漫談古琴

查阜西

一、古琴的形式

许多人对于称为七弦琴的古琴都是不很陌生的。不仅在小说和戏剧里时常看到俞伯牙锺子期的友好及司马相如卓文君的结婚和古琴的关係的故事，而且时常可以在陈列室、古董市上看到古琴实物。约两千年前古琴就在民间发展著；约三百年前，古琴曾经被用来作为一种曲艺或是说唱音乐的伴奏乐器。之后，仍然有很多人欣赏著古琴；到现在全国各地还有好几百人会演奏古琴。古琴曲曾是多数人所欣赏的音乐。

我们有材料可以说明它是我国的一个相当重要的文化遗产。它有一千四百年以来不断的传谱，并且或多或少地吸收了历代的一些可贵的旋律，保存在九十种以上的巨帙琴谱之中。在已往它被人民爱好以致产生了不少关于它的神话，因此它应该得到重视和适当的发展。

古琴的形制具有显明的民族特点。它是以它那两寸来厚六寸多宽四尺多长的全身充作共鸣器的。一般弦乐器的指板是不到乐器本身十分之一宽的另一条狭窄的小板片或木柱，而古琴的指板，却是那四寸宽三尺多长的全弦面。一般弦乐器的轸足是在演奏人的左手上方，而古琴的轸足是在演奏人的右手下方。除竖箜篌受体制的限制外，一般弦乐器的低音弦是在演奏人的里方，古琴弦长相同，并无体制限制，而它的低音弦却在演奏人的外方。一般弦乐器的共鸣器是面平背穹，而古琴是面穹背平。一般弦乐器的共鸣孔是在乐器的正面，而古琴是在乐器的反面。一般弦乐器的音位不是标的三分损益律就是标的平均律，而古琴标的是纯律。一般弦乐器的定弦立调有正无侧（有规律），而古琴常有侧调（三十九个侧调均衝破了规律）。

在音乐史上有些人倾向说欧亚大陆文化较高民族的弦乐器同源，这是以一般弦乐器形制大都统一的事实作为重要的根据的。但是上面所列举古琴形制的独特而且相反的形式，却否定了这种统一。这就可能允许我们提出一个新的问题——是否长江或黄河中下游两岸民族可能在古代创造过另一种体系的音乐文化呢？看了楚文物展览中的楚国弦乐器，再综合多种秦汉金石上的古琴形制，现在的古琴显然就是楚汉弦乐发展而成的，那末许愼说琴的形象琴也就有了问题了。许愼的材料有些是乱的，我们至少可以说，象形的琴不是“五弦，周加二弦”的琴。我们固然也要承认同源于巴比伦的琴，可能在汉以前也到过中国，但我们也可以说中国的古琴是另有来源的。

二、古琴是一直流行在民间的

根据秦汉以前历史上记载下来的诗歌和文献所提到的和出土的器物、画像所对证的琴，它的形制在汉代以前很乱，的确还不完全像现在的七弦琴。在汉代以前，琴和瑟的弦数似乎都不一定，大概是把那种笨重庞大用移柱的方法定弦的弦乐器称为瑟，而把比较轻便用转动轸轴的方法定弦的弦乐器叫作琴。琴可能是对古代轻便的弦乐器的一种称呼，也可能这就是它能流行在民间的原因。

可能是到了汉代琴才是七条琴弦。那时的人所称的“雅琴”是民间艺人像师中、赵定、龙德等人所用的乐器，在公元前一百年前后，被送进宫廷以后，“雅琴”就被统治阶级拿去享受直到魏晋还是被称为“雅琴”的。似乎是到了南北朝的南朝，最早汉末嵇康时，古琴的形制才和现时形制大体相同，不但是七条弦，也有了十三“徽”。现存最早的中国乐谱就是古琴谱，就是梁时的产物，传这个谱的是一个民间艺人丘明（五○○至五九○）。

弹古琴的民间艺人不但把琴发展到定型，创造了古琴的专用乐谱，而且在六朝乱世中还仅仅只有弹古琴的民间艺人能把旧有音乐文化中的楚汉民族风格保存下来。到了唐代，民间的古琴家像赵耶利、董庭兰、陈康士那些人，他们不但吸收了许多外来的旋律如祝家声、沉家声，大胆创作；而且写下了不少的曲谱和琴学专书。若不是后来的一些梦想复古的士大夫嫌它们“浅俚之甚”、“辞皆鄙俚”认为“不足以行远”以致都“不幸而不见”了，那是多麽好的文化遗产！

