The "guqin" of the immemorial remains is the "artifact" used by the ancients to seek "unity between man and nature" and to realize "the way of heaven and earth". The violin maker must be a "sage" who is wise and virtuous, knows the gods, and knows the world.

Weifang has a deep relationship with the guqin since ancient times. According to legend, in ancient times, Shun made a five-stringed qin and sang Nanfeng to educate his subjects, and historiography generally believed that Shun was a native of Weifang. In modern times, the famous qin masters Wang Xinyuan, Wang Lengquan, Wang Zuozhen and Wang Xinkui are all from Weifang.

As one of the oldest traditional musical instruments in my country, the guqin has a history of 3,500 years. Since ancient times, the guqin has been ranked first in "qin, chess, calligraphy and painting", and the cultural connotation behind it has lasted through the ages. Known as the philosophy in art or the art in philosophy, it is a musical instrument full of cultural connotations, and the playing and making of the guqin has always been a highly praised way of expressing feelings among scholars and writers. Ma Rongsheng, a non-hereditary inheritor of guqin making skills, is such an elegant scholar who combines playing and violin making.

"To make a guqin, you must first make the top and bottom plate of the guqin. The most important thing is to make the grooved structure inside the panel. This step is called caving." Ma Rongsheng introduced. When it comes to making guqin, Ma Rongsheng, who has nearly 30 years of experience in making guqin, has a lot of experience. He is not only the inheritor of the guqin of the Zhucheng School, but also the inheritor of the guqin making skills of the Weifang municipal intangible cultural heritage project.

Today, Ma Rongsheng has mastered all the production process of guqin, and there are various styles of guqin, such as Shennong style, Fuxi style, Zhongni style, Luoxia style, Chaos style, etc. The guqin made by Ma Rongsheng is highly praised by players and collectors in terms of shape, radian, or resonance.

Material selection: The production of Guqin first has strict requirements on the material. Guqin is made of two parts, the bottom and the surface, which are glued together.

The bottom plate of Guqin is made of hardwoods such as catalpa and catalpa. The panels are generally made of softer wood such as tung and fir, and they are the best after years of ageing. It is necessary to choose materials with dense wood grains, straight and no scars.

Panel production: Guqin panel boards generally require a length of 1.23 meters, a width of about 21 cm, and a thickness of about 5 cm. Panel edge thickness 1.5 cm. The distance from Yueshan to the edge of the qin head is 8-12 cm, and the height of Yueshan is generally 1.5-1.7 cm. At the foot of the wild goose, a width of about 4 cm should be left. The places in the belly of the qin that correspond to the positions of the Longchi and the Phoenix Marsh are required to bulge, which is called Nayin. The dragon pond and phoenix marsh can be round or rectangular, and their size is directly related to the sound of the qin. The dragon pond is generally 21 cm long and 2.5 cm wide, and the phoenix marsh is 10 cm long and 2.4 cm wide. The above dimensions are approximate. The position of Longchi starts from the Seven Signs and goes to the appropriate size in the direction of the head of the head.

Making the belly: It needs to be thicker in the middle and thinner on both sides. Use a special caliper to measure (you can make your own) to measure the thickness of the control panel. The method of determining the position of the qin sign: from Yueshan to Longgu, folded in half is the seventh sign, folded from the seven sign to the middle of Yueshan, that is the fourth sign, with the seventh sign to the Yueshan three folds, one fold is the fifth sign, and then folded is the second sign , Three folds are in line with Yueshan, four levies are folded to Yueshan, that is, one levy, five levies to seven levies, five folds, six levies from five levies, one fold from two levies, three levies, and eight or nine after that. Signs, with seven signs to the tail of the coke, are the same as the front folds.

