Yaji 30^th May 2004

This, the 7^th meeting of the London Youlan Qin Society, was our second gathering for 2004. It was held in the Pitt Rivers Museum Centre for Musical Instruments and Textiles, Balfour Building, 60 Banbury Road, Oxford. It would be hard to find a finer venue. The Museum, with its fine collection of musical instruments from around the world, was an inspiration. The collection includes a number of unusual items from China, including a 6-string pipa. The society is deeply grateful to the Curator for making it possible for us to have a meeting at the Museum, for her support and for and for all the work she did during the day which contributed so much to the success of this event. Many people said it was our best meeting yet.

Programme

Cheng Yu - played Guanshan Yue* and Liu Shui*
Julian Joseph - played Guangling San Zheng Qu*
Tsai Tsan-Huang - played Ping Sha Luo Yan (Fan Chuan version, orally transmitted)⁺
Michael Gubman - played Ping Sha Luo Yan (from Qinxue Congshu, Guan Pinghu's transcription)⁺
Yeh Shi-Hua - played Ao Ai⁺
Hu Feifei - played Jiu Kuang⁺
Charlie Huang - played Gao Shan⁺
Dan Nung Ing - played Linzhong Yi (from Xilutang Qintong, Gong Yi's transcription)^#
Tan Chinwee - played Xiao Xiang Shui Yun^&

Played on a Qing Dynasty qin with silk strings

^*Played on a qin made by Zeng Chengwei with steel/nylon strings

⁺Played on a Ming (?) Dynasty qin with steel/nylon strings

^& Played on a qin made by Li Guangyu with steel/nylon strings

In the Music Garden of the Pitt Rivers Museum Centre for Musical Instruments and Textiles

Introduction

Cheng Yu and Tsai Tsanhuang began the proceedings, and Dr la Rue, Curator of the Collection, gave a brief introduction to the history of the Collection and garden. The majority of the Museum's musical instruments date back to the 19^th century, when Henry Balfour started the collection. However, some items date back as far as to the Tradescants in the 17^th century. The original nucleus of 300 instruments has now grown to some 7000 music-related objects, of which only a small proportion can be on display. The garden is known as the Music Garden, and was dedicated to the great organologist Anthony Baines on the occasion of his 85^th birthday. Every plant has a musical connection.

Cheng Yu then played a piece (Guanshan Yue) by way of an introduction to the music for those who had not heard it before. This was followed by a brief introduction to the qin by Julian Joseph. The earliest qins, such as those unearthed from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng (ca 433 BC) had a body and a tail and 10 strings, and were unlike modern qins. However the design of the qin, with its characteristic shape and 7 strings, has not changed substantially for at least 2000 years, although qins made during the Tang Dynasty were broader and more steeply curved than later ones. Confucius was a qin player, and the qin piece You Lan (The Solitary Orchid) is associated with him. Traditionally, the qin was the preserve of the literati, and was played mainly among small groups of like-minded people. There is a special type of tablature notation for qin music, which tells the player what to do, but gives only somewhat vague clues as to tempo and rhythm. There is debate as to whether the old scores specify how the piece was intended to be played, or whether they described the way a particular masters played the piece. Until the 1950s, the strings were made of silk, but are now made of steel overwound with nylon. They are more durable and give a brighter, louder and more sustained tone than silk. In either case, the outermost strings are the thickest, getting thinner towards the player. The tuning is pentatonic.

Guangling San Zhen Qu

This piece is somewhat different to the Guangling San in Shenqi Mipu, which is the version played today, although it is clearly related. Guangling San is associated with the story of how Nie Zheng assassinated the Han king in order to avenge the death of his father. The Han king had a sword maker executed for failing to deliver on time a sword he had commissioned him to make. The sword maker's son Nie Zheng made up his mind to avenge his father's death. He went into the mountains for ten years, learned to play the qin and became a famous player, giving performances all over the country. The king heard of him and asked him to perform in the palace. Nie Zheng thus realized his long-cherished wish to kill him. Fearing his family might be in danger if his identity were known, he afterwards mutilated his face beyond recognition and committed suicide. The piece is also associated with Ji Kang, one of the "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove", a group of literati who used to engage in music, poetry and wine drinking in a bamboo retreat in the mountains. He is said to have learrned the piece from a ghost around the end of the San Guo (Three Kingdoms) period (220-280 AD), during the transition from the Wei to the Jin Dynasty, and to have played it just before he was executed. Another version of this story, as quoted in the Shiyi Xian Guan Qinpu, from which this piece was taken, says that it was not Guangling San but another piece, called Taiping Yin, that he played before his execution. The Shiyi Xian Guan Qinpu was compiled by Liu E, style Tieyun, better known as the author of the novel Lao Can Youji (The Travels of Lao Can). According to the Shiyi Xian Guan Qinpu, the early Qing Dynasty qin master Wang Anhou heard the piece in a dream, subsequently acquired the score and on playing it realised it was the piece he had heard in his dream. The Shiyi Xian Guan Qinpu presents two versions of the piece, one from Wang Anhou's score, the other a version modified by Liu E's qin teacher Zhang Ruishan. The earliest version is in the 1634 qin handbook Guyin Zheng Zong, in which it is preceeded by a short piece similar to the modal preludes (diaoyi) found in early Ming Dynasty qin handbooks. Julian Joseph played this prelude, then the version by Zhang Ruishan.

