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Nowadays, we can see more colorful, diverse and energetic forms of guqin performances. These brave attempts have revitalized this ancient instrument and made it more and more popular among young people.

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《劝君更尽一杯酒 为古琴、小提琴、中提琴和大提琴而作》“One More Cup of Wine Before You Go”, for Guqin, Violin, Viola and Cello

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【Guqin】Mysterious magic music and dance ceremony from ancient China - Dress in Han Dynasty

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The song is "Harmony Between Gods and Men".

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【古琴Guqin】《神人畅》乐舞|Mysterious magic music and dance ceremony from ancient China - Dress in Han Dynasty

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【Guqin & Xiao & Ruan & Drum】Chinese Musical Instruments

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【古琴Guqin箫阮鼓】《权力的游戏》Game of Thrones：theme song by Chinese musical instruments

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Gulls and Herons Forget about Cunning (鸥鹭忘机)

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Gulls and Herons Forget about Cunning (鸥鹭忘机)

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by Wu Zhaoji (吴兆基)

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鸥鹭忘机(吴兆基 古琴)

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by Ding Chengyun (丁承运)

This song expresses the ancient tribal leader "Yao" who played the guqin during sacrifices. The wonderful music moved the heavens, causing the gods to descend and sing and dance with people happily to celebrate the ceremony.

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丁承運先生古琴曲演奏《神人暢》The《 A Conversation Between God and Man》of Chinese Guqin Master Ding Chengyun

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by Dai Xiaolian (戴晓莲)

This song is said to have been composed by Ruan Ji (210-263), one of the "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove" during the Three Kingdoms period. The government at that time was dim and dark, and the scholar-bureaucrat Ruan Ji felt deeply out of step with the times. In order to avoid trouble, he lived in seclusion in the mountains and forests, playing the guqin, reciting poems, and drinking wine. This song expresses his chaotic and hazy mood after drinking and vents the pent-up injustice in his heart.

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by Qiao Shan (乔珊)

This is a famous qin music accompanied by singing. Its lyrics are based on the poem of the same name written by the great poet Li Bai (701-762) of the Tang Dynasty. This poem describes the mutual longing of the border guards who are far away from home and their wives at home, and deeply reflects the pain that the war has brought to the general public.

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琴歌 《关山月》乔珊 演唱

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Names of the front, inside and back parts of the guqin

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For aesthetic reasons, the guqin comes in many different shapes, each with its own name. Some are named after ancient sages; others have poetic names, such as falling sunset style, banana leaf style, dragon waist style, phoenix tongue style, etc.

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【Electronic Guqin & Handpan & Cajon】'Inception'-Mombasa

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He even used a bow to play the electronic guqin!!!

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【电古琴Electronic Guqin & 手碟Handpan & 箱鼓Cajon 】'Inception'-Mombasa《盗梦空间》蒙巴萨

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ドラえもんの歌 Doraemon theme song, costumes of Tang Dynasty

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【古琴Guqin筝哨笛巫毒】《多啦A梦之歌》ドラえもんの歌Doraemon theme song and cat lovers,costumes of Tang Dynasty唐代装束复原

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"Spring Breeze" (春风) by Gong Yi (龚一)

This piece was composed by the famous guqin masters Gong Yi and Xu Guohua in 1982. It has made great breakthroughs in terms of its form structure, melody, tonal conversion, and performance techniques. It boldly imitates the performance techniques of minority musical instruments in Western China, without losing the charm of the guqin itself, revealing the development potential of this ancient musical instrument.

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by Ding Chengyun (丁承运)

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丁承运丝弦演奏古琴名曲《平沙落雁》（北平沙） Guqin Master Ding Chengyun  "Ping Sha Lo Yen" ( Geese Alight On The Sand )

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by Wu Wenguang (吴文光)

Legend has it that Nie Zheng, an assassin during the Warring States Period (c. 475–221 BC), attempted to assassinate the King of Han in order to avenge his father's murder. After his failure, he went into the mountains and met an immortal who taught him guqin skills. Later, he approached the King of Han by playing guqin, and finally succeeded in killing him. It was said that this piece of music was composed by Nie Zheng himself based on his story.

Later, during the Three Kingdoms period, Ji Kang (223-263), one of the "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Forest", was unjustly executed for offending the Prime Minister. Before his execution, he played this song and sighed at the end: "Guang-Ling Verse" is now extinct!

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Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Reed Pipe (胡笳十八拍)

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Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Reed Pipe (胡笳十八拍)

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by Guan Pinghu (管平湖)

According to legend, this piece of music was composed by Cai Wenji (177-249), a female poet in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, who blended the sound of the nomad flute into the guqin.

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Dialogue Between Fisherman and Woodcutter (渔樵问答)

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Dialogue Between Fisherman and Woodcutter (渔樵问答)

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 by Wu Jinglüe (吴景略) and Chen Chong (陈重)

An ensemble of guqin and xiao.

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虞山吴派大师吴景略和陈重琴箫合奏古琴名曲《渔樵问答》 Guqin Master Wu Jinglue "Dialogue Between Fisherman and Woodcutter"

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Drunken Fishermen Singing in the Sunset (醉渔唱晚)

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Drunken Fishermen Singing in the Sunset (醉渔唱晚)

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by Wei Chung Loh (卫仲乐)

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醉漁唱晚 [Zui Yu Chang Wan] - 衛仲樂 [Wei Chung Loh] - 古琴 [guqin] (Recorded in 1981)

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by Gong Yi (龚一)

This is a very popular farewell song among ancient Chinese literati. The song is based on a seven-character quatrain written by Wang Wei (692-761), a famous poet of the Tang Dynasty, when he was bidding farewell to his friend Yuan Er who was on his mission to Anxi.