Making the piano surface: Generally, first use an ax to cut out the general arc of the piano surface, use a pencil to draw the central reference line on the panel, and then draw the shape of the piano body at equal distances along both sides according to the reference line, and draw out Yueshan, Longchi and Fengmarsh. etc. location. Plane out the panels with a long plane. At the beginning, you can make the depth of the planer larger. When it is close to the completed arc, adjust it to a thin planer, and correct the arc in detail. After planning a curved Guqin panel shape, measure the position about 30 cm down from the panel head. Begin to bow your head, and the surface of the piano near Yueshan is 1 cm lower than the surface of the piano (head bow, also known as flowing water). Generally, a downward arc is formed from the 3 emblem. After the panel surface is corrected, the flatness of the panel should be measured with a flat ruler.

The production of the belly: After the front of the panel is finished, the belly is started. First, draw the range line of the belly according to the size, and set aside the solid wood for the position of the wild goose foot and the item. Usually about 1.5 cm away from the edge, and then use a special shovel to start digging out the belly of the piano. This process is the most important and the most difficult step. You need to tap while digging or use strings to test the sound until you feel satisfied with the sound. After planing, trim the edge with a side shovel, and finally polish the abdominal cavity with sandpaper. It should be noted that one should not dig too deep, as the body is too thin and cannot be repaired. After the audition is completed, you can write an inscription on the side of the violin, and write the name of the maker and other contents.

Bottom plate production: The wood requirements of the bottom plate are higher than that of the panel, and the thickness is generally about 1-1.5 cm. The thickness can be adjusted according to the hardness of the wood. The bottom plate is also thick in the middle and thin at the edges. First draw the central reference line on the bottom plate, and then draw the shape of the piano body equidistantly along both sides according to the reference line, and draw out the positions of Zhenchi, Longchi, Fengmarsh, and Yanzu. After the qin shape is cut with a saw, it is smoothed with a plane, and then the positions of Zhenchi, Longchi, Fengmaru and Yanzu are made according to the original size. The location of Zhen Pond is the same as that of Yueshan on the panel, the location of Long Pond and Phoenix Marsh on the bottom panel is the same as that of the panel, and the goose feet are generally installed between the nine and ten signs.

Harmony: After the panel and bottom plate are finished and the sound audition is satisfactory, the panel and bottom plate can be glued together. The glue used in Heqin is generally animal glue, and fish bladder glue is the first choice. When using, you must first put the glue into the glue tube, and add warm water to soak it into a thick glue solution. Then add a little water to heat, and to grasp the best state of the glue, you can use a wooden stick to dip the glue and pull it up quickly, and it is better to have continuous threads. The ambient temperature for the use of the glue is generally around 20°C. After the glue is adjusted, use a brush to apply it evenly around the edge of the piano (the glue is to keep the edge of the piano clean and smooth, and there should be no impurities). Bind tightly, leaving no gaps. Then put it in a ventilated place to dry in the shade, wait until it is dry and trim it.

Scraping the gray tire: The gray tire is scraped on the body of the piano several times. First, the coarse ash is applied. After it is dry, it is smoothed with sandpaper, and then a layer of medium gray is applied. After it is dry, it is smoothed with sandpaper. , and finally add a layer of fine ash. After drying in the shade, it can be smoothed with fine sandpaper. For coarse ash, use sandpaper with slightly coarse particles. For fine ash, use sandpaper with finer particles. When the gray tire is prepared, it is blended with lacquer and antler cream of varying thickness, and it is constantly stirred during the blending process. The color of the lacquer will be oxidized when it encounters the air. It is milky white at first, and then gradually becomes maroon. As it is stirred with the antler cream, the color gradually changes to black. The antler cream and the lacquer need to be stirred evenly until it becomes a paste and it feels very sticky. You can use a scraper to scrape the gray tires on the piano in turn. Generally speaking, the gray tire is more difficult to dry, mainly because the lacquer added to the antler cream is more difficult to dry, and it requires a high humidity and a slightly higher temperature in the surrounding environment to dry thoroughly. Every time the gray tire is dry, it needs to be polished. When polishing, first use a coarse emery cloth to polish it, and then gradually change to fine sandpaper to polish, and the sand used later is finer. The result of this grinding is good, and the piano surface is very smooth. After the gray tire is polished, it can be wound and tested. The standard of whether the gray tire of the piano is well ground is that there is no noise. If there is, re-grind until there is no noise.

