Essays ( English )

梧桐瑣記

What comes to your mind when you think about the qin(guqin)? The four accomplishments of Chinese literati? Its depictions in pictures and literature? Its long history which could go back to the era of legend? And the qin without strings? I remember at beginning I had not much knowledge of these, and it was hard to enjoy when I listened to somebody’s playing of the qin. Why such music has been revered? It was partly out of curiosity that I decided to learn it. Gradually I wanted to know more, and then started exploring.

Coming to contact with qin music for the first time, you would feel boring and sleepy. Besides one’s taste on music, it is maybe because of crucial portion of extra-music elements such as each piece’s back ground and symbolism which reflect s player’s way of thinking. Furthermore, these are shared among another Chinese classical field. Therefore I would say both profundity and unfamiliarity of qin music are derived from this circumstance.

I would like to give an example of a Chinese painting which I have seen in a book. A Stone like a taro and a wined tree painted with rough touch called “A withered tree, a strange stone “. Although it may not give you impression of beauty with a single look, but what if you know the thought laying behind that: because of useless, it would not be cut and therefore could live longer? Does it not make any change to you? Sometimes it is similar to the case of qin music, there are some pieces which I feel difficult to understand and put aside until I could accept naturally.

Being with the qin, what interest me is each moment when I feel the continuity of practitioners. In the first place, for example, while practicing with music book for the qin to find elaborate fingering relating to tones. It is pleasure to imagine through body action if former qin players think it special here. And also by reading its writing part, such as remarks, occasionally I feel close to the mind of its compiler. Secondly, when listening to somebody playing the qin to recognize the energetic feature of their school whose establisher, about two generations ago, and his music I only have heard by CDs. Or in a case of another school, to find delicate and gentle timber special to their teacher was succeeded through several generations of students. They made me become conscious with the existence of intangible teaching from teachers.

Thirdly, the instruments. When viewing the antique qin, or imagining the origin and history of them from exhibitions or catalogues, I can not help thinking of people‘s thought tried to carefully preserve them, and its time passage through objects, although it is said sometimes the basis for judgment of the date when they are made is not clear enough, and there could be replicas. But if I had a chance to touch them which have being played till now, it would be fascinating.

On the other hand, opposite to the consciousness of continuity of the qin, sometimes I feel the distance from modern life and music environment. Living in a society in which efficiency and speed are likely preferred, I wonder how qin music would coexist? Thinking it however, it could be one of significance of coexistence to being able to propose alternative direction by having own characteristics different from mainstream of which standard of value is taken for granted somehow or other.

Cecilia Lindqvst, her Chinese name Lin Xili is a Swedish scholar. She wrote some episodes of when she started to learn qin music in China. According to her ”Lin Xili story of guqin” (traditional Chinese version published at Taipei in 2009), she has studied Chinese language at Beijing university from 1961 for two years. At the same time she became a student of Beijing guqin society, and learned to play the qin from Ms. Wang Ti (1929-2005). Against her expectation, she felt slow in progress, then proposed to Wang Ti to give her some pieces of scale or etude to train every finger like piano so that she could practice at dormitory. Being surprised to hear that, Wang stared at her and said as follows. I cite my trial translation:

“Do you really do so in your country? Don’t you respect your instruments?” I thought I understood in a real sense the status of guqin in Chinese culture for the first time. . . Its dignity is incomparable, its tones connect human being and the grate nature, and touch one’s soul deeply. . . However what is significant is to express one’s thought for life through music, not to play a perfect tone.

Raising some features of the qin as music, maybe you already know, it is basically monophony, low volume, and programmatic nature. We enjoy subtle and rich change, as well as player’s spirit in its restricted volume. It is possible to say in order to improve one’s consciousness of tones, this method to obtain related techniques naturally by practicing music piece is reasonable. Wang Ti has taught another foreign student. I would like to talk with them in the future. Around 30 years later, when I start to learn qin music with another teacher, after practicing some of the most fundamental fingering such as mo, tiao, gou, ti, cuo and so on, then how to play harmonics, she let me play a short piece called “Xian weng cao” which could also used to confirm the tuning.

