One cannot discuss Chinese music without mentioning the guqin(古琴), one of the four arts--along with weiqi, calligraphy(书法) and painting. It first appeared over 3,000 years ago.
At first, the guqin had only five strings(弦), meaning metal, wood, water, fire and earth. Later, in Zhou Dynasty, King Wen of Zhou added a sixth string for his son. King Wu of Zhou, added a seventh string to encourage his army to fight with the Shang Dynasty.
Environment was important in playing the guqin. Usually, it was played quietly and never for public performance. Ancient artists enjoyed performing by a river in the mountains. The sound of the guqin mixed with the sound reflected from the mountains can bring a feeling of peace, then he could feel that he could get close to nature. Playing it in snow was also an enjoyable activity for ancient artists who believed the guqin was fantastic. Also, a night with moonlight was considered wonderful for playing the guqin. For example, Wang Wei (701 -761), a highly talented poet of the Tang Dynasty, liked playing it in a bamboo forest on nights with moonlight.
Nowadays, there are fewer than one thousand well -trained guqin players and probably no more than fifty masters who are living in the world. The number of several thousand pieces has greatly diminished only one hundred works by today. The guqin and its music were added to the list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity(人类非物质文化遗产) in 2003.
