How is the beautiful pattern on the surface of the guqin formed?

The most important criterion for judging the quality of a guqin is the lacquer.

The lacquer is a process passed down from the Tang Dynasty - the wood is first "framed", and then "gray tires" are put on the outside of the "framed", and then "gray tires" are put on the outside of the "gray tires". outside of the wood, and then on the "gray tire", "gray tire" outside and then "lacquer". Under the impetus of time, the wood of the guqin will shrink, but if the lacquer does not shrink with the wood, there will be "peaks", i.e., the surface of the guqin arches up like a mountain peak. If the wood expands, and the lacquer expands and swells to a degree that can't keep up, the surface of the guqin will crack, and over time, the longer the vibration is played and the greater the amplitude, the more broken lines will appear.

There is a saying that "with the piano **** old", when the person who plays the piano is old and wrinkled, the "wrinkles" on the piano also began to come out.

Guqin because of the characteristics of its production process, coupled with the polishing of time, the unique phenomenon of broken grain can be described as a variety of forms. The first manifestation of the broken grain of the lacquer of the guqin is the "ox-hair break", which is fine and thin, like a thread or a root of ox-hair. With the passage of time, it shows "flowing water breaks" - the broken lines flow down like a trickle of fine water. After another five or six hundred years, such as the early Ming Dynasty or Song Dynasty zither, there is the "ice break", the breakage pattern shows the appearance of a hammer hitting the ice, the ice breaks open. In addition, there are also "plum blossom breaks" like five-petaled plum blossoms in full bloom, and "snake belly breaks" similar to the size of the snake belly pattern, etc. These breaks are polished by time and players, and the various styles of patterns are intertwined, which is extremely rich and beautiful, making the ancient zither It has become an attractive work of art.

Additionally, the broken grain has another function, which is to make the sound from the guqin extraordinarily charming. The principle of the sound of the guqin is to have a *** sounding cavity formed by the panel and the base plate, and in principle, the guqin has only one *** sounding cavity. However, when the lacquer cracks, peaks up or even cracks, the *** sounding cavity in the entire embryo of the wood and the formation of countless small, large and small, thousands of small *** sounding cavity, so that the final guqin presented *** sound effect is very much with the ancient style of the ancient charm.

Niu Hair Break

Plum Blossom Break

Flowing Water Break

Mixed Break (Flowing Water Break+Niu Hair Break)

Great Serpent's Belly Break

Ice Pattern Break

This answer has been provided by Yang Zhijian, a special expert of the guqin of the Forbidden City