It is still a mystery when the piano was first produced. In ancient times, it is said that it was created by Shennong, or it is said that it was made by Fuxi, and it is also said that Yao and Shun made it. The ancient legends are hard to believe, but they imply that the ancients believed that the appearance of the qin was very distant, so it should be consistent with the facts.

1. Before the Pre-Qin Dynasty

At present, there are very few guqin objects from the pre-Qin period to the early Western Han Dynasty discovered by archaeology. These qin shapes are basically the same, but very different from the shapes that are used today. Its panel is separated from the bottom panel, and floats together when playing; the panel is divided into two parts: a half box body and a solid wood long tail, the tail end is slightly upturned, and the end has a notch (long gum); , Ann has a square peg (goose foot). They also do not have the emblem to indicate the position of the overtones on the front panel, and the effective string length (hidden) is also significantly shorter than that of the later generations. They can be called half-box-style one-legged pianos without emblem. They range from one to ten strings, indicating that the seven-string customization has not yet been formed. For example, ten-stringed qin unearthed from the tomb of Zenghou Yi in the early Warring States Period in Sui County, Hubei Province; painted qin (severely damaged) unearthed from the late Warring States Period tomb in Changsha, Hunan Province, with nine strings or less; examples of lyre in Guodian Village, Jingmen, Hubei No. 1 tomb qin in the middle of the Warring States period, and No. 3 Mawangdui tomb qin in Changsha, Hunan Province in the early Western Han Dynasty.

Judging from the characteristics of small size, floating surface, uneven panel, low mountain, and narrow string spacing, the sound quality and volume of the piano at this time still have many shortcomings, and it is not suitable for fast and complex fingering.

2. Period from Qin and Han Dynasties to Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties

Today's guqin, which is a box-type, two-legged and seven-stringed guqin with thirteen emblems on its face, should have been established during the Han, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. The qin held by the figurines playing the qin in the Eastern Han Dynasty unearthed in Mianyang, Sichuan made up for the important gap between the unearthed pre-Qin guqin and today's lyre sound box. There are two kinds of long strips that close the curved piano top.

There are two kinds of guqin in the painting of Gu Kaizhi (about 346-407 AD) in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The shape of the guqin is still roughly the same as that of the Song and Han figurines playing the qin. This style of qin body can also be found in the "Shangshan Sihao Tu" unearthed from the painted brick tomb of the Northern Dynasties in Dengxian County, Henan Province. In the frescoes of Li Shou's tomb in the early Tang Dynasty in Sanyuan, Shaanxi Province, there are images of holding a qin and playing the qin. a long time.

In Nanjing Xishanqiao and other places in the Southern Dynasties, the Qi and Liang Da tombs of the Southern Dynasties have the "Bamboo Forest Seven Sages and Rong Qi Period" murals on the mountain. It has the characteristics of a full box and presents a new style. The elongated shape of the violin has developed into a square head, broad shoulder, and end shape. This style of speaker can further improve the acoustic effect of the piano.

The appearance of the qin emblem probably dates back to the early Western Han Dynasty, that is, the first half of the second century BC. The famous Fu "Seven Hair" by Meicheng (?-140 BC) in the Western Han Dynasty mentioned that the tong of Longmen was used to make the qin, and the silk of wild silkworm was used to make the strings. From the context, the covenant made with Er was originally the center of the target, which is equivalent to the emblem. The more explicit mention of Hui is the sentence "The Hui is the jade of Zhongshan" in the "Qin Fu" of Jin Ji Kang (AD 223-262), but the number of Hui is unknown.

The earliest image material of the qin with Huizhi can be found in the archaeological discovery of the brick-printed mural "Seven Sages in the Bamboo Forest and Rong Qiqi" in the tombs of the Qi and Liang mausoleums of the Southern Dynasties. The qin played by Ji Kang and Rong Qiqi has more than a dozen listed on the outside of the qin surface. A clear emblem. It can be considered that the customization of the full box body and the thirteen emblems dates from the Eastern Jin Dynasty or a little earlier, and the lower limit is no later than the early years of the Southern Qi Dynasty, that is, the 90s of the fifth century AD.

