Recently, the Xuzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism announced the fourth batch of recommended projects for representative projects of municipal intangible cultural heritage, and the traditional music "Guqin Art" was on the list.

"One piece of Guangling San, unparalleled in writing", "The towering ambition is in the mountains, and the expansive ambition is in the flowing water". As a traditional Chinese plucked stringed instrument, the guqin has a unique cultural charm. It was selected as a world intangible cultural heritage in 2003 and listed in 2006. Included in China's intangible cultural heritage list.

On the ancient land of Pengcheng, the rhythm of the guqin has never been interrupted. It has been inherited and carried forward by generations of guqin lovers. With 7 strings on the thin guqin, they play a leisurely aftertaste that travels through the past and the present, and more and more Xuzhou people fall in love with the guqin. 

Popularity of Words: Both the refined and the common appreciate the music of the violin

"The autumn wind is clear, the autumn moon is bright, the fallen leaves are gathered and scattered, and the jackdaws are still in shock." Liu Jing, a guqin lover of Peng Yun Guqin Club, sang softly while plucking the strings.

"It's wrong here, do it again." Xu Haipeng listened to the rhythm with his eyes closed, correcting Liu Jing from time to time. 41-year-old Xu Haipeng is the president of Peng Yun Guqin Society and the vice president of Xuzhou Guqin Society. Liu Jing is his student and his lover, and it is because of the guqin that the two became attached.

Throughout the ages, the guqin has been a symbol of oriental culture, and playing the qin and playing music is a way of life for Chinese literati and scholars to cultivate their emotions and express their feelings. On August 8, 2008, the guqin was moved to the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games. The elegant melody has reached the hearts of the people through thousands of years, telling the world a Chinese story that is broad and profound and has a long meaning. Since then, the guqin has gradually changed from a high-pitched and low-key style to a way of life that people love and practice.

How many people in Xuzhou are now playing and learning the guqin? Xu Haipeng said that the Guqin Society currently has more than 200 members, and there will be more members in the new term this year. The society requires members to pass the guqin level 4, and more than 100 people in Xuzhou passed the level 4 exam the year before last. There are 300 or 400 students he is currently teaching, and many children cultivate Guqin as a specialty, and many foreign friends come here to study and experience Chinese traditional culture.

"Easy to learn, hard to fine, but not good to listen to." As a teacher, Xu Haipeng believes that there is no limit to learning Guqin. It is not like the piano, Guzheng and other musical instruments, which must be started from children. However, although the guqin is easy to get started with, it is very difficult to play well. What is even more difficult is to understand the cultural background behind it, truly understand the guqin and integrate into the rhythm of the guqin.

Although more and more people are learning Guqin, Xu Haipeng said that not all students can be accepted as apprentices. Learning Guqin can not only learn skills, but also learn the piano. The establishment of the master-apprentice relationship is very careful, and it is necessary to carefully examine the quality of the apprentice. Xu Haipeng himself did not become an apprentice at the very beginning of learning the piano. His master was his father, Xu Yong, president of the Xuzhou Guqin Society.

Comprehension of the Qin Tao: Finding Soulmates in High Mountains and Flowing Waters

What is the charm of the guqin?

As a post-80s generation, Xu Haipeng was born in a family of guqin and practiced guqin since childhood. But before the age of 20, the guqin was just an ordinary musical instrument for him. In college, he majored in English.

After I started working, I experienced social trials and beatings, and when I listened to the guqin again, I finally got the feeling of "I don't know what the song is about when I first heard it, but when I heard it again, it was already a person in the song", and I also realized what my father used to say about "the impatient person." Feel the stillness, and the stillness feel the harmony.”

In 2002, the 21-year-old Xu Haipeng officially worshipped his father Xu Yong as his teacher and lived a life with the piano as his company. In 2006, he gave up his job and devoted himself to the study and research of Guqin. In 2010, he founded Peng Yun Guqin Club.

"Guqin is a kind of culture, and many traditional Chinese cultures are the same. If you come into contact with one of them, you will naturally learn more. For example, tea ceremony, calligraphy, incense burning, and medical skills, I have all been involved through Guqin." In Xu Haipeng's view, the learning of Guqin is more like a practice, the purpose is not practical, but nourishing the heart.

Meditation and nurturing are the words that Xu Haipeng repeated. "Remove distractions, forget troubles, return to your original heart, and communicate with yourself and everything with your heart. The highest state of playing the piano is to express emotions with the piano. Everyone's experiences and stories are different, and the charm that pops up is different, which can move and You have someone who has the same experience. Put your mind into it, and you can meet someone who understands you, as the so-called 'seeking soulmates in high mountains and flowing waters'."

"Guqin is the earliest plucked instrument. Its charm lies in the fact that every note seems to exist for the aftertaste. You don't know where it comes from, but it seems that you have been waiting for this sound for a long time." During the conversation, Xu Haipeng borrowed the piano piece " Pingsha Luoyan" to describe the mood when playing the piano. This piece expresses Yi Shi's ambition and broad-mindedness through the artistic conception of the high autumn air, the setting sun, the river broad and the sand flat, the wild geese mingling, and the water waves rippling. It is his favorite. Lonely and melancholy, there will be different perceptions in different periods, and the emotions of those who play the piano will tell the world through the sound of the piano. When you enter the song, you will naturally cross the era, time and space, and be immersed in the atmosphere of the scene. This kind of situation may look like a 'madman' to a layman, but if you don't realize it, you can't become a Buddha, and you can't become a devil if you don't go crazy."

