This page is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
Excellent work on the guqin article, Charlie Huang! You are quite a scholar of this instrument. -- Badagnani 11:08, 26 August 2005 (UTC)
I'm having difficulty trying to add Japanese names to the box. I managed the basic Chinese names but do not know how to attach the Japanese names section on it. It doesn't show up, or it gets a seperate box which I don't want. Is it possible or it isn't allowed to have more than one language in the boxy thing? -- CharlieHuang 12:55, 22 December 2005 (UTC)
I'm planning to add a table of various techniques used to play qin. It would be illustrated with photos of course of my own playing. I would do about eight entries. But I might turn it into a seperate table in a seperate article, though that might be troublesome coz I might need to add notation and that would create extra work for me to write, scan, collate and upload some 50 odd seperate little pics which I'm not into doing. Probably stick to the first and extend it if I can manage, probably without notation. Of course, I could try to create the notations by crude use of combining several characters and radicals together, but that might not look that good in the end... -- CharlieHuang 10:52, 24 December 2005 (UTC)
BTW, my computer is over 9 years old (have very little upgrades) and it still works fine! Though it is slow, but it has no problem viewing pages with as many as 100 different pics! -- CharlieHuang 11:46, 24 December 2005 (UTC)
I want to get a new PC, coz mines is so old that it can't be upgraded to Bindows XP! And that has got stuff in it which would make my life easier, like being able to write Chinese on the writing pad using the tablet and it types it out on screen, rather than having to plough through lists and the hit and miss direct typing input method. And I'll be able to do things like play some modern games on it, coz I can't on my current PC coz it's not up to the job. -- CharlieHuang 15:27, 24 December 2005 (UTC)
OK, I`ve removed the Chinese headings and reverted the top three items into one paragraph as put forward by the opposition (and anyways, I think it would be better as they were OK together). -- CharlieHuang 11:47, 26 December 2005 (UTC)
Removed and moved the big lists. For the smaller ones, I'd leave them for now until I get into the mood of creating separate articles on them, or squash them into paragraphs. The Historical Players should remain a list as it is more logical that way. -- CharlieHuang 12:14, 26 December 2005 (UTC)
Removed and merged a lot of stuff. Somethings are iffy for me coz removing a lot tends to make certain places more thinner than I am comfortable with. It would require a lot more time and work for me to try and add more stuff in order to patch much of the holes and thin sections that the deconstruction work has exposed. -- CharlieHuang 00:21, 27 December 2005 (UTC)
Wow! Thanks to everyone who contributed and supported this article! And just in time for the new year as well! Domo artigatou gozaimasu! -- CharlieHuang 00:36, 1 January 2006 (UTC)
Right. After all that, the next thing I'm gonna do is maybe add a few bits on qin forms/shapes since that is something that isn't covered in the article. Then, I'm going to migrate to the other sister articles, like the qinpu one, to work on those and (try to) finish them to as good a standard as I possibly can. -- CharlieHuang 21:27, 1 January 2006 (UTC)
Some idiot has destroyed my article! Since it has been on recently, I'd wait for a day before he gets lost before reverting. -- CharlieHuang 14:16, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
So what's the current and/or past Hanzi for guqin/musical instrument strings? Etymologically "correct" or not. LDHan 14:00, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
The guqin 「古琴」 (or simply qin) is the modern name for a plucked fretless seven- stringed Chinese musical instrument of the zither family. It has been played since ancient times, and has traditionally been favored by scholars and the literati as an instrument of great subtlety and refinement. The qin has a recorded history of at least 3,000 years. Early qins exist from around 2,500 years. The body of the qin is constructed out of two different woods ( paulownia and catalpa) that are hollowed out and joint together before lacquer is applied to the surface.
The qin has a special notation system, which is at least 1,500 years old. There are over 3,500 different melodies, preserved in around 130 tablature collections, called qinpu. The method of playing the qin involves plucking the strings with the right hand, while the left hand either presses and slides up and down the strings to alter the pitch, or lightly touching a string at a prescribed point causing a harmonic to sound. There are less than 3,000 qin players in the world, only a few have totally mastered it.