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龚一古琴 4 - 10 《阳关三叠》示范

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by Dai Xiaolian (戴晓莲)

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Mist and Clouds Over the Rivers Xiao and Xiang  (潇湘水云)

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Mist and Clouds Over the Rivers Xiao and Xiang  (潇湘水云)

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 by Wu Jinglüe (吴景略)

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by Guan Pinghu (管平湖)

In 1977, this exact recording was chosen to be included in the Voyager Golden Record, a gold-plated LP of music from around the world, which was sent into outer space by NASA on the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft.

It was selected because the tonal structure of the instrument, its musical scale, is derived from fundamental physical laws related to vibration and overtones, representing the intellectual capacity of human beings on this subject.

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管平湖先生撫奏琴曲《流水》 Chinese Guqin 古琴 黑膠轉錄（太空版）

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Written qin music did not directly tell what notes were played, it was written in tablature instead.

In early times, people wrote texts with detailed descriptions of how to play a piece using ordinary Chinese characters. Later in the Tang dynasty, Cao Rou and others simplified the notation, using only the important elements of the characters (like string number, plucking technique, hui number and which finger to stop the string) and combined them into one character notation. This meant that instead of having two lines of written text to describe a few notes, a single character could represent one note, or sometimes as many as nine. This notation form was called Jianzi Pu (減字譜, literally "reduced notation") and it was a major advance in qin notation.

However, in this method of notation, the rhythm cannot be marked very clearly, so the performer has a lot of freedom in the rhythm. Due to the differences and uncertainties in its music notes, as well as people's different understandings and interpretations, many different schools of guqin have emerged in history, usually named after the region or the surname of the founder.

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Guqin has traditionally been favoured by scholars and literati as an instrument of great subtlety and refinement. As a symbol of high culture, it´s considered the first of the "four arts of Chinese scholars" (qin, Go, calligraphy, and painting). It´s also associated with the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius, and sometimes referred to by the Chinese as "the instrument of the sages".

The guqin is nearly always played as a solo instrument since it sounds very low and quiet. However, it can be played together with a xiao (end-blown bamboo flute), with other qin, or played while singing. In modern times, silk strings have been replaced by steel strings because they produce a louder sound. Traditionally, the qin was played in a quiet studio or room by oneself or with a few friends, or played outdoors in places of outstanding natural beauty.

Since ancient times, there have been many Guqin societies in China. The qin societies encourage meetings with fellow qin players in order to play music and maybe discuss the nature of the qin. A gathering like this is called a yaji (雅集, literally "elegant gathering"), it takes place once every month or two. Sometimes, societies may go on excursions to places of natural beauty to play qin, or attend conferences.

On 7 November 2003, UNESCO announced that the Chinese guqin was selected as an Intangible World Cultural Heritage. In 2006, guqin was listed in the List of National Non-material Cultural Heritage in China.

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This is an ancient qin book that explains different hand gestures. We use our right hand to pluck the strings, while our left hand is responsible for pressing the strings, adjusting music keys, creating harmonics or sliding tones, etc.

As for the sitting position, we place the guqin on the table, and our navel needs to be at the same level as the guqin. Important scale notes, called "hui" (徽), are marked by 13 glossy white dots made of mica or seashell inset in the front surface of the qin. We need to sit in front of the fifth hui from the right and be two fists away from Guqin.

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There are more than 3,360 known surviving pieces of guqin music from ancient and imperial periods.

A large part of these music pieces express emotions evoked by natural beauty and seasonal changes, while others are based on historical figures or stories. They have deep connections with Chinese philosophy, Confucian culture, Taoism, and Buddhism, and express the performer's lofty moral and spiritual realm.

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In Chinese, the process of making guqin is called "斫琴" (literally "carve qin").

It takes at least 18 months to make a guqin, and the process involves more than 100 steps, including using paulownia wood as the top and catalpa wood as the base, crushing pearls and gemstones, and then mixing them with raw lacquer. Some guqin makers will engrave the name of the guqin, their signature seal, or calligraphy on the back of the qin.

Because the guqin maker needs to have highly professional skills and musical literacy, along with the long production cycle and expensive materials, a good guqin is usually very expensive.

In addition, there are many ancient guqin that have been passed down from generation to generation, and some are still playable. Some high-quality ones appear at auctions and are fetched at shockingly high prices.

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How to craft ancient Chinese musical instrument Guqin?

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Guqin (古琴) is a traditional Chinese plucked string instrument. Ancient books say that Chinese prehistoric legends Fuxi, Shennong, and Huangdi, who lived more than 5,000 years ago, were involved in its creation, although this is now viewed as mythology. In reality, qin is mentioned in Chinese writings dating back nearly 3,000 years, and examples of qin have been found in tombs from about 2,500 years ago.

Traditionally, the instrument was called "qin" (琴). But by the 20th century, the term began to be applied to many other instruments in Chinese—for example, the piano ("gang qin") and violin ("xiao ti qin"). The prefix "gu-" (古, meaning "ancient") was later added for clarification. It can also be called "qi xian qin", which literally means "seven-stringed qin". However, the qin originally had five strings by tradition, but the modern form has been stabilized to seven strings.