Nothing is More Rewarding than Pleasing Your Ear and Soul through Guzheng and Guqin
Zoe Traditional Instrumental Studio is established to promote Chinese ancient instruments, Guzheng and Guqin, both home and abroad.
Introduction of Guqin
Guqin is a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument of the zither family with a history of more than 3000 years. The prefix “gu-” (meaning “ancient”) was later added for clarification. It can also be called qixianqin (lit. “seven-stringed instrument”).
Guqin has traditionally been favored by scholars and literati as an instrument of great subtlety and refinement. Guqin has always been viewed as the first place among the four Chinese high culture activities, namely Guqin, Chess, calligraphy and painting.
There are a lot of Chinese symbols around this instrument.
Guqin’s measurement line is 3 feet 65 inches representing the 365 days in a year. The top part is round representing the sky. The bottom part is flat, representing the earth. The whole body of the Guqin correspond the body of phoenix which is a bird of wonder, also the body of Guqin looks like the human body, with head, neck, shoulder, waist and feet etc.
There are 13 stars/markers representing the 13 months of Chinese lunar year. The stars/markers, made by shell, gold, silver, jade, or pearl, make the points, called the “Hui” (emblem) to indicate the sound position. The biggest Hui (star/marker) represents the lunar month.
There are 7 strings in of Guqin. The first 5 in pentatonic scale representing 5 elements Metal, wood, water, fire and the earth. The 6th string was added by King Wen when his son was died. So it is sorrowful. The 7th string was added by King Wu when he encouraged his soldiers go to the war. So the 7th string is very strong.
The Guqin produces the most diligent and subtle tones. There are 3 categories of sounds produced by the Guqin. Harmonics represents the sound from the Heaven. Open Strings represent the sound from the earth. Stopped strings represent the Human being.
Introduction of Guzheng
Besides Guqin, we, Zoe traditional instrumental Studio, has another zither, named Guzheng, which has existed since the warring states period and became especially popular during the Qin dynasty. Zheng is the forerunner of Japanese koto, Korean kayagum, Mongolian yatag, and Vietnamese dan tranh.
Due to its long history, the Zheng has been called Guzheng or Gu-Zheng where “Gu” stands for “ancient” in Chinese, the same with Guqin. To differentiate it from Guqin, we can start from its structure, among which the bridge stretched along the front panel is the easiest one.
Zheng (Guzheng) is built with a special wooden sound body with strings arched across movable bridges along the length of the instrument for the purpose of tuning. In the early times the Zheng has 5 strings (quite probably with bamboo sound body); later it developed into 12 to 13 strings in the Tang Dynasty (618–907AD) and 16 strings in the Song and Ming dynasty (from the 10th to 15th century). At present, Zheng usually has 21–25 strings.
Note that Guzheng should not be confused with Guqin, 7-stringed zither without bridges.
Conclusion
Both Guqin and Guzheng are Chinese uniquely traditional culture with their own specialties. On the other way, because of its low but soft volume, Guqin is considered to please the soul, while Guzheng is to please the ear owe to its loud and clear sound. To please your ear or your soul, it’s up to you here in Zoe Traditional Instrumental Studio.