Because of its focus on the intellect, the qin has declined in the past century as a result of political disturbances from views that it is a by-product of feudalism. However, the qin has been on a revival since the last decade and has gained a lot of interest, especially among Westerners who find its gentle sounds, and its philosophy of peace and being at one with nature very appealing in the stressful and artificial constraints of the modern world. ( more...)
Please expand and edit. -- CharlieHuang 12:33, 4 February 2006 (UTC)
OK, to keep track of the Chinese punctuation in the article, I'm going to create a list as reference for myself:
-- CharlieHuang on work computer. -- 212.115.41.38 10:57, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
I've created the whole set of User instruments templates for the qin to add to their userpage Babel (or wherever) here: Category:Wikipedian guqin players. Doubtful they'll be any other qin players but me, but t'will be nice to know! -- Charlie Huang 【正矗昊】 17:35, 5 March 2006 (UTC)
Note: The examples above are given as a demonstration of how finger techniques may look, and do not reflect a 'perfected' standard of play and should not be considered as authorative.
I was thinking, should we create the article in the Simple English version of Wikipedia? We will cut a lot of things and details out, and most of the Chinese characters and focus on the main aspects. Will be a nice project on a rainy day. -- Charlie Huang 【正矗昊】 17:57, 21 March 2006 (UTC)
There seems to be a problem. Why do I see that parts of the first two paragraphs bolded for no reason? And it is almost always after the unicode templates... Is that the error or do I have to abandon them for more basic measures? Also, can't seem to view parts of the IPA; doesn't seem to be my computer as it did display them not long ago... -- Charlie Huang 【正矗昊】 16:52, 11 April 2006 (UTC)
I've uploaded three of my own recordings onto the commons and added them to the article. Thanks to my new computer, the sound quality is very good, unlike my old recordings I did on my old computer, which sounded very empty, artifical, metallic and twangy. I might add more later if I have the time or be in the mood. -- Charlie Huang 【正矗昊】 15:28, 15 April 2006 (UTC)
Why is there only the traditional form, not the simplified form for the chinese symbols? Bibliomaniac15 00:04, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
Another question is: why does there need to be both Hiragana and Katagana (wouldn't Hiragana suffice?), Zhuyin (I would think Hanyu Pinyin suffices since this isn't a Chinese article), and all these Korean and Japanese romanizations? Might as well add Yale Romanization too then. 216.2.193.1 06:14, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
「 琴 瑟 在 御, 莫 不 靜 好。」 "Qin and se are in my carriage; There is no-one who likes silence..."', the translation is probably wrong... -- K.C. Tang 00:31, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
The article contains the following sentence:
What are "Mao numbers"? — Babelfisch 00:44, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
We need someone who knows something about the instrument to clean out the external links and remove linkspam. Yay! Isopropyl 01:04, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
Love the article. Great job, everyone who worked on it. -- F a ng Aili 說嗎? 02:58, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
Greetings. There is an image of a modern concert (employing Tang dynasty instruments) that may include two of these instruments. Note that this illustrates the use of stands and the positions of the instrumentalists. I have higher resolution originals for the left and right of this three image composite which I could upload if appropriate. Question: is the leftmost player in position to play? (She appears positioned near the end of the instrument.)
- Leonard G. 03:19, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
Badagnani 22:10, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
I just recieved this e-mail from someone concerning this article:
"Hi, Charlie
It is a wonderful article that has so many valuable information about Guqin.
In general, please correct the mis-use of The. For example, in the third paragraph, The Guqin. ¡°The¡± should be removed, when you talk about Guqin in general ¡°the¡± in front of Guqin should be removed.
Whenever, there is ¡°the Guqin¡±, it means ¡°this Guqin¡± or ¡°that Guqin¡±. ¡°The¡± is a short form of ¡°this or that¡±.
For example,
I have a Guqin. The Guqin has a very nice sound.
Here The Guqin implies ¡°that Guqin the one I have¡±. If you say Guqin has 7 strings, you should not say ¡°the Guqin has 7 strings¡±. This sounds like this Guqin has 7 string while other Guqin may have 8 or 9 strings.
Guqin has 7 strings. Means all Guqin has 7 strings. The Guqin is about 300 years old. Means that particular Guqin has 300 years history. We cannot say ¡°Guqin is about 300 years old¡± because it implies all Guqin has 300 years history.
This is a common mistake we Chinese make. Hope I explain it clearly.
