After thousands of years of development, the guqin has entered a new era in the 20th century. Due to the particularity of the guqin itself, it has not been able to integrate into the new era as quickly as other Chinese musical instruments such as the erhu, pipa, guzheng, and ruan.
Correspondingly, the aesthetics of Guqin mainly focuses on the arrangement of the theoretical heritage and the interpretation of the traditional qin study, but the development momentum has slowed down significantly. For Guqin, development is the best and truly effective way to preserve the Guqin tradition.
Expressionism already exists in traditional qin studies, such as Boya and Ziqi's Gaoshan Liushui is a topic about performance. However, expressionism has never been able to rise as a theme in ancient qin studies, it just depends on other themes to play a role.
In the exploration of the meaning of guqin aesthetics, many performers and theorists have done a lot of work. However, there is still a long way to go before we can truly determine the positioning and connotation of Guqin.
First of all, the guqin has accumulated a very profound philosophical and cultural meaning because it has long been used as a "dharma tool" for literati to cultivate their self-cultivation. If these non-musical factors are eliminated in the contemporary era, and the guqin is only regarded as a musical instrument, does it still have value?
It is like a concrete mystery, presented to us as real. For piano learners, what is tradition and what is development, may be a lifetime's homework.