In the past few years, traditional culture has made a comeback, and Chinese studies has been opened as a business to various remedial classes. In Beijing, Kunqu, Guqin, tea ceremony and yoga are popular in the market, and there are all kinds of old-fashioned framed clubs, masters of all kinds of names have emerged, and various wives’ schools have been opened in the streets.
I think there should always be real old-school people in the capital, who have been learning qin and painting since childhood not for extra credit in examinations, and reading ancient literature not to cope with exams, but just to feel that life should be like this.
At this time, I was fortunate to meet Mr. Zhang Weidong, a true living ancient man – no cell phone, writing preferred to brush and traditional Chinese, will wear his grandfather’s 90-year-old robe and vest in lectures, the treasure blue tunic conceals prints, and still have a pair of 120-year-old dynasty boots and flowerpot-soled female flag shoes stored at home.
Me and Mr. Zhang Weidong (Photo by the author) Me and Mr. Zhang Weidong (Photo by the author)
We generally address him respectfully as just Mr., and some call him Master Weidong. He has taught Kunqu and the Four Books and Five Classics on a voluntary basis for many years, and is physically committed to all the beauty of the Confucian ideal of government. He is not a restorer, a good antiquarian, or a researcher of old studies, but an ancient himself – the tide of history ebbed too quickly a century ago, leaving him, a giant clam full of classical pearls, on the beach of modern times.
1
One day in 2010, I inadvertently went with a tea friend to the second floor of the Gu Yi Tea House near the Houhai Gong Wang Mansion to listen to a teacher’s Kunqu class.
On the second floor, the room was used as a zither room, the walls were covered with guqin hand-drilled by famous artists, and a long table was put together in the middle to form a few cases, along which the students formed a circle, all of whom were senior opera singers. At the back, there was a circle of beginners who did not sit against the cases, but only in chairs. I quietly went to the end and sat down against the wall, listening to Mr. Zhang press down the flute, serious in teaching with wit.
But I saw that Mr. Zhang looked ancient, with some shedding of the top of his head, and the back of his head was left a little long, like the “Ma Zigai” who had just cut his braid in the late Qing Dynasty, and if the fan blew on his head, it would be another hairstyle called “hat cherry”. If someone also wears Chinese clothing, he will give you a hand to compare the length of the button loop and say, “The old style should be two inches five, you have three inches, it is long.
When Mr. Zhang opened his mouth, he spoke the same Beijing dialect that my grandmother’s generation spoke in the late Qing Dynasty and Republic of China. I grew up in this context until my grandmother’s funeral when I was 17 years old, and the northern half of the hutong was demolished, so I have been saying goodbye to the Beijing accent ever since. With Mr. Zhang’s presence, I was able to recover sounds, vocabulary and even grammar that I had not heard for more than ten years, and sometimes I picked up a lot of old mother’s orders (the words that mothers use to teach their children to be sensible and know the rules).
He would say “this is more than up ……”, “more than” is to compare, in Lao She’s novels are used so, the same there is “Dao Di The same word “Dao Di” means authentic. In the modern Beijing city, listening to people speak 100 years ago, a sense of travel immediately rises.
At the end of this meeting, I went up to greet Mr. Zhang.
Mr. Zhang said, “This kid speaks Beijing dialect, he lives in the city, right?”
I said, “I live in Beixinqiao, I also live in Hutong.”
Naturally, I became acquainted with Mr. Zhang. In Beijing, there used to be several houses in one hutong, and they were all relatives in a circle. Mr. Zhang is a flag people, grandfather and father are good at Confucianism and medicine. I have an in-laws grandmother is a descendant of the Squire Gao family, the husband’s family name is Aixinjueluo, Squire Gao’s cousin married Yan Jupeng, Yan Jupeng’s mother Chong’s, is Mr. Zhang’s great grandmother’s aunt.
Just such a far relationship, Mr. Zhang more close to me, people asked: “This is your disciple?” Mr. Zhang said, “No, this is a relative of my family.”
2
Mr. Zhang was good at all the old studies in opera, folklore, and old Beijing culture. When I met such a famous master, I naturally wanted to find an opportunity to ask him about his art, and I also wanted to reveal a little bit of my exposure to the art of opera, so that he would not treat me as an amateur.
This little thought naturally could not be hidden from Mr. Zhang, he did not say much, mostly just a sentence or two of introduction, in-depth, leaving me a blank: “Hua Faces are the first to have Lang Deshan’s singing style, high and pointed, straight. In the early years, Liu Hong-sheng also sang like that.” Or, “You didn’t read my article about something or other.”
