Not following rules. No tradition.

My 4 year old kid exploring the rough texture of silk strings on the guqin with both hands. She has not learned any tunes yet. Pure explorations with her own invented techniques. I did not disturb her or stop to 'correct' her. There was nothing to 'correct.' The earliest humans probably did something similar. Hahaha. No rules or traditions to bind them so they invented their own styles and techniques. Hahaha. Like the bold spontanrous strokes executed in Chinese calligraphy, guqin playing to me sounds best when it's played with total spontaneity with flagrant disregard of what others around may think. It comes from the spirit of a human being who is free, alive; not bound to mechanically following pedantic rules like a machine. ^_^