在想复古的北宋和苟安的南宋时代，包括辽金区域，士大夫弹琴的人似乎很多，而很知名的民间的古琴作曲家反而少了。在整个宋代中，我们只能从士大夫和知识份子谈到古琴的文献里面知道一些民间古琴家如像孙道滋和僧义海。而那些知识份子和士大夫像范仲淹以酷好弹《履霜操》而知名，欧阳修时常谈古琴美学，苏东坡喜欢弹琴，也会作曲，并且乾脆自认古琴“正是郑卫之音”，这说明他们肯定著古琴的民间性。只是他们自己作的曲，拿仅存的宋代两个小琴谱《古怨》和《黄莺吟》来看，不但是比不上宋以前民间艺人的创作，而且也没有民间气味。可是到了宋朝覆亡前后，就涌现出一些民族意识很丰厚的民间古琴家来，跨著宋元两代的郭楚望创作了奔腾动盪的大曲《潇湘水云》，毛敏仲创作了变声激楚的大曲《樵歌》，汪大有在监狱里为文天祥作了《拘幽》等等，都传到了至今。

三、民间的古琴与非民间的古琴

从明初出现一部体系比较完整的古琴专谱《神奇秘谱》起，有许多关于古琴的民间文献和古琴曲谱被保存到现在，而且这些文献和曲谱中有许多材料是宋代晚期民间古琴艺人整理保存下来的。这些文献多数是十卷以上大部头刻本专籍，明代的就有二十种以上，如包括清代到解放时为止共计有一百多种，而全部及部分材料属于民间范畴的竟有九十多种，我们可以从这些材料里面把古琴存在的情况分析出来。

古琴不止流传在民间，历代的统治阶级也把它杂在官家的庙坛音乐（他们自称“雅乐”）里面当作祀神庙和祭天地之类的典礼音乐来演奏。在旧时所有“经”、“史”、“子”、“集”之内有关古琴的材料多是属于这种庙坛音乐范畴的，而大部分这种庙坛音乐又主要是用大批文字乐章向人民示威和麻醉人民的。庙坛音乐把古琴杂在许多其他乐器里面，一字一声，死板地弹著，这就是所谓“雅乐”的古琴。如果把这一类“雅乐”琴曲的谱子单独的弹奏出来，那是没有甚麽音乐价值的。历代的太常寺和清代的和声署只是养著些寄生虫式的乐官，遇著典礼演奏，临时凑一些所谓乐舞生，国子生，廪生之类欺人自欺地混在“雅乐”队里弹琴鼓瑟，胡搞一顿。这种所谓“雅乐”，每代都有大套的杜撰，这里面杜撰的古琴音乐，也就和“雅乐”在一起，跟著每一朝代的灭亡而死亡。

民间的古琴音乐却是经常活动在民间的，不但不死亡，而且有相当的发展。上面谈到宋明以来仅是记谱方面的印本专书就有近百种之多，这就是它的发展的证据之一。只是在它的发展过程中，因为爱好者的口味不同，就必然会产生一些派系。从宋代末期起，属于民间范围的古琴音乐就存在著两个大的宗派——当时称为浙派（出现在浙江）和江派（出现在长江东段的南岸）。到了明代，这两派的界限更加分明。浙派主张只欣赏古琴的旋律，不许有歌唱的文词。他们的古琴曲谱大概都是用比较複杂的指法，要求古琴发出“微、妙、圆、通”的音，称为“希声”。江派却认为既有声音就应该同时有文词可演唱，他们的古琴曲谱取音比较单纯以便歌唱，称为“对音”。拿今天的话来讲，浙派是把古琴当作独奏的乐器，而江派似乎是把古琴用作声乐的伴奏乐器。

在封建社会里，有一个极常见的规律，就是民间的任何艺术一到了相当高的水平，就会被上层阶级或是帝王拿去享受，古琴自然也不例外。浙派的琴很早就被拿进皇宫里去作供奉，江派的琴也被许多王公和士大夫所欣赏。

明朝的王公们是很会享受的，他们本身似乎没有甚麽古琴音乐艺术，或者有水平也并不高，但他们往往把民间古琴艺人无分宗派找去当作“清客”供养著，甚至还有个别王公另外奴役著一些所谓“琴生”，使这些“琴生”向民间“琴师”学习古琴以供他们欣赏。有时他们把民间艺人关于古琴的传说和曲谱搜集起来随时编印成琴书和琴谱。他们嫌江派的说唱“太俚俗”，多採取浙派琴曲。但是，无论江派和浙派的古琴民间艺人，他们都知道争取由自己另自刻谱传世。明清两代有许多属于派派的民间艺人，把自己写的材料珍藏起来，往往在他们死后，会有同情他们的人拿钱出来，替他们刊行。可是有时也被别人窃取了他们的材料而改名刊行。在明代，江派的民间艺人，也有不少自己刻谱传世的，他们之所以要争取刻谱传世，可能是因为他们除了弹琴的指谱之外，还想争取刊行他们用来律唱的大批古琴文学的材料。江派的古琴文学，是一种具有独特性的诗歌文字，而且是一种成熟的带著民间性的文学，成熟到使王公们都要採集刊行，“大词家”也要摹仿他们。

