The guqin, a seven-stringed zither, is China's oldest stringed instrument, with a history of some 3000 years. Chinese music has a long history, and its essence is best expressed on the guqin. In Imperial China, a well educated scholar was expected to be skilled in four arts:

· Qin (the guqin),
· Qi (the game of Go),
· Shu (calligraphy) and
· Hua (painting).

Historically, the guqin has been viewed as a symbol of Chinese high culture and the instrument most expressive of the essence of Chinese music. More than 100 harmonics can be played on the guqin, which probably is the largest number of harmonics of any instrument. The guqin has its own notation, which itself has a history of at least 1500 years. There are over 150 guqin handbooks in existence, which contain in excess of 3,000 pieces of music as well as essays on the theoretical aspects of the guqin and its music.

The U.S. spaceship "Voyager" was launched in 1977, a gold CD was placed on board to introduce the music of our planet to the rest of the universe. the guqin piece "Flowing water" was included as one representative of the world's music.

Undoubtedly, the guqin is a part of our world's heritage, but today fewer than two thousand people can play it, and it is rarely seen in China. Music that was written over a period of many centuries is unknown to most people.

In Chinese, "gu" means old and qin means "musical instrument". Historically, guqin was rendered as "Qin" in most ancient texts. Because its long history, it has during the last 100 years been widely called guqin.

There is much symbology surrounding the instrument. For example, it measures 3' 6.5" (Chinese feet and inches), to symbolise the 365 days of the year; the upper surface is rounded, representing the sky, the bottom is flat and represents the earth. The five strings of the earliest qins symbolise the five elements: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth. When Bo Yikao, son of King Wen, first ruler of the Zhou Dynasty around the 11th century BC, died the Emperor added a sixth string to mourn his son; the sound of the sixth string is sorrowful. The seventh string was added by the second Zhou ruler, King Wu to inspire his soldiers when his country went to war; the sound of this string is very strong. Finally, the 13 mother-of-pearl inlays along the outer edge represent the 13 months of the lunar year.

Andrea:
Most guqins sold in general music stores, even in China, are virtually unplayable and are suitable only for hanging on the wall for decoration. Professional qin players never buy such instruments or recommend them to their students. Not only are they unable to produce an acceptable sound, they can even cause injury to a student's hand.

The zheng was popular as early as in the Warring States (475-221 BC), especially in the state of Qin in west China. That betrays the origin of the name qin zheng, Another hypothesis for its name came from a folk tale that se ( a large table harp) was split in half to settle a family quarrel between two sons, thus creating the first two zheng, In the Chinese character the lower portion for zheng happens to mean "quarrel".
The zheng's soundbox is constructed of wood, red sandal for its sides and bottom and wutong wood (firmiana platanifolia) for the arched soundboard, According to the historical texts, it was described as having 12 strings before the Han and Jin period (206-BC-AD 420). In succeeding periods the number of strings kept increasing; 13 after the Tang and Song (618-1279), 15 or 16 since the Ming and Qing (1368-1911), 21 since the 1960's, and 24 or 26 at present, Each string is suspended over the upper sound board by a single adjustable bridge as a device for fine tuning, The strings are tuned to give three complete octaves of a pentatonic scale, sometimes of a heptatonic one.

The instrument is rich in playing techniques. The performer plucks the strings with his right-hand fingernails (either real or simulated), while his left-hand fingers apply pressure to the strings to execute vibratos, glissando, other embellishments and occasional plucking techniques,. Sounding melodious and elegant, it is as important solo instrument now, and often in accompaniments as well.
The guzheng, Chinese forerunner of the Japanese koto and Korean kayagum, originated over 2300 years ago and is one of the oldest plucked instruments in China. Because of its melodic qualities, the Guzheng was extremely popular for both court and folk music. The sound box is made of paulownia wood; the strings, varying in number from thirteen to twenty-five, used to be made of silk, but are nowadays metal or nylon. They are tuned to a pentatonic scale with a range of more than four octaves.

Andrea: I agree that guzheng's sound is more melodious than guqin, yet I think it's v. impractical (not that I wanna bring guqin to a picnic ). One more question, why does guzheng is relqtively cheaper than guqing?

