Guqin skills, arts and Taoism are a focus of debate among today's qin players. There are those who value skills and arts, and who are ashamed of Taoism, and there are those who have little knowledge of skills and arts, and who focus on Taoism. Among them, the views of benevolence and wisdom are Right and wrong, it is difficult to distinguish between males and females, and it is difficult to make simple judgments with right and wrong. This article estimates and calls them three realms of qin art.

When talking about his mentor, Master Hongyi, Mr. Feng Zikai once made such a metaphor: people's life can be divided into three layers, each layer is material life (food and clothing), and the second layer is spiritual life (art). , the third floor is soul life (religion), and the order of climbing each floor cannot be reversed.

The first layer is "Technology"

The piano skills of the qin players are the main landscape of the first floor, that is, the basic playing method of the guqin. If a qin player doesn't know the "eight methods of the right hand" and sings his notes, and when he comes up, he talks a lot about the art of qin and the qin, then we don't need to explain this person, we can know that this person is not enough. Therefore, only by mastering the playing method of the guqin in a down-to-earth manner can a qin player advance to the second floor and be qualified to talk about the art of qin.

As for how long it takes to learn the basic techniques of the guqin, I don't think I can make a generalization. It is easy to fall into the disadvantage of "blind man touching the elephant". My work "Qin Learning and Confusion II: Is Guqin Difficult to Learn? I mentioned this issue in the article. Compared with my own experience in learning erhu and guzheng, my definition of guqin is "easy to learn but difficult to master". It is easy to get started, but difficult to learn well. Although it is not difficult to get started with the guqin, it is difficult to reach the second floor if you stop and stop or lack talent.

The second floor is "art"

The second floor is "Art". Art is a sublimation of qin skills, and "Xishan Qin Kuang" refers to the stage of "finger and tone harmony". A qin player can reach this state only after he has accumulated a certain amount of skills in the guqin. If he only knows "dazzling skills" but does not know how to express the connotation of the music, it is also difficult to reach the second state of guqin, climbing. to the second floor.

There is only one way to open the key to the second floor: diligence, talent, and reading. This is the only way for Qin people to lead to the second floor. We modern piano players often only know how to play the piano, but ignore the importance of talent and reading. Of course success requires diligence, but without that little talent and cultural literacy, it is difficult to succeed.

Talent and reading are like catalysts in chemical reactions. Although these things are not the main reaction substances, without the addition of these catalysts, everything is just ready, and it only owes the east wind.

Therefore, the qin person must sublimate from "skill" to "art", appreciate the scenery of every second floor, talent and reading are very important. As an artist, I know the taste of it well. It is like practicing calligraphy. If you don’t stop posting, you will not have a problem with posting it over the years. The writing is similar to the original one. It is not difficult. With that little bit of aura, it's hard to become famous and start a family.

This invaluable spiritual energy is what we often call "talent". To use Yuan Mei's evaluation of Huang Tingjian's words is "the book is too late to read in this life." , but you can make up for some lack of talent by reading more. In fact, the same is true for many categories. Just like composition, a person who can write a good article must learn to be rich and read a lot of books, but a person who learns to be rich and read a lot of books may not be able to write splendid articles, you can let him write tools. Book.

He will edit carefully and do a good job, but the article may not be well written, because writing requires spiritual energy. The same is true for learning the piano. If a piano player plays the piano hard and takes time, he can learn and become successful. There is no problem in being a teacher. Artists, so there are very few qin players who can climb to the second floor.

The third floor is the "Qindao"

The way of the guqin mentioned here does not mean that the five strings of the guqin correspond to the five elements, the body of the guqin embodies the heaven and the earth, etc. Although these things are also a very important culture of the guqin, it has nothing to do with the level of playing the guqin. We guqin people do not know the meaning of the seven strings, nor will it affect their actual performance level, because this is another research system of the guqin.

The "Qin Dao" mentioned here is a kind of spirit inherent in the guqin, and "Xishan Qinkang" refers to the stage of "harmony between sound and meaning". Jiang Keqian, a qin master in the Ming Dynasty, called the highest state of this guqin as "forgetting the machine": "As for forgetting the machine, those who play the guqin can understand the gods. , birds dance and fish leap."

With a single movement of the seven strings, six horses can be raised, birds dance and fish leap, what a realm this is! Visible "forget machine" concept. Confucius said, "Do what you want, don't go beyond the rules." The same is true for the qin players.

But the third floor must be climbed one by one from the first two floors. Just like we often praise our grandmother for her beautiful white hair, if a person has that kind of gray hair in middle age, then what they get is not praise, but ridicule, because it is not beauty but premature aging!

The same is true of Guqin. Without the accumulation of the first two floors, it is easy to talk about the piano in vain. Therefore, "Qindao" also often becomes a "figure cloth" for some people who play the piano. They are not good enough, and they can only talk about "Qindao" to hide their ears and steal the bell.

Finally, let us qin people regard the skill as today, the art as tomorrow, and the way of the qin as the day after tomorrow, live today, embrace tomorrow, look forward to the day after tomorrow, maybe one day, we can become people in the building of these three realms .