Characters Representing Right Hand Finger Techniques

The following are the characters that are representative of each of the right-hand finger techniques of Guqin discussed in the previous post:  Finger Techniques of Guqin - Right Hand.  These characters are necessary for reading Guqin sheet music.

Thumb

 

Pointer Finger

Middle Finger

Index Finger

Finger Techniques of Guqin - Right Hand

The following are the basic finger techniques of the right hand that should be used when playing the Guqin.  It is important to keep a good posture when playing with back straight and shoulders relaxed, but not slumped forward.  Feet should be squarely on the floor and elbow is usually at a relaxed position next to the musician's body.

Thumb

bō / pi4
The middle finger rests several strings lower (further away from your body), elbow is raised, thumb plucks straight across and downward toward your body.  Motion is focused in shifting of hand and arm while thumb remains somewhat stiff and rounded.  Do not extend the thumb upward after plucking motion.





tuō
The middle finger rests several strings lower (further away from
your body), but elbow is lowered to relaxed normal position, hand is set sideways.  Lower side of thumb plucks string away from your body and slightly downward.

The thumb fingerings of the right hand are really only used for the highest two string which are nearest your body.  For bō, hand can sometimes come completely off the strings and towards the musician's body when plucked.

Pointer Finger

mu4
Hand should be relaxed and with a natural shape.  Pointer finger is straight and stiff, plucking downward and towards your body to stop on the next string.  Movement is focused in your large knuckle while other joints remain static.




tiāo
Middle finger is rounded with the tip resting on a string one or two forward.  The thumb is bent with tip pressing against the the pointer finger and the first joint.  Make the empty space between pointer and thumb circular.  Using your fingernail, pluck downward and away from your body, but don't hit the next string or the body of the instrument.  The thumb should add the necessary stability and control.

Middle Finger

gōu
Similar the mu4 of the pointer finger, keep hand relaxed, slightly rounded and fingers close together with your thumb down and its top facing parallel to the strings.  Middle finger is stiff and movement occurs only in the large knuckle as you pluck the string downward and towards your body.





tī
Middle finger slides upward against one string higher (closer to your body) than the one you want to strike until the tip comes to rest on top of the string.  The string should touch just under the fingernail; the middle finger is quite bent while other fingers are relaxed, uniform and only slightly rounded.  The middle finger then extends quickly to pluck against the string in front of it.  Be careful not to cause the string which you were resting on the sound.

Index Finger

dǎ

This technique is the same as gōu, but done with your index finger.









zhāi
This technique is the same as tī, but done with your index finger.

Index finger techniques are rarely used.  Most playing is done with the thumb, pointer, and middle fingers.



For the written characters that are associated with each of these techniques, see this post:  Characters Representing Right Hand Finger Techniques.

History of the Guqin: Part 1 - Pre Qin Dynasty (221 BC)

The following essay is not an original work, but a translation of a section of 琴史新编 (The History of Guqin, Revised Edition) published in Chinese by Zhonghua Book Company.  This is my own translation.  I am a student of Chinese and Guqin, but by no means a professional translator.  This was done for my own practice and learning.

Part 1: Pre Qin Dynasty (221 BC)

The Qin is an instrument with a very long history.  Regarding its earliest period, we can only rely on legend, for example its creator, in ancient writings there are Shennong (farmer god), Fuxi (legendary inventor of hunting and fishing), Yao Shun (legendary sage king), and more.  Though these are unlikely, the Qin did come about very early, this is not doubted.

Qing Huangshen 《Bo Ya Playing the Zither》

There are some ancient myths, probably reflecting some conditions of the original emergence of the Qin.  There is a legend which says in ancient times ten suns rose together, burnt the crops, killed plants and trees, and people had nothing to eat. For the sake of solving people’s food [problem], Yao Mingyi (尧命羿) used a bow and arrow to shoot at the ten suns, shooting down nine of them and eliminating the dryness, allowing the crops to grow （《淮南子 – 本经训》）.  Another legend is similarly about struggling against arid conditions: “In ancient times when Zhu Xiang clan ruled under heaven, there was lots of wind and 阳气, all things of creation could not hold together, fruits would not ripen. Gu Shi created a five-string zither, since 阴气, in order to calm all living things” (《吕氏春秋 － 古乐》).  Another also has “Yao made a zither (无勾？) of 5 strings” (《大平御览》引《通礼纂义》) .  On the surface these legends don’t seem to have any relationship with each other, but from them it can be seen, ancient people in order to improve their lives, in view of the natural struggle and use of bow and arrow, it is very likely owing to the bow and arrow’s sound produced when shot, that aroused people to turn it into a Qin, a harp-type of musical instrument.

