On an autumn evening, beneath a persimmon tree heavy with fruit, a woman in blue plucks a guzheng resting on wooden stools before a farmhouse. An old man on the doorstep listens with a teacup as the sun sets behind distant hills.
Bone Flutes and Clay Ocarinas
Gong-and-Drum Music
The Art of the Guqin
Shengguan Ensembles
Dizi and Xiao
Guzheng
Pipa
Ruan and Sanxian
Erhu
Suona and Drum-and-Wind Bands
Chaozhou Music
Jiangnan Sizhu
Nanyin
Shifan Ensembles
Xiansuo String Ensembles
Yangqin
Xi'an Wind and Percussion Ensemble
Cantonese Music
Instrumental Traditions of China's Ethnic Minorities
Modern Chinese OrchestraGuzheng
Plucking the zheng and slapping the thigh: the true sound of Qin
Introduction
A long plucked zither rooted in the music of Qin, played in regional schools north and south
The zheng is a plucked zither with a long wooden soundbox and strings stretched over movable bridges. Two thirteen-string zithers from the cliff tombs of Guixi in Jiangxi, dated to the turn of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, are the earliest known specimens, and Li Si's memorial against expelling foreign officials calls plucking the zheng and slapping the thigh 'the true sound of Qin', hence the name Qin zheng. The string count grew from twelve and thirteen, with thirteen most common from the Sui and Tang, to the twenty-one strings standard today. Regional schools such as Shandong, Henan, Chaozhou, Hakka and Zhejiang each have their own style, with traditional pieces such as Autumn Moon over the Han Palace and High Mountains and Flowing Water, and the art was placed on the national intangible heritage list in 2008.
Timeline
- 500 BCEOriginTwo thirteen-string zithers excavated in 1979 from tombs 2 and 3 of the Xianshuiyan cliff tombs at Guixi, Jiangxi, dated to the late Spring and Autumn to early Warring States period, are the earliest known zheng.
- 237 BCEEvolutionLi Si's memorial against expelling foreign officials (237 BCE), preserved in his biography in the Shiji, calls singing to the plucked zheng while slapping the thigh 'the true sound of Qin', an early clear record of the zheng in Qin.
Literature › Records of the Grand Historian: Biography of Li Si - 700EvolutionHan zithers had five or twelve strings; from the Northern and Southern dynasties the thirteen-string zheng existed alongside them, and from the Sui and Tang it became the most common form.
- 2008ImpactIn 2008 Guzheng art (Shandong guzheng music) entered the second national list (II-120); in 2014 the Zhongzhou school of Henan was added as an extension item.
Heritage Listings
- 2008National List of Representative Items of Intangible Cultural Heritage2nd batch · II-120 Guzheng art [Shandong guzheng music] · no. 619 · nominated by Heze · Shandong
- 2014National List of Representative Items of Intangible Cultural Heritage, extension item4th batch · II-120 Guzheng art [Zhongzhou school] · Henan · safeguarded by the Henan Academy of Culture and Arts