I believe that many friends have similar experiences with me, and have entered a wonderful world because of the guqin. The world is both ancient and dappled with a sense of separation, and it is also as glorious as a new life. At first, we all entered the world of the guqin with excitement and ignorance, and although it was beautiful and beautiful, we had to admit that when we intended to swim in it, if there was no guide, we would always go astray. Fortunately, this guqin world still has its own guardians, who have been using the sound of the piano under their fingers and the writing under the pen to construct this seemingly lonely spiritual world for decades, silently cultivating the spiritual pastoral that has been neglected.
In my eyes, Mr. Wu Zhao is not only the guardian of guqin world, but also the leader who leads the future generations in our continuous exploration of the road of piano learning. He has always been an elder, teacher, and scholar, lovingly supervising us and guiding us on the road of piano learning with care and care.
During the 2000 Taipei Guqin Arts Festival. From left: Qin Xu, Chen Shaoji, Wu Zhao, Lü Peiyuan, Wu Wenguang, Wang Zhengping.
Introduction of Wu Zhao
Born in December 1935, a native of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, he is a famous music historian and guqin artist in China, a representative inheritor of guqin art in the national intangible cultural heritage project, an expert with outstanding contributions from the State Council, a researcher and doctoral supervisor of the China Academy of Arts. His major publications include: "Tracing the Lost Musical Footprints- Illustrating the History of Chinese Music", "Outline of Chinese Music History" (co-author), "Chinese Guqin Collection" (editor-in-chief), "Qinqu Integration" (collation), "Compilation of Ancient Chinese Music Historical Materials", "Guqin Basic Course" (VCD), and guqin performance collection "Remembrance of the Past", "Han Palace Autumn Moon", etc.
Elderly
Gongqin is an old partner, and there is autumn with the moon
"Gongqin is an old partner, and there is autumn with the moon." This is how Mr. Wu has been practicing for many years. Counting Mr. Wu's decades of study and work experience, the piano is the constant theme. I remember the first time I went to visit Mr. Wu, I entered the door and looked around Mr. Wu's apartment, the bookshelf was neatly arranged, the old piano on the table was horizontal, the corner of the wall was Youlan Tufang, and the east wall was hung with Zhang Chong and his handwriting, the content was the beginning and end of the "Hanquan" piano donated by Cha Fuxi and the poetry of the two people sang and sang, a thick book fragrance did not feel overflowing in it. Mr. Wu's smile is as gentle as a spring breeze, which makes people feel more cordial.
Mr. Wu is not only an elder in age, but also a pioneer in promoting the guqin to the public and towards the development of benign inheritance. I remember that in an activity, Mr. Wu talked about his understanding of the art of the guqin from his own experience of learning the violin, and when asked about his favorite artistic style, Mr. Wu warned the violinists that they should not suppress one another, they should be involved in a variety of styles of the guqin, and should pay attention to the excavation of the score, the study of sound and rhyme, and the emphasis should be on using music to express spiritual meaning, rather than talking about research without music. These personal gains from decades of cultivation in Qintian have nourished the hearts of future generations like spring wind and rain.
Regarding the development of guqin art in the present, Mr. Wu shows his keen eye as a historian. He once wrote: "The current situation of Chinese guqin art, if it is summed up by the phrase 'opportunity and crisis' coexist, should be more appropriate... The most important thing is how to create a space and conditions for sustainable development of guqin art in today's society. That is to say, the art of the guqin must not only stay in the hands of a small number of professional pianists in music academies, but must be accepted by the public, become an integral part of people's daily life and life cultivation, and become a 'living' art that the public, especially the elite, are willing to appreciate or play. It can be seen that Mr. Wu is on the basis of fully assessing the history, reality and future ecology on which the guqin relies, and strives to make this ancient art glow with vitality and vitality in line with national aesthetics with the vision of history and development.
Teacher
As if the strings are outside, they will see the ancients
"Learning is more important than respecting a teacher", this is the most important point I learned from Mr. Wu. More than once, I have heard Mr. Wu talk about his teachers, Mr. Cha Fuxi, Mr. Wu Jingluo, Mr. Yang Yinliu... These titan-level figures that we can only look up to, it is precisely because there are students like Mr. Wu to convey their words, deeds and thoughts, that we can glimpse their demeanor.
Peking University Kunqu Heritage Base once organized a dialogue between Mr. Wu and the bibliophile Mr. Fang Jixiao on the book "Common Sense and Performance of the Guqin" written by Mr. Cha Fuxi. Mr. Wu recounted his experience of learning the piano from Mr. Cha Fuxi and the vigorous cultivation and support of the older generation of artists for young people. From his narration of the past, I not only felt the deep affection between teachers and students, but also gave me a deeper understanding of the piano and people of that era.
"Tao Li does not speak, the next is a mystery", Mr. Wu's students are all over the world, and many of them have made remarkable achievements. Mr. Wu has always undertaken the mission of a teacher, personally carrying out the work of preaching and teaching karma to solve problems.
