The guqin is a native stringed instrument with the oldest and most artistic characteristics in the history of the Chinese nation. As early as more than 2,000 years ago, it has forged an indissoluble bond with Chinese culture. As early as "Lv's Spring and Autumn Period: Original Taste", it was recorded: "Bo Ya drums the qin, and Zhong Ziqi listens to it." my country's first poetry collection, "The Book of Songs", also mentioned in "National Style": "My fair lady, the friend of the piano and the serenade." The "Book of Songs" was edited into a book 2,500 years ago. It took a long time for the guqin to go through a long period of time from its creation to the time it became popular among the people and was written into poems and included in the Book of Songs. Therefore, it is more in line with the actual historical development to say that the Guqin has a history of about 3,000 years. Recently, UNESCO listed it as the second group of representatives of human oral and intangible cultural heritage, which is a full affirmation of its artistic value and historical status.

Guqin has its different development in each historical dynasty, and the Song Dynasty is a special period for the development of Guqin art. The sharp ethnic contradictions in the Song Dynasty and the corruption and incompetence of the ruling group in the face of the invasion of Jin and Yuan, as well as the repeated loss of power and humiliation, aroused the extreme resentment of the patriotic qin players. Therefore, the art of guqin in the Song Dynasty has made great breakthroughs in terms of the complexity of the technique and the depth of the composition of the qin music.

1. The importance attached by the ruling class to Guqin music makes Guqin become the first national music again

In the Tang Dynasty, due to the influence of foreign music, the literati music social status of Guqin suffered a huge impact, but in the Song Dynasty, the status of Guqin was quickly restored to the status of orthodox music. Several emperors of the Song Dynasty were also lovers and collectors of the guqin. For example, Song Taizong Zhao Kuangyi was surrounded by Zhu Wenji, who was called "the best in the world on drums and qin" at that time, and also increased the seven strings of the guqin to nine. Song Huizong Zhao Ji established the "Wanqin Hall" to collect famous qin from both the north and the south, including the "Chunleiqin" made by Lei Wei, a famous qin maker in the Tang Dynasty.

In 960 AD, Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin established the Song Dynasty, but this was only a partial unification of the Central Plains and the South. At this time, various ethnic minorities gathered in the north, such as the Liao Kingdom, Turpan Kingdom, Dali and other countries, especially the Jin Kingdom and the Mongolian people, who had a long confrontation with the Southern Song Dynasty. During the confrontation between Song and Jin, wars were frequent, social unrest, and class and ethnic conflicts were particularly acute. The sharp ethnic contradictions and the corruption and incompetence of the ruling clique in the face of Jin and Yuan's invasion have repeatedly lost power and humiliated the country, which has aroused the extreme resentment of the patriotic Qin people. Guqin is one of the oldest musical instruments of the Chinese nation. In the Song Dynasty, which was constantly invaded by foreigners, playing Guqin became a symbol of Song Dynasty literati insisting on national integrity.

2. The emergence of the school of qin school promotes the diversified development of guqin art

Due to the invention and application of the minus-character notation in the Tang Dynasty, it had a profound impact on the formation of the Qin School. Although the minus-character score does not record the rhythm of the qin music, so that future generations can play the guqin according to the rhythm and speed defined by their own will, but it gives the music a certain freedom, so that the qin players of the past dynasties gradually adapted to the inheritance of the tradition and the appreciation of the guqin. Traditional Romance is a reality where these two aspects coexist.

