The origin of guqin

According to ancient books, the creation of Qin was related to the emperors at the beginning of Chinese civilization. According to legend, one day Fuxi visited Tongshan in Xishan, only to see the essence of five elements of gold, wood, water, fire and earth fall on the buttonwood tree one after another, and suddenly everything was shining. As soon as the color screen in the sky opened, Xiangyun took two beautiful big birds and landed on the buttonwood tree. The rest of the birds flew around the tree and sang to the two beautiful big birds in unison.

Seeing such a strange phenomenon, Fuxi called Ju Mang, the god of wood, and asked what had happened. Ju Mang smiled and said to Fuxi, "The two biggest birds are the Phoenix!" Just as they were talking, they only heard the two big birds cry "Yes, that's enough", and all the birds next to them cried together, as if in worship.

Fuxi said: "I heard that Phoenix is the king of birds, so all birds follow it. Is this credible? " Ju Mang said: "It's like following the Emperor of Heaven, which is very credible. Today, the emperor saw with his own eyes that hundreds of birds are facing the phoenix. Because the phoenix is the central god bird, it is called the king of hundreds of birds. "

Fuxi said, "I heard that the phoenix can soar into the sky, respond to the local atmosphere, have five-tone rhythm and enjoy nine virtues. It doesn't eat bamboo, drink spring water or live under a buttonwood tree. Nowadays, not only is the five-star spirit declining, but the phoenix has also come to the DPRK. This tree must be a sacred product of Tonglin and can be regarded as elegant music. " Ju Mang said, "Where there is a response, there is virtue. God is absolutely right! There are thousands of trees in Lin Mang, and only buttonwood can attract the phoenix. Using this Shenmu as a musical instrument will last for thousands of years. "

Fuxi was overjoyed at the words of the wood god, so he bowed down to Tung Tzu and said, "The son of heaven descended from heaven and gave people joy." After the ceremony, he had the tung tree cut down and came back. Fuxi carefully studied the sacred tree, and then cut the buttonwood into three sections according to the number of 33 days. He tapped the upper section with his hand, the sound was too clear, the lower section was too turbid, and then tapped the middle section, which was both clear and turbid.

Fuxi was overjoyed, so he soaked the middle paulownia in the long running water. After 8972 days and nights, it was a lucky day, and he was invited to make musical instruments skillfully. I don't know how to start, so Fuxi ordered the paulownia to be cut into three feet, six inches and five minutes according to the number of Sunday, and then according to the number of four seasons, the back is four inches wide and the front is eight inches wide. Then set the height according to the number of yin and yang instruments, and put five elements of gold, wood, water, fire and earth outside, and five strings according to the five tones of palace, business, angle, sign and feather inside.

Later, according to the scene of birds flying to the phoenix, the song "Driving Debate" was compiled for playing and singing. Whenever people celebrate harvest and festivals, people will use the cooked food provided by Fuxi and the fishing net he helped weave to salvage fish from the water, cook delicious food and put it into a sumptuous banquet. During the dinner, everyone will also play the musical instruments invented by Fuxi and sing his music, which is enjoyable and enviable.

Later, the Queen Mother gave a banquet to the gods in Yaochi, Tiangong. For fun, she specially tuned the instruments created by Fuxi to play live. Seeing this beautiful music and strange musical instruments, the gods called it Qin according to its origin, and took today's phoenix as the pictographic meaning of the king of birds. Because it is the first time to see this new celestial body in Yaochi, Tiangong, the instrument created by Fuxi Qixian is called.

Since then, there has been an ancient musical instrument-Qin. Because it was created by Fuxi, the Eastern Emperor, China's piano art attracted worldwide attention and lasted for thousands of years.

Extended data

The development of guqin

(1) Pre-Qin Dynasty: Zhong Yi of the Western Zhou Dynasty was the earliest professional violinist in existing records. There are also a lot of records about Qin in The Book of Songs and other literary works. With the development of music in the Warring States Period, Qin Le has also been greatly developed and popularized, and a large number of Qin musicians have emerged, such as Boya Classic and Zhong Ziqi Mountain and River Society. Liezi,,, Zhou, Confucius, etc.

(2) Han Dynasty: The type of Qin was determined at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. From the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Qin was very popular among literati. Cai Yong's "Cao Qin" is the richest and most detailed book focusing on pre-Qin music. The original book has been lost and compiled by later generations, and there are five Qin Ge, collectively known as "Cai Wu Lane"; It is said that he once made a famous piano made of wood from the residual coke of the stove.

(3) Wei and Jin Dynasties: During the war-torn Wei and Jin Dynasties, a large number of literati musicians appeared in the gentry class, such as "Seven Scholars of Jian 'an" and "Seven Sages of Bamboo Forest". Piano style is popular. They not only played, but also created many piano music.

(4) Northern and Southern Dynasties: During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, both monarchs and literati loved music and literature, and the literati loved to play the piano and explain the sound, and the atmosphere was extremely prosperous; Due to the restriction of the aristocratic gate system on literati, many literati are cynical and entertain themselves with piano books. During this period, the earliest word spectrum appeared, and Qiu Ming, a hermit in the Southern Dynasty, had the word spectrum "Stone Tunes the Orchid".

(5) Sui and Tang Dynasties: During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Yan music prevailed, but the piano style was slightly lower. Dong is good at playing songs such as Hu Jia, among which Yi Zhen is the most popular work. Qin also made great progress in the Tang Dynasty. For example, the Nine Flutes of Sichuan Leijia is a famous piano handed down from ancient times, which has been regarded as a rare treasure in all dynasties.

(6) Song and Yuan Dynasties: Due to the policy of suppressing martial arts and promoting literature in the Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty was very good at playing the piano from the emperor to the ruling and opposition parties, and they were all proud of playing the piano, reaching the peak of good piano in previous dynasties. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Qin began to show obvious genre inheritance. In the late Southern Song Dynasty, the first Guqin school appeared-Zhejiang School, represented by Guo Mian.

(7) Ming and Qing Dynasties: During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were many schools and a large number of piano scores were printed. The first existing subtraction score, Magic Secret Score, has preserved many ancient songs. In the late Qing Dynasty, the piano art declined relatively. In the Ming Dynasty, the number of pianos was unprecedented. Whether it is the prince of the emperor or the family of officials, there are many people who are good at piano. There are four famous piano makers in the imperial clan: Wang Ning, Hengwang, wangyi and Lu Wang.

(8) Modern times: From the late Qing Dynasty to the 1950s, there were about 100 people who could play the piano in China. Today's Qin Yu Society was founded in the Soviet Union and Shanghai in the1920s, and the piano publication Qin Yu Today was the only major event at that time. Tang Jianyuan compiled a book "Fu Qin", one of which was about the situation of Qin people in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan in the 1970s. Guqin has been gradually incorporated into the music professional education system. Musicians not only restore ancient music, but also try to create new music.

During the Republic of China, Qin spread to Southeast Asia, Europe, America, Australia and other places with the literati going abroad, especially after the reform and opening up, a large number of Chinese were overseas. So far, there are piano musicians and piano clubs in Malaysia, Singapore, the United States, Canada, Germany, Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden.

(9) Modernity: Due to the decline of Guqin and the cultural thought it symbolizes, Guqin art was included in the second batch of representative works of the world intangible cultural heritage of mankind by UNESCO on June 7, 2003. On May 20th, 2006, People's Republic of China (PRC) and the State Council, China listed the guqin in the 1 national intangible cultural heritage list, and classified it as "folk music", numbered II-34.

Baidu encyclopedia-guqin