Global Times: Traditional Chinese music shares poetic tales, literati spirit

BEIJING, June 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The pursuit of beauty has been a timeless thread weaving throughout human history. China's distinct aesthetics are not only embodied in every aspect of Chinese life, but also increasingly bringing spiritual enjoyment to people of all cultural backgrounds in the form of artistic expression.

Vibrant neo-Chinese aesthetics are taking hold, blending China's rich heritage with contemporary creativity, offering a unique aesthetic experience, and enriching people's spiritual world. In this series about neo-Chinese aesthetics, the Global Times is presenting articles to decode the spiritual beauty reflected in various art forms. 

This fourth article in the series will show the distinctive charm of traditional Chinese music and the efforts a new generation of artists are making to carry on heritage through innovation. 

As Li Pengpeng's fingers dance across the ancient strings of the guqin, the first notes that ripple into the air carry with them an unmistakable essence: "The sound could only be from China."

In South China's Guangdong Province in 2023, Chinese and French leaders enjoyed a guqin performance as Li's rendition of "High Mountains and Flowing Water" flowed like calligraphy present-ed in sound. The performance resonated with the leaders not merely for its technical mastery, but also for the deep cultural memory awakened by the seven-string instrument. Li told the Global Times that the experience was full of "joy, elegance and beauty."

Li recalled that the guqin she played in 2023 is called Jiu Xiao Huan Pei (Jade Pendant of the High-est Heaven). Crafted in 756, it has been handed down for centuries. The back of the guqin is engraved with the calligraphy by Su Shi, one of the greatest Chinese literati in the Song Dynasty (960-1279).

"High Mountains and Flowing Water" is a piece commonly played on the guzheng and guqin. The title has its roots in an ancient story from the Spring and Autumn Period (770BC-476BC), revealing the friendship and artistic resonance between guqin player Yu Boya and the woodcutter Zhong Ziqi. The literary character of the pipa, or Chinese lute, is even more highlighted in poems such as Tang Dynasty (618-907) poet Bai Juyi's "Song of the Pipa," also known as "Pipa Xing."

"Traditional Chinese musical instruments do more than just sound beautiful. They are 'speakers' of the nation's cultural memories, be it allusions from ancient text or the whispered folktales of ethnic minorities," Shan Yi, a traditional Chinese music expert in Chengdu, told the Global Times. 

"No Western instrument could ever capture the cultural nuances of Chinese stories better than our traditional musical instruments," Shan noted. 

Represented by the guqin, guzheng and pipa, instruments play a huge role in traditional Chinese music alongside vocals. Yet, its four instrumental styles - the plucked string, bowed string, wind and percussion instruments - differentiate traditional Chinese music from others by expressing under-lined cultural narratives. 

Take the bowed string instrument erhu and wind instrument suona as examples. They relate to ethnic and regional folk traditions. The former's mournful tone echoes China's nomadic past, while the latter's jubilant blasts remind people of rural ritual scenes. 

Compared to the erhu and suona, Chinese plucked instruments such as the pipa, guzheng and guqin often carry deeper cultural significance, producing flowing melodies that blend with poetic tales and literati spirit.

While many ancient instruments have faded into history over time, the guzheng has been passed down for thousands of years in China and continues to be cherished by new generations of Chinese people.

Chen Yao, a guzheng professor at the Shenyang Conservatory of Music in Northeast China's ­Liaoning Province, told the Global Times that the instrument's long-standing vitality is a testament to how deeply its aesthetic and spirit resonate with the cultural and emotional sensibilities of the Chinese soul.

Having performed many pieces that embody classic Chinese aesthetics such as "Liangzhu," or "Butterfly Lovers," and "Dingfengbo," adapted from the poetry of Song Dynasty literary giant Su Shi, Chen said the instrument is particularly well-suited to conveying the refined sentiment captured by a famous line from Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu: "Such melody should exist only in Heaven; how rarely can it be heard on Earth."

On the one hand, its tone is light, pleasant, and elegant, with a moderate range and strong expres-sive power. On the other hand, the movable bridges of the guzheng allow for on-the-fly changes in tone, enabling melodic improvisation. Manipulating the strings can highlight unique harmonic tones, giving the guzheng a broad musical "language." As a result, it is naturally embraced and loved by a broad audience, Chen said. 

Vessel of Chinese philosophy

Living in Germany for nearly three decades, guqin virtuoso Li has carved a unique path in cross-cultural musical dialogue. 

Married to a German classical pianist, her deep immersion in German culture has shaped her phi-losophy of "neo-Chinese style," a concept that rejects imitation or catering in cultural exchange, in-stead advocating for spreading Chinese heritage authentically while embracing intercultural under-standing. 

"Neo-Chinese style isn't about superficial mimicry; it's about presenting our culture with confi-dence after truly understanding each other's perspective," Li said. 

