From November 4, a copy of Zhu Zhiyuan's ancient zither of the Yuan Dynasty will appear in the "Shanghai Intangible Cultural Heritage Living Room" of the 5th International Expo. Different from the traditional hand made guqin, "Youhuangli" guqin studio, on the basis of inheriting the traditional Chinese guqin carving skills and the sound production principle of guqin, adopts modern materials and mechanized standardized production process, which brings possibilities for the mass production and large-scale promotion of handmade guqin. "In the new era, it is also necessary to keep pace with the times if Guqin is to be more accessible to ordinary people." Yang Zhijian, the inheritor of intangible cultural heritage, said, "This guqin is only version 1.0, and we are still developing a mobile app, so that it can accompany you to practice in the future."

People's understanding of the ancient zither either stems from the story of Zhong Ziqi and Yu Boya searching for a bosom friend, or from the "Six Finger Qin Demon" in the martial arts film... The reason why the ancient zither looks so beautiful is not unrelated to its complex manufacturing process. As the representative inheritor of Shanghai intangible cultural heritage project "Ancient Qin Chopping Skills", Yang Zhijian said that the traditional production skills of ancient Qin are extremely complex, which can be divided into more than ten steps, including material selection, modeling, troughing, piano combination, cloth mounting, grey body (thick, medium and fine), emblem setting, surface painting, polishing, foot setting, winding, lettering, color filling, and each step has a number of detailed methods, It takes two to five years to make each piano.

Over the years, Yang Zhijian has been thinking about how to revitalize the guqin in the new era. First, he must save the lost guqin making skills. He has traveled all over the country, visited famous teachers, divided the production process of ancient zither inherited from the Tang Dynasty into more than 100 processes, and published the book Traditional Chinese Qin Production Art. After determining the standard, Yang Zhijian decided to use modern machinery and equipment to improve the production efficiency of the guqin. This guqin brought to the Expo is made by modern mechanical standardization. Yang Zhijian chose to cooperate with German enterprises this time, using new materials from Germany, so that the ancient zither not only imitates the density and physical data of the lacquer, but also has more hardness. "The ancient zither used to be very delicate, and it is a pit to touch. Now the ancient zither is harder and collision proof, more suitable for children, and it is more reassuring to take the zither to play."

"In the future, you can also use our equipment to design and make your own guqin." Cao Yiling, the operator of "Youhuangli" Guqin Studio, said, "Of course, hand made guqin is irreplaceable, but we are exploring a new process of mechanized and standardized guqin production to make it closer to ordinary people."

In order to expand the spread and popularity of the ancient zither, Yang Zhijian is also constantly exploring new positions and new ways. He can be seen speaking about the ancient zither on platforms such as learning power, Himalaya, and Bilibili. The number of single videos played in learning power exceeds one million, and the total number of videos played exceeds ten million. Yang Zhijian will also cooperate with the Palace Museum School to promote guqin on campus nationwide. Yang Zhijian said, "All our efforts are to hope that Guqin can better enter your life and add the flavor of the millennium Guqin to your life."