四、虞山派与民间性的古琴文献材料

从明代万曆中叶起三百年来，七十多种古琴专谱之中，凡是提到本身的师承或渊源的琴家，没有一个不是自称为虞山派或琴川派的，直到现在的好几百琴人中还是如此。这是因为刊行《松弦馆琴谱》的严澂是江苏常熟人，常熟有一条河叫琴川，有一座山叫虞山，因此，琴人要表示他是採取严澂风格的，就自称为虞山派或琴川派，或熟派（“熟”即常熟）。

但是严澂是明嘉靖间大学士严讷的儿子，并不是一个琴工（民间艺人）。那末，我们就不免要问：是不是虞山派代表的是士大夫的琴派，而不是代表民间性的琴派呢？

根據材料，我們的答覆是：虞山派（或琴川派、熟派）也是從民間來的，它就是浙派的後身。

严澂在他的《藏春坞琴谱》序和《琴川汇谱》序里面说得很明白，他说：“近世一二俗工，取古文辞用一字当一声，而谓能声；又取古曲随一声当一字属成俚语，而谓能文。噫！古乐然乎哉？”他是自认为浙派，正面和江派搞对立，这和他的先进浙派萧鸾、胡文焕的意识完全相同。在《琴川汇谱》序里面，他又说：“馀邑名琴川，能琴者不少，胥刻意于声，而不敢牵合于文——即工拙不齐，要与俗工卑琐靡靡者悬殊。余游京师遇太韶沉君，称一时琴师之冠，气调与琴川诸士合，而博雅过之，余因以沉君之长辅琴川之遗……”而沉太韶（名音，山阴人）正是当时有名浙派琴工。严澂虽然在无意中另得虞山派之名，而实在就是沉音所传的浙派，因此我们可以说虞山派就是浙派的后身。

不仅严澂在京师时的琴师是一个浙派民间琴工，就是他在琴川所学的琴也是来自民间的（他在琴川时的琴师是一个姓徐的染匠）。（王应魁在他的《柳南随笔》里说那个姓徐的染匠是向子游的灵魂学来的，那是当时士大夫富有神秘色彩的说法）。

这一具体材料说明了严澂的虞山琴派虽然是由士大夫所揭橥出来，并得到大批士大夫阶层经常的讚美，而它的来源却是地道的民间产物。这还只是一个例子而已，如果就古琴的文献全部拿来分析，我们可以归纳出如下的几种情况：

一、只有民间艺人才会创作出可传的古琴音乐；也只有专业民间艺人才会有系统地传授古琴音乐。

二、大群的知识份子或士大夫不但欣赏古琴，还喜欢向民间艺人学习，他们或者搜集整理专业民间艺人可传的古琴材料用自己的名义刻谱传世，如严澂、云志高；或者集资刊传民间艺人自己所整理的材料，如蔡毓荣、周鲁封、孙洤；或者当专业琴家自己刻谱的时候，他们就列名参加作序，写跋；或者改装专业琴家的材料来捧场，如和素的《琴谱合璧》；甚至还有把先进琴家已有的版本剜去行款，加上或改用自己名字的，如沉国裕和马兆辰。大多数有关古琴的谱录和文献，都是专业民间艺人的材料。但有许多是经过知识份子或士大夫的编集的。总之，古琴音乐是民间的创作，而士大夫则多是“述而不作”的。

五、古琴曲的标题和它的内容表现

在有关古琴的所有先秦先汉的神话和故事当中，有一个值得注意的地方，即是都没有提到他们所演奏的琴曲的标题，这说明了先汉的人对于古琴曲只是强调它们音乐形象和音乐语言的内容表现，而不一定有正确的标题，甚至是没有标题的。当他们需要分别这个琴曲和那个琴曲时，对于有歌词的琴曲他们就拿歌词的头两个字作为标题代替曲名，这不只古琴是这样，全部先秦和民歌集——《诗经》——里面也都是这样的。对于那些没有歌词的琴曲，或者用主调音如《宫引》、《蕤宾意》、《流徵》之类，或者就所想表现的内容或故事的大意抽出一两个字或指故事中的主角如“阳春”、“白雪”、“将归操”、“走马引”、“文王操”、“楚明光”之类的字眼或故事中主角的动作与名字来做标题。

这种模糊而不完整的标题是根本不能说明琴曲的内容表现的，但是先汉时期师传口授的古琴曲的曲名事实上只是这样地存在著和传下来，而且也或多或少地给后世留下习惯。这样，到了一定的时期，势必会有一些热心的音乐家来把还有人传授著的琴曲的内容一一加以说明，因为他耽心日久之后古琴家演奏的琴曲会只剩下一些音调和旋律的形式，而说不出内容，或者它们的内容会被歪曲了。

就在漢末，一部記錄琴曲標題並同時解說標題（說明琴曲內容表現）的專著——蔡邕《琴操》——果然出現了。這一部書的全部材料就是把他所知道當時還流傳的四十七個琴曲，就原有的標題，逐一說明它們所表現的內容。

