Beautiful Chinese Guqin Music, Miraculous Mind-Body Healing -

Starting from the Chinese character

China is an ancient kingdom for Chinese characters. The Chinese character for medicine is believed to be derived from the character for music, "樂". Our ancestors often used singing, dancing, and percussion or strings accompanied by rhythms and melodies as the main tools for mental and physical recreation and healthcare healing Oral medicine was not yet developed in primitive times. Although plant medicines became the mainstay of medicine later, music has always been an important tool for healing the mind and body. The Chinese character for medicine"藥" represents the relationship between music and medicine. Guqin，a kind of Chinese music instrument which has a history of more than 3,000 years. Among the traditional Chinese stringed instruments, it was ranked the highest position and served across a wide range function as a musical instrument, a ceremonial instrument, and a magic instrument at the same time. In November 2003, Guqin was inscribed on the UNESCO list of "Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity". Guqin music has once again received attention. This shows that Guqin is not only an ancient traditional musical instrument, but also carries rich elements of Chinese culture, and thus can be recognized as one of the representatives of traditional Chinese culture.

Guqin music therapy and Chinese medicine

As one of the most ancient traditional musical instruments in China, Guqin and its music have not only a high value to cultures and arts, but also have the function of healing the mind and body. In recent years, "Guqin Music Therap5y" has been formed to adjust the emotions and improve the state of mind and body through listening to or playing Guqin music, in order to achieve health care and treatment purposes. This therapy is rich in Chinese traditional cultural characteristics and is also regarded as a part of the traditional Chinese medicine - "Chinese medicine" mind-body medical system. Chinese medicine, which attaches importance to the "unity of mind and body", emphasizes the principles of "regulating the spirit", "regulating the qi" and "shifting the essence into qi" in treatment or health care, which are also part of the traditional Chinese medical system of "Chinese medicine". "This is also the main healing principle of Guqin music therapy. The Guqin has a wide range of sounds, a deep tone, and a long aftertaste. Playing or listening to its music can improve the emotional and psychological state, which is beneficial to cultivating the body, adjusting the mind and body, and facilitating the healing of many kinds of mental and physical illnesses. As a kind of non-pharmacological therapy, Guqin music therapy has been more and more widely used in China in recent years.

An example in using Guqin for healing purposes recently

During the SARS epidemic in 2003, the China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing used Guqin music as an adjunctive therapy, which proved to be effective in relieving patients' anxiety and depression. In early 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, China, a team from the Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine applied Guqin music as one of the integrative therapies in a large-scale TCM medical treatment to combat COVID-19, which has received an effective result. Since 2011, we have been using Guqin music therapy to observe and analyses the changes in heart rate variability and brain waves of 120 primary insomnia patients before and after listening to Guqin music, confirming that "Guqin music therapy" can relax the mind and body of insomnia patients and improve insomnia, and suggesting that Guqin music can have a meditative and empathetic effect on human beings. In recent years, Zheng Xiaoyan applied Guqin music to guide acupoint pressure, searching out preventive and curative effects on cardiovascular disease by combining Guqin music therapy with acupoint stimulation. Through a musical listening experiment with music of different cultures, Weina Zhu and some others researchers found out that experimenters showed more selective attention on Guqin music compared with piano music. Ding Yan and some other researchers proved "Guqin music therapy" to be an effective adjunctive therapy in regulating sleep for patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD). Being Chinese medicine practitioners who have been practicing in Japan and Hong Kong over many years, we have learnt that playing Guqin music in tandem with acupuncture treatments can help patients to feel peaceful, so that helps to improve the efficacy of the treatment.

Characteristics of Guqin music and traditional Chinese medicine mind-body health care

The bass of Guqin music is simple but profound, with a long and persistent aftertaste; the treble is clear and bright, with great penetrating power. Guqin music is light and sparse, with a long and sparse rhythm, which can express the richest meaning with the least number of notes. This coincides with the character of "great music must be easy, great rites must be simple" advocated by Confucianism in Chinese traditional art, as well as the character of quietness, tranquility and "great sound, great image, invisible" advocated by Taoism. The Guqin's overtones and fingerings show the ethereality, the heaviness of the scattered tones, and the rhythm of the pressed tones, all of which reflect the idea of "unity of heaven and mankind", which is the harmony between man and nature embedded in classical Chinese musicology and Chinese medicine. The Guqin is rich in modulation, expressive and easy to impress. Its tone is especially suitable for playing elegant and simple music, and it also coincides with the traditional concept of health preservation pursued by Chinese medicine, which is calmness and emptiness, and the harmony of yin and yang. In particular, the connotation of "harmony" has been the core key to nourishing the Guqin for thousands of years and helping the mind and body to be healthy.

