李振亞先生為主持人, 李先生風度翩翩, 中英文精湛, 為此次中華古琴學會籌辦的[古琴回家]活動, 聯繫台灣與紐約兩地, 費心不遺餘力. 他表示 今晚的雅集不對外公開, 主要就是歡迎紐約琴社的朋友. 並以琴待客, 以琴會友. 雅集一開始, 幾位袁先生的學生介紹了一下他們自己. "阿三" 先生是一位復健師, 他覺得古琴讓他很深入, 能久遠有趣. 蕭婉如女士提到她是如何備好勇氣與袁先生學琴. 蕭女士當晚很慷慨地讓大家撫彈她家傳的一張元琴, 是赤城朱致遠斲的琴, 徐元白先生曾在上海剖修過一次, 陳國興先生也修過一次. 這屋內有一盆插花是蕭女士的親手傑作.

賴芬蘭小姐提到彈琴很寂寞, 需要有伴才會進步的比較快. 她曾用了培幼的古琴網站自學了一點古琴指法以便與袁先生學琴時不會太生疏. 目前她仍著重在右手指法的精練. 還有一位小姐我不記得她的大名了, 她曾拉過二胡, 並在三年內與兩位老師習過古琴, 一年在家自修, 現與袁老師習琴.

袁先生語重心長地談了他如何為古琴在台北找到一個家的其中艱辛, 能得到中華民國政府文化局長提供二十萬的支持, 為古琴安家, 開始生根. 也回顧如何在紐約與幾位同好於十年前成立紐約琴社, 十年後的今天, 時空錯亂, 紐約台北, 客人主人...琴...都是一家人. 袁先生說這齊東街老屋有如太極圖中的陰陽兩點, 是極陽之處的極陰點也是極陰之處的極陽點, 雖位處鬧市, 然鬧中取靜, 一進屋內聽不到塵世喧囂. 是非常適合做為古琴的家. 然這許多艱辛, 唯"知我者 為我心憂 不知我者 為我何求." 袁先生還提到他的管理哲學為渾沌式管理, 即是每一個人都是精英, 都是自動自發地去管理.

以琴會友, 首先由主人振亞盤坐在地為大家撫彈了一曲平沙落雁來歡迎紐約的琴友. 振亞兄還說到袁先生剖心掏肺說的都是對朋友的真心話. 接著戴德彈了梅花三弄, 培幼彈了漁橋問答, 芬蘭也彈了梅花三弄, 妙蓮彈了古琴吟. 拉過二胡的那位小姐也彈了一曲.

因時間關係, 大伙必須要去已訂好的餐廳晚餐, 晚餐也是袁先生特地要讓大家品嚐道地的澎湖菜而訂的餐廳, 果真是美味極了. 紅色的仙人掌冰淇淋是我第一次吃到, 感覺很奇特.

In the early morning of Sep 30th 2011, I arrived in Taipei. Late afternoon, I went to Taipei Qin Dao Hall located at Qi Dong Street in downtown Taipei, with my elder sister Peiwen, to meet Mr. Yuan Jung-ping, Mr. Jerome Lee, Mrs. Chou Shuenjie from Paris; and two New York Qin Society members: Stephen Dydo and Marilyn Wang; and several students of Mr. Yuan. The Taipei Qin Dao Hall is in a place that has two traditional Japanese-style houses with garden. And they are surrounded by modern apartment buildings. This space is particularly quiet and refined. The front building is like a guqin museum where Mr. Yuan organized the [What is Qin] exhibition. The rear building is used as meeting space and for entertaining foreign guests. That night, we had a private guqin yaji in the main room of the rear building.

Jerome was the host; he has such nice personality and excellent English and Chinese abilities. He did his utmost to help Mr. Yuan to make this [Guqin Return Home] happen successfully. At the beginning of the yaji, several of Mr. Yuan's students introduced themselves. Mr. "Ah San" is a rehabilitation teacher. He feels that learning guqin makes his life deeper and the further he goes, the more interests he found. Mrs. Xiao Wan-ru talked about how she had to prepare enough courage to learn guqin from Mr. Yuan. Wan-ru owns a Yuan Dynasty guqin which she inherited from her family and she was very generous to let us to play the Yuan Qin which was made by Mr. Zhu Zhi-yuan from Chi-cheng China. This qin once opened by Mr. Xu Yuan-bai to repair and later Mr. Chen Guo-xing also repaired a damage due to earthquake. Wan-ru likes to make flower arrangement, there is one pot of elegant flower arrangement she made in the house.

Miss Lai Feng-lan said that playing guqin is pretty lonely, when you have a qin friend for company, you will improve faster. Feng-lan had used Peiyou's guqin website to study fingering before she was ready to learn qin from Mr. Yuan. Currently she is still focusing on making her right hand fingering technique better and better. There is another young lady who is learning guqin with Mr. Yuan but I forgot her name. She played Erhu and had learned guqin with two different teachers before for three years and had spent one year studying by herself.

Mr. Yuan earnestly talked about how difficult it was to find a home for the Guqin. And to have the honor to get the support from the ROC government, Culture Secretary, to provide two hundred thousand NT dollars, for the guqin home to start to take root. He also recalled how he established the New York Qin Society with several enthusiasts in New York ten years ago. Ten years later, time-warped, New York, Taipei, guest, host... the guqin... are all one family. Mr. Yuan said that this Qi Dong Street old house is like the Yin and Yang dots in the Taiji logo.  It is the extreme positive point in an extreme negative area as well as the extreme negative point in an extreme positive area. Although this house is located in noisy downtown Taipei, it is quiet once you entered the room; all the hustle and bustle are behind you far away. It is very suitable for being the home of guqin. However, all these many hardships, only "those who understand me, knows my worry and concern; those who do not understand me, will wonder why I do this.” Mr. Yuan also mentioned that his management philosophy is the Hun Dun Style management which is that everyone is elite, and they are self-motivated to do what they are able to.

Then it was time to play qin for friends, Jerome first sitting down on the floor with cross-legs and played Pingsha Luoyan (Wild Geese Flock to Sandy Shores) to welcome friends. Before he played, he mentioned that Mr. Yuen really talked with his true heart to true friends. Then Stephen Dydo played the 3 Variations on Plum Blossom, Peiyou then played Yu Qiao Wen Da (dialogue between fisherman and woodcutter). Feng-lan also played the three variations on Plum Blossom; Miaolian then played the Guqin Yin (Song of Guqin). The lady who I forgot her name also played a nice piece.

Due to the limited time, everyone had to head to a restaurant that Mr. Yuan booked specially for us to have an experience of authentic Penghu dishes. It was really delicious. It was my first time to have red cactus ice cream; very interesting.

古琴回家(第二天) Guqin Return Home (The 2nd Day)