The Cooperation of Dance and Guqin

This week Jee Yun and I had an amazing cooperation in the class. She is an excellent dancer. When I was playing Guqin, she was responding the music. This was my first time to cooperative with the dancer. I feel so good! 

But when Dr. Gilbert asked me to introduce Guqin, I suddenly didn't know how to explain it. One reason is that my English is limited, the other one is I never thought I need to suggest this instrument one day. So after class, I searched online and try to translate it into English. I hope I can explain it clearly. 

Guqin is a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument with a history of more than 3000 years. The prefix "gu-" (meaning "ancient") was later added for clarification.

Guqin has traditionally been favored by scholars and literati as an instrument of great subtlety and refinement. Guqin has always been viewed as the first place among the four Chinese high culture activities such as Guqin, Chess, calligraphy and painting.

There are a lot of symbols around this instrument.
Guqin’s measurement line is 3 feet 65 inches representing the 365 days in a year. The top part is round representing the sky. The bottom part is flat, representing the earth. The body of Guqin looks like the human body, with head, neck, shoulder, waist and feet.

There are 13 markers representing the 13 month of Chinese lunar year. The markers are filled in the Guqin with shells or gold, silver, jade make point, called the "Hui” (emblem) to indicate the sound position. The biggest Hui representing the lunar month.

There are 7 strings in Guqin. The first 5 string representing 5 elements Metal, wood, water, fire and the earth. The 6th string was added by King Wen when his son died. So the 6th string is sorrowful. The 7th string was added by King Wu when he encouraged his soldiers to go to the war. So the 7th string is very strong.

There are 3 category sounds produced by the Guqin. Harmonics is representing the sound from the Heaven. Scattered Sounds is representing the sound from the earth. Stopped Sounds  is representing the Human Beings.