His most common words are: “In the past, even if the artist learned from the master wrong, are afraid to change, think they do not have the knowledge to change. Now that Confucianism is in decline, people are no longer able to create miscellaneous drama legends written by the scholars. It is better to put the old ones in order and hold on to what is left.”
Every time he spoke, Mr. Zhang was kind and smiling. And each time he shot a song, he was teaching the students around him. Until one day he led the group in singing a small-voiced danzhi, came up to me, put his ear to it and listened.
“You sing, ee–” he said quietly in a falsetto voice.
I sang, he waved his hand, turned around and walked away.
Seeing what Mr. Zhang meant, I was not kunqu singing material. I wasn’t dismayed, after all, I was a halfway decent performer, compared to Mr. Zhang, who had been winning performance awards in the opera world from the 1990s to 2006.
Mr. Zhang was nurtured by his family and learned the lines of Laosheng, Laowai, as well as Zhengdan and Xiaosheng from Wu Hongmai and Zhou Quanan at the Beijing Kunqu Study Society and Fan Boyan at the Shanghai Kunqu Study Society since he was a child, and was accepted as a disciple by the great literary scholar Zhu Jiayi and performed on the same stage. After graduating from the Opera Academy, he entered the Northern Kunqu Theatre and became a popular actor at the age of 18 or 19. As a young man, he co-starred with Cai Yaolan, a kunqu artist who had performed for Chairman Mao, in The Story of Pipa, in which he played Cai Gong and the elderly Cai Yaolan played his daughter-in-law.
Mr. Zhu Jiadong and Mr. Zhang Weidong at the Beijing Kunqu Study Society (Photo by the author)
In earlier years, he took a bath with Wang Siyuan and Ye Shengtao at the Songzhuyuan bathhouse on the seventh entrance of Dongsi, and learned Chu Shu while taking a bath; he practiced opera with Zhang Yun and Zhang Chonghe of the Four Sisters of Hefei, and called the historian Xie Xingyao his aunt in terms of kinship.
He has a very good voice, and can sing many extinct operas and songs, even the almost lost Jinggao cadence; his work is also good.
He was a consultant for the new version of “Dream of the Red Chamber” and took the opportunity of filming the TV series to record many rare stage opera clips, including his Jinggao cadence “Feng Shen Tian Ping – Jiang Zi Ya Beheading the Gods”, “Tian Guan Ci Fu”, “One or Two Lacquers”, “Shuang Guan Jue”, “Pipa Ji”, “Nan Ke Meng” and “Inviting the Monkey” from “Flower and Fruit Mountain”. The “three war drums” in “Inviting the Monkey” was sung in a high and intense manner.
Mr. Zhang Weidong as Jiang Ziya (Photo by the author)
However, more than ten years ago, he stopped singing in order to uphold his kunqu ideals, after bombarding the “popular kunqu” in the press.
Around 2006, he published a series of stark comments in the press, such as “The Building of Authentic Kunqu is Falling” and “The Prosperity of Kunqu Depends on the Revival of Confucianism,” saying that the new kunqu was too much of a devil, and that after it became a non-heritage item, researchers who were not insiders had taken over the stage. After kunqu became a non-heritage, researchers who are not experts in the field have taken over the stage. The new plays and new methods of performance everywhere are made up in a haphazard manner, and cannot meet his standard of “inheriting the original essence of kunqu art in order to restore more old legends that have survived in the literature.
Everyone felt sorry for him, for he had too many good plays that had been taught by famous artists. For example, in the famous play “Night Run”, he deliberately recorded the key to the performance, but never showed it on stage. Although the troupe’s monthly salary is not high, by virtue of the national level actor’s fame status, walking around, you can make a lot of money. He still writes for obscure newspapers and lectures at obscure schools.
Over the years, he has run the Xishan Cai Apple Music Club, the Neishang Continuing Singing Children’s Octagonal Drum Box Office and the Yi Yong Book Club, where the table surrounds are all rare Beijing embroideries. When students gave him gifts, he would happily accept them and soon turn around and share them with everyone. Qu society token to save some dues to maintain activities, but there are several can not pay: students do not pay; no work income does not pay; living conditions are not good, sickness and disaster does not pay; really inconvenient, also may not pay.
He said: “Being a teacher is to tear yourself apart and feed it to the students. When my voice hiccups, you will also learn.”
Although Mr. Zhang teaches kunqu, he is not yet more focused on the song during the week. He always asked us to learn recitation and scripture, saying that kunqu was only entertainment, and that “only when scripture and history failed did we learn ancient literature, only when ancient literature failed did we learn poetry, only when poetry failed did we learn songs, only when opera failed did we write novels.”