Antique qins

Many people have argued that, in order to play qin in the traditional way, it is necessary to use an antique insrument fitted with silk strings. This is possible because the way in which qins are constructed, and covered with layers of hard lacquer, enables them to be preserved for a great length of time. Qins over 1000 years old are still in good playing condition, and qins built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) are not uncommon. Many people say that such instruments should not be kept in a museum, where they are "dead", but that they should be played regularly. One cannot walk into a shop and buy an antique qin - you need to have the right connections. The qin used to play several of the pieces on this occasion was of uncertain provenance, probably Ming, possibly earlier, and had steel/nylon strings. Another antique qin some of us played was made in 1803 (Qing (1644-1911) Dynasty) and had belonged to a well-known calligrapher since 1834, as evidenced by the fine calligraphy on the base. This one was fitted with silk strings, so we had the opportunity to compare the two types of sound. Here Dan Nung Ing is showing us the base of the qin.

High Mountains and Flowing Water

Charlie Huang, a self-taught qin player from Birmingham, played his interpretation of Gao Shan (High Mountains) from Shenqi Mipu. This was originally part of a longer piece, Gao Shan Liu Shui, which was separated into two individual pieces, Gao Shan and Liu Shui (Flowing Water), during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Gao Shan Liu Shi (High Mountains and Flowing Water) is said to have been composed by Yu Boya. Like many qin pieces, they can be interpreted on more than one level. On the surface Gao Shan describes high mountains, with passages depicting the wild flowers and moss and the sounds of streams and birds, and Liu Shui describes various movements of flowing water from a gentle trickle to a powerful waterfall. On a deeper level, they relate to a famous story: about 2000 years ago, the famous but apparently esoteric Yu Boya would often play the qin alone, resigned to being the only person able to recognise his music as a representation of the classic images of Chinese art - mountains and water. One day, a stranger by the name of Zhong Ziqi approached him as he sat playing under a pine tree. Zhong Ziqi recognised the images conveyed by his music, and the resulting artistic communion was the foundation of a deep and close friendship that was to last until Zhong Ziqi's death. Then, unable to bear the loss of his companion, Yu Boya smashed his qin at his friend's graveside and never played again. Even today In China, a particularly close and sympathetic friend is described as zhiyin - a person "who knows one's music".

Discussion

After we had played several pieces, we had a wide-ranging discussion about a number of qin-related topics, beginning with the status of the qin in China today. Compared with only a few years ago, it appears to be ejoying something of a revival. There has been a huge increase in the number of amateur players, and even children are taking it up. There has been a corresponding, but much smaller, increase in the number of professional and accomplished amateur players - up from 40 a few years ago to around 100. Nonetheless, only a few of the music conservatories offer courses in qin. However before the 1950s, all qin players were amateurs. It was never played in a concert environment, only in yajis. Traditionally, it was passed from master to pupil. Often a master's son would learn to play a little simply by seeing and hearing it all the time. Eventually the master would realise this and start formal lessons. The traditional teaching method was for the student to copy the teacher exactly. There were special tables, on which two qins could be played, master and pupil sitting opposite each other. Scores were rarely or never used. This kind of teaching was not done for money, payment often being nominal and/or dependent on the student's ability to pay. The pupil had no say in what he/she would learn. They would just learn the master's repertoire, and nothing else; it was not acceptable to play a piece in front of your teacher that you had learned elsewhere. To some extent, this practice still goes on in Taiwan. However, many teachers now teach in order to make a living, and therefore have to take their students' desires into account. This applies to all traditional Chinese instruments, not only the qin - but not to Western instruments such as the piano, where fees can be very high. In present-day mainland China most qin masters have learned from several teachers, and they do not belong to any particular school. Indeed, several well-known qin masters there have published self-teach VCD sets. Far from diluting the influence of the teacher, many students who learn from these self-teach aids want to further their studies with the teacher whose VCDs they learned from. Also, they can reach many more students in this way. Some people questioned how much one can understand the true spirit of qin music by learning through technology rather than directly from a master. The response was that one can appreciate all forms of music, including qin, in many ways. Indeed, how well does the average, non-playing listener understand Western classical music?

It is widely acknowledged that playing the qin has meditational value. The posture required is itself meditative; the purity of the harmonics (almost a sine wave) and the preponderance of consonance as opposed to the disonance that occurs in some types of music - all have been shown to have a calming effect. Furthermore the heart and brain can entrain to a slow pulse - say around 60 beats per minute - which is quite close the the pulse of many pieces of qin music. This was all borne out by the experience of several of those present. Some say that playing any musical instrument can have this effect. However this is not borne out by experience. The pipa, for example, is generally too fast and bright, with too many dissonances, and the posture is not sufficiently relaxed.

How do you define qin? Is is purely a form of music or musical repertoire, or is it something more than that? Opinions vary. Some say it is just music, others say it is a complete package: the music, the instrument, and the associated culture and philosophy. This is an area of debate, as is the question of whether one should use silk or steel/nylon strings, and whether it should be played in the concert hall or be confined to small gatherings (yajis). However similar questions arise in the music of other cultures; they are not unique to the qin. Another controversial question is that of the standardisation of instruments. At one time, a player would make their own instrument, and it would probably be the only one they would play. In Taiwan and Hong kong, it is still not uncommon for a student to make a qin as part of their study of the instrument. But nowadays, batches of identical instruments are turned out in quantity from factories. Just as many schools of Buddhism coexist peacefully together, it is to be hoped that people with different views regarding qin music can exist together, and enrich each other. All are paths leading to the same destination.