The Overlooked Southern Song Guqin – Yuhubing

Among the treasures of the Beijing Palace Museum is a guqin named Jade Vessel Ice (Yuhubing). It was made in the Southern Song Dynasty (1127–1279 CE) and belongs to the classic Zhongni style, the most traditional guqin form associated with Confucius. The qin has a total length of 119.1 cm and a thickness of 4.8 cm. As a former Qing imperial collection piece, it has silently witnessed centuries of history while preserving the artistic ethos of its time, carrying the aesthetic taste and scholarly spirit of Southern Song literati.

The qin body features rectangular resonance openings, while the interior cavity is carved into an almost square shape, exemplifying the era's minimalist precision. 

Above the Longchi, one of the resonance openings on the back of the qin, the name Yuhubing is inscribed in small seal script, symbolizing purity. On the inner left and right sides of the Longchi, there is an inscription in regular script written in vermilion lacquer, each character about one inch square, which clearly tells us that this qin was made in the year 1132 AD, by a craftsman named Jin Dao. In addition, records of this qin can be found in literary works from the Yuan Dynasty, providing further evidence of its history and transmission.