Once, when discussing with us the love affairs in The Peony Pavilion and The Jade Hairpin, he said to his students, “Reading ancient books is eating a proper meal, while this (Kunqu) is a sweet food. If you don’t read the ancient texts thoroughly, you don’t deserve to come and sing kunqu.”
He even clutched the flute with one hand and said, “Read the ancient books well, don’t learn this nasty stuff.”
Mr. Zhang, however, is extremely subtle in his performances of such plays. For example, he tells the detail of Pan Bizheng’s teasing of Chen Miaochang in “The Qin Pick”.
“(Sheng) I really don’t have a wife.
“(Dan) It’s none of my business.
……
“(Dan) Mr. Pan, walk carefully in the shade of flowers.”
In three sentences, they explain the sexuality implied in the lyrics of the play, and it is only then that they understand that this kind of play is really inappropriate for children.
He is not in a university or a research institute, and the mainstream academia may not be convinced by him. How many of his fans who come to follow him can read the ancient books he promotes?
I feel a certain split in Mr. Zhang, in an era when scholars are competing to be actors, he, a really good actor, wants to be a scholar of the past. Whether it is Fang Xiaoru in A Thousand Bells of Killing – The Edict of the Grass, Qi Jiguang in A Handful of Snow – The Sacrifice of Ji, Su Wu in Shepherd’s Tale – Looking for the Homeland, or Wu Zixu in Raccoon’s Tale – Sending the Son, or Lei Haiqing in The Palace of Eternal Life – Scolding the Thief, all of them are loyal and virtuous officials, and most of them are upright, loyal and filial scholars in adversity, inheriting the image and quality of his teacher Zhu Jiayou’s role in Farewell to Mother’s Disorderly Arrows. He inherited the image and temperament of his teacher Zhu Jiayi in “A Farewell to Mother and a Disorderly Arrow”.
Mr. Zhang Weidong as Fang Xiaoru in 1991 (Photo by the author)
Perhaps, this is the idealism and tragic spirit of Confucianism – knowing that it is impossible to do it and doing it.
3
For many years, I have followed Mr. Zhang everywhere to learn songs. When Mr. Zhang went out to give lectures, or to small gatherings, I sometimes played, clumsy and clumsy, often touching the teapot and spilling the tea bowl.
At first I sang kunqu without a tune, singing octagonal drums without a board, until someone sent me a fast board, changed to croak croak count the words to sing fast board look. I then shouted at the top of my lungs and sang, and after two and a half hours of kunqu, my voice became a duck. Sometimes I thought it was good, but Mr. Zhang said it was out of tune; sometimes my voice was obviously not at home, and Mr. Zhang said it had improved.
Finally, one day, he said, “I found the tune, kunqu is originally a yellow bell and a large repertoire of broadsides, and never just babbling.”
However, once I went to the Lu Xun Academy of Literature for further study, Mr. Zhang was invited to lecture on kunqu at the Academy. Mr. Zhang directly said, “You’re out of tune”. Afterwards, some students came to comment that Mr. Zhang was too unsubtle with me.
In fact, in private, he always criticized me directly because I didn’t understand him if he was subtle. Once he talked about the need for talent in art, so I asked, “Do you need talent to write essays?”
“Yes, you don’t have talent.”
The crowd laughed.
Mr. Zhang later said, “I have said you a few times, I did not expect to put you away, but to learn more diligently.
In fact, this old-style teacher-student way of getting along, I’m used to it.
In front of strangers, Mr. Zhang praised me, but in his emails, he would always criticize me for my “mistakes”, and sometimes he was ashamed that he did not teach me anything – Mr. Zhang did not use cell phones, and occasionally he used email, which he shared with his mother, and wrote back to me in traditional Chinese characters, mostly in a few simple words, but if he wanted to revise the instructions, he was never stingy with the words.
I have written two books on customs and institutions and palimpsests in ancient poetry. After the sample texts were sent to him, he revised the Caijing one completely. Some of the manuscripts only wanted to send him to look at, but he took the initiative to give me revisions, writing without Europeanization, nor avoiding colloquialisms, ending with ellipses, able to digest my westernized and messy expressions one by one, and a strong sense of style, change a little, the style of writing has his old-school style. If I have not adopted his place, afterwards see, he has to give me the deep reason.
I co-authored a manuscript with Mr. Zhang, and he never asked for a byline or a fee, and urged me not to have the idea of selling my writing. He has edited a folk publication “Bajiao Drum News” for more than 20 years, with many students helping to proofread it, and he is happy every time it is printed. He has also compiled many oral histories of old artists, almost all of which he has rewritten, but he does not put his signature on them, at most adding only “Record” in front of his name.