In her performances, she integrates the structural clarity of the West's classical music, such as pre-cise phrasing and paragraph transitions, to help Western audiences follow the narrative of guqin pieces, while steadfastly avoiding Western harmonic systems.

"It's not about mimicking Western aesthetics or diluting Chinese essence to please foreign ears," she noted. 

This approach is evident in her collaborations with her husband. When merging the guqin with pi-ano, she ensures the guqin's timbre and melodic logic remain central. 

"The key is to help the audience recognize that Chinese culture is distinct, not to bend to their ex-pectations," she said, adding that "excellence in performance means clear articulation and emotional depth, which naturally piques their interest in our heritage." 

Speaking of the Taoyuan Qin Society she established in Germany, Li said that foreign students are drawn to the guqin's "ethereal timbre and meditative artistic conception."

Teaching both European and Chinese students, she insists on traditional methodologies without compromise. 

"The guqin is not just an instrument; it's a vessel of Chinese philosophy, intertwined with Chinese calligraphy, poetry, and the martial arts," she explained, emphasizing simplifying its techniques to cater to foreigners would strip it off the very charm that makes it irreplaceable. 

The guqin is composed of two wooden boards: The top is the front panel, which is curved, and the bottom is the rear panel, which is flat, symbolizing the ancient Chinese perception that "Heaven is round and Earth is square."

Preserving heritage

The artist also noted that traditional music doesn't just require skill but also innovation. 

While opposing the dilution of the guqin's characteristics, including removing sliding tones to suit pop tastes, she welcomes experiments like guqin-electronic music collaborations. 

"Change is inevitable," she said. 

"If a new form retains the guqin's soul and stands the test of time, it's valid. But we must never for-get that what makes the guqin 'guqin' is its unique and tonal philosophy." 

"My dream is that when people hear the guqin, they instantly recognize it as Chinese, just as Per-sian music is defined by its scales, or Indian music by its tabla," Li said. 

To achieve this, she stressed the need to elevate the guqin's musicality and artistry, avoiding both over-academization and vulgarization. 

"In Europe, misconceptions about Chinese music still exist, but there are also dedicated learners, like a German sinologist who spent years studying guqinscores without seeking fame." 

For young artists embracing new Chinese style, she offers a clarion call: "Understand your own culture deeply, engage with others, and stay innovative. Cultural confidence grows from loving and preserving our heritage, while honing the ability to share it with the world."

For guzheng performer Chen, neo-Chinese style music is a form of popularized traditional Chinese music, representing a social phenomenon that reflects how contemporary youth reinterpret tradi-tional Chinese culture.

Chen said the essence of inheritance lies in preserving the original form. While tradition may have some imperfections, it's the responsibility of later generations to refine it. However, refinement does not equate "alteration." 

"In my teaching, I strive to guide young learners to first faithfully emulate the authentic traditions of the major guzheng schools. Only after they've grasped the fundamentals do we move on to embel-lishment. By integrating modern technology like digital notation and promoting cross-school col-laborations, I encourage students to push boundaries and discover new auditory possibilities," the professor noted. 

Passing on the soul

While preserving traditional music heritage, a young generation of Chinese musicians are explor-ing new ways to bring traditional Chinese music to the global stage.

Born into a musical family, guzheng performer Liu Jialiang began studying the pipa from child-hood. One day, he decided to try importing traditional pipamelodies into digital music software, which astonishingly revealed how contemporary this ancient instrument could sound. This marked the beginning of his "Pipa Fusion" journey.

Through his fusion, the traditional instrument began blending Western musical genres like funk and electronic music. Liu also pioneered a "pipafreestyle" technique, interpreting this classic in-strument through jazz improvisation.

Since 2022, Liu has been releasing his neo-Chinese pipa music on popular lifestyle-sharing plat-forms such as Bilibili and Xiaohongshu. His works have gained popularity among young fans, while also helping him to bring the pipato global music fans. In 2023, he presented pipa pieces to renowned US pop star Lauv, who has more than 1 million followers on X. The performance left Lauv in awe and prompted him to seek further collaborations with the Chinese musician. 

"Neo-Chinese pipa aesthetics, which embrace diverse musical cultures, are seen as a cool and trending musical language among young people worldwide," Liu told the Global Times.

Chen said fusing music is common across many countries. She noted that for classical instruments like the pipa and guzheng, integrating other musical styles is simply an expansion of its expressive possibilities and that's natural. 

While various new forms of performances can certainly be embraced, Chen stressed the importance of faithfully carrying on the essence of traditional Chinese music - its spirit, style, and distinctive charm. 

Innovation can only be achieved by faithfully preserving and passing on the essence of traditional music. It is through ongoing elevation of one's aesthetic literacy that one can advance further on the path of aesthetics, she added.