The relationship between Guqin and me began with the elegant collection of the Wuxu Winter Solstice, and the pursuit of it can be traced back to two special reading experiences nearly ten years ago. It is quite interesting to think about it. Both books were written by Westerners, and the original audience was not Chinese. It is only because the traditional scholar class mostly takes playing the piano as the basic training. The popular books of the time are too plain, but these two books are just right for us who have received Western-style education since childhood.

Several years ago, the authors of the two books introduced the guqin, which represents the spirit of the Chinese people, and the culture behind the musical instrument to the West through their own experiences. The two books are "The Way of the Qin" written by Gao Luopei of the Netherlands, and "Guqin" written by Lindsily of Sweden.

Gao Luopei and Lin Xili, who crossed the ocean in the last century, came to this ancient and unfamiliar country. Their experiences were so different and yet so similar. In the 1930s, before going to the East to start his thirty-year career as a diplomat, Gao Luopei had developed a strong interest in Chinese culture and wrote a monograph on Mi Fu and Yan, as he said of himself" Diplomat is his profession, sinology is his lifelong career, and writing novels is his hobby.” In the second half of the last century, Linsily came as a student for music, and at first she didn't know what she was going to study.

In the last century, China and the whole world have gone through hardships and changes, and the two authors happened to have experienced two stages of Chinese history. Taking 1949 as the dividing line, the China where Gao Luopei lives is an old culture that still exists. The traditional literati who play the qin can barely maintain their accustomed way of life before the storm. On the contrary, facing the war and suffering, the qin plays. In the sound, they may still find a trace of peace and tranquility. As for the pride of the Celestial Empire, as the monarchy was overthrown in the modern century, they no longer rejected Gao Luopei, who was a foreigner, and even embraced and accepted him. It is this westerner's heartfelt love for traditional Chinese culture that makes them find long-lost respect. This kind of equal communication has made Gao Luopei, and also made the guqin go to the world for the first time in a real sense.

The Chinese land that Lin Xili has set foot on is another kind of style. The living environment of the old literati has been completely broken, and they represent an outdated cultural relic. Although they tried hard to integrate into the public, the isolated and elegant musical characteristics of the guqin finally could not really fly into the homes of ordinary people.

A small number of top-level qin players, as if they were used as specimens, were gathered in a common courtyard in Beijing as if they needed to gather together for warmth, and established the Guqin Research Association. Despite being out of place, they were still moved by the positive enthusiasm of the new China. In about ten years (1956-1966), they rescued the most beautiful sounds of the old era, collected and organized a large number of scores, It has developed steel strings that are loved and helpless by contemporary guqin players, and more importantly, left the guqin fire for the coming catastrophe. Lindsey was thrown into their lives, and in less than two years, became the object of their careful teaching, and the only student they could teach at that time.

As a result, as Gao Luopei, who regards sinology as a lifelong career, and Lin Xili, a music student, Gao Luopei, who has been exposed to guqin as a part of traditional literati life, and faced with the fact that guqin has been excluded from current life and become the research object, Become a Linsily of a certain musical instrument. Although they are learning, writing, and introducing in the same way, their initial feelings and positions are subtly different.

From the very beginning, Gao Luopei's sinology research has a clear direction, that is, he seeks to cultivate himself into a traditional Chinese scholar. Therefore, although many of the research objects he chooses are small, they are all related to the aesthetic orientation and literary taste of the scholar-official class. closely related to daily life. This may be the genius of Gao Luopei. For him, Guqin is an indispensable part of traditional life. Learning Guqin is not about studying a certain instrumental music, but internalizing oriental culture into life experience. As he said in the book, "In addition to the knowledge of books, there are many ties that connect the literati with the dynamic natural and cosmic forces, and the guqin is one of them."

