Chapter 7 The seventh pick-up

No matter where the queen mother goes, she always takes Yi's band with her; although this habit is indeed inconvenient, uneconomical, and even brings about various difficulties, Yi never asks about it!Fortunately, no matter what difficulties arise, there will be someone to take care of them, and Yi himself will never be alarmed.Among the various chores that Qingshan and I are responsible for, if we take notes, this is the one that is indispensable.I am also very interested in the Queen Mother's band. I always watch and listen with great attention on weekdays, and if I have the opportunity, I often go to get close to them. , have a very deep understanding, and can play any kind of musical instrument, at least to a certain extent, without making mistakes, and of course I dare not say how exquisite it is.

Among the instruments used in this band, some are indeed very old.And most of them have a very nice, if not very reliable, history.Anyone who can use this instrument can probably know it.Speaking of this, I have to praise the empress dowager for her profound knowledge. Ordinary people may mistake her for an old woman with very narrow knowledge, because it is very difficult for her to go outside; but the fact is just the opposite. What I know is no less than ordinary people.It's like what Yi told me about the sources and legends of those ancient musical instruments. Even in Yi's bedroom, or other parts of the inner court, Yi never let those musicians go away easily; Yi once took them to Rehe, and this time he took them to Fengtian.

As long as the Empress Dowager suddenly had an idea and suddenly wanted to listen to music, the musicians would immediately start playing.This is still temporary.Usually, there are several rigid performances.For example, the queen mother is in the palace, and she rides the Luanyu to move around, no matter how frequently, but every time Yi gets on the sedan chair, the band has to play beside her, and when Yi gives the order to drive, That Luan Yu started to move, and the music had to stop.As soon as the music stopped, these musicians had to pack up their instruments immediately - but they were not allowed to make loud noises - and hurriedly took another road to copy to the front, first at the empress dowager's request. Wait at the destination, and when Yi arrives, he blows and beats again, as a greeting.These people are often very fast because they are afraid of making mistakes, but the speed of the empress dowager's Luanyu on the road is always as slow as that of a turtle, so they never fail to catch up with the past time, and this situation looks very special It's like a funeral held by ordinary people!

There are twelve people in this band, and of course, they are also eunuchs.As usual, they each wore a weft hat, but their weft hats had an extra red tassel than those worn by the eunuchs carrying Luanyu, and each of them wore the same style of clothing.They all have a waistcoat, which is pink in color, but there is nothing embroidered on it.Their robes are purple, and they look really bright.Each of them has an assistant along the way, not because of unconscious grandiosity, but because they are so busy that without an assistant, they would not be able to take good care of themselves. To give an example: For example, if the queen mother suddenly wants to get off the train and take Luanyu, the people next to her have to kneel down together. Except for Emperor Guangxu who always kneels closest to the queen mother, the rest of the people will follow their positions. High and low, kneeling near or far.Of course, these musicians are no exception, but as long as they kowtow respectfully, they have to get up immediately and start playing their farewell songs.With such a simple action, they were already nervous enough!When they knelt down and kowtowed, it goes without saying that they had to put down their instruments, but when they stood up, they had to use them.

When they are not in use, their musical instruments are hung on a special wooden frame. The structure of this wooden frame is very simple, like a door frame, with two wooden bars on both sides, each about five feet high. It is connected with a crossbar, and another crossbar is nailed in the middle.There are several hooks nailed on each of the upper and lower crossbars, about three at the bottom and four at the bottom. Their musical instruments are hung on these hooks respectively; No, because there are a few items that are needed from time to time, in fact, they can only be carried in the hand, and cannot be hung on the hook.The position that the Chinese occupy for all kinds of things is always considered very economical: musical instruments can be hung side by side on many hooks when they are not used. This method is probably never seen in bands in other countries!

After they sent the queen mother to the Luanyu, or the train, or other means of transportation—in short, as long as the queen mother left the place where they were playing music and started to go elsewhere, they had to pack everything Musical instruments, rushed to the finish line first and waited, and then welcomed Iraq with the music that was played during the farewell just now.There is also a special term for such a funny pretentiousness, which is called "pick-up". I love playing with these instruments very much.What particularly interests me is their respective histories.Therefore, in this chapter of this book, I specifically explain them one by one, just like the "Eight Treasures" mentioned in the previous chapter.At the same time, I also have a very solid understanding that some of these ancient musical instruments are indeed the ancestors of the new musical instruments popular all over the world, just as humans evolved from apes.

Among these musical instruments are "chime", or copper gongs. "Chime" is also one of the "Eight Treasures". Its style has been mentioned in the previous chapter.The pattern embroidered on the real musical instrument is exactly the same as that on the yellow satin, so we don't need to repeat it.The purpose of this kind of instrument is to harmonize the rhythm, so that the music of the whole team will be slow and fast, without the disadvantage of sluggishness.Originally, the music played at that time was very strange; it seemed that there was no definite tempo, and people now may not feel any interest in listening to it.But the solemn and solemn syllables they utter are indeed very monotonous and unpleasant to your ears, but you must have a strange feeling in your heart.This is the characteristic of ancient Chinese music.