His earlier book “Xiqing Tangxian”, co-authored with Mr. Chang Renchun, a Beijing folklore writer and a little old man from the Fire God Temple, was an important early study of Beijing Tangxian performances. Because it spans a long period of time, he went to the National Library for a whole day and copied the information word by word from old newspapers (most of the old newspapers cannot be copied). The book originally had 800,000 words, but when it was published, it was only a thin volume, and the original hand-copied manuscript was lost once in the middle of the book – it was the culmination of years of research on Beijing’s folklore industry.
Sometimes Mr. Zhang would bring a few copies of his own books with him to give to the audience at a discounted price, or sometimes he would just give them away, and he would sign them with a brush. Anyone who has listened to Mr. Zhang’s lectures or read his articles says that he is a living fossil-like scholar, “too valuable. If students at Peking University saw him talking eloquently, they said, “Mr. Zhang is preaching again!”
He has taught a large number of students, many of whom have gone into the arts and gained some fame; the capital’s cultural circles, large and small celebrities, have come here to pile leaves and pick peaches; the study of ancient opera and chanting master’s and doctoral degrees, many of which Mr. Zhang has given a thesis outline, but also some people will bring Mr. Zhang’s learning to change the face and immediately cash.
But Mr. Zhang thought this way: How nice to be able to spread his knowledge and take root!
In 2012, I went to Changshu from Suzhou to see the tombs of Qian Qianyi and Liu Ruyi during my trip to the south of the Yangtze River, and I wrote an email to Mr. Zhang. At that time, Mr. Zhang was rehearsing Cao Yin’s “The Continuation of the Pipa” in Suzhou, playing only a supporting role, but the playbill stated that he was “stepping into the play”, giving up the title of “director” – in fact “The so-called director was just trying to find an opportunity to act in the play.
I then returned to Suzhou, along with Mr. a trip. Mr. Zhang held an old-fashioned umbrella to shade the sun, the upper body white lapel, while the lower body black pants, a pair of small round mouth of a thousand layer bottom, as if from the ancient paintings of the garden out of the people.
Nearly 40 degrees of heat, Suzhou workers in the dirty and smelly city creek dredging, all without the romance of small bridges and beautiful scenery of Suzhou and Hangzhou.
Mr. Zhang saw it, frowned deeply, sighed deeply and said, “This is really not a good job, people living in the world is too unbearable.”
4
To say that Mr. Zhang’s “ancient” on the stage is pretend, then the “ancient” in life is brought out in the bones.
I would occasionally bother Mr. Zhang with things in my life, such as asking him for advice on how to raise daffodils, and he wrote back in detail.
“Don’t peel the skin of the daffodils, put them in a dark place, wait until the beginning of the lunar month, fill the pots with water again, pour a little less water into the sun during the day, and put some water on the windowsill at night, so that they can bloom around the first day of the year.
If you want to carve daffodils, you should use a bamboo knife to cut the middle a little bit, cut a little bit horizontally, leave the flower buds, make a cut on the tip, add cotton to store water, sunlight during the day, and put it in a warm place at night. Wait until the first few days you can see the strange daffodils, pay attention to the double happiness, crab claws and other shapes ……”
That’s not all, he told in the mail for people moving when the preoccupation, that is a people open eyes:.
“moving first put the things that calm the house, the sword, four books, Buddhist scriptures, stone and other boogie gourds can be, there is sun when the windows open for three days, the main hall put a water tank or a basin of water, fan with a fan, and then the original old house of the sky view of the soil brought a packet scattered to the four corners ……
The first meal is given to the workers, leaving the leftover rice skins, so that the workers can continue to eat when they leave. …… You can also call a few friends to eat together to celebrate the Wenzui, still eating rice and stir-fried vegetables on the steamed meat, etc.
Steamed buns, bean buns, braised noodles are also possible, but must be attended by outsiders only …… the most important is the maid or workers, family and friends followed ……”
Whenever I wrote a letter or manuscript to him in Mandarin, he praised me for my progress in the language, asked me to write new ideas and content, to discard colloquialisms, to use less “you”, “I”, “he”, and I also pointed out the childishness of the grammar. I also sent him a few lines of old poems I had written in my early years, and he corrected them one by one and replied in traditional Chinese.
His father, Mr. Zhang Zhenqi, was a famous doctor at Tong Ren Tang. Although he had not been a doctor since childhood, he was very knowledgeable. And eye inflammation, no eye drops, with dendrobium boiled water scrub, can reduce inflammation and clear fire.
