Chapter 46 Zhu Wenji/The upright luthier

Zhu Wenji, a famous qin master in the Song Dynasty.Song Taizong Taiping Xingguo Period (976-983) was known as "the best drum and piano in the world".Zhu Wenji was a court qin master and Emperor Taizong's qin decree, but he was indifferent to fame and wealth all his life, and his temperament was calm and peaceful. Song Taizong was a man of great success, and always wanted to cling to the ancient saints.It is said that the earliest guqin was made by Shun, with only five strings to match the popular pentatonic music at that time, and the five strings were also in harmony with the five elements of gold, wood, water, fire and earth.Later, King Wen of Zhou and King Wu of Zhou each added a string and turned it into a seven-string, which has been the custom of the Guqin.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, Song Taizong was very fond of guqin, and in the first year of Dao (995 A.D.), he made a nine-stringed qin.He proudly said to the ministers: "The qin used to have seven strings, but now I have increased it to nine strings. The names of the nine strings are called Jun, Chen, Wen, Wu, Li, Yue, Zheng, Ren, and Xin. The nine strings must be played harmoniously and not chaotically." Song Taizong's words immediately aroused a lot of praise, and those flatterers even shouted: "Change the strings, the emperor is wise!" However, the court luthier Zhu Wenji was upright. He reasoned and advised: "The reason why the two kings, Wen and Wu, changed the five strings to seven strings is because the pentatonic scale has developed into a seven-tone scale. The five-stringed qin is incomplete, and it is difficult to express more complex. This shortcoming has been overcome by changing to seven strings, and there is no need to add more strings.” Song Taizong was very upset, because Zhu Wenji was a first-class luthier in the court and was proficient in music theory, so he didn’t have an attack immediately.

In fact, as early as the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cai Yong, a great musician, had already made Jiuxianqin, but it was not adopted by everyone. One day, Emperor Taizong of Song Dynasty entertained his officials and ordered Zhu Wenji to play on a newly made nine-stringed qin after he was slightly drunk.Zhu Wenji had been prepared for a long time and played a song "Wind into the Pine", which is beautiful and beautiful.At the end of the song, those sycophants shouted again: "It's really a divine qin!" "The emperor is wise to make such a rare and rare qin!" Even the prime minister walked up to Taizong and shook his head to applaud him: "It's really a new qin and a new song, with a great charm. Infinity!" Zhu Wenji sneered and said to the prime minister; "My lord, this is an ancient qin piece "Wind into the Pine", and I only used seven strings when I played it." As soon as Zhu Wenji said this, Taizong and the group All ministers are embarrassed.

Another qin master named Zhao Yi took advantage of the opportunity to please the emperor and offered to play the nine-stringed zither.After he played a few tunes, Emperor Taizong was very happy, and immediately rewarded him with a lot of money, and sealed him a big official position. In the end, no one continued to use the nine-stringed qin made by Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty. So far, people still use the ancient lyre. Most of the qin players in the Northern Song Dynasty were monks, and most of their qin skills came from Zhu Wenji. Master Huiri got his true instruction from Yizhong, and after Yizhong passed on his qin skills to Zhibai and Yihai. They were all famous in the Northern Song Dynasty. harp monk.

In this qin monk system, the most famous is Yi Hai, who is a student of Master Hui Ri and a reincarnation of Zhu Wenji.He learned the piano from Master Hui Ri and mastered all the skills of the teacher.Afterwards, he went to Yuezhou (Shaoxing, Zhejiang) to practice piano in retreat at Fahua Mountain. "I didn't go down the mountain for ten years, and I didn't let go of the string day and night, so I studied it", and finally became a generation of masters. After Yihai became famous, many people learned piano from him, but no one could catch up with him.