As for the sound of the gong, it is more pure, but it is also very soft and poetic, and it also has the effect of stimulating your nerves.Because when they beat the gong, they used their wrists very lightly to prevent it from making a harsh sound. It sounded like an autumn wind blowing through the forest with all the green leaves gone. There is also a musical instrument called Bangu (alias "intervention").It was a very curious round drum, about twelve inches in diameter, covered on the face with white pigskin, slightly raised in the middle, and hollow under the raised part, about three inches in diameter, It is also wrapped in pigskin.This square of pigskin covers the whole drum until it reaches the edge, and then it is nailed with numerous small nails. The heads of these iron nails are very big, similar to today's screws, and they were called "round-head nails" at that time. .On this drum there is another drum dress that looks like a woman's skirt; this drum dress is very rich, its essence is yellow satin, and many patterns are embroidered with various bright silk threads on it. All are exquisite.Each pattern represents a musical instrument, so on this drum jacket, almost all kinds of musical instruments that have been used in Chinese musical instruments have been completely embroidered.It's really funny!

In an ordinary Chinese orchestra, the player who plays the drum will tie the two sides of the drum with a belt and put it around his head and neck, so that the drum hangs flat on his abdomen, beating all the way.But the drummer in the Empress Dowager's band didn't have to work so hard. He hung the pan drum on the back of his assistant, and he himself stood behind, using two not very thick drum hammers to beat it one by one. with.The sound of this kind of pangu is even more monotonous than that of gongs.If we tap a bamboo chopstick on the table, it will make the same sound.And woodpeckers make similar noises when they work in the woods.Although the sound of pangu is so monotonous and unpleasant, it occupies a very important position in the whole orchestra; it is used to adjust the rhythm like chimes or gongs.

I think the "nine-tone gong" is the most interesting among these musical instruments!The sounds it makes are all scales actually used in Chinese music scores.Its structure is not complicated, it is just a wooden frame.The shape of this wooden shelf is roughly the same as that of the large shelf for various musical instruments I mentioned earlier--the big shelf is about five feet high and eight feet wide, and the two wooden legs at the bottom are very heavy. , and it is spread out very wide, so no matter how many musical instruments are hung on it, it will not be top-heavy, and it will not be blown down even when there is wind. ——But this nine-tone gong stand is only eighteen inches high and three inches wide.It has a total of three rungs, which are nailed in sequence and at exactly equal distances.On each rung, there are three small copper gongs hanging on each side; and there is another hook behind the top yellow rung, which is used to hang on the big shelf.The name of the nine-tone gong comes from the fact that the sounds of its nine-faced small gong are different; and the reason why I especially praise it is because its phonology is very sweet and special. beautiful.When playing, it is tapped lightly with a very thin wooden stick. On the head of this wooden stick, there is a hardwood ball, which is as big as an abacus, but because of its extremely hard wood, it is very hard to play. The sound that came out was exceptionally clear.

The nine different sounds produced by the nine-tone gong are the nine scales actually used in ancient Chinese music scores, just like the 1234567 used today.They are workers.Four.superior.ruler.Fives.one.six.Ten thousand.combine.nine words.How did these nine characters come to be selected into the score?What is the meaning behind them?That is not my answer; except for me, most people may not be able to answer it; the reason has been around for a long time, everyone just learns to sing the old tune, and no one has the patience to go to the bottom of it. Followed by Sheng.Sheng is one of the oldest and strangest Chinese musical instruments.Its shape is like a bergamot, and there are twenty-four thin bamboo tubes. The length of each tube is different, but there are small holes on each side.A person blows on something like a handle below, and at the same time presses and releases these small holes with his fingers, and then there are different sounds like a nine-tone gong, and these sounds are also similar to those above. The said nine scales are consistent.However, because the bamboo pipes used are too thin, the sound cannot be very high, and the person who blows it is very laborious.Chinese people have a special understanding of sheng. Everyone regards sheng as a kind of thing that promotes lung disease. Some people even say that bloody water can often be found inside a sheng that has been used for a long time; although I have never witnessed this Yes, but there was indeed an eunuch in the palace who suffered from a severe cough because he played the sheng too hard. The following are pipa, guqin, trumpet, gong, flute, flute, cymbal, etc. (Translator’s note. Ordinary people probably know these musical instruments. The author’s original text is specially for Westerners, so he explained it in detail. Here, we don’t need to translate it directly, so we will omit it.) The musicians of the Empress Dowager are all accompanied by assistants. As mentioned above, the musical knowledge of these assistants is not inferior to that of their forehands; Replacement, and the replacement is very fast, often do not know what instrument to use according to their assistants, let these assistants identify by themselves, and hand them the ones that should be used. Of course, this is not something that laymen can do.What's more, while passing on certain musical instruments, they have to hang the unused musical instruments on the big shelf, and the procedures are even more troublesome! On the whole, the music played by the Empress Dowager's band is really mysterious.When these musicians are playing, everyone is stern, expressionless, like a wooden man equipped with machinery. I think no matter how they play, they will never feel it. But in the eyes of the empress dowager, apart from them, there is no such great musician in the world anymore. In terms of appearance, this group of bands can be regarded as very beautiful!Not only are the musicians' uniforms so brightly colored, but even on the musical instruments, including the big frame, there are several shiny yellow beards tied on them, fluttering so that it is not eye-catching. Regardless of whether the band's skills are good or bad, in short, their work is indeed very hard, because as long as the queen mother is happy, she will teach them to play immediately anytime and anywhere.On the way from Beijing to Fengtian, every time the train stopped, they would climb out neatly, stand outside the window of the Queen Mother's car, and play for a while as usual.I remember several times in the queen mother's bedroom, and several times in the theater in the garden. The queen mother closed her eyes and leaned comfortably on the dragon chair, while the band kept playing beside her. It often lasts for several hours; Yi's expression is really as if he is asleep... But if the band stops the music without Yi's order, Yi will immediately wake up and ask them to sleep. be lazy.These musicians were of course terrified, because as soon as Yi tapped his head a little, their heads would immediately fall off!