Music is the code of civilization,
Musical instruments are solidified cultures.
The "Dunxing Hometown - Forbidden City Dunhuang Special Exhibition", which is being exhibited at the Noon Gate of the Forbidden City, has a special "Wonderful Music and Dance" unit, which exhibits 14 sets of national treasure-level music cultural relics, providing a possibility for us to enter the atmosphere of Dunhuang from the perspective of hearing, or to enter the ancient Chinese liturgical music civilization.
Mr. Zheng Ruzhong, an expert in Dunhuang music and dance research, said in the article "Dunhuang Mural Musical Instrument Classification And Examination": "The shape of the pipa is painted more than 700 in the Mogao Grottoes alone, and there must be pipa where the musical image is painted, which has a strong musical symbolism. ”
Early Tang Dynasty Dance Music Diagram Mogao Caves Cave 220
Sheng Tang Playing long drums and rebounding pipa dances
Mogao Caves Cave 172
In the Middle Tang Dynasty, the Diamond Sutra rebounded pipa dance and band
Cave 112 of Mogao Caves
Late Tang Dynasty Music and Dance Figure Cave 85 of Mogao Caves
Among the 14 sets of musical instrument cultural relics exhibited in the "Dunxing Hometown - Forbidden City Dunhuang Special Exhibition", pipa cultural relics accounted for more than one-third. But not all lute instruments are simply called "pipa". The "big sudden thunder" and "small sudden thunder" in this exhibition are the "hidden models" belonging to the pipa family.
The big and small thunderbolts in the special exhibition of Dunhuang in the Forbidden City
The large and small pipa once appeared in the court music of the Tang Dynasty and disappeared in history. To this day, they stand still in the exhibition hall of the Forbidden City, circulating invisible inheritance. Silence is better than sound here.
What is a thunderbolt?
Kulei is an ancient stringed instrument in China. The Literature Examination includes it in the lute category and is called "Kulei Pipa".
As for why it is called "sudden thunder", there are many clues in historical documents.
In the Tang Dynasty Duan Anjie's "Miscellaneous Records of Lefu", it is written: "Kang Kunlun tasted a girl playing the pipa and sounded like thunder. Su Shi's "Yu Meiren Pipa" also has the sentence "Try to teach the bullet to be a sudden thunder, and there should be tears from the old man of Kaiyuan". According to this, "kulei" may be a word to describe the sound of the lute. There are also Mongolian scholars who believe that Kulei is a sound of the Mongolian word Hur, an instrument mutated from huobusi.
Scholar Zhuang Zhuang believes that there is an image of the late Tang Dynasty Kuleiqin in cave 369 of the Mogao Caves: "The two strings and two axes of the Kuleiqin, the left and right axes, the body of the piano is cone-shaped, belonging to the lute class... Only one piece of Kuleiqin is seen on the Dunhuang murals in the ziming music. "Although this instrument is not necessarily a thunderbolt, it is already the appearance of a two-stringed lute and has the core characteristics of a thunderbolt.
The middle of the top of the north wall of the main room of Cave 369 of Mogao Caves
You can see the kuleiqin
The Great And small Lei on display are rare Tang Dynasty musical instruments hidden in the Palace Museum. Among them, the big thunder is a wooden tire, a long neck, no product, the neck end is inlaid with a hook-shaped dragon head, the convex eye opens the mouth, and the form is vivid.
Don Da Shu Lei
Under the dragon's head is engraved the three characters of the seal book "Great Lightning", and the surface of the neck is inlaid with an ivory piece. The speaker is pear-shaped, covered with python skin, with vermilion paint on the back, decorated with gold hook lotus pattern, exquisitely made, and rich in pattern.
Tang Da Ku Lei (Partial)
Xiao Kulei is a wooden tire, long neck, no product, the neck end is inlaid with a hook-shaped dragon head, and the dragon head is engraved with the three words of the seal book "Xiao Kulei".
Tang Xiaoxuan
The speaker is pear-shaped, covered with python skin, with a vermilion paint on the back, and decorated with gold hook lotus patterns. The back of the neck is engraved with the inscription "Chen's Handmade Gong Dedication to Jianzhong Xin Youchun".
Tang Xiaoxuanlei (Partial)
The past and present lives of Kulei
Since the advent of the big and small thunder, it has experienced thousands of years of twists and turns and ups and downs.
During the tang dynasty, the big and small kulei were originally created by the Tang Dynasty politician and painter Han Di.
Tang Han Di Five Bull Diagram
Slide to see more Click to enjoy the HD "Five Bulls"
The "Five Bull Diagrams" collected by the Forbidden City is the only surviving copy of Han Di's works.
It is also one of the few authentic pieces of Tang Dynasty paper silk paintings
According to the Northern Song Dynasty Qian Yi's "New Book of the South", "The Duke of Han Jin (Han Di) was in the dynasty and was envoyed to Shu. To the camel valley (present-day Xianyang, Shaanxi) mountain pepper, the giant trees are lush and lovely, and the sounds of black birds are different. Dismount, shoot its peak with a bow, and the bow falls down, shaking the valley, with the rhyme of gold and stone. The envoy also collected woodcutters from Jiexian County, took their stems, and returned them. Summoning the good smith, he does not know his name. Firm as purple stone, with golden threads intertwined in between. The craftsman knows that for the huqintan, he cannot be merged. Then it is the second piano, the big one is known as the big sudden thunder, and the small one is known as the small sudden thunder. Because of the words and pleasures of the Emperor of the Benten Temple, he offered the Great Kulei into the forbidden place, and the little Kulei was in the Qinren. ”
Republic of China Hu Kaiwen Guanghu clan system Liu clan double Kulei Tumo
Regarding the circulation of Xiao Kulei, there is a legendary past recorded in the Tang Dynasty Duan Anjie's "Miscellaneous Records of Lefu". It is mentioned that Emperor Wenzong had an insider, Zheng Zhongcheng( also known as a female official during the Tang Wenzong period, who was good at playing small thunderbolts.
