The master Zhang Dezhen is a master who is committed to inheriting the craftsmanship of the ancient system. In today's fast-paced era, he chose to stick to the ancient craft and feel the story behind each string and each piece of wood with his heart.

It is Zhang Dezhen's constant pursuit to pass down the skill of having the qin chopped.

Guqin, also known as Yao Qin, jade qin, seven-stringed qin, is a traditional Chinese plucked musical instrument with a history of more than 3,000 years, and the craftsmen who inherit the traditional guqin making skills have a name that is rarely known to the public - violin master.

Zhang Dezhen, the founder of Dezhen Qin Society in Lingshan Wei Street, is a master of the violin. He is 38 years old this year. He has been on the road of the violin for more than ten years.

It takes at least one to two years to make a guqin by hand, which includes more than a dozen processes, testing not only the patience and perseverance of the craftsmen, but also the mind and practice of the master.

"Engaged in more than ten years, I think Guqin contains a lot of life philosophy, has the significance of self-cultivation, education and education." I hope more people can understand and love the art of Guqin and feel the charm of traditional Chinese culture. I also hope to train more piano masters so that this handicraft skill can be better inherited and developed." Zhang Dezhen said.

Become attached to Guqin

Learn from famous masters with an open mind

Zhang Dezhen is a native of Weifang, Shandong province, who majored in computer science at university. After graduation, she planned to do something related to her major in Beijing, but she unexpectedly formed an indisdisable bond with Guqin and changed her life trajectory from then on.

In 2010, Zhang Dezhen accidentally walked into a musical instrument store and saw the guqin hanging in the store. The owner saw that he was very interested in the guqin and played a song "The sea laughs" for him. Zhang Dezhen was instantly conquered by the unique timbre and charm of the guqin, from then on, he began to study the guqin through various channels. He found that the audience of Guqin is very small, the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in the opening ceremony of Guqin performance, let the public have a little understanding of guqin, but at that time there are very few ways to learn guqin. By chance, Zhang Dezhen found a good teacher in the Guqin Research Institute of Chinese Culture Academy, and started his course of learning to play the guqin.

"After learning for a period of time, I want to buy a better guqin, but at that time, Beijing and even the country can do guqin craftsmen are very few, leading to the handmade guqin price is relatively high, so I have my own idea of having to learn the guqin through various channels." In 2016, I met Mr. Sun Guisheng, the most important teacher in my guqin career, in Beijing. While learning Guqin playing from him, my skills will be further improved." Zhang Dezhen said.

"Mr. Sun Guisheng studied under Guqin master Cha Fuxi, has visited Europe with Chinese artist delegations many times, and held personal Guqin recitals and special lectures in Switzerland, and has also composed music for many film and television works such as" Blessing ", "Dream of Red Mansions", "Lin's Shop" and "Journey to the West". Every time we go to learn to play the guqin, we especially hope to eat the tea eggs given by Mr. Sun. If any student gets the tea eggs, it means that the student's study today makes Mr. Sun very satisfied." Zhang Dezhen said that he not only learned to play the piano with Teacher Sun, but also discussed and studied the making of Guqin with teacher Sun, which gave him a deeper understanding of the ancient skill.

Sink one's heart into

The skill of the qin was rapidly improved

The process of the violin is extremely complex, mainly including material selection, modeling, grooving belly, accessory assembly, piano embryo wrapping, making gray tire, instrument installation, painting, polishing, pushing light, winding and so on more than ten processes, often take one to two years to complete.

Due to the complexity of the process and the long production cycle, some of the skills of the guitar are slowly lost in the long history of inheritance. How to restore these lost skills is the direction of constant research and discussion between Zhang Dezhen and Sun Guisheng. "For example, most contemporary guqin are made of steel strings or silk strings, but many old ones can be installed with both silk strings and steel strings. Mr. Sun has a banana leaf guqin from the Ming Dynasty at home, and he and I often used this instrument to do research on how to install both silk and steel strings while ensuring the timbre and feel." Zhang Dezhen said that in the practice of exploring with the teacher again and again, his skills have made great progress, and gradually formed a set of systematic qin chopped system.

Zhang Dezhen said that the wood used for the guitar should not only be old but also have good resonance, it should have the characteristics of light, loose, brittle and slippery. At the beginning of making the violin, he would have to go to many places to find a good wood, but for the love of the violin, these are not much.

Guqin has a long history, which is also reflected in the name of Guqin. Among the guqin commonly used today, some are named after personal names, such as Fuxi, Shennong, and Zhongni, while others are named after patterns, such as beads, banana leaves, and sunset clouds. The production of guqin also involves material science, physics, chemistry and other aspects of knowledge, to have a deeper understanding of all kinds of materials, but also to master woodworking, painter, music theory and other aspects of knowledge. At the same time, the guqin also carries the long traditional Chinese culture, so whether it is to play or hack the qin, learners need to have a deeper understanding of the historical origin and cultural significance of the guqin. But these little-known knowledge for Zhang Dezhen is like a treasure.

West coast settlement

Teach the piano, make the piano and inherit the skills

"Qingdao is also called Qin Island, a 'qin' word, let me feel very close to here, and the temperature and humidity here are also very suitable for Qin, plus the scenery of Qingdao is very pleasant, so in 2020, I came to the new West Coast Starlight Island, opened a studio of my own." In 2022, my teacher Mr. Sun Guisheng passed away, in order to inherit the legacy of the teacher and let more people know and learn the guqin, we opened this Dezhen Qin club, the first floor is for teaching the piano and the second floor is for having the violin." Zhang Dezhen said.

Came to Dezhen Qin club on the second floor of the master qin room, the reporter saw the room in the workbench placed two pieces of guqin for accessories assembly, this is the work of two students Zhang Dezhen. "Now the two students who are learning to play the guqin have been learning to play the guqin for nearly a year. To be able to play the guqin should be the necessary skill for the organist. Only if you can play the guqin can you judge the timbre of the guqin and then the guqin can be hacked with good timbre." Zhang Dezhen said. On the wall of the studio hangs the operation guide of guqin production, each step is very detailed, you can see that a good guqin, need to spend a lot of time and effort.

"The violin is a thing that needs to be calm down to be able to do well, in this process, the violin master will be their own feelings and understanding into the work, so that it becomes' blood 'and' flesh ', and eventually become a living work." Zhang Dezhen said, "Playing the piano pursues the purpose outside the taste, the harmony outside the rhyme, and the meaning outside the strings, which is the essence of the far-reaching artistic conception of Qin music." And the qin is also "kung fu in the qin", the process of making guqin is cumbersome, but it is not difficult, difficult in the personal aesthetic improvement, the improvement of moral quality and the sharpening of the heart, when the qin is grinding, the qin is grinding people, grinding is the human heart."

Zhang Dezhen has settled in Starlight Island, he plans to stay here to teach the piano, make the piano, "hope to hold down the ancient skill of the piano, so that the intangible heritage in the new era with new vitality."