Chapter 43 Cao Shancai/Pipa player who makes "all the music is silent and dare not perform"

Cao Shancai, a pipa player in the Tang Dynasty.He is a native of Cao Guo among the nine surnames of Zhaowu in the Western Regions. "Shancai" is not his real name. In the Tang Dynasty, musicians with superb skills were called "Shancai".Cao Shancai's pipa playing skills are very superb, so everyone called him "Cao Shancai", but no one knew his real name.Like the Cao Miaoda family in the Northern Qi Dynasty, their family is also a family of pipa players. His father Cao Bao was a pipa player in the first year of Emperor Dezong of Tang Dynasty (785-805), and his son Cao Gang was also a famous pipa player.

Cao Shancai's playing skills were very high, which became a standard for people to follow at that time.In "Pipa Song", Yuan Zhen praised Tieshan, the successor of Duan Shanben's master Li Guaner, saying that "Tieshan is close to Cao Mujian".Yuan Zhen said in his own notes that "Cao and Mu" are the surnames of "two virtuous talents".The pipa girl in Bai Juyi's "Pipa Xing" said that she was a student of Cao and Mu Ershancai. After the death of Cao Shancai, the poet Li Shen wrote a poem "Sorrowful Shancai" to mourn him. In the poem, he recalled that the emperor visited Penglai Pond at night. Wonderful song and dance.At this time, the sound of Cao Shancai's pipa sounded, so, "All the music is silent and no one dares to perform", everyone calmed down and listened to Cao Shancai's performance.I saw the golden dial flying in his right hand, twisting his left wrist and twisting it. I felt that "flowers turned and phoenixes came up to the sky, Pei Hui filled the palace with spring snow", "flying warblers and their mothers flew up the forest, and cranes, male and female, chirped at the bright moon". "Nine heavens are happy to go down to the clouds".

Cao Shancai is the musician in the teaching workshop, and he has taught many disciples, the most outstanding of which is probably his son Cao Gang.Cao Gang played the pipa with his right hand, and another pipa player at that time, Pei Xingnu, was very skillful in twiddling with his left hand. At that time, it was said that "Cao Gang has a right hand, and Xingnu has a left hand".The poet Liu Yuxi once wrote a poem "Cao Gang":