Music is a kind of vibration wave, and its fluctuations influence the human mind and body. Human life activities are also based on micro-vibration-based rhythms that exist at all levels of the organism. Research on music's effect on the brain suggests that in addition to stimulating areas of the brain that are responsive to sound, music can also affect emotionally related areas. The infrasound waves in Guqin music, which have a frequency of less than 20 Hz, have a long wavelength and are highly penetrating, and can resonate with brain waves. According to Chinese medicine, the principle of its influence on the human body is to adjust the circulation of qi in the body, referred to as "regulating qi". Because of the long strings, the Guqin produces a long, low after tone, which, together with its elegant and simple tone, easily attracts people into silence. The effect of "moving the heart" and "touching the heartstrings" is known as "empathy effect" in psychology. The rich expressiveness of Guqin music is the prerequisite for its psychological empathy and healing effect.

Guqin music is an intermediary that promotes harmony between the organism and the internal and external environments

The rhythms emitted by the Guqin are close to nature and can be said to originate from the simulation of wind and bird songs, etc., which are in tune with the likeness of natural scenery. Among the vast repertoire of Guqin compositions handed down to the present day, there are many famous compositions expressing natural scenery and imagery, such as White Snow, Flowing Water, Spring Dawn Chant, and Autumn Breeze Lyrics. Just as the language that expresses the voice of the heart is easily associated with the floating clouds in the sky, the forests in the deep gorges and valleys, and the waves of the gulf, so if you can put your mind and body into the musical mood when playing the zither or listening to a piece of music, it is easy to merge with the natural environment and thus obtain spiritual communication, and feel the aesthetic, physiological, as well as psychological effects of empathy and influence. In ancient time, Chinese people used to play or listen to Guqin as a method of communication and intimacy between man and nature, stress on the integration of their mind and the external environment, to achieve the spirit of the mind and the unity of mind and body. For this reason, they will choose to play Guqin in quiet and beautiful places by the forest, by the water, under the moon or in the mountains, etc., so that the clarity of the natural environment and the relaxation of the state of mind of the person playing or listening to the Guqin music, as well as the hidden meaning of the Guqin music are in harmony with each other. All these elements are closely related to the concept of mind-body medical treatment in Chinese medicine. The healing effect of Guqin music is also realized by promoting closeness to nature and returning to it to achieve harmony between the mind and body and the external environment.

Guqin music therapy for physical and mental health

Modern lifestyle is characterized by industrialization, urbanization, fast pace, and fierce competition, have led to an increasingly detached relationship with the natural environment. In recent years, the increase of mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression has attracted more and more attention from the society, The 21st century has been called "the age of mental illness" and "the age of the pursuit of the soul". 80% of modern people are in a state of sub-health, and a variety of diseases are closely related to mental and psychological factors. Music, including Guqin music, which describes natural landscapes, compares flowers and snow with the moon, and is used to express people's feelings of joy, anger, sadness, and happiness, as well as to cultivate one's body and mind, as an intermediary and link that connects and maintains the relationship between human beings and nature, and as a kind of "spiritual vitamin", its significance and role in the health of the mind, body and spirit of modern man is becoming increasingly important.

Conclusion

2500 years ago, the Confucian school of China, represented by Confucius, placed Guqin as one of the "six arts" necessary for the cultivation of virtue and talent. Ancient Chinese people used Guqin to achieve the goals of cultivating the body, pursuing harmony between the mind, body, spirit and the environment, as well as healing the mind and body. In recent years, the ancient and beautiful music of the Chinese Guqin and its healing applications have taken on a new charm and lustre.

DAI ZHAOYU – FENG M.Y. MIRANDA Hong Kong Baptist University – Hong Kong Guqin Health Cultivation Association