GUQIN, a plucked, seven-string zither instrument, is one of the oldest instruments in China, famous for the slow, lingering, some say, ethereal quality of its music. It was favored by literati and is sometimes called the "father of Chinese music" and the "instrument of the sages," since Confucius played the guqin.

In ancient times, no one could call himself a literati or scholar unless he had mastered guqin, as well as calligraphy, painting and go (Chinese chess). It was an instrument of great subtlety and refinement.

It's so refined and much of the music is so slow that the uninitiated can become bored, since they do not know how to appreciate the music deeply linked with Chinese history and culture.

Guqin culture is fascinating and the rules for making guqin accord to natural principles, astronomy and the lunar calendar system. It usually takes two to three years to make a fine guqin, 1.21 meters long. The wood must be dry and well-seasoned, more than 200 years old.

"A guqin is like a small Earth - it has everything and it tells everything," says guqin master craftsman Ma Yuesi, who has been making the celestial-sounding instrument for 26 years.

Ma, 62, is one of the leading guqin craftsmen in Zhejiang Province, who has made many guqin for masters at home and aboard. He lives in Yalan Village, Chongxian Town, Yuhang County in Hangzhou.

He studied his craft with Xu Kuanghua, a master of the Zhejiang school of guqin, who also made guqin.

Shanghai Daily visits Ma's workshop to explore how the "small Earth" is made and played.

The process

The proper materials must be selected. It starts from picking up the material. Mostly, soft and porous candle nut or Chinese fir are used for the upper sounding board, while relatively harder and denser wood are used for the lower resonance chamber. Costly rosewood is used to make string holders and the bridge.

Only wood that is very dry and seasoned, around 200 years old, is acceptable. There must be no sap and hence, porous enough so that sound can penetrate. And it must be straight. Thus, wood from ancient buildings, massive old furniture and old coffins are suitable.

Compared with other instruments, guqin has a very small resonance chamber, and thus requires high quality material, master Ma says. Wood that vibrated over the years is ideal, such as wood from a bell tower or wood from a structure near a river where it has been influenced by the sound of water.

Ma usually purchases wood in timber market but he only occasionally finds the ideal wood for a guqin.

Sometimes the wood is treated to improve the sound, for example by heating the wood to make it denser.

Then it is shaped, carved by hand. The sounding board is curved and concave. The lower part that also forms the resonance chamber is concave and flat on the bottom. The carving of the resonance chamber is crucial for acoustic fidelity. A well-carved chamber produces a sound that lingers and lingers, a feature of guqin music.

"I made a guqin that I played on the first floor of a building, and it did not sound loud, but it was clearly heard on the second floor," Ma says.

"It always happens that people standing in front of the guqin hear weaker sound than people standing at further points of a room," he adds.

Guqin makers follow certain principles of construction. The surface is curved to represent heaven and the bottom is flat to represent earth. The length is 3 chi 6 cun 5 fen, (around 1.21 meters). The number 365 is to symbolize the 365 days in one year. The width is 15 to 20 centimeters.

The 13 hui (dots to set pitch) on the surface represent the 13 months of the year - the 13th is the leap month in the lunar calendar.

According to tradition, guqin originally had five strings, representing the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire and earth. Later, two emperors in the Western Zhou Dynasty (c. 11th century-770 BC) added the sixth and seventh string to motivate their troops into battle, it is said.

The various parts of guqin include the head, neck, shoulder, waist, feet, all with significance. Two small apertures in the resonance chamber are known as the "dragon pool" and "phoenix pond."

According to "Wuzhizhai Tablature" published in 1721, there are 46 kinds of guqin shapes, mostly with different shapes of edging, mostly named after important figures.

Unlike many other string instruments that only need to be lacquered, guqin requires the varnish to be made of raw lacquer mixed with powdered deer horn, or sometimes gold powder, silver powder, or jade powder, or a mix of all these powders. The addition of powder makes the sound deep and constant.

Over many years a guqin's surface will be crackled many times, and these crackles are believed to improve the quality of sound as the instrument's wood and lacquer release tension. The age of an antique guqin can be determined by the shape and nature of the crackle pattern, it is said.

Then the craftsman adds hui (dots to set pitch) and finally strings on the sounding board. Some factories add hui in accordance with a standard measurement but Ma believes there's subtle difference between notes due to qualities of different pieces of wood. He insists one string at a time, and placing the hui by listening to the notes.

The finishing process requires lacquering and polishing for many months.

When Ma made his first guqin, it took one year for the layers of lacquer to dry.

Before making guqin, Ma used to be a carpenter before. When he was 35 years old, he met master Xu Kuanghua of the Zhejiang school and listened to his music. Ma then tried to replicate Xu's guqin and showed it to Xu. Though it was hardly a musical instrument, Xu was moved and took Ma on as a student.

Today, fewer than five people in the city make guqin, and Ma is one of them, making 40 to 50 pieces a year.

Several years ago, a furniture factory offered him a salary double that of its other carpenters, but Ma declined.

"Making furniture is not interesting, making guqin is much of fun," he says.

Zhejiang school guqin



Many guqin schools developed over the centuries in different areas, forming in areas where guqin activity was greatest.

The influential Zhejiang school originated in the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) when Lin'an (now Hangzhou) was the capital.

The founder of the school, Guo Mian from Yongjia, was a famous master who composed many works to express his concerns about the future of the country since it was a period of conflict and peril.

Today, Zhejiang school's representatives include Xu Yuanbai, Xu Kuanghua and Xu Junyue (grandfather, father and son). Only the son survives.

Xu Kuanghua appeared in the costume epic "Hero" (2002) directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Jet Li. Xu is the blind, white-haired guqin player who plucks the strings while Jet Li and Donnie Yen have a duel.

Guqin culture was almost vanished during the "cultural revolution" (1966-1976). But in 1983, Xu Kuanghua was invited to Hong Kong for a cultural exchange and was widely applauded. Then Zhejiang school drew attention.

In 2003, guqin music was proclaimed a masterpiece of humanity's intangible, oral heritage by UNESCO. Guqin was showcased at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.