The seven strings of Yangzhou
Behind the venerable instrument and its music are tales of great learning, nonconformism and even murder
Many music styles and instruments have their natural home. Just listen to a waltz being played on a violin and you can instantly be transported to a grand ballroom of Vienna. Then there’s the banjo-pickin’ number that has you square-dancing, American style, all the way to Nashville, Tennessee, or ukulele playing that has you lapping up the sun in Hawaii.
So if you happen to be listening to the plucking of the seven-stringed Chinese instrument the guqin, where on Earth will you take yourself to feel at home?
The answer could well be the banks of the Grand Canal in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, a city with a population of 4.4 million that may seem unremarkable to many but which at one stage of its history is reputed to have been one of the wealthiest cities in all of China.
But right here it is cultural wealth we are concerned with, and Yangzhou’s share of that, partly by virtue of the guqin, has probably been obscured by the fact that in ancient times the city was called Guangling. That name lends itself to Guangling San, or the Guangling Melody, which is said to be one of the 10 greatest classic guqin compositions.
Guangling San is associated with Ji Kang, a scholar, philosopher and musician of the Three Kingdoms era (220-280), who was widely respected for his erudition, wisdom and nonconformism.
Many works of literature, including the Book of Jin and Extensive Records of the Taiping Era, recount the tale of a journey Ji Kang made that included a night’s stopover, during which he started playing the guqin. Legend has it that in doing so a spirit appeared, enchanted by his playing, and then proceeded to teach him
Guangling San on the promise that he would never pass it on to anyone else.
(Against that quaint account of Guangling San, which in its longest renderings can be as long as 20 minutes, is one from the second century book Qin Cao, presenting a dark tale of revenge that includes regicide and suicide.)
Later Ji was constantly at loggerheads with bureaucracy and orthodox Confucianism, to the point that in 262 or 263, he was sentenced to death by the regent Sima Zhao. Three thousand scholars pleaded for him to be spared, to no avail, and just before Ji was executed, probably beheaded, he is said to have played Guangling San a final time before lamenting: “This day Guangling San is forever lost.” The modern Guangling San comes from the music score compilation Mysterious and Marvelous Tablature, compiled by the music and opera researcher Zhu Quan in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Zhu claimed the tablature was passed down by Ji’s nephew Yuan Xiaoji, who claimed he had learned the piece by hanging around a window eavesdropping on Ji as he played.
Although the origins of Guangling San, the authenticity of its tablature, and the relationship between the piece and Yangzhou continue to be debated among academics, it is widely accepted that the piece was once circulated in the Yangzhou region, underling a historical connection between Yangzhou and guqin culture.
Guqin was among the earliest plucked instruments in China, traditionally known simply as qin, a general term for many musical instruments. It is listed as the first of the four arts, followed by Chinese board games (qi), calligraphy (shu) and painting (hua).
As a nirvana for scholars and artists such as the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou, a group of painters in the 18th century who rejected orthodox methods in favor of a more individualistic style of painting, Yangzhou has its own illustrious story of a connection with the guqin that dates back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The poet Li Qi, in his The Song of
Qin (qin ge), tells of listening to a qin performance at a farewell banquet. In this poem the phrase “Guangling guest” specifically refers to the accomplished guqin players, the presence of Guangling guqin players being regarded as underlining the host’s hospitality and high status.
Yangzhou’s guqin culture reached its zenith during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), when many Yangzhou musicians rose to fame because of their mastery of the instrument, in practice and in theory. The most renowned, Xu Changyu, founded the Guangling school of guqin in Yangzhou. His style of guqin playing features a subdued tone and a flexible rhythm, and displays a taste for simplicity and subtlety.
Xu valued original music and devoted most of his life to compiling the tablature of classic guqin pieces, which was later collated and published as Qin Tablature of the Clear
Mirror Hall (Chengjian Tang Qinpu) by his three sons, all of whom were accomplished guqin players.
In modern China, Yangzhou musicians led by Sun Shaotao established the Guangling Qin Society in 1912, the activities of which were suspended in 1937 due to the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (193145), and resumed in 1984.
Yangzhou continues to be home to China’s most well-known guqin masters, one being Ma Weiheng, regarded by many as an unofficial ambassador of the Yangzhou region.