蔡邕《琴操》出现以后，接著在唐代吴竞又写下了一部包括说明汉以后的古琴曲的标题的材料，名叫《乐府古题》要解，简称《乐府解题》。这一部书虽然只剩下一些残篇，但是宋代郭茂倩撰辑的《乐府诗集》已把很多吴竞《乐府解题》中关于古琴方面的材料引进去了。

这三部书——蔡邕《琴操》，吴竞《乐府解题》，郭茂倩《乐府诗集》——对于后来一般古琴谱里每一琴曲必有标题而且又有解题一事起了重要的影响，使古琴形成一种要求有明确的标题和要求有明确的内容表现的优良传统。甚至当任何一个老年古琴家在他演奏一个别人不曾听过的琴曲时，一定会先把这一曲的标题叫甚麽，所要表现的意思（内容）是些甚麽，向你叨叨地述说一番。

六、古琴曲表现一些甚麽样的内容

古琴曲都有标题和解题既然是一千八百年来的传统，并有一千八百年来延续不断的文献和著录，我们要想知道一个古琴曲的正确内容，无论它是歌词已亡的或是一个器乐曲，无论它有无谱本存在或有谱而还无人能弹，只要把材料好好地集中起来，都是可以查得出来的。

根据目前还不完整的材料初步地看一看，古琴曲的内容绝大多数是严肃而端正的。蔡邕《琴操》所记录的四十七调先汉琴曲的内容大体上是下列四类：对统治阶级的怨愤；对远古开明统治者的怀想；对社会矛盾的反映和一些社会问题的感伤。甚至在诗经里面本来说明是表现统治阶层的团结的“鹿鸣”和表现统治者的善政的“驺虞”，一到了古琴曲里面就反过来了——蔡邕肯定地说明它们的内容是表现对统治者的悲愤的。蔡邕的时代背景正当著汉末的农民大革命《黄巾起义》，他所收集的当时琴曲，其表现的内容充分带著革命高潮中的人民激烈情绪，这是很容易理解的。上面一一说明过我国古琴这一音乐艺术主要是民间性的，若从古代古琴曲所表现的内容来看，有时并且是具有人民性的。

还值得注意的是这些反映社会矛盾的古琴曲都是表现争取“要做好人”和“要做好事”的情绪。它们所表现的不是悲观的消极情绪，而是乐观的积极情绪。若是从现时琴家常弹的和还有谱本的古琴曲的内容表现再来全面地研究一下，我们还可以发现有一部分和现时民间音乐一样是表现爱情和友谊的，另外还有许多是以某一历史故事为题材的。例如表现为全民福利坚持劳动以战胜自然的《禹凿龙门》，鼓励迅速迁善改过的《风雷引》，表现虚心请益的《圯桥进履》，切戒遭受恶劣的社会意识形态侵蚀的《墨子悲丝》，表现坚持真理至死不屈的《卞和泣玉》等等，还是有一定的现实性的。

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　一九五四年十月.

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琴家、琴史及琴乐评论家

前中国音乐家协会副主席

前民族音乐研究所通信研究员

前中央音乐学院民族音乐系主任

Causerie on Guqin

Zha Fuxi

[I] Forms of Gugin

Gugqins which are also called seven-stringed gins are no strangers for many people, not only because of stories found very often in novels and theatres about the friendship between Yu Boya and Zhong Ziqi, and the relationship between the marriage of Sima Xiangru and Zhuo Wenjun and gugqin, but also because of the physical gugins that we can see very often in exhibition halls and antique markets. About two thousand years ago, guqin already emerged from the folklore; about three hundred years ago, gugin was ever used as instrument for the accompaniment of some theatrical and rapping music. Later, there are still many people enjoying gugin, and even now, there are still hundreds of people who can play guqins all over the country. Many people use to enjoy gugin pieces very much.

We have some materials to prove that it (gugin) is one of the important cultural heritages in China. There are music scores which have been preserved in over 90 types of score books (tablatures) for over 1400 years, which have more or less absorbed many valuable melodies of generations. In the past, gugin was loved by people so much that many fairy tales appeared about it. Therefore, it 1s natural that we should pay more attention to it and develop it more.

The shape and structure of gugin feature with very obvious folklore natures. It is the whole body of the gugin of 2-inch thickness, over 6-inch width and 4-feet length that is used as the part for resonance. On a normal stringed musical instrument, the fingerboard is a narrow and small panel or fret that is usually no wider than one tenth of the instrument itself; while on gugin, it is the most part of the body in 4-inch width and 3-feet length where fingers make actions. The pillars of normal stringed instruments is above players’ left hand, while that for gugin is below players’ right hand. Low-pitch string of normal stringed instruments is at the interior side of players, except for kung’ hou which is limited by its shape and structure; while that for guqin is at the external side of players even though its strings are same in length and there is no limitation due to its shape and structure. The resonator of normal stringed instruments is flat on the front surface and arched on the back side; while that of gugin is arched on the front surface and flat on the back. The resonance hole of normal stringed instruments is on the front side while that of guqin is on the rear side.

