Zhan Chengqiu is the fourth generation descendant of the Zhucheng Qin School and a master of modern Guqin music art. He loved guqin throughout his life and made immortal contributions to the guqin music career of the Zhucheng School in Shandong.
Zhan Chengqiu's Qin originated from the Lushan Sect. During the Xuantong period of the Qing Dynasty, he taught himself twelve pieces of music including "Return to the Word" while studying at home. In 1912, he studied eighteen pieces of music including "High Mountain", "Darcissus", "Xiaoxiang" and "Qiuhong" from Wang Xinkui, a qin player from Zhucheng School in Shandong Province. Wang Xinkui died in his hometown in the winter of 1921. Since then, he has had no teachers and has been engaged in guqin research and practice on his own for thirty years. He has high artistic accomplishment and profound artistic attainments through long-term performance practice.
Zhan Chengqiu’s playing style inherits Wang Xinkui’s tradition as a whole. It has the characteristics of generous phonology, sonorous force, gorgeousness and solemnity, rough and unrestrained, perseverance and simplicity, and a balance of hardness and softness. It has a typical Shandong style. His piano skills are recorded in Yuan Yeru's letter in "Jin Yu Qin Magazine": "Zhan Gong was the disciple of Xin Kui, the king of all cities. At that time, there was a saying that 'the blue is better than the blue'." This shows the superbness of his piano skills.
Zhan Chengqiu was a specially invited performer of the China Music Research Institute during his lifetime and was invited to perform and record in Beijing. In 1956, Zha Fuxi, vice chairman of the Chinese Musicians Association and president of the Beijing Piano Society, led a team to interview Zhan Chengqiu and recorded several piano pieces. When leaving, Zhan Chengqiu gave a Song Qin from his collection to the visiting team to show the preciousness of friendship. Seventeen of Zhan Chengqiu's piano pieces were recorded by the China Art Institute and included in the National Audiovisual Database for future generations. Among them, "Flowing Water", "Flowing Spring on the Stone", "A Good Night", "A Night Mooring on the Autumn River", and "Double Cranes Listening to the Spring" were compiled into the "Guqin Music Collection" in 1962 and published by the People's Music Publishing House.
Zhan Chengqiu not only plays the piano, but also likes to hide it. He has collected more than twenty lyres from the Tang, Song, Ming and Qing dynasties. The "Taikoi Yiyin" currently at the Central Conservatory of Music was once in his collection. This Qin was obtained before liberation and was made during the Zhenguan period of the early Tang Dynasty. It is a rare "yueqin". In order to avoid being blackmailed by a powerful man, he took the guqin to live in a village in Nanshan, Licheng County, thus saving the guqin. The guqin used in the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games was copied from it.
Song qin is the best among the qins collected by Zhan Chengqiu. For example, "Mingyu" was built by Zhu Zhiyuan of Chicheng and Zhang Rui of Gu Wu in the Southern Song Dynasty, and there are two "Lianzhu" and "Autumn Moon in Cold Pool". "Lingfeng Zhenxiang" was owned by Zhang Jingxiu, a famous qin player in the Ming Dynasty. In the fourth year of the Republic of China, Wang Xinkui's qin was called "Linglang". There is also a Qin engraved with the words "Beheaded in the Xia Dynasty of Jinan in the 40th year of the Republic of China, and kept by the King of Zhucheng" inscribed on the dragon's pond. The words "Shui Shan Fang, No. 50" are engraved on the edge. Zhan Chengqiu was a generous and open-minded person, and most of the guqins he collected were transferred or given to his qin friends and disciples. Zhan Chengqiu was also good at playing the harp, playing the zither, and playing divination. He loved poetry, calligraphy and painting, flowers, trees, and bamboos, especially pines and cranes.
In order to revitalize the Guqin School in Zhucheng, Shandong, Zhan Chengqiu, who was over seventy years old, and qin masters Zhang Yujin, Wang Fengxiang, Zhan Jingqiu and others actively planned to establish a Guqin Research Society. Under their initiative, some guqin performances, research and academic exchange activities were organized, such as participating in the East China District Chinese Music Concert, Shandong Provincial Culture Bureau, Shandong Provincial Museum of Culture and History, Shandong Military Region Political Department, Jinan City Lixia District Traditional Chinese music performances, etc. Due to their efforts, the Qin School in Zhucheng, Shandong Province experienced a relatively prosperous situation in the 1960s.