Mr. Zhang is so “retro”, probably because he has never been “polluted” by the new science (Western science). When he was a child, he first used a brush and then a pencil to write, and he came from sketching with a brush in the North Sea; he first learned the “Filial Piety”, “Tao Te Ching”, “Four Books” and Kunqu with Mr. Wu Hongmai, the son of Wu Chengshi, a disciple of Zhang Taiyan, and then went to elementary school.
During the final exams, while others were scrambling to review, he carried a few pens in his pocket and strutted around to get a near perfect score on the language test, while he would flunk the math test. In the Republic of China, there were “three Wu and one Fan” in the Shanghai painting world, “Fan” is Mr. Fan Shaoyun, and Mr. Zhang was taught by Fan Shaoyun’s son, Fan Boyan, the guqin, kunqu and painting, and the fan he painted at the age of 18 was all ancient style.
Every time he talked with the Republic of China masters, he disdained or even snickered.
He said that the Republic of China, the former Qing Dynasty, most of the old scholars do not use, dedicated just back to the foreign hairy kid as a professor, the old school are abolished, so the old school will be extremely extinct even if not abolished. He also said that when Feng Youlan was looking for assistants in the 1990s, he specifically named those who had not “gone to school” – that is, those who had not received a new-style education.
He studied Christianity and Western civilization, studied drama and film choreography at the Central Academy of Drama, and attended choreography classes. But the more he came into contact with Western studies, the more he saw that Chinese culture was the root of his roots, which strengthened his understanding of and loyalty to tradition. Since then, he has been wearing Chinese lapels and cloth shoes with a thousand soles, carrying an old lady’s grocery shopping pocket with sheet music, flutes and the Analects of Confucius in his hand, squeezing through various colleges and universities in the capital to teach Kunqu and Confucianism. If it was winter, he would carry his flute in his arms to prevent it from freezing and cracking. Sometimes he would entertain old friends at a dragon yakuza at the Taiki Factory, eating and singing together, many of which he hosted, and if someone else paid for it, he would tell them in advance, as was the custom with old-fashioned treats.
He stood to the side of the much-attacked Zhuziology, recognizing the Zhu Xi lineage of academic thought, the most topical figures and the ideal age, Confucius and the Western Zhou, and the physical practice of the Confucian and Mencian ways in daily life: speaking of rules and rituals, and accustomed to everything in old age.
According to the chanting tune of the official rhyme of the State Council, he chanted and compiled and published the Book of Filial Piety, the Tao Te Ching, and the Four Books, and every month he volunteered to explain them to readers at the Commercial Press, chanting them according to ancient etiquette. Every time, facing the readers of the society he met for the first time, he would explain the classics by giving examples from his parents, and regardless of whether they accepted it or not, he would burn incense and arrange flowers, display the statue of Confucius on his iPad, and lead all readers to follow the old-fashioned etiquette of respectfully offering incense, holding the threadbare book with both hands, and bowing deeply three times to the ground.
Mr. Wang’s learning is great, but his controversy is even greater – he blatantly denies the Yangming School, which has become prominent in recent times, and even more so, he denies the old Chiang, who ruled the country with Christianity plus Yangming School, and offends all those who engage in old and new literature and the revolutionary masses. The new school did not like him, and the “old school” did not necessarily like him either. Because the old school is mostly stuck in playing qin, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, lyrics and songs, and does not approve of scripture; even if they approve of scripture, they advocate reading the Analects of Confucius rather than the Book of Filial Piety, and do not approve of living according to Confucianism. Even if they approve of studying Confucianism again, parents are more of the concept of “children learn and I don’t, I am responsible for making money and taking pictures of my children on the sidelines”.
He said, China is unlucky to read a few pages of ancient books, but also half-understood, but also engaged in the culture of the people.
Mr. Zhang’s family and the late Qing Dynasty Manchu courtiers have more than in-laws, is a cultural conservative, tend to the clan society party and noble academy in the figure. Most of the Manchus were conservative in their old studies and held on to their old ways. He, on the other hand, took the conservative approach, but would adapt. Mr. should not be called a relic, but a Confucian. In fact, he does not need to be compared to any ancient person, nor is he the last of the great scholars, but a Confucian at first – many people would recognize Confucian culture, but not like him, who would put aside all kinds of fame and fortune and go to the bookstore to volunteer to lecture on the Four Books and Five Classics, like a Like a pure believer, he pursues the way of Confucius and Mencius as it was originally meant.
