滚拂down-and-up sweep
Pinyin: gǔn fú
Right hand, compoundAlso written: 滚沸
Gun followed immediately by fu in one breath: the ring finger sweeps down, the index finger sweeps back up, like rolling waves.
How it is played
The ring finger sweeps from the high strings to the low; as it reaches the bottom the index finger immediately sweeps back from low to high, with no pause in between. The old handbooks teach the hand to trace a circle over the strings, turning one way for gun and the other for fu, rather than breaking zhai and mo into two separate pieces with a sharp corner between them.
How it sounds
A continuous stream of notes down and back up, like distant thunder; every note bright, yet not clamorous.
In the classical handbooks
滾沸也，兩法數絃之聲連續不斷也。一滾一沸，兩法連用……又必字字明亮，如雷聲隱隱，空淨勿喧。Gist: Gun-fu: the notes of two strokes across several strings, continuous and unbroken. One gun and one fu, the two used in succession … Every note must be bright, like muffled thunder, open and clean, not clamorous.
Where sources disagree
Two successive motions, or a single compound note
- One gun and one fu used in succession, the hand moving in a circle, back and forth without a break. Source: Qinxue Rumen (Introduction to Qin Studies), vol. 1(opens in a new window) · View the original page
- “Gun and fu together make one note”: the whole round trip is treated as a single note. Source: 《新传理性元雅》 (via the Guoqinwang technique database)(opens in a new window)
- It can also be reversed, fu first and then gun, with the same circular motion. Source: Qinxue Chujin (via the Guoqinwang technique database)(opens in a new window)
Easily confused with
- 滚gǔn· downward sweep (ring finger)Gun goes down only once; gun-fu sweeps back up as well.
References
- 国琴网指法库「滚拂——琴学入门」(opens in a new window)Qin community
- 国琴网指法库「滚拂——琴学初津」(opens in a new window)Qin community