Wumen Qin School started from Master Wu Zhao-Ji 吳兆基 (1908-1997). When he was in his 70's, he started to contact with other qin players from Beijing and Hong Kong. Before that he was mostly playing qin alone or with a few local friends. After contacting more qin players from different areas, people started to recognize and appreciate his playing style, and admit that it reflected the natural quality of Wu's local landscape and humanity. Wu 吳 is an abbreviated name of the area of the lower reach of the Yang-tze river which includes Nan-jing 南京, Zhen-jiang 鎮江, Hang-zho 杭州, Su-zho 蘇州, Wu-xi 無錫, and Shanghai 上海 cities. People from Hong Kong then gave the name of Wumen (the gate of Wu) Qin Yùn 吳門琴韻 to refer to his qin style. Yùn means melodious music, charms or taste.
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| Wu Zhao-ji |
In 1990, encouraged by friends, Master Wu Zhao-ji wrote an article to review his qin life, titled: "The Formation and Development of The Wúmén Qín Yùn Which Combines The Two Schools of Chuan and Shú" [融合川熟兩派之吳門琴韻的形成及發展]. Chuan is the area of Si-chuan 四川 province, Shú is the area of Jiang-su 江蘇 province. Master Wu Zhao-ji learned the guqin from his father Wu Lan-sun 吳蘭蓀 and his father's good friend Wu Jin-yang 吳浸陽. Before Wu Lan-sun settled in Su-zho city, Jiang-su province, he was living in western Hu-nan 湖南province, next to Si-chuan province. Master Wu Jin-yang was born in Si-chuan province and also moved to Jiang-su province when he was in his 20's, and was active within the cities of Su-zho, Hang-zho and Shanghai.
Si-chuan province has multiple plateaus and mountains with turbulent big rivers, which creates a rather vigorous, and intense style; while at the lower reach of the Yang-tze river with more fertile land, there was created a rather gentle and calmer style.
Master Wu Zhao-ji believed that individual guqin playing styles are influenced by the player's life experiences, self cultivation and where and when he or she had been living with certain cultures. When qin playing entered to a much advanced and deeper level, the less of the style can be obviously identified and appreciated by a majority of people, as the musical language and concept becomes wider. Such as the difference between a folk song (or popular music that has been shown on TV or in a movie), and the ancient majestic melodies of Sunny Spring 陽春 and White Snow 白雪, in that the later ones do not have repeating melodies that are easy to remember and are therefore harder to appreciate.
In addition to studying the guqin with his father and teacher, Master Wu Zhao-ji also enjoyed listening to western classical music. Together with 60 years of Taichi Qigong training and practicing, his personal guqin style was formed.
When playing qin, he preferred to use heavier, solid, sinking and stable energy (重, 實, 沉, 穩) and techniques to present windy, stormy and impassioned emotions. He would use lighter, less solid (or empty), floating and smooth energy (輕, 虛, 流, 滑) and techniques to present sunny pleasant weather, and tender emotions. He preferred to clearly identify different ways of vibrato in order to make the variation of rhythm. He avoided over using ornamental tones and vibratos. In general, he preferred calmer and sweeter tones instead of heavy and dramatic louder tones. In his later years, he enjoyed the realm of quietness, lightness, calmness and the state in between existing and non existing (寧靜淡泊, 恍恍惚惚, 虛無縹緲).
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The other day, Joe asked me about the difference between Wu school 吳派 and Wumen school 吳門. I briefly drew a chart as below.
The name of Wu was originally referring to the area where people speak the Wu dialect and it includes Jiang-su, Zhe-jiang, and An-hui provinces plus Shanghai city. In the Tang dynasty, the qin scholar Zhao Ye-li said that the sound of Wu is as light and gentle, as the long Yang-tze river flowing through the big land, stretching out and gradually disappear into the ocean, which has the character of an outstanding man of a country.
唐琴學大師趙耶利曾說過“吳聲清婉，若長江廣流，綿延徐逝，有國士之風。
Wu school (Wu pai) can refer to many qin schools that developed from time to time in the Wu area, so Wumen is one of them.
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| Map of China with Yang- Tze River |
Resource: Wu Zhao-ji Qin Xue Si Xiang, The Thoughts of Qin Study of Wu Zhao-ji. Edited by Wu Guang-tong. Published by Su-zho, Gu Wu Xuan Publishing House in September 2018.
