During the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, in the exhibition hall 3 on the third floor of the Guangdong Provincial Museum (hereinafter referred to as "Guangdong Expo"), the qin song "Falling Wild Goose on Flat Sand" flowed in the ears of the audience. Mr. Ma Weiheng, a pianist of the Guangling School, played this qin piece on the Northern Song Dynasty "Song Shi Jian Yi" qin, allowing the audience to travel through time and space to enjoy the beautiful piece with the ancients.

This exhibition is sponsored by Guangdong Provincial Museum (Guangzhou Luxun Memorial Hall) and co-organized by Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum. A total of 62 cultural relics/sets are on display, including 16 first-class cultural relics/sets, and there are more than 100 auxiliary exhibits of crafts. The exhibition will continue until August 21st.

1. The guqin became an instrument for literati

There is a musical instrument with the breath of time, and it is as bright as new; the tone is deep and low, and it is clear and bright. It has ethereal overtones—like the wind chimes swaying under the eaves of a temple, with a deep bass—like the pine wind blowing through the mountains and valleys, like the sound of a big voice—it contains the spirit of being alone with the natural world... ...This is the guqin, a traditional musical instrument with the spirit and aesthetic taste of the Chinese nation.

"Historical Records" records that Confucius once learned to play the qin from Shi Xiang, a famous qin master at that time, and learned the spiritual realm of King Wen of Zhou from the qin piece "Wen Wang Cao". In traditional China, the guqin is not only the representative of elegant music and art, but also the core essence of traditional culture. In the minds of literati, whether playing or listening to the piano, is a very elegant thing. There are many musical instruments in China. Among the traditional "eight-tone", only "silk" includes a variety of musical instruments such as qin, se, zheng, and apa. The guqin was favored by the literati, and became the instrument of the literati and the king of all instruments.

II Guqin culture is extensive and profound

The exhibition is divided into two parts, "The Hidden Mountains - The Music Art of Guqin" and "The Long Journey - The World of Guqin Culture". It displays 22 precious Guqins from the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties collected by the China Three Gorges Museum in Chongqing. And other collections, telling the unique charm of Guqin.

Among them, the part of "Shan Yin Yin - Guqin Music Art" takes the literati aesthetics as the breakthrough point, interprets Guqin music, guides the audience to understand the music, and becomes a bosom friend. The biggest feature of Guqin music is that it does not win by melody, but pays great attention to timbre. This freehand expression is suitable for expressing one's temperament and is highly in line with the literati's aesthetics. This part of the exhibition combines traditional Chinese philosophy with aesthetics, and uses different styles of literati painting and calligraphy works to express various musical characteristics, and visualize and visualize the beauty of sound.

The part of "Lands of Water—The World of Guqin Culture" introduces the development history of Guqin, the literati musicians of past dynasties, the formation of qin scores, and the formation of qin schools, as well as the harmony of qin songs and the collection of literati and other traditions, showing a rich and broad literati spiritual world. From the pre-Qin ritual music to the literati's instrument, in the long history, many well-known cultural celebrities have an indissoluble bond with the guqin: Sima Xiangru and Cai Wenji in the Han Dynasty, Ji Kang and Tao Yuanming in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Bai Juyi, Fan Zhongyan, Ouyang Xiu, Su Shi, etc. of the Song Dynasty are all masters of the piano. This part of the exhibition combines the literati playing the qin and the literati Tibetan qin, telling the unique notation method of the guqin, the numerous schools of qin masters, the rich cultural allusions, and the profound literati tradition.

How to understand piano sounds

The ancients once said that "the qin is the sound of the heart", and they also sighed that "the confidant is hard to find". Many people find it difficult to grasp the beauty of the guqin when they hear it for the first time, and cannot describe how good it is. This is the characteristic of guqin music. It does not win by melody, but focuses on timbre, and its beauty is contained in each note. This freehand expression is suitable for expressing one's temperament and is highly in line with the literati's aesthetics.

If you want to understand the sound of the piano, you must understand the "literati aesthetics". The aesthetics of literati is inseparable from the three religions of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, which are an important source of Chinese ideology and culture. Confucianism advocates the idea of zhongyong and zhongyong; Buddhism advocates a pure mind and seeks inward; Taoism emphasizes returning to nature and letting nature be pure. The thoughts of these three religions have a great influence on the aesthetics of traditional Chinese literati. In addition, in the aesthetic system of ancient China, there is a tradition of "taking sorrow as beauty", which runs through the literature and art of all dynasties and dynasties as the background color. The above-mentioned aesthetic characteristics constitute the "aesthetic coordinates" of the traditional Chinese literati aesthetics.