Mr. Zhang Weidong lectures on the Four Books (Photo by the author)
5
Mr. Zhang’s destiny was also the true legacy of the last cultural elders, the last remnants of the old culture in the 1980s, the old literati who did not “brush the color (yin shǎi, meaning not to take the red route)” and did not climb up the ladder, but were also true literati. He said that Wang Zengqi’s articles were flower beauties, and that he could follow Tang Lan (a scribe, jinshi scholar and historian) in the treatment of scripts and history, and was a classmate of Zhu Dexi, a linguist who was the vice president of Peking University. don’t learn from them superficially – big professors who are good at singing opera are learning to have fun when.”
I believe him, at least he knows Wang Zengqi.
Mr. Zhang has been in touch with some of the masters in their later years, and there are many things that he has heard firsthand. I remember his description of Yu Pingbo, who was criticized for the second half of his life, as a straightforward and somewhat foolish person, and when he mimicked Yu’s accent, his demeanor and language were very similar: “Me? What do you ask me? My family’s ancestors were officials! In my generation, I am no longer an official, but a teacher!”
He also said that Mr. Ye Shengtao was smart and self-protective, advocating vernacular language all his life, but he himself liked to read literary language, sing kunqu, write calligraphy, and urged Mr. Wang Siyuan to proofread the “Chu Shu” in literary language.
What is surprising is that Mr. Zhang has no collecting fetish at all. When he was a child, Zhu Dexi corrected his homework and Wang Siyuan left him manuscripts when he lectured on Chu Shi, but he did not deliberately put them away, while he kept all the records of the activities of the elegant meetings.
This may be related to his teacher, Mr. Zhu Jia. Mr. Zhu family to the Palace Museum, the Academy of Social Sciences, Chengde summer resort, Zhejiang Province Museum and other free donations of more than 1,000 ancient inscriptions, more than 20,000 ancient books, a large number of Ming and Qing dynasty huanghuali, rosewood furniture, dozens of ancient painting and calligraphy and guqin, but in his later years like to copy ancient paintings for fun, his wife died of illness, there is little left in the salary card.
Mr. Zhang repeatedly mentioned the famous words of Mr. Zhu Jiayi about cultural relics: “gathering is a joy, scattering is also a joy.” And said, obsessed with the collection is not good, if only obsessed with looking for celebrities to sign a photo, is destined to waste learning. On the occasion of the centenary of Mr. Zhu Jiayi’s birth, Mr. Zhang presided over the ceremonial arrangements for the “Ten-Year Festival of Mr. Ji Huang” (Zhu Jiayi’s name is Ji Huang), which was held on the stage of the Zhengyi Ancestral Hall outside the Qianmen Gate, where families in the capital organized their own rituals.
Among the musicians was Mr. Shao Huaimin, who at the age of 96 was still able to perform the role of the Weaving Maiden in “The Heavenly Officials’ Blessing”, and had a Dan’s voice. His father was a scholar and his mother was a lady, but he had a difficult life, no children, and loved opera, painting and calligraphy. On the occasion of his 100th birthday, fellow musicians also held a music party for him to celebrate.
One day when Mr. Shao was 102 years old, Mr. and Mrs. Zhang were walking in Sanlitun and remembered that they were not far from Mr. Shao’s home, so they called his home to prepare for a visit. The niece answered the phone and cried, saying that the old man had just left without a trace and was “dressing up. Mr. and Mrs. Zhang rushed there, sat by the old man’s bed, and used the flute, which was over a century old, to play a final song, “Ten Thousand Years of Joy” – a tune to invite the gods to send them off, counting as a send-off for Mr. Shao’s body to the Elysium. The family said, “I’ll give you this flute. But Mr. Zhang said, “Let’s go with Mr. Shao. Then, the flute was cremated along with the person.
Afterwards I asked, Shao old family has said to send you, the flute at least a hundred years, how not to stay as a reminder of the child, in order to see the object?
Mr. Zhang immediately criticized me: “The best learning is remembered in the brain, the best memory is left in the heart!”
When the violinist Sheng Xue died, his son Sheng China had his violin cremated with him; and when Sheng China died in September 2018, he was still buried with his favorite violin, leaving an empty case. This is the meaning of “high mountains and flowing water”, the home of the musician and the zither. As the founder said, “If you want to learn the way, you can die in the evening.” Mr. Zhang, who has the sentiment of the ancients, lived his life with the open-mindedness of a hundred years old like a morning dew.
