Instrument as Device: Social Consumption of the Qin Zither in Late Ming China (1550-1644)

• Published in: Music in art Vol. 33; no. 1/2; pp. 136 - 148
• Main Author: Park, J.P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, N.Y Research Center for Music Iconography of the City University of New York Graduate School 01-04-2008; City University of New York, Research Center for Music Iconography
• Subjects: Analysis; Chinese culture; Chinese musical instruments; Cultural Attitudes; Ethnomusicology; Illustration; Instrument Characteristics; Instrument Design; Music; Musical aesthetics; Musical instruments; Musical performance; Musical periods; Poetry; Qins; Zither Instrument; Zithers
• ISSN: 1522-7464; 2169-9488

The qin zither was an object of aesthetics intended not only to be played and heard, but also to be looked at, thus to be visually consumed. Originally respected for the sound it makes, its physical presence and decorated surface would assume ultimate value as they provided the early modern Chinese public with a vehicle for publicizing artistic talent, knowledge, and taste. In this way, the zither came to be prized as an elegant ornament and a device by which its owner could negotiate social status and agency in society. Beneath the emphasis on its visual and decorative merits lies the dialectical rhetoric of the qim-as-instrument, which leads to nonsounding as its ultimate function. By establishing silence as an important component of its music, the qin challenged the general definition of musical performance and experience. The qin over time evolved into a cultural icon representing both freedom from the artifice of performed music and the subjective ethics of spontaneity. Its role was to create the illusion of an untrammeled personality and the reality of elegant lifestyle. It was ultimately to be employed by members of early modern Chinese society not only as a cultural amusement, but also as an accessory that proclaimed one's cultural superiority.