In the music history, some people tended to believe that stringed instruments of the nationalities with higher civilization level are of the same origin in the European and Asian Continental Cultures and this belief is based on the fact that most stringed instruments are unified in their shapes and structures. However, the unique and rather reversed shape and structure of gugin mentioned above actually disapprove such unification. Such difference makes us raise one new question—whether it is possible that people living on both sides of the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River and Yellow River actually created another system of music cultures in ancient times. We can be assured that gugin actually derived from stringed instruments of Chu State (one state during the Warring States Period—403BC to 221BC) and Han Dynasty (202BC to 220AD) considering stringed instruments that we saw in exhibitions of antiques from Chu State, and shapes and structures of gugin pictures on stone inscriptions of Qin Dynasty (221BC—206BC) and Han Dynasty. Therefore, it is problematic for Xu Shen (S8AD-147AD) to say the shape of gugin was like an elephant. The materials of Xu Shen were somewhat chaotic, and we can at least decide that elephant-like gins are not with “five strings plus two strings around.” Though we should admit that Babylon gins of the same origin might have come to China as well before Han Dynasty, we are sure there was another origin for Chinese guqins.

[ll] Gugin has always been popular in the folklore. According to gins mentioned in poems and scriptures recorded before Qin and Han dynasties and those depicted on antiques and pictures unearthed, their shapes and structures were very chaotic before Han Dynasty and did differ from current seven-stringed gins in certain ways. Before Han Dynasty, the number of strings of gins and sehs was not certain. Probably people called those bulky stringed instruments which need players to move the frets to tune up as sehs, and named those lighter ones which require players simply to rotate the pillars to tune upas gins. Vin might be a general name for light stringed instrument in ancient times, and this might be the reason why it got popular always in the folk.

It is probable that gins from Han Dynasty began to have seven strings. “Ya Qin (literally elegant gin)” at that time was the instrument used by folk musicians Xiang Shizhong, Zhao Ding and Long De, and was later sent into the court around 100 BC where the ruling class had enjoyed its elegance until We1 State Period and Jin Dynasty when it was still called “Ya Qin”. It seems not until the South Dynasty Period of North and South Dynasties Period (420AD—S89AD) or Shengkang Reign of the end of Han Dynasty at the earliest that the shape and structure of gugins became similar to current ones. They have not only seven strings but also thirteen signia at that time. The earliest Chinese instrumental tablature still preserved today was for guqin scores and was the product of Liang State (one state during North and South Dynasties Period), said to be recorded by folk musician Qiu Ming (500-590).

The folklore gugin players not only developed the instrument until its shape was fixed and created special gugin scores, but also preserved the folk styles of old music cultures of Chu State and Han Dynasty in that chaotic era of changing dynasties. Folk gugin musicians such as Zhao Yeli, Dong Tinglan and Chen Kangshi not only absorbed many exotic melodies including Zhujia melody and Shenjia melody and made various creations, but also wrote many tablatures and special works on the studies of gugin. Later some scholars dreamed of recovering the ancient ways of playing gugin and looked down upon those musicians’ creations by saying they were superficial and vulgar, and not worthy of spreading, those works therefore, unfortunately, disappeared with time. If not due to those scholars’ despise, what good cultural heritages we should have inherited!

In North Song Dynasty (960AD—1120AD) when recovering the old ways was in the peak and South Song Dynasty (1127AD—1279AD) when the whole country hid itself with shame in Southern China, and even in the regions ruled by Liao State (916AD-1125AD) and Jin State (1115AD— 1234AD), it seemed that more scholars began playing guqgins, but fewer folk gugin composers were well-known. For the whole Song Dynasty, we could know some folk gugin musicians such as Sun Daozi and Seng Yihai only from some scriptures on gugin made by the ruling class and scholars. Among the ruling class and scholars, Fan Zhongyan (989AD—1052AD) was well-known for his excellence in playing “Lu Shuang Cao (Walking on Frost)”, Ouyang Xiu (1007-1072) often discussed with others the aesthetics of gugin, and Su Dongpo (1037-1101) liked playing gugin and could also compose. Su even considered gugin music was that of “people of Zheng and Wei States (states during Warring States Period).” All above-mentioned proved that they admitted gugin music came from the folk people. However, their composition works, if the only two preserved tablatures of Song Dynasty—“Gu Yuan (Sadness of the Old Times)” and “Huang Ying Yin (On Whitethroat)’— were considered, couldn’t match those of folk musicians before Song Dynasty at all and didn’t have any folklore styles either. Nevertheless, many folk gugin musicians with strong senses of folklore people emerged again after the end of Song Dynasty. Guo Chuwang living over Song Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty composed the big set of scores “Xiaoxiang Shuiyun (Clouds and Mists of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers)” which is full of power and beats. Mao Minzhong composed the powerful scores of “Qiao Ge (Songs of Woodman).” Wang Dayou composed “Ju You (Thinking in the Jail)” for Wen Tianxiang (1236—1282) who was then jailed by the ruling class. All those scores passed on to today.