Thanks,
Xiaonan
Is the current use of the word "the" for the guqin wrong in the article? I'm slightly puzzled since it makes no big difference in my mind (and English is my first language...) whatsoever. -- Charlie Huang 【正矗昊】 10:08, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
You are fine, Charlie. I see no problems with your use of "the" anywhere in the article. I think your well intentioned commentator has "the" and "this" mixed up, perhaps? Not that I am attacking him! I have never successfully learned a second language at all, so I respect the heck out of those that do. Also, I found it a very good read. Nice work! And yes, Featured Articles usually attract vandals. Keep checking it throughout the day and they will go away soon. Thepearl 204.76.128.217 14:37, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
OK, I'm getting ticked off... Does main page featured articles have this happening to them all the time? I'm not at home so I can't deal with them systematically... >_< -- Charlie Huang 【正矗昊】 12:16, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
Under the heading Construction, we find the following statement: "The entire length of the qin (in Chinese measurements) is 3 feet, 6.5 inches, representing the 365 days of the year (though this is just a standard since qins can be shorter or longer depending on the period's measurement standard or the maker's preference)."
I'm not sure I quite follow this. The guqin is apparently a very old instrument, so surely (as the final parenthetical phrase suggests) the original makers would not have been working with English Imperial measurements. If we say that the standard length "represents" the days of the year, then that implies that the standard length was deliberately established with that concept in mind.
The article adds the parenthetical phrase "in Chinese measurements." Is the author of these words saying that the English Imperial length of "3 feet, 6.5 inches" is an approximation of a Chinese measurement that works out to be roughly (or even precisely) equivalent to 3 feet, 6.5 inches? If so, then it seems unlikely that the ancient designers would have had "3 feet, 6.5 inches" in mind when they created the qin. Perhaps more recent Chinese instrument makers may have adopted this standard because they like the idea of aligning the length of the guqin to the length of the year, but if that's the case it would be nice to see that in the text.
On the other hand, perhaps there is an ancient Chinese system of measurement that reckons the length of the instrument at 3 "something," 6.5 "something," and the author is just calling these units feet and inches for the sake of simplicity in an English-language encyclopedia. If this is the case, then I'd like to suggest that the original units of measure be restored, perhaps with a brief explanation as to what they mean.
As it is, I, as the reader, tend to suspect that the length of the instrument really has nothing to do with the days of the week, but rather that the length in feet/inches is a coincidence that was noticed at some point in the recent history of the instrument and added to the guqin's mythology because it was appealing. If this is the case, then it might not be suitable fare for an encyclopedia article.
Of course, it's also possible that I've missed something that is obvious to everyone else. It wouldn't be the first time. :-) — CKA3KA (Skazka) 16:50, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
It would be nice if this article had some mention of how to pronounce the word for those of us who don't know how to read pinyin. IPA, right at the top, is very common in articles whose subjects are foreign words. - lethe talk + 21:08, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
I think we'll have to sweep through all the articles and change all the "Guqin"s to "guqin"s. -- Charlie Huang 【正矗昊】 15:37, 4 May 2006 (UTC)
I've created this template: {{ Qin list}}
To stick at the end of guqin realated articles to link them all together. It's best to keep the articles that are strictly guqin related. -- Charlie Huang 【正矗昊】 09:21, 17 May 2006 (UTC)
Time for a review to see if we have kept the article good. I hope my contributions to it since the new year has done it good. -- Charlie Huang 【正矗昊】 15:11, 19 May 2006 (UTC)
Someone changed the title of Meihua Sannong's translation from "Three Variations on the Plum Blossom Theme" to "Three Variations on the Mei Blossom Theme". After checking it up, I am puzzled as to why. From what I understand, Meihua has always been translated to "plum blossom" and does not need to be diverted to its original Chinese name, as nobody understands what flower it is in that form. Is this changing to Mei from plum blossom too much technical for the simple name of a piece of music? I think it adds too much and it would be simpler calling it plum blossom instead. -- Charlie Huang 【正矗昊】 18:14, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
It turns out that Koreans formerly used the guqin (along with the se) in their Munmyo jeryeak, or Confucian ritual music. There are pictures of this, and it's the actual small, black-colored guqin, not a Korean instrument. Is there a place this could be added? Badagnani 21:28, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
I think this may be a Korean hanja spelling for the instrument: 笒. Badagnani 13:37, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
