Flowing Water

Introduction

Guan Pinghu's recording of Flowing Water left Earth in 1977 on the Voyager Golden Record

Flowing Water is a guqin piece drawn from the story, told in the Liezi and the Lüshi Chunqiu, of the player Boya and his friend Zhong Ziqi, who alone understood his music. High Mountains and Flowing Water were once a single piece and were later divided in two; the earliest surviving tablature of Flowing Water is in the Shenqi Mipu of 1425. About thirty versions survive in later handbooks. The version most often played today comes from the Qing Sichuan-school player Zhang Kongshan, whose sixth section uses rapid rolling strokes to depict rushing water; it was printed in the Tianwenge Qinpu in 1876. In 1977 Guan Pinghu's recording was chosen for the Golden Record carried by the Voyager space probes.