Chapter 38 Dong Tinglan/No one in the world knows you

Dong Tinglan (approximately 695-765), a famous luthier in the Tang Dynasty.Longxi people. Gao Shi, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote a famous poem "Farewell to Dong Da": This "Dong Da" who was called "No one in the world knows the king" by Gao Shi is Dong Tinglan. Dong Tinglan was poor all his life. Gao Shi once said about him in his poem: "My husband should be poor and humble. We meet today and have no money for wine." Before the age of 10, almost all of them were spent in the mountain village of Longxi, his hometown.In the last years of Tianbao, at the request of Prime Minister Fang Guan, he worked as a Qing guest under his disciples, for which he was criticized by the world.

Dong Tinglan joined the army in Fengzhou (in today's Shaanxi) in his early years and learned the popular "Shen Jiasheng" and "Zhu Jiasheng" from Chen Huaigu. Later, his reputation has surpassed that of Shen and Zhu. Dong Tinglan enjoyed a high reputation in the Tang Dynasty. Many poets at that time had contacts with him and described his piano skills in their poems. The most famous one is Li Qi's "Listen to Dong Da Playing Hu Jia". Cai Wenji's "Hujia Eighteen Beats" was widely circulated in the Tang Dynasty, and has been compiled into Qin music. Dong Tinglan's teacher Chen Huaigu is famous for "Hujia".Dong Tinglan sorted it out again, and the two qin pieces "Big Hujia" and "Little Hujia" are said to be his works.Decades later, after listening to Jiang Xuan's "Hu Jia", the poet Yuan Zhen also said in the poem "Xiao Hu Jia Yin" that "Ai Jia slowly refers to Dong Jiaben".

Dong Tinglan's playing skills are very high. Xue Yijian, another pianist in the Tang Dynasty, said that he "plays the rhyme of strings and can feel ghosts and gods".In Li Qi's poem, there is a more detailed description of his performance of "Hu Jia": "Magical Secret Spectrum" also contains his song "Yi Zhen", which is said to be a reflection of his Taoist life of "few desires to cultivate the heart, and rest to cultivate the truth" while living in seclusion in the mountains.