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Playing at exhibitions: Fantastic Mountains and In Pursuit of Mists and Clouds 中文   目錄
Guqin in Art 古琴與書畫
The Seven Sages, with Xi Kang playing qin 1
This section has three categories

  1. Artists with the Guqin 2

  2. Guqins in art and illustrations 3

  3. Illustrations of guqin melodies 4

The division between categories 2 and 3 is similar to that with qin poetry and song, with qin poetry (poems that mention qin) corresponding to qin in art, and qin songs (lyrics that accompany qin melodies) corresponding to art which can be used to illustrate a specific qin melody. The qin is a very common motif in traditional landscapes, but the latter category is also quite considerable, and it is the latter which this website emphasizes.

Deriving inspiration from looking at artists' impressions of the themes of melodies can be related to the ancient idea of taking this inspiration from nature itself. Perhaps the earliest narration of this concept is the famous story (told with the melody Shui Xian) in which Cheng Lian teaches Boya to play qin by leaving him alone on a deserted island. Some years ago, I experienced my own version of this story. After playing qin for several old qin players, I asked for advice on how to improve my technique. One said, "Visit relevant beauty spots in China." The others seemed to nod their heads in agreement.

Art with themes shared by qin melodies can bring similar inspiration.

If no indication is given (usually by a link) of the current location of the original of an image on this site, then it is probably in my personal collection.

 
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. The Seven Sages, with Xi Kang playing qin
Painting by Liu Jian, Vice President, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou
劉健教授，中國美術學院副院長，杭州
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2. Artists with the Guqin
Added 2007. Not yet developed: suggestions welcomed.
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3. Guqins in art and illustrations
There are numerous examples of these online. As of 2009 one particularly interesting page was www.wulin.hk/peom_painting.htm
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4. Illustrations of guqin melodies
Some of the examples of these on this website reveal close associations between a painting and a melody. The spirit behind this is an aim to evoke the sort of reaction an artist might have had on hearing the qin at a gathering such as the one depicted on the page The Four Arts of the Chinese Scholar: someone would recite a poem and this would inspire a qin melody; someone would play a qin melody and this would inspire a painting.
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