(b Yangzhou, 1899; d Tianjin, 1991). Chinese qin zither master. Born in the historical site of the Guangling school, Zhang studied qin as a teenager with Sun Shaotao. By his early twenties he was already an accomplished performer, though remaining true to the amateur ideal of the qin. In the 1930s Zhang moved to Shanghai, acquainting himself with the qin players Zha Fuxi and Peng Zhiqing; their regular meetings led in 1936 to the founding of the Jin Yu qinshe (Qin Society of Contemporary Yu Region) in Suzhou. After the founding of the People’s Republic, Zhang was enlisted to the state-sponsored Shanghai Folk Music Troupe (Shanghai minzu yuetuan), and in 1957 he was appointed a teacher of qin at the Shanghai Conservatory. Zhang promoted the Guangling style through his performances, teaching and publications. His distinctive style of rhapsodic rhythm and flexible phrasing can be heard in his recordings of pieces such as Meihua sannong (‘Three Variations of Plum Blossom’), Pingsha luoyan (‘Geese Descending on the Sandbank’) and Longxiang cao (‘Soaring Dragon’).
See also Qin; China, §IV, 4(ii)(a).
and other resources
Ancient Qin Music: Guangling Qin Music, vol.1, Zhang Ziqian, Hugo HRP 7139-2 (1987)
Dai Xiaolian: ‘In Memory of a Great Guqin Player, Master Zhang Ziqian’, CHIME, no.3 (1991), 76–87
Gong Yi and Xu Guohua: ‘Weijun yi huishou, ru ting wanhe song: guqinjia Zhang Ziqian’ [A simple stroke of his hand was like hearing pines in myriad ravines: the qin player Zhang Ziqian], Zhongguo jinxiandai yinyuejia zhuan [Biographies of modern Chinese musicians], ed. Xiang Yansheng (Shenyang, 1994), 361–70
JOSEPH S.C. LAM