The guqin's three types of tones—open tones, harmonics, and stopped tones—were all exceedingly quiet. Open tones were loose, deep, and vast, evoking thoughts of ancient times; harmonics resembled heavenly music, carrying a cool, transcendent air; stopped tones were richly varied, with the lingering effects of finger techniques subtle and prolonged, at times like human speech, capable of conversation, and at times like the stirrings of the human heart, ethereal and ever-changing.
In short, the guqin's greatest characteristic was "stillness." First, its sound was quiet and distant; second, it required a quiet environment to be played, and the player's heart had to be still as well.
The ancients revered the saying, "The greatest square has no corners, the greatest vessel is never completed; the greatest sound is silent, the greatest form is shapeless." The guqin's tones were low, slow, distant, and faded into nothingness, allowing one to enter a realm of "music beyond sound" through playing and listening to it, experiencing the state of "silent sound" and "ultimate stillness."
Later generations rarely understood how to appreciate the guqin's charm. When ordinary people first encountered it, they would mistakenly believe that all guqin pieces sounded more or less the same, with little distinction between them. That was because the guqin's melodies and rhythms were comparatively complex and unusual, making them difficult for the mind to remember. People often had to learn to play the guqin themselves before gradually grasping the rhythmic patterns of guqin music. That was the meaning of "After playing a thousand songs, one understands music."
"Most Dazzling National Style" was precisely the opposite. The reason such catchy divine songs were so brainwashing was that their melodies were simple and their patterns obvious, making them easy to remember after a single listen. Their worldwide popularity in later generations was proof