When Zheng Zhongcheng was playing Xiao Kulei, because the parts on the piano fell off, he sent it to the South Zhao family of Chongrenfang for repair, which was the best instrument repair workshop at that time. However, later, Zheng Zhongcheng was hanged by Emperor Wenzong of Tang and thrown into the river.
Coincidentally, liang Houben, the old official of power at that time, was fishing on the riverbank. Suddenly, an object floated over, so that the child could catch it to the shore. "And the one who opens his eyes is a girl." Serving the nose of the nose, there is a residual breath, that is, moving into the room will be raised, the sutra is able to say, Yun is the inner disciple Zheng Zhongcheng also. Later, Liang Houben married Zheng Zhongcheng.
One day, Zheng Zhongcheng mentioned to Liang Houben that the pipa he had played before, that is, Xiao Kulei, was now in the Southern Zhao family, and no one knew. Liang Houben bought it from the musician, and every night, Zheng Zhongcheng dared to flick for his family.
One day, the Yellow Gate Waiter let the harrier pass by Liang Houben's house and heard a sudden thunderclap coming from the courtyard: "This Zheng Zhong's pipa sound is also." He immediately informed Tang Wenzong of the matter. When Tang Wenzong knew about it, it was both a regret and a surprise. The commandment is to forgive one's sins, and to give it to the lord of the day.
After Zheng Zhongcheng, Xiao Qiulei's whereabouts are unknown. It was not until the thirtieth year of the Qing Kangxi Dynasty (1691) that the famous opera writer Kong Shangren encountered Xiao Kulei at the Beijing market. He pawned his clothes and collected the piano with enough silver.
After Kong Shangren's death, Xiao Kulei went through several more turns. In the second year of Xuan reunification (1910), Liu Shiheng, a famous bibliophile and literary scholar at the end of the Qing Dynasty, bought this piano at the Zhuo family in Beijing, and at the same time, he was still worried about the great thunder that had wandered in the world. He wrote in the "Legend of Xiao Kulei": "Gu Yu used Xiao Kulei to survive the war and did not lose it, then the Great Kulei or still exists in the human world, and cannot be forgotten." ”
In November of the same year, he visited Zhang Ruishan, a violinist in Daxing, Beijing, and the big and small sudden lei were finally reunited. After Liu Shiheng, the big and small sudden lei were transferred to the possession of Liu Hanzhi, a collector in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province. In 1955, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage acquired it from Liu and transferred it to the Palace Museum for collection.
What kind of lute is there in the exhibition hall?
Today, the Kulei pipa we see in the Dunhuang Special Exhibition Hall of the Forbidden City is a national first-class cultural relic, which has extraordinary significance for the study of ancient music and the study of ancient musical instrument production technology. In addition to the large and small sudden thunder, this exhibition also exhibited two pieces of Ruan Xian pipa fragments and black lacquer depicting the golden landscape character pattern pipa, which are also very eye-catching.
The Nguyen Ham Pipa, now in the collection of the Wuwei City Museum, is the only fragment of the Nguyen Ham Pipa found in China so far. When the lute was unearthed, the speaker was damaged, and the fragments were the handles.
Tang Nguyen Nguyen Ham Pipa Fragments Collection of Wuwei City Museum
The handle is inlaid with a bone pattern throughout, and the flowers are staggered and exquisitely worked. There are four spiral shafts at the top of the handle to tie the strings.
Ruan Xian pipa and large and small Kulei are both Works of the Tang Dynasty, and this special exhibition also selects a Qing Dynasty pipa - black paint depicting the golden landscape character pattern pipa to show the inheritance.
The black lacquer depicts the golden landscape character pattern pipa as a whole is pear-shaped, the head of the piano is black lacquer, the lower end is chiseled with strings, and the shaft is black lacquered with gold paint. The neck of the piano, the body of the body, and the strings of the shaft are all missing.
Clear black lacquer depicts golden landscape flowers and birds pattern pipa
Painted on the back of the piano are mountains, ancient trees, pavilions, flowing water, sailing ships, the picture is three-dimensional, rich in layers, and has a strong artistic appeal.
Clear black lacquer depicting golden landscape flowers and birds pattern pipa (partial)
The 14 sets of musical instruments exhibited in the Dunhuang Special Exhibition of the Forbidden City all follow the principle of emphasizing the instrument type, pattern or system of each cultural relic, and the inheritance relationship with the past traditions, especially with the patterns in the Dunhuang murals or the traditions before the Song and Yuan Dynasties.
The square sound of the murals of the Mogao Caves and the old collection of the Qing Palace
The Dousheng on the murals of the Mogao Caves and the old collection of the Qing Palace
In addition to pipa instruments, the "Wonderful Music and Dance" section of the Dunhuang Special Exhibition of the Forbidden City also exhibits instruments such as huqin, flute and sheng. The musical instruments in the Dunhuang murals and the physical objects collected in the Forbidden City courtyard reflect each other, which together show the unique charm of the two world cultural heritage sites of the Forbidden City and Dunhuang.
When we leaned over to listen, the music seemed to sound quietly...
What are the stories behind these instruments? Next, please listen to the audio of the exhibition explanation brought to you by Liu Guoliang, a member of the exhibition preparation team and the professor of the Palace Museum's Palace History Department. I hope it will continue to take you to the Forbidden City to listen to the stories of Dunhuang and appreciate the charm of wonderful music and dance.