This piece was first published in China's earliest surviving collection of zither music, "The Magical Mysteries". In the book, it is written in the title: "High Mountains and Flowing Water" is only one section, but in the Tang Dynasty, it was divided into two songs, not divided into sections. In the Song Dynasty, it was divided into four sections of "High Mountains" and eight sections of "Flowing Water"."
Legend has it that the pre-Qin qin master Bo Ya played the qin in the deserted mountains, and the woodcutter Zhong Ziqi was able to comprehend it. This is a piece of music depicting "lofty aspirations in high mountains" and "oceanic aspirations in flowing water". Bo Ya was shocked and said, "Good, Zi Zhi's heart is the same as mine." After the death of Ziqi, Bo Ya lost his soulmate, dropped his zither and stopped playing for life.
Two, "Guangling San" (guqin)
Han Wei period phase and one of the Chu tune group song. Jikang was killed for opposing Sima's dictatorship, and before his execution, he played this song with ease. The earliest surviving sheet music is found in the "magical secret score" and another said: the original is the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty popular in the Guangling area of folk music. It was played by zither, zheng, sheng, and zhu, etc. The only surviving ancient qin music is recorded in the Miraculous Mystery Score. There is no record of the content in the early days, and most zither players now interpret it according to the folk legend of Nie Zheng stabbing the king of Han (which is different from the official history). According to the "Zither Exercises", Nie Zheng, a native of Korea during the Warring States period, was killed when his father missed the deadline for casting a sword for the King of Korea. In order to avenge his father's death, he went to Taishan Mountain to learn the qin diligently for ten years, and then he swallowed charcoal, changed his voice, and returned to Korea, playing the qin not far from the palace, and his excellent qin skills stopped people from stepping, and oxen and horses from hoofbeating. When the king of Han was informed of this, he summoned him to the palace to play the zither. Nie Zheng took advantage of his surprise and stabbed the king to death by pulling out a dagger from the belly of the zither. In order to avoid involving his mother, he disfigured himself and killed himself.
Subsequent generations have added segmented titles to the guqin piece "Guangling San", some of which are named after episodes corresponding to the story, and the emotions expressed in the piece are indeed quite similar to this tragic legend. The Secret Record of the Miraculous" contains "Guangling San", which is divided into (one paragraph), small preface (three paragraphs), big preface (five paragraphs), positive sound (eighteen paragraphs), chaotic sound (ten paragraphs), and after the preface (eight paragraphs) *** forty-five paragraphs. This song has long been extinct, after the liberation of a number of zither players to translate it out. The music is special, the second string and the first string of the same tone, so that the bass melody at the same time can be played on these two strings, to achieve a strong acoustic effect.
Three, "Pingsha falling geese" (Song qin)
The Ming dynasty called this song "geese falling Pingsha". The sheet music was first published in the collection of qin sheet music of the Ancient Tone. The melody of "Falling Geese in Pingsha" is melodious and fluent, depicting the eye-catching scene of geese circling in the sky through the sound of geese singing at different times. It is written in the Tianwenge Zither Score: "The tune is based on the high and refreshing autumn weather, calm winds and flat sands, cloudy journey, and the flying sound in the sky. Borrow the swan's far-reaching aspirations. Write the heart and mind of an escaped scholar." Though it appeared late, "Flat Sand and Falling Geese" is one of the most widely circulated works in the past three hundred years, and there are nearly one hundred kinds of zither sheet music published in this piece. The reason for its wide circulation is that, in addition to its smooth and melodious tune, it is also due to its novel and chic method of expression, which is easy for listeners to understand.
Four, "Three Plum Blossoms" (flute)
This piece is a tribute to the whiteness of the plum blossom, its fragrance, and its resistance to the cold, in order to praise those who are noble in their morals. The first half of the piece is a quiet, soothing overtone tune that expresses the noble and peaceful static of the plum blossom; the urgent second half depicts the unyielding dynamics of the plum blossom. The two sections are different in tone, tune and rhythm, with sharp contrasts. The overtone tune is repeated three times in different emblems in the same song, so it is called "Three Favors". The existing score of "Three Melodies of Plum Blossoms" was first published in the "Magical Secret Score" (1425 edition).
V. Ambush on Ten Sides (Pipa)
This is a large-scale pipa piece with historical themes. There is no certainty as to the date of composition of the piece. It can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty, and in the famous poem "Pipa Xing," written by Bai Juyi (772-846), it is known that the author, Bai Juyi, had listened to pipa music, which was used to express scenes of fierce battles.
The earliest surviving sheet music of this piece can be found in Pipa Xing, which was compiled by Hua Qiuping in 1818. The music depicts the battle of Gaixia in the Chu-Han War in 202 BC. The Han army defeated the Chu army by using the ambush formation, Xiang Yu killed himself on the Wujiang River, and Liu Bang won the victory. At the end of the Ming and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, in the "Tang Pipa Biography" of the Sizhoutang Collection, there is a record of the pipa player Tang Yingzeng's performance of the song "Chu and Han": "When the two armies dueled, the sound of heaven and earth shook, and the tiles of the house were like flying and falling. Xu and check, there is the sound of gold drums, swords and crossbows, horses and men sound ...... so that the hearers began to excite, followed by fear, sniveling from nowhere. Its touching so."
