Jinyu Qin Society () is a

Guqin The ''guqin'' (; ) is a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument. It has been played since ancient times, and has traditionally been favoured by scholars and literati as an instrument of great subtlety and refinement, as highlighted b ...

society found in

Suzhou Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trade ...

in 1936. Its founders included

Zha Fuxi Zha Fuxi (; 1895–1976), also known as Zha Yiping () was a leading player and scholar of the guqin. Born in Jiangxi, he started learning guqin in his childhood. In 1936, he co-founded the Jinyu Qin Society () which later became one of the major ...

Zhang Ziqian Zhang Ziqian (, 1899–1991), a famous seven-string zither qin player, was born in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, China, during the late Qing Dynasty. He began studying the guqin with a guqin master Sun Shaotao at the age of thirteen. In the 19 ...

, Xu Yuanbai and other famous contemporary Guqin players. It also had a journal ''Jinyu'' which only published once.''Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture'', 2005, Abingdon, Oxon:

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...

, Index 1061

History

Zha Fuxi and other twenty-eight established this society on March 1, 1936,榮天圻（1968），《藝人與藝事》，台灣商務印書館， and held a ''yaji'' the same day. On December 27, they founded a branch in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

. Because there were more players in Shanghai, this branch started to become more important than its former headquarters. They published the journal ''Jinyu'' in October 1937, and sent all the copies to other players in the country without any charge. Due to the outbreak of the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...

, the journal was never published again. In the meantime, the society did a survey which suggested there were only 112 Guqin players in the whole country at the time, as most of these players were born to noble families. Because the Japanese Army occupied Shanghai, the founders fled to different places in order to escape the violence, after which they were hardly ever able to reorganise it again. It was totally closed down after the outbreak of the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...

, but was reestablished in 1980 when

became the first president.

References

{{reflist Guqin organizations Organizations established in 1936 Music organizations based in China