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Centuries-old music can still elevate the soul and inspire Confucian virtues
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Children who go to concerts with their parents in China often make noise, distracting the performers and other audience members.
I remember a boy who grumbled loudly to his mother at a concert in Shanghai several years ago: “Mom, when will it ever end?” At that same concert, another mom had to carry her constantly crying daughter out of the theater. It was a concert featuring music for the guqin — an ancient seven-stringed instrument favored by Confucius and Confucian scholars for its tranquilizing effect.
Maybe the show was too tranquil for these youngsters, I thought. Unfortunately, later experiences only reinforced my misgivings about seeing children in concert halls. For this reason, I began to worry when I saw teenagers filing into a concert hall on Saturday (January 16) in Wujiang District, Suzhou. I was all the more worried since my wife and I were about to take the stage for a guqin performance of our own.
As it turned out, these teens were silent throughout the performance. The way these kids behaved demonstrated just the sort of Confucian etiquette that is today lost in many parts of China.
Many local guqin artists and activists have done much to spread interest in their music among local primary and high-school students. As noted guqin player Pei Qinzi said in a local TV interview on Saturday, guqin education has been going well in many a local school. “Today we have many little friends in the audience. It’s our hope that they can learn to appreciate guqin — which comes first in the four traditional arts — at an early age,” she said.
These arts refer to guqin, go, calligraphy and painting — all of which are meant to cultivate personal virtues, according to Confucian tradition. The upshot of guqin music, according to scholars, is that it helps stave off bad ideas and behaviors. Whether this is true or not, the teenagers at Saturday’s concert certainly showed a remarkable degree of self-control.
As a relatively small city that only recently became a district of Suzhou, Wujiang is somewhat isolated from the dazzling distractions that plague so many in big cities like Shanghai. Wujiang is also a leader in nationwide efforts to promote guqin, Kunqu Opera and other aspects of China’s intangible cultural heritage in schools.
Famous historical figures
Lu Guimeng, who came from modern day Wujiang, was a famous poet and agricultural scientist in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). He was also one of two composers of a famous guqin song titled “Drunken fishermen singing at sunset.” Historical records show that he and another renowned poet were rowing a boat in Wujiang when they saw fishermen rejoicing over a day’s simple harvest, which inspired their composition. According to critics and experts, the song epitomizes Confucian and Taoist values of detaching one’s self from earthly concerns.
Perhaps the most romantic figure in Wujiang’s quqin history was Zhang Han, a literati and quqin master who lived during the West Jin Dynasty (266-316). Zhang was best known for quitting officialdom to embrace the life of a commoner. He composed poems as well as a guqin song, using autumn wind and fallen leaves as metaphors to indicate his decision to quit politics and return home.
The Wujiang district government is rediscovering its history of liberal arts and presenting it for the benefit of modern eyes and ears. Saturday’s concert was organized by Wujiang’s public culture and arts center, in cooperation with the Wujiang Library and the Luxiang Guqin Society (Luxiang was a name for Wujiang in ancient times).
Hundreds of free tickets were handed out. Local parents and kids did not let organizers down. They came in throngs. It was cold that day, and the air conditioning was not working in the audience hall, but everyone’s face glowed with warmth.
In Confucian thought, music is the ultimate marker of nobility, rather than poetry or rituals. Still few know that Confucius was a great composer of guqin music. He was said to be the composer of “Orchid,” a song which laments the mixing of orchid leaves with wild grass.
Music and character
It may be difficult for modern people, especially youngsters, to recite ancient lyrics, but there are few people in the world who are unmoved by music. And if the wisdom of the ancients is to be believed, good music fosters good character.
To spread guqin culture, Zhang Changgong, a noted player from Wujiang, has reinterpreted several old melodies composed by Chen Shiji, a great guqin artist from the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), also from Wujiang. On Saturday, Zhang performed “Autumn in rain” by Chen. Without Zhang’s efforts, that soothing melody might never have been brought to modern ears. Ancient guqin notations normally describe finger positions and movements, without giving clear indications of rhythms; they leave room for the player to imagine and develop.
Both Zhang and Pei come from the Wu School of Guqin, which has passed down the oldest style of guqin that emphasizes simplicity, vigor and harmony between man and nature. Saturday’s concert featured young players from this school.
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