Guqin Table of Contents

Guqin Table of Contents

Home /
T of C

email me search me

Brief Introduction to the Guqin

(Note that every page has a "search me" link at upper right)

Table of Contents:
John Thompson and the Silk String Guqin ¹

唐世璋與絲弦古琴目錄
Qin and Se:
Marital harmony

My work, including: short bio and performance themes, such as Marco Polo. Also: my repertoire, performances, CDs and books and my qin work (see also teaching).
Qin handbooks; includes Qinshu Cunmu, an annotated listing; Taiyin Daquanji and Qinshu Daquan with extensive commentary; Individual pages mostly introduce melodies (see also melody lists), with focus on the earliest surviving tablature beginning with:
You Lan, Shen Qi Mi Pu, Zheyin Shizi Qinpu, Taigu Yiyin. Xilutang Qintong.
The physical qin, including: physical characteristics, acquiring a qin, qins in captivity, tassels, studs, and silk strings,
Qin in art, including: depictions of qins and illustrations of guqin melodies
Poetry and song, including: Ci Lyrics and 17th century drinking song lyrics.
Qin music; links to many sound files, including: New pieces (see also my CDS Shen Qi Mi Pu and Music Beyond Sound).
Play Qin ; including: teaching HIP, beginners' melodies such as Xianweng Cao, fingering illustrations.
Qin Analysis, including: Dapu: Bringing Old Music to Life; Historically Informed Qin Performance; Just Intonation Tuning?; Mode in Early Ming Qin Tablature; Rhythm in Early Ming Qin Tablature; Tuning a Qin; and Bell Yung on Dapu.
Qin history, from its origins. Includes: Excerpts from Xu Jian's introductory history; plus classical sources, mostly arranged in Biographies;
more on lore as well as history are translated from Qinshu Daquan
Qin ideology, including: An article in Orientations by James Watt; observations from R.H. van Gulik.
Miscellaneous information, including: A brief introduction to the silk-string zither; or is it a "lute"?; a website glossary; the guqin work of 1956 led by Zha Fuxi (plus his Guide and List); the four arts of the Chinese scholar; Muller on a 1912 recording; Kurt Sachs on the qin; John Blofeld hears a qin; gagaku.
Where to get more information, including: a Bibliography (see also the Abbreviations); a list of silk string qin CDs, or metal string qin CDs; links to other sites.
Personal matters, including: The HK Festival of Asian Arts; Performers at the 17 FAAs; My move to New York; My father: author; and Directions to my home;

Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. Please note: As of March 2004 I converted the Chinese characters on this site from Big-5 into Unicode (UTF-8). I also took characters formerly embedded in the text and put them into footnotes. If anyone finds embedded or non-Unicode characters, please tell me.
(Return)