LIFE | Sound and Rhythm - Philosophical Reflections on the Chinese Guqin Music
"The five colors blind the eye, the five sounds deafen the ear." — Lao Tzu Chinese Painting reached a state of colorlessness during the Song and Yuan dynasties, liberating itself from the complexities of color, the subtle and ethereal ink wash replaced the vibrant and dazzling colors. Chinese Guqin musician WenJing & Writer Hao JiLiu talks about the history and philosophy of Guqin Music / sketch on Huawei mobile phone - Infinite Painter app. ( by Ben Liu, 2026 ) Mountains and rivers, without color, return to their true essence. If this is true of painting, is it also true of ancient Chinese music? With this question in mind, I listened to a series of dialogues on the Guqin (古琴) by teachers Wen Jing and Hao Jiliu. Guqin music is divided into sound and rhythm, much like lines and colors in calligraphy and painting. Rhythm (resonance) is expressed in four ways: lingering notes, echoes, vibrato, and interlacing. "The greatest sound is silen...
