usually about performing, especially with a large audience in mind. Any music made in private is mostly seen as only ‘practicing’ for the purposes of that end, rather than an end in itself, and that such private music-making activities are not ‘real music’ or even viewed as indulgent ‘self-pleasuring’ (Killick 2006). However, far from being unimportant, making music in private or solitude can form an enriching and useful function in our lives beyond the concert hall or jam session.

For an instrument which embodies the private musicking paradigm the most, the guqin Chinese seven-string zither could arguably be considered the most representative. An instrument of the literati, it has a history of a different ideology and purpose compared to other instruments in that it was seen as an instrument of self-cultivation, only played by and for oneself, or with a few appreciative friends as the only audience, or before a crane, the Moon, or with plum-blossoms listening in.

From examining the guqin and its traditional culture, we can glimpse many aspects of music which are usually ignored or forgotten about: the meditative and self-cultivatory aspects of the music, music solely for one’s enjoyment, music and nature’s intertwinement, and music for music’s sake. In restoring importance to private music-making, we may be able to infuse and inform other outwardly-focused music-making traditions to look inwards and discover things they might not have realised were possible or important as before.

Presented at the BFE Annual Conference 2022, 7th April, 1700 BST.

Guqin, an ancient Chinese instrument with 7 strings, has a long history more than three thousand years. It was famous before 19th century in China and now has been listed in World Intangible Cultural Relics in 2003. In this article, I will search the cultural value of this instrument and discuss the significance of spreading guqin in universities.

莊秀珍、何乏筆、周渝、史作檉等人1998年在紫藤廬茶館的對談。
__________________________________

Zhuāng Xiùzhēn 莊秀珍 gewidmet (Februar 2016):

Ferne Töne/
schwach wie/
erstorben/
aus der Tiefe des/
Einst/
bittere/
Lautlosigkeit/
Was bleibt?/
Ahnung/
unerschöpflichen
Altertums/
spröde/
verrutschende/
Saiten/
unvollkommen/
aber wohl doch/
ungebrochen noch/
im Zerbrechen

This review was prepared for submission to the Ethnomusicology Forum journal but was never submitted as some of my colleagues in the qin word felt I was inaccurately criticising Lieberman’s book translation the Mei’an Qinpu (that it didn’t include the jianzipu for the melodies which makes it rather ‘insufficient’ as a beginners teaching manual given that means the beginner must first learn to read staff notation to be able to play the melodies in the book (which in itself requires skill and understanding of how to play the qin in the first place in order to work out the fingering rather than simply guessing haphazardly) rather than learn the notation already described in the book to play the melodies (as is the case in traditional and modern qinpu)).

I did, however, in Dec 2018 submit a new review of it based on the fourth edition, adding some extra material and updates and submitted it to the EF. However, they rejected it because a) it was unsolicited, b) it had already been published in my blog and c) it is basically a technical manual and not the sort of book that would gloss such a journal. I upload it here for the sake of posterity.

This is an unpublished translation of Zeng Chengwei's outline of Shu School Guqin Music, with my annotations.

This was meant/planned to be in the 20th Anniversary book for the London Youlan Qin Society, which is severally delayed since 2013. I have a feeling it will never get published so here's it for posterity.

Chen Yang’s Book on Music (Yueshu 樂書) has been recorded
as one of the earliest music encyclopedias, dating back to the
last period of the Northern Song Dynasty. In the second half of
the book, entitled Treatise on Music Iconography (Yuetulun 樂
圖論), more than four hundred representations of musical
instruments have been included with their own descriptions.
This lecture will be focused on the illustrations of qin zithers: the
iconography displays many different kind of qin instruments that
seem have fallen into oblivion in the following centuries. In
these preliminary remarks, I will analyze the effective
consistency of the images with reference to their (sometimes
very scanty) explanations, evaluating the possibility that those
instruments really existed or were played in specific
circumstances.

琴的超越性进化是“琴”脱离大众艺术被士人阶层的精神气质、价值标准、审美旨趣等“雅化”的过程。经宋明理学的濡染，以儒家立场的知识阶层对琴乐艺术空前广泛的参与为契机，琴学的理学概念化、琴乐艺术实践的理学功夫化日臻主流。在琴的超越地位更进一步得到巩固和确立的同时，琴与士人的文化共生关系在宋明理学规范的生活世界中也走向成熟。尤其在理学意识形态化和制度化之后，明代儒家立场的士人阶层确立了对琴的文化专属。回顾从先秦到17世纪中叶琴学名著《谿山琴况》诞生前古琴艺术发展史的重要契机，可梳理琴乐美学标准向“超越性”倾斜的过程及其因素，并试论在此“进化”表象下，实则士人从“乐器”“道器”两个层面实现了与“琴”的文化共生。