These are the famous instruments of the Zhejiang Provincial Museum. I am not going to explain them one by one. A qin is not a paragraph, and there is a limit to what any description can hand over. What follows is a name, a date, and the hands that once held it — the rest is in Hangzhou, behind glass, waiting.
Gu Ying — "Answering Valley"
Late Tang. Formerly kept by the collector known as Mengchan Jushi, later in the collection of Yang Zongji.
Qiu Hong — "Autumn Wild Goose"
Tang. Formerly in the collection of Yang Zongji.
Shu Ying — "Sparse Shadows"
Tang, though some specialists place it between the Southern Song and the early Ming. Acquired and named by Yang Zongji.
Yun Xue — "Snow Resonance"
Song. Formerly in the collection of Yan Cheng, founder of the Yushan school; acquired by Yang Zongji in 1921.
Da Cheng — "Great Completion"
Ming. Restored by Yi Bingshou; later in the collection of Yang Zongji.
Yu Hu — "Jade Pot"
Ming.
Fei Long — "Flying Dragon"
Ming, made by imperial order in 1638. Formerly in the collection of Yang Zongji.
Yanyu Xianzhou — "Immortal Boat at Yanyu"
Qing. Formerly in the collection of Yang Zongji.
Baxia Hongqiao — "Rainbow Bridge of the Ba Gorges"
Qing. Sister instrument to the one above; also formerly in the collection of Yang Zongji.
Bai Nian — "A Hundred Years"
1917, made under the supervision of Yang Zongji, and kept by him.
An unsigned qin in the zhongni form
Northern Song. Donated by Zhu Jiajin.
Hao Zhong — "Summoning Bell"
Southern Song, bearing the signature of Xie Fangde.
One museum, twelve instruments, and one collector's name that keeps returning. Yang Zongji (1865–1931) was one of the great qin scholars of the late Qing and early Republic, the author of the Qinxue Congshu, and a man who gathered famous old instruments the way others gather letters from friends. If you want to know them, you will have to stand in front of them yourself. Come to Hangzhou and look.
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