Wang Duo

At present I have seven CDs of recordings by Wang Duo. The content of these CDs is listed beginning here. Some of them will have the sound of the recording linked by mp3 file.

The following is adapted mostly from a self-introduction by Wang Duo himself. ³

Wang Duo's family "old home" is 徽州 Huizhou (Anhui province, near Huangshan), but in 1938 he was born in Suzhou. His father practised traditional medicine, his mother was a teacher. From an early age he studied classical arts such as qin, books and calligraphy, and with his father would often attend the "怡園雅集": elegant gatherings at the "Garden of Pleasance" in Suzhou. These were led by Wu Lansun; he then became an avid disciple of Wu Lansun's son, Wu Zhaoji. At the same time the scholar 李子昭 Li Zizhao influenced him and he became particularly fond of reading the Eight Great Prose Masters of the the Tang and Song dynasties.

Wang Duo studied exhaustively under Wu Zhaoji for three years before entering the geography department of Peking University. During six years in Beijing he would visit the Beijing Music Research Institute to listen to and converse with all the qin players there and elsewhere in Beijing.

Studies finished, Wang Duo went to the nearby 越州山野 Yuezhou wilderness area to engage in the "四清 Four Cleanups". Then the Cultural Revolution broke out. It was over 10 years before he could return to the cultural practices he loved. He then returned and taught geography as his profession.

Returning to his guqin activities, and in particular after retirement, Wang Duo has focused on reconstructing old melodies, encouraging the use of silk strings, and cultivating a Daoist approach. In his reconstructions of old melodies he has particularly focused on the handbook whose compiler 汪芝 Wang Zhi, like Wang Duo himself, hailed from Huizhou.

To further encourage silk strings Wang not only teaches by example, he encourages his pupils to make their own high-quality silk strings. Since 2004 he has been holding recitals around China, including Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Taipei. He has concurrently been an adviser to the Kunju and Guqin Research Society of China, to the China Academy of Guqin, is Vice President of the International Society of Guqin for Life Enhancement and has been Head of the Guqin Research Center of Suzhou University of Science and Technology. Special research topics include: silk strings, music reconstruction and Daoist guqin music.

Footnotes (Numbers refer to entries in Zhongwen Dacidian)

1. Wang Duo (王鐸 1938-）
An internet search for "王鐸" (Wang Duo) is complicated by the fact there was a very well-known calligrapher of the same name who straddled the Ming and Qing dynasties (1592-1652).
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2. Wang Duo plays qin
Copied from inside his Hugo Bai Xue album.
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3. Program notes for 道家琴曲 Daoist Qin Melodies (converted pdf; original jpg)
The album has no English and the Chinese is in simplified characters. To make the attached pdf file I used OCR to transcribe the Chinese characters then used a program to convert the simplified characters into standard characters Designs on the paper behind the characters caused problems in some places. while both conversion programs raised problems.
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