Bo then showed a videotape he had made to augment a recent Paris lecture. He was kind enough to submit a description of its contents, which is inserted here.

The video originated in a talk I gave at the Musee la musique, Paris, in February of this year. Some features of the qin are best illustrated on real instruments, but I could not bring any to the talk, so I substituted the film. It illustrates selected but characteristic details of the qin and its history. Some of the instrumental characteristics have survived on modem instruments since the Zhou 周 dynasty. Others have changed over time, and the video tries to illustrate examples of each. Only a brief time was allotted to my talk, and the video had to be kept short. As a result, I tried to let images tell the story, hi hindsight, I think voiceover comments and longer segments would have made its points clearer.

The first section familiarizes the audience with the modern qin. (I am most grateful to Willow for demonstrating her instrument and to the China Institute for lending a room for our session.) In addition to color and shape, what provides the crucial link between ancient and modern qinzithers is the tuning mechanism. To show how this works. Willow plucked a string while I turned the peg, demonstrating the change in pitch. This also makes it clear that Chinese pegs are axial, whereas Western ones are lateral. That is, on the qin, the string enters the tuning peg through a hole in one end, exits through a hole partway down the peg's length, and then is wrapped around the peg. This means that string and peg share the same axis, while the pegs on modern violins and guitars, for example, are set at right angles to the string, like a winch. (For nomenclature, see my article in Music in the Age of Confucius, ed. Jenny F. So, Freer Gallery, Washington, 2000).

As Willow plays extracts from " Mei Hua San Nong (" Three Variations on the Tune "Plum Blossoms'"), two essential aspects of modem qin playing become evident: (1) the sliding of the left hand (as both seen and heard) and (2) the hand gestures (right and left). By freezing the righthand motion at crucial moments, I show that many hand positions are based on gestures from ancient (postHan) qin tutors, in particular a position termed "A Praying Mantis Captures a Cicada."

In the next section of the video, Wu Zhao 吳釗 of Beijing 北京 plays a copy of the Mawangdui 馬王堆 qin of ca. 150 BC (which was recorded in Kloster Michaelstein, Germany, August 2000). The instrument permits him to use left hand slides but only on the right half of the instrument. If the strings are pressed too close to the left end of the instrument, the qin loses its balance and tilts. Evidently, however, slides would have been possible by 150 BC.

Finally, I demonstrate the earliest known qin, my replica of that found in the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng 曾侯乙(433 BCE). Its shape, color, and tuning are shown in detail in the video. Clearly, they are similar to those on the modem qin, e.g., the history of the qin goes back to at least 433 BCE. But one feature does not: one cannot shorten the Zeng strings with the left-hand fingers. The strings are too high above the sound board, and, if pressed against the board, they lose tuning or might break. This means that the left-hand sliding technique could not have been used as early as 433 BCE and may have been introduced between 433 and 150 BCE. It would appear that this was the period in which this essential feature of later qin technique developed.

to page 1. Playing fast like the stars .... Playing slow like a river ...
to page 3. Matthew Discussed Three Album Leaves by Hu Xiaoshi