In the appendix of Mr. Zhang’s book, “There is a time to enjoy flowers, there is a way to enjoy music”, there is an article “Zhang Weidong in his wife’s eyes”, written by his mother, Ms. Pan Shuya, who complained about Mr. Zhang for not taking care of his family, but was full of silent warmth. Her mother was a bartender, an editor, and the author of a long martial arts novel, “The Mirror of Lotus”.
Mr. Zhang in her mind, always the big boy who fixes pencils, which is disguised as a show of affection. From the perspective of love, Mr. Zhang advocated lifelong love as one, respecting the love between Yu Pingbo and Xu Baotian, Zhou Youguang and Zhang Yunhe, and Qi Gong and Zhang Baochen.
6
It was a lot of fun to be with such an “ancient” person. On weekdays, Mr. Zhang used to take us to “play” in the way of the elderly, on the fifth day of the fifth month, the seventh day of the seventh month, the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the ninth day of the ninth month, and even the winter solstice, we would set up offerings to the gods according to the customs of the old capital, and each time we would each bring a special dish, cook together at noon, and sing kunqu in the afternoon. We would usually find an old-fashioned clubhouse or a simple courtyard in the suburbs, set up the offering table according to the old rituals, and then either Qin Ya Shuang Qing or Qin, Qu, and drums Plum Blossom.
For the first time on the 15th of August, we followed Mr. Zhang’s technique and piled up the snacks and fruits on the offering table, but the pile fell over. On closer inspection, it turned out that Mr. Zhang had used toothpicks to string up the dim sum offerings, which could not be seen from the outside. He said this is not called “mountain” type, but called “tower” type, is a child from a few years old to follow the dry, grow up is naturally passed on from generation to generation.
Then he was like a magic trick, from nowhere out of a “moon palace code”, printed with a stand up pounding rabbit, to use a hardwood “insert” (placed on the table of small screens), the moon palace code to paste, and then offer the rabbit, and finally to be incinerated at night after the ritual.
He did it while talking about the pronunciation, culture, production, and deeper connotations of the “rabbit’s son”, and also about the baggage of the “five saints’ pilgrimage” [Mei Hua tune] in which “hey which rabbit’s son I”, the word “rabbit’s son mountain” in the old Beijing opera garden is a kind of metaphor for the seat, how to arrange that kind of seat …… in the chatting work, on the preaching of the Word.
Before and after dinner, singing octagonal drums, and whenever the jade hare rises in the east, someone will play the guqin, Mr. Zhang with the accompaniment of the guqin, singing “Yangguan Sanjian”, “Guanshan Yue”, or with the voice of the Dan character singing the “autumn wind words” of the qin song.
Some years ago, when we were not so busy, we drank bean juice with Mr. Zhang at the Guoguoji snack bar, enjoyed peonies in Zhongshan Park during the day, strolled around Beihai at night, played flutes and sang songs among the hao and Pu, and listened to his stories about how he used to enjoy the moon by rowing a boat in the Beihai on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, singing elegantly and playing with strings; he also sang “A Dream in the Garden” on the stone boat during a night tour of Beihang University, which made a pair of students in love stop murmuring in the flowers and listen quietly.
Sometimes after eating together at noon and going to the Qu Club in the evening, a few bells in the afternoon, Mr. Zhang took us to Longtan Lake and found a pavilion to sing “Journey to the West – Recognize the Son”. Under the brick pagoda of Zhengyang Bookstore in Brick Tower Hutong, and in the courtyard of the old Hutong in the beach, there was an elegant gathering of silk and bamboo, words and songs, with a student from the China Conservatory of Music playing the pipa and watching Mr. Zhang singing Xu Wei’s “Four Sounding Apes – Scolding Cao” with his body, the authentic style of the Northern Song still remains in the place of birth.
Followed Mr. Zhang on Miaofeng Mountain to see the walking meeting, Mr. reverently to the pear garden enshrined in the temple of the gods of the ancestors of the big salute, put on the merit money and everyone sang the Northern Opera “Tian Guan Chi Fu”. Have also followed Mr. to the Qing Dongling Qing Qing dynasty Qing dynasty, worship the Kang and Qian holy master, in the pavilion of the monument of divine merit and virtue, singing the Kangxi favorite kunqu, singing the Qianlong favorite octagonal drum. On the 15th day of the 7th month, he would also go to the Guangji Temple in Xisi to kowtow with him.
His family believed in both Buddhism and Taoism, and the Taoist priests of Baiyun Guan were all family friends, who knew about Buddhist and Taoist rituals, and did not reject the popular beliefs. Every time we eat, we choose a restaurant with good taste and low price, and order the most worthwhile dishes, and incidentally, how to cook and eat in the past, and also warn us young people to eat ugly, need to correct etiquette. Over time, whether we were hungry or not, we had to serve all four dishes before we moved our chopsticks.