“The Guangling School of guqin is closely related to Yangzhou’s culture, from food and garden, to language and literature,” Ma says.
Following the tradition of the Guangling School, he founded the Nanfeng Qin Society in 2008 and the Hanfeng Guqin Construction Technique Research Institute in 2012, aiming to ensure that the legacy of the Guangling School is passed on and that research into the culture and construction of the instrument would continue.
The society says there has been increasing interest in the guqin among university students, whom it has helped set up campus guqin societies, the earliest being Yangzhou University Guqin Society, in 2013.
Liu Jiahui, a student at the College of Liberal Arts at Yangzhou University, who has studied the guqin for two years and is now president of the society, says she started looking into the university’s student societies in the summer when she was admitted. Having interest in traditional Chinese culture and a background in Chinese calligraphy, she was intrigued by the guqin society and joined it after enrolling. The society has more than 200 past and present members.
Since it was set up the Nanfeng Qin Society has provided it with 10 guqin and supporting facilities for the students’ daily practice. Guqin professionals from Nanfeng also go to the university four times a week, offering the students lessons free of charge.
Zhang Wei, a professional guqin player and student of Ma Weiheng, has played an important role in making those lessons possible.
“Promoting guqin among university students is an important part of our effort in passing on and disseminating Yangzhou’s guqin culture,” Zhang says. “University students, liberal arts students in particular, have a strong background in traditional Chinese culture, so they’re particularly adept at learning the guqin.”
The members are very hard-working as well, Liu says. Apart from the weekly lessons, the society holds discussion groups and public lectures, and members often attend workshops at the Nanfeng Qin Society with
guqin masters including Ma.
The society has an annual on-campus guqin concert performed entirely by the members in which junior and senior students give solo performances, and the first- and second-year students can also perform as part of an ensemble.
Last year, in recognition of the society’s teaching and promotional efforts, the intangible cultural heritage protection center of Yangzhou designated it as a university-level inheritance society.
There are now about 70 university-level guqin societies in China, Ma says. Teachers from the Guangling school have been working throughout the country, helping universities set up their own guqin societies, including in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, and Wuhan, Hubei province.
Obviously with all those players and the new recruits there is a demand for guqin and the accompanying equipment, and Yangzhou plays an important role in that regard too.
In 2015 the China National Light Industry Council and the China Musical Instrument Association designated the city as the national Zither Industry Capital, and the China Nationalities Orchestra Society says that in 2017 factories in the city produced about 70,000 guqin, accounting for almost half the market.
Yangzhou has even contrived to ensure that the guqin is not left out of sight like an old violin locked away in a dusty cupboard but is given full public exposure in the form of a Guqin Street, believed to be the only one of its type in the country.
In this street, running between historic Dongguan Street and the classical private garden Geyuan, the instrument is ubiquitous, holding absolute sway. The street was co-established in 2015 by a local cultural company and a Taiwan investment company.
Wang Junfeng, founder of the street, says he hopes to establish a platform of collaboration and exchange for guqin lovers from Yangzhou and Taiwan, and together promote China’s traditional culture.
The street now has a complete value chain of guqin culture that integrates production, sales, instruction and performance. It has not only attracted many Yangzhou local guqin and guzheng (21-string Chinese zither) companies, but also those from outside the province and tourists from around the world.
Zhang Yu, representative of the company Musicraft Zhang in Tianjin, says: “Yangzhou has a particularly rich cultural atmosphere, especially its guqin culture, so we immediately chose to open a store in the street. We would like to promote the fusion between southern and northern guqin art.”
In December Yangzhou added one more string to its bow as it looked to draw on its connections with the guqin: The Yangzhou Zither Culture Industrial Park was opened in the city’s Ganquan Town, with a commercial street aimed at attracting tourists.
If those who love the guqin have their way, Yangzhou may one day be as renowned a center for the classical instrument as Vienna is for the violin.
Yangzhou has a particularly rich cultural atmosphere, especially its
guqin culture, so we immediately chose to open a store in the street. We would like to promote the fusion between southern and northern
guqin art.” Zhang Yu representative of the company Musicraft Zhang in Tianjin