Well, the main thing, I guess, is that its use with the se in Korean Confucian ritual music should be mentioned. The only references I could find to the special character is for the daegeum (large transverse bamboo flute) -- http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%E7%AC%92+daegeum -- some of the Korean or Japanese uses of Chinese characters are very interesting; although they might have arisen through misunderstandings they're often more appropriate than the original ones. I'd use the hanja for piri ( 觱 篥) as an example. In fact, the Chinese characters for bili ( 篳 篥) and haidi ( 海 笛) (to spell words that probably weren't originally Chinese) are clever as well. Badagnani 20:19, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
The article is already like 100kb so maybe some things like this should move to their own articles? But the Korean Confucian ritual use probably merits just a sentence or two, maybe with a link attached. Badagnani 20:01, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
I just watched a DVD from The National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts of Munmyo jeryeak (Confucian ritual music, which uses the last two surviving a ak melodies from the importation of yayue from the Song Dynasty emperor Huizong in 1116) and they are using seul (se) and geum (guqin). The geum player's intonation doesn't seem that great but she does her best, and the seul player seems not really to be playing, but pretending to play. We should add something about this use of the geum in Munmyo jeryeak. Badagnani 10:01, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
What's the difference between "ancient stringed-instrument" and "ancient strung-instrument"? --—Preceding unsigned comment added by 200.45.181.9 ( talk • contribs)
OK, I've stuck the article on the nominations page of Wikipedia:Version 0.5. Hopefully, it will be included in it! We've all worked so hard and it is currently one of the best well researched articles on here, so it should be OK'ed without further editing on my part. *crosses fingers* -- Charlie Huang 【正矗昊】 17:34, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
I'll stick any broken links here, just in case the link repairs itself:
-- Charlie Huang 【正矗昊】 18:35, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
Should The Emperor and the Assassin be added to the films section? I can't remember if there's guqin in the film but there should be if Gao Jianli is a character. Badagnani 18:56, 8 September 2006 (UTC)
This page is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
Excellent work on the guqin article, Charlie Huang! You are quite a scholar of this instrument. -- Badagnani 11:08, 26 August 2005 (UTC)
I'm having difficulty trying to add Japanese names to the box. I managed the basic Chinese names but do not know how to attach the Japanese names section on it. It doesn't show up, or it gets a seperate box which I don't want. Is it possible or it isn't allowed to have more than one language in the boxy thing? -- CharlieHuang 12:55, 22 December 2005 (UTC)
I'm planning to add a table of various techniques used to play qin. It would be illustrated with photos of course of my own playing. I would do about eight entries. But I might turn it into a seperate table in a seperate article, though that might be troublesome coz I might need to add notation and that would create extra work for me to write, scan, collate and upload some 50 odd seperate little pics which I'm not into doing. Probably stick to the first and extend it if I can manage, probably without notation. Of course, I could try to create the notations by crude use of combining several characters and radicals together, but that might not look that good in the end... -- CharlieHuang 10:52, 24 December 2005 (UTC)
BTW, my computer is over 9 years old (have very little upgrades) and it still works fine! Though it is slow, but it has no problem viewing pages with as many as 100 different pics! -- CharlieHuang 11:46, 24 December 2005 (UTC)
I want to get a new PC, coz mines is so old that it can't be upgraded to Bindows XP! And that has got stuff in it which would make my life easier, like being able to write Chinese on the writing pad using the tablet and it types it out on screen, rather than having to plough through lists and the hit and miss direct typing input method. And I'll be able to do things like play some modern games on it, coz I can't on my current PC coz it's not up to the job. -- CharlieHuang 15:27, 24 December 2005 (UTC)
OK, I`ve removed the Chinese headings and reverted the top three items into one paragraph as put forward by the opposition (and anyways, I think it would be better as they were OK together). -- CharlieHuang 11:47, 26 December 2005 (UTC)
Removed and moved the big lists. For the smaller ones, I'd leave them for now until I get into the mood of creating separate articles on them, or squash them into paragraphs. The Historical Players should remain a list as it is more logical that way. -- CharlieHuang 12:14, 26 December 2005 (UTC)
Removed and merged a lot of stuff. Somethings are iffy for me coz removing a lot tends to make certain places more thinner than I am comfortable with. It would require a lot more time and work for me to try and add more stuff in order to patch much of the holes and thin sections that the deconstruction work has exposed. -- CharlieHuang 00:21, 27 December 2005 (UTC)
Wow! Thanks to everyone who contributed and supported this article! And just in time for the new year as well! Domo artigatou gozaimasu! -- CharlieHuang 00:36, 1 January 2006 (UTC)
