During the Three Kingdoms period, Ji Kang, a literary scholar from Cao Wei and the spiritual leader of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Forest, wrote in the opening of his "Qin Fu" that "among all the instruments, the virtue of the qin is the best." As an important part of the "Peking University Guqin Inheritance Plan - Guqin Entering Universities", the Guqin Concert "Singing of Dead Trees and Dragons - Wake up Guqin" held several performances in small theaters such as the Chinese Academy of Art and the Gongwang Mansion Theater
As a declaration and protection unit for the art of guqin, the Chinese Academy of Arts has rich experience in the research and protection of guqin. In recent years, it has regularly held activities such as "Singing of Dead Trees and Dragons - Wake up the guqin" to promote the widespread dissemination of guqin art through demonstration performances, academic speeches, and other forms.
As a plucked instrument with a history of over 3000 years, the guqin is also known as the yao qin, jade qin, and seven stringed qin. Guqin differs depending on the shape of the neck and waist, commonly known as the Fuxi style, Zhongni style, Luoxia style, Liezi style, Shennong style, banana leaf style, sword style, etc. In order to fully vibrate the piano, the surface is usually made of pine wood such as tung wood and fir wood. Guqin has a wide range, deep timbre, and a long and lingering aftertaste. The Qin School originated from the Yushan School in the late Ming Dynasty and the Guangling School in the Qing Dynasty. The differences between each Qin School mainly depend on the region, teacher inheritance, and genealogy, as well as the Beijing School, Pucheng School, and Panchuan School. In 2003, China's "Guqin Art" was included in the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage Projects for Humanity.
At present, apart from those collected by private collectors, most of the ancient qin pieces that have been passed down are collected in museums, universities, and other institutions with over 500 pieces. However, these priceless ancient qin pieces are usually protected as cultural relics, and some are even placed in wooden cabinets with constant temperature and humidity Tian Qing, the initiator of the National Art Foundation funded project "Wake up the Guqin", lamented the origin of protecting the Guqin by "making it sound".
Tian Qing recalled that he accidentally came across a piano made by the famous Italian medieval violinist Antonio Stradivarius, which is still preserved by the Rockefeller Foundation in the United States, and used it for a concert. Stradivarius has over 100 pieces of qin that have been passed down to this day, each worth approximately $1 million. The qin collected by foundations and museums has always been used by renowned violinists and musicians, and sometimes even held music competitions specifically for the qin as rewards. Champions can use these qin to play, which has formed a form of instrument protection. In this tradition, Si's qin has been passed down from generation to generation.
If the sleeping over 500 guqin pieces are not 'awakened' again, they may be lost. Therefore, the original intention of launching the 'Wake up Guqin' project is to hope that the guqin can make a sound, so that the people can glimpse the souls of their ancestors from the performance of the guqin, and converse with their ancestors in the music played by the guqin. "Tian Qing said, this is a concept and perseverance for inheriting guqin culture and inheriting excellent traditional Chinese culture. This model of changing the "passive protection" of guqin to "active protection", while also widely benefiting the public, is a beneficial exploration in exploring "original ecological protection".
Feng Zhuohui, an associate researcher at the Music Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Arts, conducted an experiment in "Research on the Preservation Method of Guqin": two pianists were asked to play the guqin continuously for two days, and then intuitively displayed the differences between playing and not playing the guqin to the audience through data comparison, image and audio analysis. The results proved the positive value of Tian Qing's advocacy of "making the guqin sound" protection concept. Therefore, for Guqin, scientific protection methods are particularly important.
Lin Chen, Associate Researcher of the Institute of Music at the Chinese Academy of Art and Representative Inheritor of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage Project Guqin Art, said, "The poet Bai Juyi once compared the guqin to a beneficial friend. It is not a simple instrument, but a partner that integrates memory and emotions. Therefore, the highest realm of playing the guqin is the unity of the qin and the human." The author once listened to Lin Chen use the Ming qin "banana leaf style nameless qin" to stroke the strings of "The Wild Goose Falling in the Sand", As I listened to his explanation, "The banana leaf style qin is very unique and rare. Regarding the qin style, there were 38 recorded in the early Ming Dynasty, and more than 50 by the early Qing Dynasty. Unlike the West, many ancient Chinese qin people used to carve their own qin.
Just like these vital musical instruments, the protection of the guqin should allow the art of the guqin to move from a "physical collection" to a "academic collection", becoming a "spiritual repository" deep within human hearts. Only in this way can the guqin be brought closer to the public in a way that conforms to its own characteristics.