Painting: The entire body of the guitar body is polished to a smooth surface and there is no sand sound after the sound test, and then it can be painted. There must be a sequential order of painting. Generally speaking, the paint with a lower concentration should be applied at the beginning of painting, so as to allow the paint to penetrate better into the already ground grey tire, enhance the firmness of the gray tire and prevent the paint in the gray. Uniformity in the tire, when applying the paint, wait for the previous paint to dry before continuing. Then start to apply the lacquer with a slightly higher concentration, so as to make the surface of the lacquer smooth and clean, and the number of lacquers varies, depending on the situation, generally 5 to 10 times, and it is also necessary to wait for the lacquer to dry completely after each pass. Can go up again. Generally, there is no limit to the number of times of painting, mainly the above are the main ones.

Toning: The color of the piano body can be changed by adding different pigments according to your own preferences when painting. For example, you can apply a proper amount of cinnabar through the lacquer to coat the piano body, which is the result of the color of the piano surface being red; if you want to get a black piano, you can add black pigment to the lacquer. The depth of the color can be tested on the waste wood first, until the color you like is called up. Then paint on the piano. Some pianos are mixed colors, usually by applying two or more lacquers that have been adjusted to the color. For example, some pianos are first painted red, and then painted with black paint. After the paint is dry, after sanding, a natural red and black color will appear. You can also apply black paint first and then red paint. The two methods are different in sequence, and the color of the piano is also different.

Adjusting the heights of Yueshan and Dragon's Gum: After the lacquer on the guqin is dry, you can start the string audition and adjust the height of Yueshan and Dragon's Gum. The purpose of the winding test is to verify the flatness of the panel. The appropriate trimming of the heights of Yueshan and Longgu is in order to prevent the fingers from being too high from the strings to the piano surface when playing with fingers, and at the same time, it can also improve the timbre of the piano to a certain extent. The flatness adjustment of the panel and the height adjustment of Yueshan and Longgu are made by continuously winding and testing the playing during the test, and gradually trimmed until it is adjusted to suit your own feel.

Winding: When winding, first insert the velvet button head from the velvet button hole on the bottom of the piano to the surface of the piano and Yue Shanping, and then insert the end of the teeny string into the velvet button and pull it to the teeny head. When winding, the head of the piano is generally placed on the soft pad on the ground, the tail of the piano is upward, the feet of the goose are outward, and the right side of the piano face is attached to the chest, so that one end of the string tail passes over the dragon gum and then over the goose foot. Wrap the end of the string with a soft cloth, and roll the string against the bottom plate several times from bottom to top to the goose's foot. Then hold the tail with your left hand, and hold the soft cloth around the strings with your right hand and pull the strings hard. At this time, the piano can be slightly away from the human body, and the left big finger lightly plucks the strings on the surface of the piano to test whether the following pitches basically meet the requirements. After confirming that the pitch basically meets the requirements, the right hand wraps the strings close to the bottom plate and wraps them around the wild goose's feet. During the winding process of the strings, the first two to four turns are not important. Press each other in circles to fix the tension of the string. Finally, put the remaining string tails between the back and the strings or pull them tight. The installation sequence of the strings is from the first string to the fourth string, and then wraps around the outer goose feet in a clockwise direction. Then from the fifth string to the seventh string, they are wrapped around the inner goose feet counterclockwise in turn. After installation, you need to adjust the pitch of the seven strings of the piano. After tuning, a piano is ready to use.

Among the instruments, Qin De is the best. The qin is not only a musical instrument, but also a spiritual support for literati and scholars to cultivate their self-cultivation. Following Mr. Ma Rongsheng to experience the process of making and playing the qin, we also felt the gentleman's style that belongs to the qin master.