Right. After all that, the next thing I'm gonna do is maybe add a few bits on qin forms/shapes since that is something that isn't covered in the article. Then, I'm going to migrate to the other sister articles, like the qinpu one, to work on those and (try to) finish them to as good a standard as I possibly can. -- CharlieHuang 21:27, 1 January 2006 (UTC)
Some idiot has destroyed my article! Since it has been on recently, I'd wait for a day before he gets lost before reverting. -- CharlieHuang 14:16, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
So what's the current and/or past Hanzi for guqin/musical instrument strings? Etymologically "correct" or not. LDHan 14:00, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
The guqin 「古琴」 (or simply qin) is the modern name for a plucked fretless seven- stringed Chinese musical instrument of the zither family. It has been played since ancient times, and has traditionally been favored by scholars and the literati as an instrument of great subtlety and refinement. The qin has a recorded history of at least 3,000 years. Early qins exist from around 2,500 years. The body of the qin is constructed out of two different woods ( paulownia and catalpa) that are hollowed out and joint together before lacquer is applied to the surface.
The qin has a special notation system, which is at least 1,500 years old. There are over 3,500 different melodies, preserved in around 130 tablature collections, called qinpu. The method of playing the qin involves plucking the strings with the right hand, while the left hand either presses and slides up and down the strings to alter the pitch, or lightly touching a string at a prescribed point causing a harmonic to sound. There are less than 3,000 qin players in the world, only a few have totally mastered it.
Because of its focus on the intellect, the qin has declined in the past century as a result of political disturbances from views that it is a by-product of feudalism. However, the qin has been on a revival since the last decade and has gained a lot of interest, especially among Westerners who find its gentle sounds, and its philosophy of peace and being at one with nature very appealing in the stressful and artificial constraints of the modern world. ( more...)
Please expand and edit. -- CharlieHuang 12:33, 4 February 2006 (UTC)
OK, to keep track of the Chinese punctuation in the article, I'm going to create a list as reference for myself:
-- CharlieHuang on work computer. -- 212.115.41.38 10:57, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
I've created the whole set of User instruments templates for the qin to add to their userpage Babel (or wherever) here: Category:Wikipedian guqin players. Doubtful they'll be any other qin players but me, but t'will be nice to know! -- Charlie Huang 【正矗昊】 17:35, 5 March 2006 (UTC)
Note: The examples above are given as a demonstration of how finger techniques may look, and do not reflect a 'perfected' standard of play and should not be considered as authorative.
I was thinking, should we create the article in the Simple English version of Wikipedia? We will cut a lot of things and details out, and most of the Chinese characters and focus on the main aspects. Will be a nice project on a rainy day. -- Charlie Huang 【正矗昊】 17:57, 21 March 2006 (UTC)
There seems to be a problem. Why do I see that parts of the first two paragraphs bolded for no reason? And it is almost always after the unicode templates... Is that the error or do I have to abandon them for more basic measures? Also, can't seem to view parts of the IPA; doesn't seem to be my computer as it did display them not long ago... -- Charlie Huang 【正矗昊】 16:52, 11 April 2006 (UTC)
I've uploaded three of my own recordings onto the commons and added them to the article. Thanks to my new computer, the sound quality is very good, unlike my old recordings I did on my old computer, which sounded very empty, artifical, metallic and twangy. I might add more later if I have the time or be in the mood. -- Charlie Huang 【正矗昊】 15:28, 15 April 2006 (UTC)
Why is there only the traditional form, not the simplified form for the chinese symbols? Bibliomaniac15 00:04, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
Another question is: why does there need to be both Hiragana and Katagana (wouldn't Hiragana suffice?), Zhuyin (I would think Hanyu Pinyin suffices since this isn't a Chinese article), and all these Korean and Japanese romanizations? Might as well add Yale Romanization too then. 216.2.193.1 06:14, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
「 琴 瑟 在 御, 莫 不 靜 好。」 "Qin and se are in my carriage; There is no-one who likes silence..."', the translation is probably wrong... -- K.C. Tang 00:31, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
The article contains the following sentence:
What are "Mao numbers"? — Babelfisch 00:44, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
We need someone who knows something about the instrument to clean out the external links and remove linkspam. Yay! Isopropyl 01:04, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
Love the article. Great job, everyone who worked on it. -- F a ng Aili 說嗎? 02:58, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
Greetings. There is an image of a modern concert (employing Tang dynasty instruments) that may include two of these instruments. Note that this illustrates the use of stands and the positions of the instrumentalists. I have higher resolution originals for the left and right of this three image composite which I could upload if appropriate. Question: is the leftmost player in position to play? (She appears positioned near the end of the instrument.)
