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.