　When I hear someone playing the qin, I feel some do well but not seem like qin music at times, some do too plane because of inexperienced, yet some impress me although the performance is rather simple. People have their favorite, and some would say playing the qin is for him/herself therefore other’s opinions are nonsense. Setting it aside, so, what is regarded to be important? To provide clues, I would like to make a brief introduction of an essay on the qin called ‘Xi shan Qin kuang’ (involved in a music book of the qin entitled ”Da huan ge qin pu”) which has considerable influence even now. The author XU Shang ying is a person lived in late Ming to early Qing dynasty, he divided ideal way of qin performance into 24 categories and made a comprehensive argument on it. Among them, the first category ‘He’ in Chinese which means harmonized was considered most important. Following is my tentative translation. He continued to say:

. . . Strings harmonized with fingers, fingers harmonized with tones, tones harmonized with the idea, and concord is achieved. . . The idea leads tones, tones follow the idea, then various subtleness will appear. Therefore in order to embody the idea, one should practice tones first. After well practiced, it will be able to meet the idea. . . Theses are the way exact tones correspond with profound idea.

Here he mentioned the relation how strings, fingers, and the idea would be harmonized. The emphasis of ‘Yi’ which means the idea in the classical artistic discussions of China is generally well known, as Xu suggested “the idea leads tones.”

In category of ‘Gu=antique,’ he defined ‘contending and flattering ear’ as ‘popular,’ then ‘light and to be seen in one’s heart’ as ‘antique.’ As undesirable example, he pointed out that if one regard rough as simple, dull as modest, although it seems like to surpass ‘popular,’ but in fact being sick for antiquity. In other categories, he discussed characteristics as well as mutual relation of majestic / subtle, light / heavy, and slow / rapid specifically, and the importance of its being harmonized without unbalanced. The text of category ‘He=harmonized’ is concluded as follows. ” . . . Great music is profound, the ancient lore is hard to revive. If one’s nature and emotions are not balanced, and regard qin music as a matter of technique, then more and more will be lost what has been succeeded.”

Here we should make attention on the notion that technique is the requirement, and state of one’s nature and emotions are also considered. We can find another essays written in the Song dynasty to mention practical aspect of the qin. However before ‘Xi shan Qin kuang’ it seems like cultivating one’s nature and emotions has been rather emphasized in the discourse on principals of the qin which derived from previous discussions on music. His attitude to value both performance and state of nature and emotions will illuminate us continuously to approach qin music deeply.

A person who plays the qin called ‘qin ren,’ rarely ‘qin shi,’ or ‘qin jia’ in the case of a master in Chinese, regardless of his / her occupation. It seems that they likely enjoy their life. Neither Su Shi, nor Zhang Dai, personage in ancient China, we are going to see a part of daily life of modern qin players’ through their hobbies and activities, yet within a limited scope.

Guan Pinghu (1895-1967), originally also a painter, is said to be good at keeping goldfish and southern oriented plants at Beijing which ware difficult to let them pass the winter in the north. “Jin yu Qin kan”, a bulletin of Jin yu Qin Society published in 1937, contains a list of qin players who had contact with the Society, and it also carries their teaching of teachers, the qin they possessed, as well as their contact address. As to their hobbies and activities, it has fields of ‘another music,’ ‘another arts,’ and ‘another tastes’ which deferred by person, they seem like to have practiced variety of things. For example, various Chinese instruments, Kun qu (Kun opera), piano, painting and calligraphy, seal-engraving, making the qin, Weiqi (Go), photography, Poetry, martial arts, Feng shui, drinking wine, traveling, gardening, bonsai, kite-flying, tea, keeping cricket, keeping gold fish and bird, reciting poems, riding hours, collecting antiques and so forth, which implies part of their living.

I think cotemporary qin players whom I know have common tendency. Some practice painting and calligraphy come up to my mind. One is versed in various instruments in addition to researching and playing the qin. Another one whose painting very charming, writes novels, teaches calligraphy. Some of them make the qin by themselves.

Incidentally, I remember a film of which title I forgot, with a hero who is a brave Medieval European knight who time slip by some chance to the present exhibition room of a museum at big city. What was impressing is a scene when on the moment the hero and his follower went out of the museum, they were shocked by the huge noise of outside and trembled for fear.

Going back to the subject, in modern life more or less we feel restless and it would not be easy to reserve time to face the qin calmly, due to housing conditions, something or other. Supposing we do have much free time, if we are not able to enjoy our life, I guess the tones we produce will become thin and strained.

Having mentioned above, I don’t intend to put airs, and for my self, I like to loiter along in my discursive life. The condition of body and heart has ups and downs. When not being able to face the qin as I wish to, I will do another thing for a change, for example, going out for a walk, doing something carefully, reading a book, meeting a person, with the expectation it would be helpful to improve energies for the qin, and I keep in my mind to value daily life.

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