Zhou Huacheng
The word Konghou has never been recognized by me.
Not long ago, I went to a construction site with my colleagues to deliver books. Those who left their hometowns to come to the city and work on construction sites are finally looking forward to the approach of the Spring Festival, so they can roll back to their hometowns to celebrate the New Year and reunite with their long-lost families. At this time of year, we have donated tens of thousands of books to the construction sites and to the workers. Through them, the books are then taken to the four corners of the world and reach the hands of young children.
This public service activity has been going on for three years and has been very well received. This winter, we added to the program by holding a small performance at a construction site. One of the programs was an instrumental solo.
It was a one-person high instrument, standing upright, like a silent harp, more like a big bow ready to fire. The strings on the instrument were lined up, too many to count. The person sitting in front of the zither and playing was a young woman. She held the harp in her arms and sat quietly for a while. The audience had almost never seen such a musical instrument before, and they all listened with rapt attention and breathlessness. The woman in the silence a little breath, and then gently raised his hands, stroking the strings, ting, when a sound, we heard in our ears as clear as the spring flow of the sound of the clear water. The sound seems to come from the clear water, and when the music moves, the water is shaken and ripples out. A string of music strokes out, and like a burst of rain fell on the surface of the lake, near and far, high and low, thick and thin, heavy and light are different, fine and complex. And then, we seem to hear the moonlit night of the bamboo forest leaves ringing, the cold and bright moonlight, such as broken shadow shaking scattered jade beads, tinkling scattered on the ground.
The woman, dancing with her hands, was fully engaged, her long hair trailing to the ground without realizing it. The audience, be they workers with calloused hands or students with unarmed hands, were mesmerized.
Later, I realized that it was Konghou. The two words are pronounced like "konghou". This is an ancient musical instrument with a history of more than 2,000 years, and is now close to being lost.
We were staggered to hear that this odd-looking instrument costs more than 40,000 yuan.
After the show, I chatted with the player, Ms. Wang, and learned her story. She was teaching in a mountain village elementary school more than a decade ago. Because she loved music, she quit her job and traveled around the country to study guzheng and guqin. Until she met konghou, she suddenly felt that her life had a new meaning, and she decided that it was something she could devote her life to.
How can outsiders imagine the hardships she endured while learning to play Konghou? She calmly mentions that she saw Konghou on a TV program and decided to go to Beijing to study with a master. However, the art of Konghou was on the verge of extinction, few people knew how to play it, and the master, who had returned from the United States, was reluctant to take on any more students. She went to see him again and again, and her sincerity finally moved him to accept her as his disciple. The art of konghou is not only skillful, but also of high and low quality. Year after year, other students have long given up, but she is still walking alone on this lonely road.
Konghou, in the ancient royal music, is one of the main indispensable musical instruments. During the Tang Dynasty, the art of playing the instrument reached its peak. The Tang Dynasty poet Li He wrote a poem, "Li Ping Konghou quotes", with these lines: "Wu silk Shu Tong Zhang Gaoqiu, empty mountain condensation cloud decadence does not flow. The Xiang'e cries bamboo and the vegetal maiden is sad, Li Diploma plays Konghou in China." The poem says, "The phoenix screams as the jade shatters in Kunshan, and the hibiscus weeps and dews as the orchid smiles. The twelve gates melt with cold light, and the twenty-three filaments move the purple emperor." These verses describe the effect of the sound of Konghou as if it were heavenly music.
But this ancient musical instrument was no longer popular after the 14th century, so it slowly disappeared. People can only see some pictures of konghou in murals and reliefs, such as the Dunhuang murals, where it can be seen.
So the revival of Konghou is also a very difficult process. It is said that there are now only 20 people in the country who can play a complete piece of Konghou. It is said to be able to produce Konghou musical instrument factory, but only two. One is in Shenyang and the other is in Suzhou. The factory in Suzhou can only produce up to 10 sets of popularized Konghou a year; the factory in Shenyang can only produce one set of Konghou in two years if the quality of Konghou is higher. Because the manufacturing process of Konghou is too demanding, the guzheng has 21 strings, but Konghou has 72 strings; Konghou is a piano with two strings, one of which is accurate, but the other one is not. The warehouse of the musical instrument factory has piled up too many such Konghou waste products.
What is more difficult than making and learning Konghou is the powerful loneliness of not being understood by society and not receiving general attention and support, which is destined to be an incredibly lonely thing. For more than a decade, Ms. Wang has had little income, living on the lowest material standards, and investing all of her money in her endless journey to learn the art. What's more, because of learning Konghou, she spends all her time on it and is still all alone.
I asked Ms. Wang why it was so hard for her to learn such a dying instrument.
Ms. Wang said it was just for the love of it.
"Dancing peacock dance Yang Liping, for the sake of art can not want children, do not want to marry, and even for the flexibility of the body to do surgery to remove two ribs. Art is her life, art is her faith." Ms. Wang told me that a person who can truly devote her whole life to her love is actually happy.
These words couldn't help but make me respect this skinny woman in front of me. She and Yang Liping have the same name, her name is Wang Liping, I do not know if this is a coincidence.