[lll] Folk and Non-Folk Gugin

Since early Ming Dynasty when a quite complete set of special tablature for gugin— “Shenqi Mipu (Magic Scores)’—emerged, there have been lots of folk scriptures about gugin and scores of gugin were passed on to today. Many materials of those scriptures and scores were actually cleaned and preserved by folk gugin players at the end of Song Dynasty. Those scriptures are mainly thick inscription books normally of over 10 volumes. There are over 20 types of such scriptures solely in Ming Dynasty and more than 100 types from Qing Dynasty to the foundation of People’s Republic of China. Complete or part of the materials involved in around 90 types of those scriptures can be classified as folklore ones, and we can have a clear picture of the existence of gugin from those materials.

Guqin was spreading not only among folk people. Ruling classes of different dynasties mixed it into band of official miaotan music (literally temple music) (they named it as “Ya Yue”) and played it as ritual music when worshipping the god, the heaven and the earth. Most of the materials about gugin in ancient collections about histories, Confucius studies, etc., were within the range of ritual music, most of which were actually used to anaesthetize people and show off the ruling class’ power to them. In miaotan music, gugins were mixed among many other instruments and were played very rigidly the tunes which were named as “Ya Yue”. If we separated the scores of guqin from “Ya Yue” tablature, they were even valueless in the sense of music. Taichan Shi (music bureau) of various dynasties and Hesheng Shu (music bureau as well) of Qing Dynasty (1636—1912) brought up a group of music officials like parasites. They scramble some music pieces such as “YueWu Sheng” (Dance and Music Piece), “Guozi Sheng” and “Lin Sheng”and played some gins and sehs carelessly among the “Ya Yue” bands when ceremonies were held. There were always some coincs of long music pieces in each dynasty in the name of so-called “Ya Yue,” however, the gugin sections of those pieces, together with the complete sets of “Ya Yue”, were dead when each dynasty ended.

Folklore gugin music, instead, was spreading very actively among people. It didn’t die but develop very well. That there were over 100 types of gugin tablatures in inscriptions since Song Dynasty and Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) mentioned above is one of the proofs for its development. However, in the process of its development, there must have been different schools emerging due to different tastes and interests of gugin lovers. Since the end of Song Dynasty, gugin music in the range of folklore music was divided into two big schools—Zhe School (emerging from current Zhejiang Province) and Jiang School (emerging from current south bank of the eastern section of Yangtze River). In Ming Dynasty, the division of those two schools was clearer with the Zhe School advocating only melodies and no lyrics at all for gugin music. The tablature of Zhe School often required very complicated fingering techniques and gugin players to produce sounds of “delicacy, excellence, sonority and smoothness”, which were called “Xi Yin (Xi Sound).” Jiang School followers, on the other hand, thought there could be lyrics for singing now that there was music. Their guqin scores, named as “Dui Yin (Dui Sound)”, were simpler so to be easy for singing. Explained with current languages, Zhe School followers considered gugin only for solo performances, and Jiang School followers took it for accompaniment instrument.

It was a frequent rule in the feudalism society that something artistic in the folk, if reaching certain high level, would be sent into the court for the enjoyment of the upper class or kinds and emperors. This was no exception for gugin. Guqin music of Zhe School had been sent into the court long time before; while that of Jiang School was also enjoyed very much by nobles and officials.

Nobles of Ming Dynasty knew very well how to enjoy their lives. They didn’t create any guqin music art themselves; or even they did, the levels were not high. But they often succeeded in finding those famous folk gugin musicians no matter schools and supported the musicians at their homes. Some few maharajas even supported some so-called “gin apprentices”, who learned from “gin masters” from the folk for the enjoyment of themselves. Sometimes, they collected stories about gugin and gugin scores popular among folk musicians for publications at their will. They usually despised lyrics of Jiang School to be “vulgar” and preferred music scores of Zhe School. No matter Zhe School or Jiang School, the folk gugin musicians knew how to pass on their achievements by having their own tablatures published as well. Many musicians of Zhe School in Ming and Qing dynasties carefully preserved their compositions and stories in the hope that some rich people would spend money in publishing their achievements after their death due to sympathy. However, there also happenings where some people stole others’ achievements for publications in their own names under such background. In Ming Dynasty, many followers of Jiang School also tried to take opportunities to have their achievements published not only for passing on their fingering scores of the guqin music but also for publicizing lots of literary materials they used for singing. Gugin lyrics that Jiang School followers created were not only a kind of special poetry but also mature folklore literature. They were so mature that some nobles also collected them for publications and big names in poems also tried to copy them.