Talking about the history of the piano: famous stories

Speaking of Xuzhou Guqin, Xu Haipeng talks freely. As a famous historical and cultural city, Xuzhou guqin once flourished for a time, and famous masters came out in large numbers, including Shizhong in the Han Dynasty, Su Shi in the Northern Song Dynasty, Jiang Keqian in the Ming Dynasty and Gao Bingmou in the Qing Dynasty.

According to "Jiangsu Yiwenzhi·Xuzhou Volume", Xiapi Ren Shizhong (100 BC) was good at drum and qin, and wrote 8 "Yaqin Shishi". Although this book is scattered and lost, it is the first book in my country to be found in historical records. Monograph on piano sheet music.

The great writer Su Shi has a deep cultivation in the piano, and once wrote lyrics for "Three Stacks of Yangguan" and "The Drunkard's Song". During his tenure as governor of Xuzhou, he once went to Huanshan in the northern suburbs with his friends for a spring tour and played the qin, and left a famous piece "Journey to Huanshan": "In the second year of Yuanfeng, the first month of the first month is dark, and the spring clothes are ready. Climb Mount Huan and enter the stone room. Make the Taoist priest wear Rixiang’s qin and play the lute of the “Lush Shuang”…” The “Lei’s qin” mentioned in the text refers to the system made by the Lei family in Xishu during the Tang and Song Dynasties. 's guqin.

During the Ming Dynasty, with the development of guqin aesthetics and performance techniques, Xuzhou guqin art became more systematic. The family of guqin master Jiang Keqian spent four generations of hard work, and wrote a 22-volume book called "Guqin History Encyclopedia Treasure Book" - "Qin Shu Daquan", which has made important contributions to the study of Guqin music and the inheritance of Guqin culture. 

The development of Xuzhou Guqin reached its climax in the Qing Dynasty, and scholars and scholars all loved the performance and collection of Guqin. Tongshan county magistrate Gao Bingmou owns 24 guqins, which are placed in a wooden qin building. The building is divided into two floors, and there are dozens of water tanks below, and the tanks contain water of different heights according to the rhythm. When playing the piano upstairs, the water tank downstairs will have an echo, and the beam will not stop.

From the end of the Qing Dynasty to the period of the Republic of China, due to the influence of war and social changes, the development of Xuzhou Guqin was interrupted for a time. After the founding of New China, Li Yi, a Xuzhou qin master and former director of the Xuzhou Musical Instrument Factory, and his disciple Xu Yong (the father of Xu Haipeng) jointly promoted the recovery and development of the art of guqin. In 1987, under the advocacy of Xu Yong, the Tongshan Qin Society was formally established. In 1998, Xu Yong raised funds to set up the first Guqin Art Museum in Xuzhou. In 2000, Xuzhou Guqin Society was established.

Xuzhou Guqin is divided into different schools, currently there are mainly Guangling School and Zhucheng School. Xuzhou advocates the culture and martial arts, and is highly inclusive. The ups and downs of the Guangling School and the implicit simplicity of the Zhucheng School have been carried forward here. Xu Yong once studied under Mei Yueqiang, the master of the Guangling School, and then followed Li Yi, a successor of the Zhucheng School, to learn the qin.

On Inheritance: Retaining the Soul and Innovating

With the mission of inheriting and promoting the Guqin culture, Xu Haipeng organizes or participates in the "playing score" meeting every year. Most of the piano scores handed down from ancient times have no melody, and "playing the score" is to restore and translate it into modern music scores through the study of its historical background for research, teaching and performance. At present, Xuzhou Guqin Society has successfully composed "Ji Zi Hanging Sword" and "Song of the Wind"; in 2019, he went to Cairo, Egypt for cultural exchanges, leaving Xuzhou Guqin in Egypt forever; following the 2016 "Pengcheng Xumen Qin Yun" After being listed as an intangible cultural heritage in Quanshan District, recently, "Xuzhou Guqin Art" has been approved as a municipal intangible cultural heritage project.

As a new youth in the 21st century, Xu Haipeng is still making changes and innovations on the basis of preserving the artistic soul of Guqin. He uses Xuzhou dialect "singing strings" in his teaching, so that students can sing while playing, even those who don't know music can learn, and it is more efficient; for the music that young people like, he will "Thinking Through Time and Space" and "Fireworks". Songs such as "Easy Cold" and "Flying Snow and Jade Flowers" were transplanted to the guqin.

In March last year, "Xuzhou Art Museum Four Seasons Concert · Spring Equinox Gathering - "Sounds of Ancient Times" Guqin National Tour Concert (Xuzhou Station)" was staged in the No. 1 exhibition hall of Xuzhou Art Museum. 12 well-known qin artists from all over the country performed enthusiastically. Xu Haipeng took 20 students from Peng Yunqin Club to the opening song with the rhythm of "Drinking Crazy". His solo "Three Allures of Plum Blossoms" perfectly shows the crystal clear and upright proud snow of plum blossoms. The more than two-hour Guqin concert ended quietly in the silence of the audience, allowing the Guqin culture to enter the hearts of more citizens.

"There is still a long way to form cultural consciousness and cultural inheritance." Xu Haipeng sat in front of the piano and played his favorite "Pingsha Falling Wild Goose". Between the fingers, the five tones are lingering in the seven strings, and the rhythm touches the heart. This ancient national musical instrument that has been passed down for nearly 3,000 years is still agitated and stretched in this ancient city...