It can be confirmed that Lin Xili has read "Qin Dao" a long time ago - it is a pioneering work for the study of the Chinese qin, but cognition is related to experience after all, so although a lot of basic knowledge is compiled in the book "Guqin", since Guqin talks about many aspects of literati life. For Lin Xili, Guqin is really just "an instrument for reflecting and feeling the soul". Lin Xili's judgment is not wrong, and it can even be said to be extremely accurate. But compared with Gao Luopei, who has been infiltrating Chinese civilization for a long time, living in it and married a Chinese wife, Lin Xili is just a passerby after all, although the two years in China have become a bright color in her life and an important writing theme in the second half of her life. .

In short, the difference is that one is life and experience, the other is knowledge and music. Maybe not so clear.

The titles of the two books, "Qin Dao" and "Guqin", also indicate the themes of the two books. The former emphasizes theory. It has historical inevitability and political needs, because the qin is regarded as a sacred instrument and has risen to an aesthetic level, which is not unrelated to the rise and fall of the scholar class. This is a dark line. As mentioned above, because of the internalization of the guqin as a life experience, Gao Luopei can build a high-rise building every time he writes a book, which is quite a purpose. Here he makes an important statement: "Guqin music is basically not melodic, Its beauty lies not in the connection of notes, but in each individual note. 'Freehand brushwork with sound' may be used to describe the essence of Guqin music." The latter is the guqin itself, so it is more direct and impressive, and it is also more accessible to the people from the perspective of popularization.

Lin Xili's "Guqin" has another charm of its own. What deeply moved me was her love for Guqin as music, her love for her mentor Wang Di, and her memories of those lonely masters in that peculiar era. In the future, when I had the opportunity to practice the guqin and reread this book, Lin Xili's delicate brushstrokes made me respond in unison, "I gently plucked one of the strings, and it sent out a kind of sound. The sound that made the whole room vibrate. The tone was clear and bright, but strangely deep and deep, as if the instrument were made of copper instead of wood. For many years to come, it was this tone that From the softest and most delicate overtones, like the wind chimes under the eaves of a temple, to the deep, throbbing bass that fascinates me."

In addition, what drew my attention is the translation of "Guqin" in the two books, because neither is written in Chinese, so how to call "Guqin" and let Western readers know what it is is indeed a problem. If it wasn't mentioned in Lindsey's book, I probably wouldn't have paid much attention to Gao Luopei's translation of the guqin into the lute in "The Way of the Qin", only because the lute is also called the lute, and the poem is called the laurel of the muse On the bright pearl, Lin Xili wrote in the book "just like the lute in the European Renaissance, the guqin is also an instrument used to reflect and feel the soul". She herself adopted the method of direct transliteration. Given that the first book had already spread to foreign countries and had an impact, it was the right time to use the sound to show people.

If you think about it in reverse, you can understand the position of the lute in the history of Western music. Although the appearance is very different, the external appearance of the two instruments can best reflect the aesthetics of the East and the West. The surface of the guqin is simple and unpretentious, even mottled by wind and rain, but the bottom side is full of praise, and the brush and ink are restrained and sullen. The lute not only has intricately carved rose sound holes, but also can add many exquisite details. The traditional guqin is made of silk threads and silk cotton pouches, while the lute uses sheep intestines as strings and a leather case. This is also evident in the way of farming people and grassland civilization. It's all off topic.

Due to space limitations, the comparison of the two books can only be discussed in general terms, and roughly outlines a little bit of difference in the heart when reading the two books, and it is impossible to carry out in-depth text comparison. In any case, these two books planted a seed in my heart, which one day took root and became an opportunity to learn Guqin. At the end of the article, I copied a text from "Qin Dao", and completed this short exploration together with two extraordinary souls.

"When one day the skeleton of the author and this writing vanished, the wind was still rustling among the pines, and the stream was still gurgling on the moss-covered stones. Then we may finally be able to say that the author The sole purpose of writing this book is to show the world that the most simple essence of guqin music is to play the immortal sound of nature.”