[IV] Yushan School and Folk Scriptures about Gugin

For over three hundred years since Wanli Reign (1573AD — 1620AD) of Ming Dynasty, among the 70 odd tablatures especially for gugqin, all the writers, without any exception, referred their teachers or history of their gin education to Yushan School or Qinchuan School. Even the existent gin masters of around several hundred now in China also talked about the same origins. Yan Cheng (1547-1625) from Changshu of current Jiangsu Province published “Songxianguan Jipu (Scores made in Songxian Hall).” In Changshu, there is a river called Qinchuan and a mountain named “YuShan”. Therefore, if gin followers want to mean they play in the style of Yan Cheng, they will say they are of Yushan School or Qinchuan School (or Shu School, which means from Changshu.)

However, Yan Cheng was the son of Lai Ne, a Da Xue Shi (one kind of official title in ancient China and equal to the premier or state consultant of a country) of Jiajing Reign (1522—1566) in Ming Dynasty, and himself couldn’t be called a gin worker (folk gin artist). Then, it 1s no strange that we might ask whether Yushan School actually didn’t represent folk gugin musicians but rather musicians of the ruling class.

Our reply, based on materials, is that Yushan (or Qinchuan or Shu) school came from the folklore and is actually the successor of Zhe School.

Yan Cheng explained very clearly in the preface of his score collections “Zangchunwu Qinpu (Scores in Zangchunwu Dock)” and “Qinchuan Huipu (Score Collection of Qinchuan)”, “In recent times, some vulgar gugin players took some words from ancient literature as lyrics for music and said they were able to sing those words, and took some melodies from ancient pieces and said they could make match those melodies with lyrics. Is ancient music really like this?” He stated himself as follower of Zhe School and confronted with Jiang School directly, having the same ideas as earlier Zhe School followers Xiao Ying and Hu Wenhuan. He also said in the preface of “Qinchuan Huipu (Score Collection of Qinchuan)”, “I name myself as Qinchuan. I am somewhat good at guqin, but focus on making beautiful sound not on the lyrics, which is something I try to differ myself greatly from those vulgar gin singers. I once traveled to the capital and met the gin master Shen Taishao, who is the number one in gugin music. He 1s similar with us from Qinchuan in melodies, etc., but much better than us in the elegance. I need to learn from his good points to make up for what we lack…” Shen Taishao (also name as Yin, and came from Shanyin) was actually one of the famous Zhe School gugin players. Though 严澂started a new school of Yushan, he was actually inheriting from Shen Yin the essence of Zhe School. Therefore, we can say Yushan School is actually the future deviation successor of Zhe School.

Among Yan Cheng’s teachers, not only the one in the capital was a folk player of Zhe School, but also the one in Qinchuan came from the folklore. (Yan learned playing gin with a dyer surnamed as Xu in Qinchuan. (Wang Yingkui said in his book “Liunan Shuibi (Causerie in Liunan)”that Dyer Xu learned from the soul of Z1 You (one student of Confucius). This was actually a kind of legendary saying popular among the ruling class.)

his concrete example proved that Yushan School of Yan Cheng was an authentic product of the folklore cultures even though it was created by the ruling class and were much enjoyed by this class. This is only one of many such examples. If we analyze all of the scriptures about gugin, we can have the following summaries.

Only folklore musicians can compose inheritable gugin works and only they can teach guqin music in a systematic way.

Large amount of scholars and officials not only enjoyed gugin music but also learned from folklore players. They either collected inheritable ancient folk music scores and published them in their own names (such as Yan Cheng and Yun Zhigao); or spent money in publishing materials collected by folk players (such as Cai Yurong, Zhou Lufeng, Sun Quan); or wrote prefaces or epilogues for tablatures published by some professional gugin musicians; or revised materials composed by professional gugin musicians to let known their own names, such as “Qinpu Quanbi (Encyclopedia of Guqin Scores) of ???; or even changed some parts of the published tablatures of earlier musicians and added their names on or completely changed composers’ names, such as Shen Guoyu and Ma Zhaochen. Most of the gugin score collections and scriptures were products of professional folk musicians, but many went through the compilation and revision of scholars or officials. In all, gugin music generated from the folk, but mainly published by the ruling class.

