Guqin, a seven-stringed zither, enjoyed a long history of more than 3,000 years. The art of guqin is a signature traditional Chinese culture. Guqin art of Zhe School was formed based on the unique geographical environment, climate, language and customs in Zhejiang province.

The guqin art of Zhe School features mellow sound and simple and elegant artistic style. The school has numerous classics such as Fishermen’s Song and Axman’s Song and a dozen guqin tablatures which also contain a few theories.

The development of Zhe School can be divided into ancient and modern periods. Formed in the Song Dynasty (960-1279), the school was believed to be founded by Guo Chuwang (1190-1260) and passed down to his student Liu Zhifang who then taught the art to Mao Zhongmin and Xu Tianmin. The most famous guqin master of modern times is Xu Yuanbai (1893-1957) who lived in Hangzhou and composed several pieces of music.

The guqin art of Zhe School was included in the “catalogue of national representative of intangible heritage culture items” in 2008 and as a sub item of “China Guqin Art”, in the Masterpieces of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2009.