Bone script symbol for music

With the creation of Chinese characters, the situation becomes a bit clearer.  In the Shang dynasty period bone script, “music” is written as (see character in picture to the left), it is a pictograph of silk strings on a wooden instrument, showing that early on before bone script, the Qin was already in use, a harp/zither type of musical instrument. Looking at the development of ancient music, striking musical chime stones, and wind instruments made of pottery, came about earlier than stringed instruments. Contrary to expectations, in Chinese writing the pictograph of the stringed instrument came to mean “music”, and not others, probably because the manifestation of the stringed instrument was more powerful, and can better reflect the cause of a standard of music.

My practice Guqin

In 662 BC, when people in the Chu kingdom constructed a wall to protect their country, it was stated: “seat of lacquered paulownia/catalpa wood, from there comes the zither” (《诗经 － 定之方中》).  At that time, people already understood that to make a zither, one needed to choose ideal wood—paulownia, catalpa.  Through several thousand years, Qin and other musical instruments always continued to use this experience.

In the year 1978, in Suixian, Hubei, a large number of musical instruments from before 400 BC were unearthed from a tomb, among them were ten-stringed Qins identical in design to the seven-stringed Qin’s  found in the Ma Wangdui tomb, Hunan.  They all still didn’t have the 13 marked locations of later generations of Qin.  The bottom and top boards were separately pieced together.  From these earliest Qins it can be seen that the design of the Qin before 221 BC had not continued to develop; it was not until after the Han dynasty that a model was gradually set.

The above briefly introduced the legends and conditions of the Qin’s inception and creation.  Below will be concerning Qin’s function in people’s lives, the research coming from legend or historical data on Qin people andQin music.

House Hunters - Guangzhou

This is reposted from my old blog on Wordpress, November 2014.

I have been in China for about a week now, and many of my thoughts have been constantly revolving around the topic of finding someplace to live. I am currently living in a hotel room, provided for by my company, but seeing as I will be working here as an English teacher for at least a year, I would like to find an actual apartment. Not to mention, my company is only providing the hotel room for up to two weeks.

I don't know about other large cities in China, but in Guangzhou it seems that the only proper way to find an apartment is to hire an agent. This apparently stands true for Chinese house-hunters as well, and so with the language barrier it is only all the more true for a foreigner such as myself. So step one is to find an agent who is fully capable of communicating with both you and local landlords.

Step two is to follow your agent around as he or she attempts to show you places that fulfill your desires and hopefully are within your budget. When you find a place that you like, hesitation is not allowed. I allowed myself five hours or so to consider my options before making my first offer on a place, and by that time it had already been reserved by someone else. The second place I wanted to make an offer on ended up being in a very awkward lease situation, with the tenant leaving mid-lease and the landlord being out of country. Apartment hunting is by no means "smooth sailing" in my experience thus far.

Here are some things to think about: lower floor means lower price; older building means lower price, but likely less amenities; willingness to use a squat toilet may disqualify you from finding a western roommate; well-lit means higher price; and four means death, and death likely means a lower price.

As a side note, you should be aware that not every Chinese landlord is willing to rent to a foreigner. This is not necessarily due to some deep-seated anti-westernism, but rather due simply to some awkward tax laws. By law, foreigners working in mainland China must have a rather hefty amount of tax removed from their income each month, but certain allowances are made for deductions. One very worthwhile deduction is the cost of renting a living space. In order to redeem this deduction, one has to request a "fa piao," a sort of official receipt, from your landlord each month and give it to your employer. Now I don't fully understand how this works, but it seems that by issuing a fa piao, the landlord is now on official record as having paid some sort of tax. The problem is not immediate, but rather after the foreigner leaves, even if a Chinese citizen moves into the space, the police will continue to pester the landlord for the tax. So out of convenience, and disdain for pestering police, landlords many times prefer Chinese tenants.

Step three, once you have successfully found a place that you like, and is actually available to foreigners, and really is available still, and is not in an unpleasant situation, you will meet with the landlord. The meeting, in my experience is simply a lengthy conversation in Chinese between the landlord and your agent, with you trying hard to read from facial expressions and gestures whether or not your venture is heading towards success. I am currently in the midst of something like step three-and-a-half, due to the landlord's renting license still being in process.  

I'm guessing that step four is to sign the contract and move in.  You could divide that into two steps if you prefer, so that moving in has more acclaim, or, if you wish, you could do away with step four altogether and jump directly to steps five and six.  After all, you may not want to include a four, and you certainly won't want to end the process there (although as we will see the whole process of life does end with four, or at least the phonological irony of it's Chinese equivalent).

I mentioned above that "four means death." That is not actually entirely accurate, because they are two separate words. For all practical purposes, though, apart from a variation in tone the two Chinese equivalents for the words "four" and "death" are pronounced exactly the same. As a result, the number four is considered highly unlucky, and you may do well, as I did, to find an available apartment on a fourth floor. If all goes well over the next couple of days, I just may have a place on the floor of death. Here's to hoping.