*Guqin Art (Lingnan Style)

16.*Guqin Art (Lingnan Style)

Nominating Unit: City of Guangzhou

As one of the oldest stringed plucked instruments in China, Guqin has, through development, attained its own denominations. Lingnan Style is among the many denominations distributed in Guangzhou and its surrounding areas.

As early as the Qin Dynasty, Guqin art from the Central Plain was introduced to Lingnan and later popularized in Guangzhou. After that, famous artists of Guqin cropped up one after another. They include Hou Andu in the North and South Period, Chen Yongzhou in the Period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, Chen Baisha, Kuanglu, Chen Zizhuang, and Chen Zisheng in the Ming Dynasty. During the Reign of Emperor Daoguang in the Qing Dynasty, the Lingnan Style represented by Huang Jingxing began to gain fame with influential players such as Yun Zhigao, He Luoshu and Zheng Jianhou. Today, representatives of Guqin players include Yang Xinlun and Xie Daoxiu.

Lingnan Society has a rich collection of renowned Guqin, among which four are honored as the Grand Guqin of Lingnan, namely “Green charming dresser”, “Spring thunder”, “Autumn wave”and “Tianxiang” from the Tang Dynasty. Besides, other noted instruments like “Duliang”, “Pine and Snow”, “Zhenyu”, “Daffodil”, “Yunxi”, “Wind”, “Neutralization”, “Grain Sound”, “Flowing Stream”and “Orchid”, etc., have all kept the traditional features of the ancient Chinese Guqin.(https://www.daowen.com)

People of Lingnan school have collected, edited and kept several precious music books, among which the well-known ones are Smartweed Hall Music Book by Yun Zhigao, Snow Mount Enlightenment Music Book by Huang Jingxing, and Scholar E Temple Music Book by Zhu Qilian from the 16th to the 18th century. Of the fifty music works, most come from Music Book Lost in Gugang which, legend says, was left behind when the Emperor of the South Song Dynasty took refuge in Guangzhou (now referred to as Xinhui City, Guangdong Province). Of the fifty songs, some have become special representatives of Lingnan music, including Flowing Mountain Stream, Dialogue between Fisherman and Woodman, Reminiscence, Heron Losing the Chance, Graceful and Handsome, Two Cranes Listening to the Sound of Spring, Introduction to Deification, Wild Geese Landing on Pingsha and Crows Crowing at Night, and so on.

The thematic feature of the music, the tune of the notes, the asymmetrical nature of the rhythm as well as the light, minute but profound artistic conception of the performance have made up the fundamental characteristics of Lingnan Music. Da Pu (playing the music according to the music book) is the innovative technique of Lingnan Music. It gives full play to the musicians’ skills in dealing with oral instructions, “recovering music from the book”, relationship between tradition and player’s character, as well as the music’s overall integrity and technical details. Its unsophisticated, robust, bright and straightforward ways of playing distinguish it from other music denominations, too.

Guqin Art of Lingnan Style has experienced several ups and downs in history. In the past century, the chaos caused by wars, the vicissitudes of society, and above all the difficulty in learning, passing on and finding bosom lovers of Guqin, have brought Lingnan Guqin art to the brink of extinction. It wasn’t until in the 1990s when Guangdong Province Guqin Study Association was set up that this ancient art showed signs of reviving.

As precious evidence of the Chinese Nation, especially of Lingnan People’s humanity, history and cultural diversity, Lingnan Guqin Music was added to the list of the second batch of state-level intangible cultural heritage in 2008.