Therefore, the Guqin in the Song Dynasty produced many artistic schools that were inherited from the origin and passed down from generation to generation. The history of the development of guqin music Before the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the qin music is mainly about the records of individual qin players and their performances. Such as Yu Boya's "High Mountains and Flowing Water"; Cai Yong and his "Cai Style Five Lanes"; Ji Kang and his "Guangling San" and "Ji's Four Lanes"; Ruan Ji's "Wine Crazy" and so on. This all shows that before the Sui and Tang Dynasties, there was no clear faction of qin music, and the style of qin music was mainly distinguished by its representatives at that time.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a system of qin monks, who were passed down from master to apprentice and produced in large numbers, and played an important role in the qin world. It is said that they belonged to the system of qin monks, because except for Zhu Wenji, who was the head of the court qin master, all the later generations were monks, and they were regarded as "masters" at that time. Zhu Wenji's favorite disciple was Yizhong, the master of Huiri in the capital, who in turn taught Zhibai and Yihai his piano skills. Yihai, a disciple of Yizhong, finished his studies with his teacher in the capital (now Kaifeng, Henan), and went back to his hometown to continue practicing hard. He practiced the piano on Mount Fahua in Yuezhou (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang). If you can't let go of the strings, then you are in a perfect state." There are many people who learn qin from Yihai, but no one can match him. Shen Kuo's "Mengxi Bi Tan" pointed out: "The art of the sea does not lie in the sound, but its meaning and rhythm are simple and elegant. ".

Yihai's senior brother knows Bai, and the beauty of playing the piano is that he has his own unique rhythm. As he himself said: "If the floating clouds are too empty, they will be rolled up by the wind, and they will be in different shapes and conditions, without losing the natural interest" ("Qinyuan Yaolu"). Monk Zequan was a student of Yihai. In his book "Monk Zequan Rhythm and Fingering", he gave full play to the discussion of Yihai's qin music, and also had unique views on performance theory. The qin music he taught was also the most popular at that time. of. However, among the numerous qin and qin pieces in the Song Dynasty, the most representative one is Guo Mian and his "Xiaoxiang Shuiyun". Guo Mian is famous for his good qin. He used to be a disciple of Zhang Yan, a doctor of Guanglu, during which he compiled the ancestral pedigree of the famous anti-gold general Han Waxiao. After Han Wabi was killed and Zhang Yan was deposed, the political situation quickly reversed, and Guo Chuwang deeply felt the pressure. His representative work "Xiaoxiang Shuiyun" expresses this mood. Some of his other works "Step Moon" and "Autumn Rain" are also similar works. And "Xiaoxiang Shuiyun" is the most widely circulated and most influential qin piece for more than 700 years.

In addition to the appearance of the qin school, the literati of the Song Dynasty not only loved the qin like life, but also knew the rhythm of the melody, and they did not leave the qin in their poems. There are 596 words related to the qin in Song Ci, and most lyricists can play the qin. They like to make friends with famous violin masters, among them Fan Zhongyan, Ouyang Xiu, Su Shi, Jiang Kui, etc. were all students of famous violin masters at that time.

3. The development of printing technology has made the art of guqin more widely spread and continued

In the Song Dynasty, science and technology advanced by leaps and bounds, and four major inventions appeared. Among them, the appearance of printing promoted the development of guqin music. Especially in the Ming and Qing dynasties, due to the development of printing technology, a large number of qin scores were published and circulated. There are more than 140 kinds of qin scores recorded in the records. From this, it can be seen that there are more than 300 qin pieces created in the Ming Dynasty alone. In the future, each qin school has its own representative qin scores published in the world. These qin scores contain the aesthetic ideas, musical ideas, fingering characteristics, etc. of each qin school, and have played a very important role in the spread of the thousand-year-old music culture. and continuation.

Guqin art can quickly recover and develop again under the strong impact of foreign music in the Tang Dynasty, especially the emergence of the Qin school, which further shows that the Song Dynasty is an important era in the history of the development of Guqin. The qin is common in the life of the Song Dynasty, and it is used by the literati of the Song Dynasty to cultivate their temperament. It should be said that Song people have a lot of experience with the qin by borrowing the qin to express all kinds of emotions in their hearts. It is precisely because of the Aiqin of the Song people that the ancient national musical instrument of our Chinese nation has not disappeared in the long river of history.