3. Sui and Tang Dynasties

In the Tang Dynasty, the craftsmanship of qin-making made outstanding achievements, with unprecedented progress in both quantity and quality. There were many skilled qin-making craftsmen among the people. The most popular qin masters are from the Lei family in Sichuan. The earlier one was Lei Yan, who served as an imperial edict in Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, followed by Lei Xiao, Lei Wei, Lei Jue, Lei Wen, and Lei Hui. , Lei Chi, etc. Lei Wei is especially famous. It is said that he was instructed by the gods. It is also said that he often went to the deep mountains and forests in strong winds and snows to listen to the sound of the wind blowing the trees, and to distinguish good materials for qin making. The qin they chopped was called "Leigongqin" in the Dali (766-779 AD), "the mountain cannot be pointed, and the strings are not written; its sound comes from between the two ponds. Its back is slightly raised, if Xie Yeran. The sound is about to come out and overflows, but it does not linger, but there is an aftertaste, which is so exquisite" (Song Su Shi, "Miscellaneous Books and Qin Shi"). During the Zhenyuan period (785-804 AD), the qin made by Lei Shi in Chengdu was known as "the crowd of players". At that time, there were also famous piano makers such as Shen Yong and Zhang Yue in Jiangnan, and the pianos they made were also loved by people. It comes from the famous guqin, and the people who are good at it in all dynasties regard it as a treasure handed down from generation to generation. Even in the Song Dynasty, many people forged the leiqin of the Tang Dynasty. There are also a small number of Tang qin treasures that have been preserved to this day. Experts believe that the "Jiuxiao Huanpei" qin (hidden in the Palace Museum, Beijing), which was handed down by Lei in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, is not only the oldest lyre handed down, but also the most outstanding representative of the Tang qin.

After the Guqin was established in the present system, the details have been continuously improved to achieve perfection. It is said that the guqin in the "School Book of the Northern Qi Dynasty" painted by Yan Liben in the early Tang Dynasty (collected in the Boston Museum of the United States) has a round head and broad shoulders, a narrow middle, and a phoenix wing below the tail. more beneficial. Experts identified a total of 16 Tang Qins that are more reliable today. On the premise of the same basic shape, according to their different characteristics of ups and downs and contractions, they can also be divided into many different styles. According to the classification of qin styles in later generations of qin books, there are 16 Fuxi style, one Shennong style, three Fengshi style, two Lianzhu style, two Shikuang style, one Liezi style, and one Zhongni style. Because the only Zhongni-style qin was made in the late Tang Dynasty, it seems that the Zhongni-style qin was not very popular during the eight hundred years from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Middle Tang Dynasty. It was only after Confucius in the middle and late Tang Dynasty was praised by Confucianism as the representative of Taoism that the Zhongni-style guqin gradually became fashionable. In the two Song Dynasties, it became very popular, and there was a situation that it was fixed in one. On the contrary, other styles of qin became increasingly rare.

The Zhongni-style qin of the late Tang Dynasty, compared with the similar qin of later generations, also has the common characteristics of the Tang qin with a rounder surface and a deeper waist. The Zhongni-style qin after the Tang Dynasty generally did not have this characteristic, except for the imitations of the Tang Dynasty.

Since the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Qin music has also been loved by many princes and officials. Yang Xiu, the son of Emperor Wen of Sui, was conferred the title of King of Shu. Later, there were many famous qin-making generals in Shu, or it was related to this. Li Mian, who has been a minister for 20 years in the Tang Dynasty, is a good qin and has hundreds of qin pieces in his family. Among them, the peerless "Xiangquan" and "Yunqing" are treasures in his home. He once wrote a volume of "Qin Shuo".

4. Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties

Many emperors of the Song and Yuan dynasties were fond of the qin. Song Taizong Zhao Kuangyi once "added the nine-string qin, the five-string Ruan, and don't make a new score of thirty-seven volumes." Later emperors of various generations also imitated and remodeled the one-string qin and the two-string qin... Until the nine-string qin, Gaozong Zhao Gou of the Southern Song Dynasty also made a special shield The Xingqin was sent to the minister as a reminder not to forget the military equipment. However, these reforms are not accepted by the piano industry, and there is no inheritance and promotion in later generations.

Song Huizong focused on "collecting the most famous qin from the north and south", and specially set up the "Wan Qin Tang" collection, the most valuable of which was the "Chun Lei" qin by Tang Leiwei. Later, the Jin soldiers captured Kaifeng, the capital of Song Dynasty, and the "Wan Qin Tang" fell into the hands of the Jin people. Jin Zhangzong was especially fond of the "Spring Thunder" piano, which was not only listed as the "No. 1 Qin in the Imperial Palace", but was inseparable from himself, and even "triggered it" at the end of his life. To sacrifice", can be described as life and death.

There are many guqins in the Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties. An important reason is that since the Song Dynasty, there have been a large number of official and non-governmental guqin systems, which are called "official qin" and "wild guqin". For example, in the Ming Dynasty, the Neifu once concentrated hundreds of thousands of famous craftsmen to make qin. Another example is the hundreds of "Zhonghe" qin made by King Lu of Ming Dynasty, which can often be seen today. At that time, famous qin makers included Feng Chaoyang, Tu Gui, Zhang Jingxiu, Shi Yanzhao, etc. At the same time, most qualified qin players also had the tradition of handing down the qin, and many famous qin players in the Ming and Qing dynasties were also experts at qin.