Liu Shaochun And Guqin Art

Liu Shaochun(1901-1971) was born in Fuping County, Shaanxi and later settled in Yangzhou with hisfather.Hewas one of the celebrated Qin performers of modern China. He hadundergone ups and d owns, even several social revolutions in his life. He once acknowledged Sun Shaotao as the master and had learned the performance of the Qin from Sun for three years. Therefore He was regarded as the tenth generation successor of the Guangling School. He regularly attended the Yaji (artist-gathering) of Jiangsu and Zhejiang area and was the Qin teacher in Nanjing Music Association and Nanjing Arts Institute.This essay analyses the music scores and audio records of his nine performed pieces, and concludes that the unadorned and unique performance style of the sample is due to his exquisite left hand techniques and lingering performingcharm. Besides the succession of Guangling School, his personality was profoundly infl uenced by the artistic genres in southern China, such as the respiratory control of martial arts, the verve of the kunqu opera, the interest of calligraphy and the concept of health keeping. And eventually all these helped to shape his unique humanistic spirits. According to his articles and the reviews of later generations, Liu Shuchun’s evaluation on cultural values of the Qin, precise attitude and emphasis on both performance technique and musical meaning reflect his performance spirits and styles.Based on the previous research, this paper focuses on Liu Shaochun and discusses his biographical experience, the formation of artistic style, remaining transcripts and performed pieces to present the artistic features of Liu Shaochun completely, of flesh and blood, also close to the history.