Abing had a difficult life, born on August 17, 1893, next to the Taoist temple in Wuxi, he had a talent for music, and at the age of four, his mother died and he followed his father to earn a living.
Bing's father was a Taoist priest who specialized in Taoist music and played a variety of musical instruments, so he grew up learning erhu and pipa with his father. At the age of seventeen, Bing participated in music recitals and was called "Little Heavenly Master" by the world.
When he was 21 years old, his father died and he became a Taoist priest, and because of his carelessness in making friends, he ate, drank, whored, gambled and even took drugs, which led to blindness at the age of 34, and he had to go out on the street to sing and became a street performer, "Blind Bing".
In 1939, Bing married a widowed woman in the countryside, Dong Zhi Di, and "Reflecting the Moon in Two Springs" was written during this period.
On December 4, 1950, Bing died of lung disease and was buried in a Taoist priest's grave.
Expanded Information
Abing, formerly known as Hua Yanjun, was a folk musician who composed and performed more than 270 pieces of folk music during his lifetime***. Surviving are the three erhu pieces "Two Fountains Reflecting the Moon", "Listening to the Pines", "Cold Spring Wind Song", and the three pipa pieces "The Great Wave", "The Dragon Boat", and "Zhaojun's Exodus from the Frontiers".
"Reflecting the Moon in Two Springs" is a reflection of Bing's life and an heirloom of his emotional outpouring. The fact that this erhu piece is loved by the world and cited as a classic is the success of Ah Bing's creation and a reflection of his creative talent.
The life at the bottom made him experience the hardships of the world and the sorrows and humiliations of the old society. But the talented Ah Bing often expressed his love and hatred by playing the erhu, pipa and telling the news, exposing the darkness of the time through music. He reflected his feelings about his agonizing life through music, producing the famous erhu piece "Reflecting the Moon in Two Springs".
For many years, because of its rich folk flavor and profound ideological connotation, this piece of music has been so popular and widely circulated in the international music world that it has become a classic piece played by many famous orchestras.
The most influential and widely circulated is still the world-famous conductor Seiji Ozawa's evaluation of the piece: "I should kneel down and listen to it ......" It was in 1978, when Seiji Ozawa was invited to be the chief conductor of the Central Orchestra, during which he conducted He played Brahms' Symphony No. 2 and the string ensemble Two Fountains in the Moon (adapted), and at the time, Seiji Ozawa didn't say anything.
The next day, Seiji Ozawa came to the Central Conservatory of Music to listen to the original piece, "Two Fountains Reflecting the Moon," played by a 17-year-old girl with an erhu at the conservatory, and he was moved to tears, murmuring, "If I had listened to this performance, I would never have dared to conduct this piece yesterday because I didn't understand the music, and therefore, I am not qualified to conduct this piece! ...... This music should only be heard on one's knees."
Said the man, literally getting down on his knees. He added: "The phrase broken-hearted feeling is all too appropriate." On September 7 of the same year, Japan's Asahi Shimbun published a special article from Beijing, "Mr. Ozawa moved to tears". Since then, "Two Springs Reflecting the Moon" has traveled across the ocean and received high praise from the world of music.
Baidu Encyclopedia - Ah Bing
Baidu Encyclopedia - Two Springs Reflecting the Moon