Floo.. menulis:
When Bo Yikao, son of King Wen, first ruler of the Zhou Dynasty around the 11th century BC, died the Emperor added a sixth string to mourn his son; the sound of the sixth string is sorrowful. The seventh string was added by the second Zhou ruler, King Wu to inspire his soldiers when his country went to war; the sound of this string is very strong. Finally, the 13 mother-of-pearl inlays along the outer edge represent the 13 months of the lunar year.

Floo : guzheng is easier to played and it is more common. Especially it is ranged for 2.5 - 3 octave (depends on how you tune it). While guqin only has 2 octave.

Kutip:
Andrea:
Most guqins sold in general music stores, even in China, are virtually unplayable and are suitable only for hanging on the wall for decoration. Professional qin players never buy such instruments or recommend them to their students. Not only are they unable to produce an acceptable sound, they can even cause injury to a student's hand.

Is there any possibility for me to learn how to play these instruments?

Floo.. menulis:
One more question, why does guzheng is relqtively cheaper than guqing?

SoLiDsNaKe menulis:
Is there any possibility for me to learn how to play these instruments?

no, seriously, i do wanna learn guqin, though... do u think ur sifu will want to accept me? hics... sobs... but anyway, dunno if it's worth it, becoz i dunno how long i'll be able to stay in jakarta next time

Floo: my teacher only accept 'weird' pupils. but I think that you are 'weird' enough to become his pupil. If he likes you and see that you have talents, he will want to teach you, even for free. But if he doesn't like your face, or the way you speak....even if you pay him with alot of money he will refuse and throw you out! hehehe...

Some questions he will ask when someone want to become his students:
"Do you like wuxia stories? Why? How do you like Chinese culture? And why? What do you think of Confucianism?"

and if you ever read HSDS or watch HSDS, he will ask: "Who is the most intelligent man in HSDS?"
And also: "Who is your favorites female characters in JY novels?"

hahaha....lucky me that I can answers all of his question and I have a good talent in music

Floo: here is some article about Koto.

KOTO is a kind of zither. It has been used as one of the main chamber instruments of Japanese traditional music style.
The length of KOTO is about 180cm. A traditional KOTO has 13 strings, being arched tautly across 13 movable bridges along the length of the instrument (right picture). Players make base pitches by moving these13 bridges before playing.

History of KOTO
From 7th to 8th century, cultural embassies were sent to China to learn and aquire its political and cultual system. They also borrowed some music instruments, among which was cheng (KOTO). At first, it was used in court life and later it was played mainly by blind musicians (almost all Japanese pre-modern music were played by blind musicians or monks and court people).
In 17th centry (Edo era), YATSUHASHI-KENGYO (1614-1685), one of the blind KOTO masters, succeeded in moving KOTO to solo-instrument. Thus he has been known as the father of modern KOTO music. He made many compositions for KOTO music, and many of them are played now.

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I have played GuZheng.. It is very nice, and not to hard to learn, I didn't think. If I remember correctly Koto was rather hard to play..
But I still think Ga Ya Guem is the hardest instrument among all Jins... Aiya...

Nenek menulis:
I have played GuZheng.. It is very nice, and not to hard to learn, I didn't think. If I remember correctly Koto was rather hard to play..
But I still think Ga Ya Guem is the hardest instrument among all Jins... Aiya...

Wait.. I thought Koto is 13 string...
It is very similar to Ka Ya Guem.

Here is resrource site for koto

http://www.topics-mag.com/edition5/koto1.htm

I like Koto ans Ka Ya Guem. But I have never played Koto, but I did played Ka Ya Guem a little and .. it was really really hard on my finger.

So what's whith guzheng course in Pondok Indah?

Floo... Marcellino sama pacarnya Brenda Yu (mantan penyiar Metro Xin Wen) bikin tempat kursus bahasa mandarin, kaligrafi chinese dan alat musik tradisional (seruling, kecapi, erhu, dsbnya). Gue lupa apa nama kursusnya (yang pasti nggak ada nuansa chinese2nya ) tapi yang pasti tempatnya di Kemayoran.