Mr. Wang talked about the Confucian society of resting on one’s fate, how old one is and what one’s status is, and how one has to work in one’s own status. Seeing mothers and daughters primping now, he said, “In the past, there was no beauty contest with daughters. Seeing some girls wearing cheongsam and hair codification, he would say, “That kind of flower color is only worn by those who have become mothers-in-law.”
Only a few of Mr. students snickered, but others did not understand.
Mr. Zhang said that it is the talent of Beijingers to speak badly, and in the past, people had a bad mouth but not a bad heart. Once when Mr. Zhu Jiayao performed at the Qu Club, he was choked by Zhou Quan’an because of who had assigned what role. But the next time the two met and made up, they let each other smoke: “You come to me this.”
Mr. Zhang also has serious anger at times, he reprimanded the children present nonsense, and scolded the “enthusiasts” who would not serve tea, wipe the table but rashly reached out. He never coddled and spoiled children without rules, to children with adults to act with the rules of sitting and lying, and said that children should be “from childhood in the ceremony and other big occasions to calm him, the life of the organization from the age of 5 years old to start to develop”, “where no logic and no organization, are the lack of cultivation as a child “.
It has been said that Mr. is the capital legacy young, not a few years can also be considered the capital legacy. But this is a time when you want to be a legacy but can’t, the TV is full of braid plays, the internet is full of braid fans, and everywhere is selling historical sentiment and nostalgia, making someone want to be a legacy and start pretending and can only ever be pretending. The reason for this couldn’t be simpler – the real legacy, which one does not know the scriptures, history, and sonography?
We are not worthy of the old man.
Epilogue
In winter, Mr. Wang wore a pair of woolen shoes (in Beijing: cotton shoes, this word has long been extinct, it seems to be used only by Mr. Wang) to visit my home, looking at my small courtyard of broken tiles and cold kilns, and advised me to be content with what I had, saying that I could have a quiet room in the second ring, and even if it was simple, I should be at peace: “There are three unfilial children, but there are no children, you should have gotten married and had children long ago, but it doesn’t matter if it’s too late. Hurry up and read the Four Books.”
He cooked at my house, taught me to make traditional vegetarian shish-kebab, and stewed lamb and borscht. After eating, the sound of the flute mixed with the smell of mutton fat coalesced in the cold kiln of the hutong.
I drove him home, and on the way, I had the impromptu idea to visit the former residence of Zhang’s family in East 4, Article 6. When I got off the bus at Article 6, I saw that the original gatehouse was unrecognizable, not to mention the layout of the courtyard was preserved. Mr. Zhang didn’t say much and quickly got into his car. I drove him to the Willow and then back to Beixinqiao in the time it took to get from the East Third Ring Road to the North Second Ring Road at midnight, but when I got home and opened my mailbox, I saw that he had sent me a five-word poem.
Song installed to the house of the OBORDINARY QIAN after a visit
After the parting of the heart, we have not finished talking to each other.
I have been so sad and angry about the past.
I remember my ancestor’s spiritual light, and I care for my old home.
The years are like flowing water.
The 25th day of the 25th month of the lunar calendar
Night visit to the remains of the ancestral home at the east exit of Lioujiao
“He was enthusiastic about giving his students pen names and numbers, and said that using pen names often would bring good luck. The name he gave me was a very strange one, “OBVIOUSLY, I should have more power”. It means I should have more power and decency. The word “shanliang” is meant to be the same as the word “lei” in my name, but it is pronounced as shuì or lèi in the dictionary, so I rarely use it for fear that people will not recognize it.
In the email, he asked me to write the same song as the last one, but I haven’t finished it yet. However, I think Mr. Wang will not criticize me harshly after all.
This poem reminds me of what his dear friend, The Japanese scholar Kitahira Ashikawa, said: In the streets of Tokyo, Japan, when Mr. Ashikawa saw Mr. Zhang off for a long time and parted at the subway entrance, Mr. Zhang sang, as if no one was watching, the song “Autumn Scene – Oriole Tune” from Wang Shifu’s “The Western Chamber”: “Farewell at the Long Pavilion – Shogun – Duanzhenghao”.
“The sky is blue clouds, the land is yellow flowers, the west wind is tight, the northern geese are flying south. Who is drunk with frost in the forest at dawn? It is always the tears of the departed.”
After singing the song, he bowed his hands and turned around and floated into the subway, disappearing at the end of the entrance to the Tokyo subway.
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