- Leonard G. 03:19, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
Badagnani 22:10, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
I just recieved this e-mail from someone concerning this article:
"Hi, Charlie
It is a wonderful article that has so many valuable information about Guqin.
In general, please correct the mis-use of The. For example, in the third paragraph, The Guqin. ¡°The¡± should be removed, when you talk about Guqin in general ¡°the¡± in front of Guqin should be removed.
Whenever, there is ¡°the Guqin¡±, it means ¡°this Guqin¡± or ¡°that Guqin¡±. ¡°The¡± is a short form of ¡°this or that¡±.
For example,
I have a Guqin. The Guqin has a very nice sound.
Here The Guqin implies ¡°that Guqin the one I have¡±. If you say Guqin has 7 strings, you should not say ¡°the Guqin has 7 strings¡±. This sounds like this Guqin has 7 string while other Guqin may have 8 or 9 strings.
Guqin has 7 strings. Means all Guqin has 7 strings. The Guqin is about 300 years old. Means that particular Guqin has 300 years history. We cannot say ¡°Guqin is about 300 years old¡± because it implies all Guqin has 300 years history.
This is a common mistake we Chinese make. Hope I explain it clearly.
Thanks,
Xiaonan
Is the current use of the word "the" for the guqin wrong in the article? I'm slightly puzzled since it makes no big difference in my mind (and English is my first language...) whatsoever. -- Charlie Huang 【正矗昊】 10:08, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
You are fine, Charlie. I see no problems with your use of "the" anywhere in the article. I think your well intentioned commentator has "the" and "this" mixed up, perhaps? Not that I am attacking him! I have never successfully learned a second language at all, so I respect the heck out of those that do. Also, I found it a very good read. Nice work! And yes, Featured Articles usually attract vandals. Keep checking it throughout the day and they will go away soon. Thepearl 204.76.128.217 14:37, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
OK, I'm getting ticked off... Does main page featured articles have this happening to them all the time? I'm not at home so I can't deal with them systematically... >_< -- Charlie Huang 【正矗昊】 12:16, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
Under the heading Construction, we find the following statement: "The entire length of the qin (in Chinese measurements) is 3 feet, 6.5 inches, representing the 365 days of the year (though this is just a standard since qins can be shorter or longer depending on the period's measurement standard or the maker's preference)."
I'm not sure I quite follow this. The guqin is apparently a very old instrument, so surely (as the final parenthetical phrase suggests) the original makers would not have been working with English Imperial measurements. If we say that the standard length "represents" the days of the year, then that implies that the standard length was deliberately established with that concept in mind.
The article adds the parenthetical phrase "in Chinese measurements." Is the author of these words saying that the English Imperial length of "3 feet, 6.5 inches" is an approximation of a Chinese measurement that works out to be roughly (or even precisely) equivalent to 3 feet, 6.5 inches? If so, then it seems unlikely that the ancient designers would have had "3 feet, 6.5 inches" in mind when they created the qin. Perhaps more recent Chinese instrument makers may have adopted this standard because they like the idea of aligning the length of the guqin to the length of the year, but if that's the case it would be nice to see that in the text.
