![]() It is played mainly for one’s own enjoyment or for a small group of friends, often amidst the grandeur of nature. It is associated with scholar-officials, as depicted in works of art in the Freer Gallery. In its current form, the qin has been documented in China for about two thousand years. Since the qin has no frets or bridges, the performer uses the right hand to pluck the strings while the left hand slides along and stops them. Thirteen markers run along the outer edge. The instrument has seven strings made of twisted silk and mounted on a hollow, lacquered wooden box. ![]() Some of the most distinguished qin musicians in Chinese history were Buddhist monks, who played this type of zither in the seclusion of their temples and passed on their art to their younger disciples. Taoism and Buddhism contrast with Confucian ideology by rejecting human society altogether, turning for inspiration instead to the simplicity of nature and to the inner spiritual world of the individual. For example, Confucianism provided many stories to the qin repertoire that address the hierarchy of the five cardinal social orders, such as loyalty to one’s emperor. While all three systems exerted influence over the history, ideology, and aesthetics of qin music, each also played its role in different aspects of the tradition. The first two systems developed originally in China, while the last of these arrived from South Asia via the Silk Road in the first century. ![]() Its repertoire embodies China’s three major religious-philosophical systems of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. The history of the qin (pronounced “chin”), or guqin (ancient qin), dates back at least two millennia.
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