Zhan Chengqiu is quite famous in Shandong and has many scholars, such as Zhan Shujun, Zhan Yunqing, Tang Yunqian, Yuan Shujun, Yuan Shuheng, Yuan Yeru, Gao Songru, Xu Lianhe, Meng Xianfu, Fang Zhongyan, Mi Jutian, Xie Yichen, Zhu Ziyi (Yun Cheng), Zhang Ye, Liu Wenzhi, etc. His son Zhan Yunqing is not only good at playing the guqin, but is also good at playing and making the zither, and has researched on the making and appreciation of the guqin. Zhan Chengqiu's nephews Yuan Shuyun (alias Weiwei) and Yuan Shuheng (alias Weiyang) are two of the more prominent among his students. They studied the piano very hard since childhood. They not only learned the piano from Zhan Chengqiu, but also learned from Zhan Jingqiu. Their piano skills improved rapidly and were quite influential at the time. It is recorded in the list of qin players in "Jinyu Qin Magazine" published in 1937. In the 1956 interview list of pianists from the Institute of Ethnic Music of the Central Conservatory of Music, their names were also listed among the disciples of Professor Zhan Chengqiu. The famous guqin player Wang Shengxiang studied with Wang Xinkui and also studied with Zhan Chengqiu. Kong Decheng, the seventy-seventh generation grandson of Confucius, studied piano under Zhan Chengqiu when he was young. In addition, according to the Wang Jifu series of Zhucheng Guqin Inheritance List published by Shandong Literature and Art Publishing House, there are 26 people. In fact, there are more people than this number who have learned piano from him, especially his students in his later years are not included.
These students come from all walks of life, including many from the upper class and academia. Their purpose of learning piano is mostly out of their love for traditional culture and to improve their cultural literacy, without any secular utilitarian motives. What is particularly important to mention here is that Mr. Xi accepts disciples "who are all educated without distinction". No matter what kind of work you do, or whether you have any musical foundation, as long as you come under his disciples, everything you ask for will be answered, and almost everything will be given to you. A piano.
Due to various reasons, Professor Zhan Chengqiu’s students are all hobbyists and associate students in art schools, and there has never been an outstanding person with professional level among them. The next generation, the descendants of Zhan Yunqing and Yuan Weiyang, were unable to learn or play the piano due to the "Cultural Revolution" and confiscation of their homes, so the Zhucheng sect appeared in Jinan.
The pieces that Zhan Chengqiu is good at include "High Mountain", "Flowing Water", "Goose Falling on the Flat Sand", "Flowing Spring on the Stone", "Wind Into the Pine", "Wandering with Immortals" taught by Wang Xinkui, "Nagato's Resentment" and so on, these tunes are derived from "Yuhexuan Qinpu". In addition, "Xiaoxiang Water Cloud" and "Fisher Song" are derived from "Wuzhizhai Qin Pu", and "Shuixian Cao" is derived from "Qin Pu Zhenglu". The self-taught piano music includes "Longquan Yin" from "Dahuange Music Score", "Jingguan Yin" from "Songxianguan Music Score", "Night Mooring on the Qiujiang River", "Liangxiaoyin", and "Taikou Yiyin" "Returning Words", "Questions and Answers for Fishermen and Woodcutter" and "Ode to Peace" from "Yang Biao Zhengpu", "Crane Dances in the Sky" from "Cheng Yi Tang Qin Score", and "Autumn Anvil" are included in " Ziyuantang Qinpu" and "Yuhexuan Qinpu". Other tunes that are not often played include "Spring Dawn in the Cave Sky", "Introduction to Mythology", "Orchid", "Mid-Autumn Moon", "Xianpei Facing the Wind", "Autumn Thoughts in Dongting", "Three Pieces of Yangguan", "Deer Ming Poetry" ", "Woodcutter Song", "Scratching One's Head and Asking the Heaven", "Thinking of Xian Cao", "Autumn in the Han Palace", "Hong on the Fortress", "Drunken Fish Singing Late", etc.
He is the author of four volumes of "Meiyun Guan Qin Pu", three volumes of "Heping Zhengyin", one volume of "Collection of Qin Songs", two volumes of "Ser Pu", and wrote "Jizhong Psalms" . Shandong Zhucheng School has four important qin scores handed down to the world: "Tongyin Shanguan qin score", "Yuhexuan qin score", "Mei'an qin score" and "Qin score Zhenglu". Among them, "Qinpu Zhenglu" (Wang Lengquan's manuscript) also relied on Zhan Chengqiu's collection to be preserved and handed down.
On May 3, 1973, the famous guqin player Zhan Chengqiu passed away due to cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 83.