From the Collection of Seven String Qin
There are instruments that carry sound. There are instruments that carry history. And then there are instruments that carry both a sword and a song.
The guqin known as Er Long Xi Zhu — "Two Dragons Playing with a Pearl" — is one of the latter.
The Instrument
Dated to the Tang dynasty by its earliest publication record, and conservatively placed at late Ming or early Qing by later auction scholarship, this guqin was crafted in the Shenhui style: a gently tapering body, rounded shoulders, a domed surface. The waist bears four moons. The forehead (feng'e) is inlaid with an oval white jade carving — two dragons in low relief, chasing a flaming pearl between them.
The back is covered in wide shefu craquelure — the "snake-belly" lacquer fractures that form only over centuries, as wood breathes and lacquer slowly surrenders to time. To the eye of a collector, these cracks are not damage. They are a calendar.
Dimensions: 113.4 cm in length · 19.7 cm shoulder width · 12.5 cm tail width
The Man Who Signed It
On the edge of the dragon pool, four lines of inscription read:
"In the second year after the victory of the War of Resistance (1947), winter month, in Jingcheng — Shi Niu Cun Hu Yuqin, restored."
Hu Yuqin was not the restorer's real name.
Behind that alias stood Li Yaochen (李尧臣, 1876–1973) — one of the most formidable martial artists of modern China. Born in Hebei, he entered Beijing at fourteen to apprentice in an escort agency (biaoju), mastering the blade, the staff, and the internal arts. When the last escort agencies dissolved in 1921, Li founded his own martial arts school in the capital.
When Japan occupied Beijing in 1937, Li Yaochen went underground. He took the name Hu Yuqin — "the man from Shi Niu Village" — and continued his work in silence. It was under this name, in the winter of 1947 in Chengdu, that he took up this guqin and restored it.
A warrior's hands on an ancient instrument. The inscription he left is not merely a repair record. It is a signature across time.
The Hidden Voice
Beneath the restoration lacquer, visible only under ultraviolet light, earlier inscriptions remain — carved into the underside of the top board, now sealed beneath the layer Li Yaochen applied in 1947. They were not erased. They were protected.
This is how old instruments speak: in layers, in silence, in light that most eyes never see.
The Chain of Hands
After Li Yaochen, the guqin passed to Yu Bosun (俞伯荪, 1922–2013), who purchased it in Chengdu in 1983. Yu gifted it to Liu Qin (柳琴, also known by her Manchu name Aisin Gioro Qi Qin, born 1951) — a woman who had studied martial arts under Li Yaochen himself from the age of fifteen, and who later wrote his biography: The Last Escort Master: The Life of Martial Arts Grandmaster Li Yaochen (光明日报出版社, 2008). The guqin appears within its pages.
From Liu Qin, the instrument passed to her daughter, Liu Xiaoqiao.
And from Liu Xiaoqiao, it came to us.
Publication and Auction Record
The Er Long Xi Zhu is catalogued as No. 15 in Zhongguo Guqin Zhenshan (《中国古琴珍赏》), edited by Li Biqin, Huang Xusheng, and Huang Liyi, published by People's Music Press, Beijing, 1995 — one of the foundational reference works on historic guqin in Chinese collections. The publication records it as a Tang dynasty instrument.
In September 2024, the guqin appeared at Bonhams New York (sale CHI24091NY, Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 16–18 September), estimated at $80,000–$120,000 USD.
The Gathering — Yuyuan Silk Society, Spring 2026
On the nineteenth day of the first lunar month, 2026 — a warm early spring afternoon — the Er Long Xi Zhu was brought to the third gathering of the Yuyuan Silk Society (Yuyuan Sishe), held at the Qiushui Jianjia Studio.
Seven players performed that day, drawing from ancient notation books: the Zhen Chuan Zheng Zong Qin Pu, the Zi Yuan Tang Qin Pu, the Yi Yun Zhai Qin Pu, and others. The repertoire ranged from Han Gong Qiu Yue to Yu Ge, from Jiu Kuang to Yang Guan San Die.
After the music, the players gathered around the instrument itself — examining the wide snake-belly fractures on its back, tracing the contours of the jade inlay, reading the inscription by Li Yaochen's alias with quiet attention.
A qin that had witnessed the world of escort warriors and the storms of war sounded again that afternoon, under the fingers of people who simply loved it.
In the Collection
The Er Long Xi Zhu now rests in the collection of Seven String Qin.
We did not acquire it as an artifact. We acquired it as a living argument — that the guqin is not a museum object, not a relic behind glass, but an instrument with a continuous life: made by one pair of hands, restored by a warrior's hands, passed through a martial artist's daughter, and now held by those who believe its story is still being written.
The dragons are still chasing the pearl.
Condition note: The lacquer shows natural flaking consistent with age, exposing the wood beneath in areas. Scratches, stains, and minor nicks are present. The instrument is overall in stable condition.
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