Guqin player

Updated: 2010-11-17 10:41

By Hou Weiping (chinadaily.com.cn)

Twitter Facebook Myspace Yahoo! Linkedin Mixx

Guozixuan Guqin Art School is a spare-time instrument training school in downtown Beijing. It offers lesson on how to play the guqin, a seven-string Chinese instrument with a history of more than 3,000 years. Even with China's rapid modernization and urbanization, the guqin, with its gentle, melancholic sound, is attracting more and Chinese from all walks of life.

The guqin was traditionally favored by scholars and well-educated people as an instrument of great subtlety and refinement. Much mystery surrounds it. It is 3 feet by 6.5 inches, symbolizing the 365 days of the year. The upper surface is rounded, representing the sky. The bottom is flat and represents the ground. The five strings of the earliest guqins symbolize the five basic elements of the universe: fire, earth, water, metal and wood.

Video: Hou Weiping

Paper's Digest

Shaolin Kungfu

Shaolin Temple charts aggressive expansion plan to cash in on demand for kungfu.

Living 'IT' up
Father of pinyin
Touch and go

European Edition

Specials

China Daily in Europe

China Daily launched its European weekly on December 3, 2010.

Hu visits the US

President Hu Jintao is on a state visit to the US from Jan 18 to 21.

Private Detective

Firms chart new strategies as tighter rules make information gathering tougher.

On the rise
General Practice
Reading Pleasure