[V] Titles of Gugin Pieces and Their Connotations

There is one point worthy of notice that, in all fairy tales and stories in ancient Qin Dynasty and Han Dynasty about gugin, people never mentioned the titles of those pieces ancient musicians played. This showed that people of ancient Han Dynasty or before only stressed music images and presentations of contents by music languages of gugin pieces but not on their titles, or even there might not be titles at all for those pieces. When they needed to distinguish this piece from that piece, they normally took the first two words of the lyrics as piece titles. This was so not only with gugin pieces, but also with all other folk song collections in ancient Qin Dynasty, such as “Shi Jing (Collection of Odes)”. As for those pieces without lyrics, people might use the keynotes as titles, for example (宮引) 、(宾意)、(流徵) , etc. Titles could also come from one or two words summarizing main contents and stories of the music pieces, major roles of the stories, actions or names of the leading roles. Titles in such cases include “Yang Chun (The Summer), “Bai Xue (White Snow)”, “Jianggui Cao (General Comes Back)”, “Zou Ma Yin (On Riding Horses)”, “Wenwang Cao (On King Wenwang)” and “Chu Ming Guang”

Such unclear and incomplete titles couldn’t at all explain the contents of the music pieces. But in reality, titles of ancient gugin pieces of Han Dynasty existed like this and were passed on from generations to generations, and more or less affected the future generations to have the same habit. However, when it was necessary, there must have been some warm-hearted musicians who made certain explanations of contents of gugin pieces still in existence because they were worried that such music pieces would be left with no contents but some melodies and sounds or contents were distorted as time passed by.

At the end of Han Dynasty, one special book recording titles of gugin pieces as well as explaining those titles (as well as contents of the guqin pieces), “Qin Cao” written by Cai Yong, emerged finally. Cai explained contents hinted by the titles one by one for the 47 guqin pieces popular at that time.

After Cai Yong’s “Qin Cao”, Wu Jing in Tang Dynasty wrote the book “Yuefu Guti Yaojie (Essentials on Titles of Ancient Yuefu Music Pieces)”, or simply called “Yuefu Jieti”, explaining titles of many ancient guqgin pieces since Han Dynasty. We inherited only some parts of this book, but “Yuefu Shiyu (Poem Collection of Yuefu)” compiled by Guo Maogqian of Song Dynasty actually quoted many materials about gugin mentioned in Wu Jing’s “Yuefu Tijie”.

These three books—“Qin Cao” of Cai Yong, “Yuefu Tijie” of Wu Jing and” YuefuShiji” of Guo Maogian—extended great influence on future habit that there must be both titles and also explanations of tiles for each gugin piece in most gugin tablatures. Therefore, we also formed the excellent tradition to not only have clear titles of the gugin pieces but also make clear presentations of contents of the music. Any old guqin master plays a piece of music that nobody else ever listened before, he/she will first tell without impatience what title this piece has and about what this gugin piece wants to display.

[IV] What Contents Do Guqin Pieces Want to Express?

Thanks for the 1800-year tradition that guqin pieces should have both titles and explanation of titles, and also thanks for scriptures and papers on guqin continuously accumulated in the past 1800 years, we can always find our answers so long we have the patience to look into those materials if we want to know the correct content of one guqin piece, no matter whether lyrics for this piece already die out or whether it is solely a solo instrumental piece; and no matter whether there are written or not tablatures on this piece or whether nobody knows how to play it any more.

According to materials existent, which are still not very complete, we can see that contents of gugin music pieces are mostly serious and proper. There are mainly four kinds of contents in the 47 music pieces of ancient Qin Dynasty recorded in Cai Yong’s “Qin Cao”: anger at and complaints of the ruling classes, longing for the open-minded and integral rulers of ancient times, depictions of social conflicts and sadness on some social problems. Two pieces of poems collected in “Shi Jing (Collection of Odes)”—‘Lu Ming He” which “Shi Jing” explained the cooperation of the ruling classes and ??? which “Shi Jing” said to show kind policies of the ruling classes—were explained in totally reversed ways in Cai Yong’s work. He explained with confidence that those two pieces actually depicted people’s anger at the ruling classes. Cai Yong lived in the era when peasants launched the large-sized revolution—Huangjin (yellow headband) Revolution—at the end of Han Dynasty. Therefore, it is understandable that many of music pieces he collected at that time were full of powerful and revolutionary emotions of people in the wave of protests to the ruling class. I mentioned above that gugin, as a kind of music art in China, is of folk people’ and now when contents of gugin music are talked about, they are also of folklore nature.

It is noteworthy that those gugin pieces depicting social conflicts were full of such themes as to “being good man” and to “doing good things.” Therefore, what they tried to express were very optimistic emotions rather than depressed or pessimistic ones. When we research on contents of some other gugin scores or those pieces with written tablatures that current musicians often play, we can find that some tried to depict love and friendship, same as current folk music, and some told certain historical stories. For example, “Yu Zao Longmen (Yu Chiseled Longman Grottoes??)” depicts Yu stuck to working despite of unfriendly natural conditions for the benefits of the people, “Feng Xue Yin (About Wind and Snow)” encourages people to correct wrong doings and follow the good, “Yigiao Jinlu (Presenting the Shoe at Yi Bridge)” tells the benefits of being humble, “Mozi Beisi (Sadness of Mozi)’prevents people to be affected by unfriendly ideologies, and “Bianhe Qiyu (Bianhe Cries for the Jade)” praises actions to follow the truth despite of danger of death. All those contents are useful still in current days.

October, 1954