The Ten Ambushes has been widely circulated and is one of the representative works of traditional pipa music.
Sixth: "Sunset Xiao Drum" (pipa, xiao)
This is a lyrical and written piece of literature with a beautiful and smooth melody, and various pipa techniques are utilized in its performance. In the style, the whole piece is developed by means of expansion, contraction, localized increase and decrease, and transformation of the high and low registers. This piece is one of the representative works of the pipa. The score was first copied in 1875.
Before and after 1925, the Shanghai Daitong Music Society adapted this piece into a silk and bamboo piece called "Moonlit Night of Spring River Flowers", which is like a long scroll picture, uniting colorful scenes together, and through the combination of movement and stillness, distance and proximity, and emotion and scenery, the whole piece is full of layers, with a prominent climax, and the poetic and pictorial meanings expressed by the music are fascinating.
Seven, the fisherman and woodcutter question and answer (qin, xiao)
This song in the successive generations of sheet music, there are more than 30 kinds of versions, and some of them are also accompanied by lyrics. The existing score first appeared in the Ming Dynasty. The piece expresses the contempt for those who pursue fame and fortune through the amusement of fishermen and woodcutters enjoying themselves among the green mountains and waters. The music adopts the way of dialog between the fisherman and the woodcutter, with the ascending tune indicating the question and the descending tune indicating the answer. The melody is elegant and graceful, showing the fisherman and woodcutter's relaxed and carefree demeanor. As stated in "The Beginning of Zither Learning", "The meaning of the tune "The Question and Answer of the Woodcutter and the Fisherman" is long and deep, and the expression is free, while the loftiness of the mountain, the ocean of the water, the dingding of the axe, the yagura song of the carry on, are hidden under the fingers. Until the section of questions and answers, one has the thought of mountains and forests."
VIII. "Eighteen Beats of Hu Jia" (Guqin)
This piece is a musical composition based on the ancient poem of the same name, and the lyrics were first published in Zhu Xi's "Chu Words" in the Southern Song Dynasty. There are two kinds of music scores: "Big Hu Jia" and "Small Hu Jia".
"Hu Jia" was originally a wind instrument of the minority in the north of China. It was used in military music to strengthen the prestige. The theme reflected in "Eighteen Beats of Hu Jia" is the famous story of "Wen Ji Returning to Han": during the war at the end of Han Dynasty, Cai Yan (i.e. Cai Wen Ji) was in exile in Xiong Nu for twelve years. Although she was married to King Zuo Xian, she missed her hometown. When Cao Cao sent someone to take her back to the mainland, she could not leave her two children, and the joy of returning to her hometown was overwhelmed by the pain of parting with her flesh and blood, and her feelings were very contradictory. Li Xin, a poet, wrote a poem as follows: "The woman from Cai made the sound of Hu Jia, playing eight beats in ten. The Hu people shed tears to the side grass, and the Han envoy sighed to the returnee with broken heart." The poet Rong Yu, in "Listening to Du Shanren Playing Hu Jia", also captured the sharpest scene of this contradiction: "The moon in the south looks at the Han Dynasty with both eyes bright, but the heart of the Hu children is dead." This song successfully expresses this complicated mood, which is undoubtedly very touching.
9. "Autumn Moon in the Han Palace" (Erhu)
This piece has two more popular forms of performance, one is zheng; the other is erhu, which was passed down by Mr. Liu Tianhua. This piece is intended to express the ancient oppressed palace maidens' grievances and sadness, and to arouse people's sympathy for their unfortunate sufferings. The zheng performance utilizes many techniques such as chanting, sliding, pressing, etc., and the style is pure, simple and elegant, which is a representative zheng piece of Shandong; the erhu piece is slow, the bow is delicate and changeable, the melody often has short rests and staccato, and the music is intermittent, coupled with the use of various complex techniques, it expresses the palace maiden's sorrowful and sad emotions, and has a very deep artistic infectious force.
Ten, "Yangchunbaixue" (Song qin)
It is said that this is made by Shikuang of Jin or Liu Juanzi of Qi during the Spring and Autumn Period. The story of "Yangchunbaixue" is written in "Song Yu's Answer to the Question of the King of Chu", which says that when the singer sang "Lower Li Ba Ren", there were tens of thousands of people in the country. Later, he changed to sing "Yangchunbaixue", but only a few people sang along with him because of the high quality of the song. The surviving sheet music of Yangchunbaixue and Baixue are two instrumental pieces. The Miraculous Secret Score says in the explanation, "Yangchun takes the meaning of everything knowing spring and the breeze of harmony and lightness; Baixue takes the sound of awe-inspiring cleanliness and snowy bamboo linings."
Nowadays, the pipa piece "Yangchun Baixue", also known as "Yangchun Ancient Song", circulating on the music stage, is a multi-part musical piece with a title. It has been censored by celebrities through the ages, and the musical structure is more focused, more rigorous, more hierarchical, and the musical image is more distinctive, making it an excellent traditional piece of music that is appreciated by both the elegant and the popular ****.