On the other hand, perhaps there is an ancient Chinese system of measurement that reckons the length of the instrument at 3 "something," 6.5 "something," and the author is just calling these units feet and inches for the sake of simplicity in an English-language encyclopedia. If this is the case, then I'd like to suggest that the original units of measure be restored, perhaps with a brief explanation as to what they mean.
As it is, I, as the reader, tend to suspect that the length of the instrument really has nothing to do with the days of the week, but rather that the length in feet/inches is a coincidence that was noticed at some point in the recent history of the instrument and added to the guqin's mythology because it was appealing. If this is the case, then it might not be suitable fare for an encyclopedia article.
Of course, it's also possible that I've missed something that is obvious to everyone else. It wouldn't be the first time. :-) — CKA3KA (Skazka) 16:50, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
It would be nice if this article had some mention of how to pronounce the word for those of us who don't know how to read pinyin. IPA, right at the top, is very common in articles whose subjects are foreign words. - lethe talk + 21:08, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
I think we'll have to sweep through all the articles and change all the "Guqin"s to "guqin"s. -- Charlie Huang 【正矗昊】 15:37, 4 May 2006 (UTC)
I've created this template: {{ Qin list}}
To stick at the end of guqin realated articles to link them all together. It's best to keep the articles that are strictly guqin related. -- Charlie Huang 【正矗昊】 09:21, 17 May 2006 (UTC)
Time for a review to see if we have kept the article good. I hope my contributions to it since the new year has done it good. -- Charlie Huang 【正矗昊】 15:11, 19 May 2006 (UTC)
Someone changed the title of Meihua Sannong's translation from "Three Variations on the Plum Blossom Theme" to "Three Variations on the Mei Blossom Theme". After checking it up, I am puzzled as to why. From what I understand, Meihua has always been translated to "plum blossom" and does not need to be diverted to its original Chinese name, as nobody understands what flower it is in that form. Is this changing to Mei from plum blossom too much technical for the simple name of a piece of music? I think it adds too much and it would be simpler calling it plum blossom instead. -- Charlie Huang 【正矗昊】 18:14, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
It turns out that Koreans formerly used the guqin (along with the se) in their Munmyo jeryeak, or Confucian ritual music. There are pictures of this, and it's the actual small, black-colored guqin, not a Korean instrument. Is there a place this could be added? Badagnani 21:28, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
I think this may be a Korean hanja spelling for the instrument: 笒. Badagnani 13:37, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
Well, the main thing, I guess, is that its use with the se in Korean Confucian ritual music should be mentioned. The only references I could find to the special character is for the daegeum (large transverse bamboo flute) -- http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%E7%AC%92+daegeum -- some of the Korean or Japanese uses of Chinese characters are very interesting; although they might have arisen through misunderstandings they're often more appropriate than the original ones. I'd use the hanja for piri ( 觱 篥) as an example. In fact, the Chinese characters for bili ( 篳 篥) and haidi ( 海 笛) (to spell words that probably weren't originally Chinese) are clever as well. Badagnani 20:19, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
The article is already like 100kb so maybe some things like this should move to their own articles? But the Korean Confucian ritual use probably merits just a sentence or two, maybe with a link attached. Badagnani 20:01, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
I just watched a DVD from The National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts of Munmyo jeryeak (Confucian ritual music, which uses the last two surviving a ak melodies from the importation of yayue from the Song Dynasty emperor Huizong in 1116) and they are using seul (se) and geum (guqin). The geum player's intonation doesn't seem that great but she does her best, and the seul player seems not really to be playing, but pretending to play. We should add something about this use of the geum in Munmyo jeryeak. Badagnani 10:01, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
What's the difference between "ancient stringed-instrument" and "ancient strung-instrument"? --—Preceding unsigned comment added by 200.45.181.9 ( talk • contribs)
OK, I've stuck the article on the nominations page of Wikipedia:Version 0.5. Hopefully, it will be included in it! We've all worked so hard and it is currently one of the best well researched articles on here, so it should be OK'ed without further editing on my part. *crosses fingers* -- Charlie Huang 【正矗昊】 17:34, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
I'll stick any broken links here, just in case the link repairs itself:
-- Charlie Huang 【正矗昊】 18:35, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
Should The Emperor and the Assassin be added to the films section? I can't remember if there's guqin in the film but there should be if Gao Jianli is a character. Badagnani 18:56, 8 September 2006 (UTC)