One cannot discuss Chinese music without mentioning the guqin, one of the four arts—along with go, calligraphy(书法) and painting. It first appeared over 3, 000 years ago and stands for China's solo musical instrument tradition.
At first, the guqin had only five strings(弦), meaning the five elements(元素) of metal, wood, water, fire and earth. Later, in the 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.
Ambience was important in playing the guqin. Usually, it was practiced in a quiet setting and never for public performances. Ancient artists enjoyed performing by a stream in the mountains. The sound of the guqin mixed with the echoes(回音) from the mountains, until the musician felt he was at one with nature. Playing it in snow was also an enjoyable activity for ancient artists, who believed the instrument was the purest of its kind in the world. Also, a night with moonlight was considered wonderful for playing the guqin. Wang Wei, a highly talented man of the Tang Dynasty, liked playing it in a bamboo forest on nights with moonlight most.
Guqin pieces are usually three to eight minutes long, with the longest being Guangling Verse, which is 22 minutes long. Other famous pieces include Plum Blossoms in Three Movements, Wild Geese Landing on the Sandbank and Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute.
Nowadays, there are fewer than one thousand well- trained guqin players and perhaps no more than fifty living masters. The original number of several thousand pieces has greatly reduced to only one hundred works by today. The guqin and its music was added to the list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity(人类非物质文化遗产) in 2003.
