Zha Fuxi

Professionally Zha Fuxi was an executive with one of the Chinese civil aviaton companies. Tong Kin-Woon, in his compendium called Qin Fu (1972), refers to Zha only as 查照雨 Zha Zhaoyu. The reason for this, according to Dr. Tong, was that in 1949 Jiang Kai-Shek had ordered all the Chinese commercial airplanes be flown to Hong Kong, to facilate their transfer to Taiwan, but Zha was one of the senior officials who refused to comply. As a result it was not possible at that time to mention Zha's name in Taiwan.⁴

Born in 湖南永順 Yongshun (northwestern Hunan province), Zha Fuxi was exposed to local music while undergoing a literary education at home; he also studied music while in primary school in Changsha, capital of Hunan. He began to study qin after 1909, when his family moved to 大庸 Dayong in western Hunan province. He had no local teacher, so he periodically visited various qin players elsewhere. Here he also began to learn melodies from tablature (打譜 dapu). In 1913 he entered middle school in Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi province. After graduation in 1917 he lived in various places, including Shanghai and Guangzhou; he was then studying aviation, and this apparently kept him too busy to continue pursuing his musical interests.

Zha Fuxi was best friends with another Hunan qin player, Peng Qingshou.⁵ Then in Shanghai Zha made friends with a number of other qin players, perhaps most notably Shen Caonong, whom he first met in 1922.⁶ In Shanghai he also began working with the national airline, at the same time becoming more widely involved in qin activities. In 1936 he became a co-founder of the 今虞琴社 Jinyu Qin Society (今虞琴社 ; see Jinyu Qin Kan). However, the Japanese captured Shanghai shortly thereafter, and from 1937 to 1944 Zha and a number of other qin players lived in Chungking (Chongqing, then part of Sichuan province).

Meanwhile Zha Fuxi's career with the airlines continued to advance, and in 1943 he became 副總經理 Deputy Manager at the new 中央航空公司 Central Air Transport Company (C.A.T.C.). In this capacity he spent much of 1945 and 1946 in the United States, at the same time lecturing on qin at several universities, doing research at the Library of Congress, and making several recordings there. In 1946 he returned to China, where he resumed his position at the national airline. After 1949 he held a position in China's department of civil aviation. He lived in Beijing and Shanghai until 1953, but his work and the disorders of the time apparently made communication with other qin players difficult.

After 1953 Zha began the research described in a separate article. In 1962 he became 音樂家協會副總主席 vice-chairman of the national Musicians Association; he was also head of the 中央音樂學院，民族音樂研究所 Ethnomusicology Research Institute at the Central Conservatory, and was president of the Beijing Guqin Society.⁷

Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. The information here is based largely on the biographical information in 查阜西﹕琴學文萃 Zha Fuxi: Qinxue Wencui. (Return)

2. 查阜西 Zha Fuxi's original name was apparently 查鎮湖 Zha Zhenhu. He also often used the name 查夷平 Zha Yiping. The website of the town of 江西修水 Xiushui in northwest Jiangxi province, near the Hunan/Hubei border, claims this to have been his home town. Perhaps his family was originally from there. (Return)

3. Image copied here from Zha Fuxi: Qinxue Wencui. (Return)

4. The "Uprising of the Two Airlines" and its significance for the guqin
A number of Chinese websites have details on the refusal of two of the three main Chinese airlines to have their planes flown to Taiwan in 1949. They call this the 兩航起義 "Uprising of the Two Airlines". The airline that did go to Taiwan was called 民航空運隊 Civil Air Transport (CAT). The two airlines that did not go were 中國航空公司 China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC) and 中央航空公司 Central Air Transport Company (CATC). Zha Fuxi was an executive with CATC (in the Chinese documents he is usually called Zha Yiping).

According to the CNAC website, CNAC was founded in 1929 by Curtiss-Wright, the leading aeronautical corporation in the United States at the time, in partnership with the Chinese government. "Taken over by Pan American Airways in 1933, CNAC pioneered commercial air service throughout the Middle Kingdom until the airline's demise in 1949." CNAC was perhaps most famous during the war against Japan for bringing supplies to China by flying over the "hump" from Burma to Kunming. However, in 1949 (see CNAC Today), "Many (if not most) of CNAC's Chinese staff pledged support to the Communist government and flew [their planes] to Peking .... so CNAC still technically existed in the mainland." However, CNAC apparently also remained as a legal entity in Hong Kong, to be revived later.

As for the Central Air Transport Company, the fact that Zha Fuxi went to the USA in conjunction with his airline work suggests that his company may have been connected to CNAC. As yet I do not have details on this.

Chinese information seems to suggest that Zhou Enlai himself met with airlines executives and persuaded them not to fly their planes to Taiwan. This may be significant in the subsequent history of the guqin in China, as it suggests that Zha Fuxi may have had a personal relationship with Zhou Enlai.

The guqin was not only an instrument of the scholar class, it was by tradition an instrument one played for oneself, not for the masses. This means that of all the Chinese musical instruments, it should have been the one most out of favor in China after 1949. So the fact that Zha Fuxi was able to carry out his 1956 Guqin Project is perhaps due in no small way to the role he played in the Uprising of the Two Airlines. (Return)

5. 彭慶壽 Peng Qingshou (ca. 1890 - ? )
Peng Qingshou, who lived in Changsha from 1912 to 1916, was an important qin player in the style of Zhang Kongshan. See under Tianwenge Qinpu and Wu Wenguang's dissertation, p. 126. (Return)

6. 沈草農 Shen Caonong (1891 - 1972)
Wu Wenguang's dissertation, p. 126. says, "Shen Caonong, an accomplished traditional scholar and calligrapher, was stylistically influenced by Zha Fuxi and Peng Qingshou (see above); he taught Mme. 蔡德允 Cai Deyun (1905 - ), a close relative, and Mmme. Cai taught numerous students after she moved to Hong Kong." (Return)

7. Xu Jian's Introductory History, p. 189, lists Zha Fuxi's positions after 1953 as: 全國音協常物理事、付主席，中國音樂研究所通訊研究員，北京古琴研究會會長。 (Return)

Appendix: Qin Performances by Zha Fuxi （查阜西彈琴）

There are a number of recordings of Zha Fuxi playing the qin, both solo and with his own singing (see his article). At present I have two MP3 samples online:

Qin song, Su Wu Si Jun 蘇武思君 (Sections 1 and 4 - 8, skipping 2 and 3)
From 1589; see commentary; transcription in Zhongguo Gudai Gequ, pp. 121-2
Qin solo, Dongting Qiu Si 洞庭秋思
Zha combines several versions of this melody; see commentary

Return to the top