The Lore of the Chinese Lute

The lute, ch'in or guqin is one of China's oldest and most revered musical instruments.Records indicate that it has been a favourite of the literary classes for more than 2,500 years; Confucius himself was a great lover of the instrument.Over the centuries, it became representative of the life, taste and pastimes of the Chinese literati.In addition to its contributions to solo and orchestral musical arrangements, a wealth of symbolic meaning accrued to the lute over time.Not only was knowledge of the instrument reserved for the literati; its study was believed to be conducive to meditation and to facilitate intellectual enlightenment.While a significant body of literature has been written on the lute in Chinese, the present monograph is the first to assemble a broad picture of the instrument and its cultural significance in English.The author, a renowned Sinologue and linguist, studied the playing of the instrument under one of the most famous lute masters of his age.