I remember listening to Mr. Wu's lecture on "Remembering the Past", there were as many demonstrations as "chanting and hedgehog" alone, and the finger strength, breath, and rhythm grasp of the performance were all contained in the integrated swallowing, paying attention to details and emphasizing overall expression. Mr. Wu said that if you want to play the song well, you can reflect its simple, simple, affectionate and charming melody, you need to skillfully arrange the logical structure of "sound" and its internal changes, pay attention to the reasonable distribution of "rhyme" and its changes, and make the two into an organic whole. But to do this is far from enough, as the ancients said: to play the piano well, you must read, there must be ink in the stomach, you must understand the connotation of traditional culture, master the essence of traditional aesthetics, in order to make the guqin performance have a moving power. These golden and jade good words have made the younger generations of piano students take fewer detours, and at the same time taste the unique beauty of the guqin, they can cultivate their temperament and cultivate their lives.
Mr. Wu's artistic achievements are outstanding, and his ancient and vigorous style of playing the violin makes people feel that "as if the strings are outside the finger, they see the early ancients". As a junior, while deeply feeling the height of the mountain, I can't help but want to explore, I think that the reason why Mr. Wu can achieve such a great achievement is three reasons:
First, "learn like a teacher." Mr. Wu often criticizes the attitude of some young people who have not recently learned to learn the piano to express themselves. He stressed the importance of passing on and preserving as is.
Second, "karma is good at diligence." I learned this in a casual exchange with my master and mother. Master and mother said that Mr. Wu got up early every day to play the piano, and he never wasted a day. I think this is exactly the example of "deeds speak louder than words" that Mr. Wu, as a teacher, has set for us.
Third, "Kung Fu is outside the poem." Mr. Wu was born in a family of scholars, and his uncle Mr. Wu Mei was a modern songwriter and is known as the temple army of Old Chinese Music. The study of the guqin benefited from his father's enlightenment, and later he was transferred to many teachers, especially under the guidance of Mr. Cha Fuxi and Mr. Wu Jingluo. Mr. Wu's literary literacy and historical skills, as well as his rich experience in music history research, have given Mr. Wu a unique advantage in the field of guqin art that encompasses many disciplines.
Zi Yue: "Gentlemen are not instrumental." "Mr. Wu not only did not confine himself to the three feet six inches and five piano, but instead swallowed with the qin, and finally achieved a school of atmosphere.
scholar
The jade law is a guqin, and the philosopher's heart sees the heart of the saint
As a music historian, Mr. Wu has also written a variety of works, in addition to the widely influential "Outline of the History of Chinese Music", in the field of guqin, he has also compiled the large-scale qin literature "Qinqu Integration" edited by Cha Fuxi, as well as various other guqin monographs. All these have had a profound impact on the academic research of the guqin. To this day, Mr. Wu, who is old, is still working hard in the field of violinology and continues to contribute to the continuous and in-depth development of the guqin cause. The guqin is not only a display of music and art, but also a living reproduction of traditional cultural meaning. Mr. Wu's profound understanding of music, his research on music history, and his profound skills in guqin appraisal have benefited us a lot.
Mr. Wu has personally experienced the decline and prosperity of the guqin, so he is full of cherishing the inheritance and protection of the guqin. In the face of the current development of the guqin in full swing, Mr. Wu once appealed: "All pianists and young violinists, including himself, need to inherit the origin and original version of the traditional qin music they play in china's guqin art tradition and their own, including the fingerings and artistic expressions used, re-examine, ponder, study and study with the characteristics of the times, and completely change the long-standing one-sided cognition and practice, only in this way. Only in this way can this traditional art be truly protected and carried forward under the current historical conditions. This attitude of viewing guqin art from a historical perspective, a rigorous attitude and a developing mind leads us to understand that although the guqin world is broad, there are no rules and no squares. Only by keeping the right can this ancient and vital art get the respect it deserves in the current era.
In addition to working Shouzheng, Mr. Wu has also made explorations for the inheritance and development of the guqin with his keen perspective and developed ideas. As early as 2008, Mr. Wu put forward the advanced idea of "officially listing 'the performance and theory of guqin' as a university general education course for students to freely choose.". In 2019, Peking University set up the "Peking University Guqin Inheritance Program", and "Appreciation of Classical Guqin Art" was loved by beijing teachers and students as a school-level public election course. Mr. Wu was deeply relieved to hear this news, but despite his advanced age, he came to teach several times. In 2020, Mr. Wu and Professor Peng Feng jointly gave a lecture entitled "The Aesthetic Education Function of Guqin Music and Its Practical Significance", and the large classroom of 500 people was full. It can be seen from this that true art, true artists, is bound to be eagerly welcomed by the vast number of young students. Mr. Wu's lectures are full of deep hope for young people, and he always emphasizes that young students should correctly understand traditional culture, follow the connotation and aesthetics of traditional culture, grasp the spirit of traditional art and carry out correct inheritance and dissemination. Listening to the giant Hongru talk about the aesthetic education of the guqin, there are both the collision of Chinese and Western ideas, as well as the discussion of vertical and horizontal history, which always inspires us to make our own efforts for the development of this ancient art.
From a distance, we may be frightened by Mr. Wu's external titles such as "guqinist", "music historian", "national non-hereditary heir" and so on. However, as long as you listen to his piano music in depth, quietly study his articles, and listen carefully to his course, I think that you will be like me, seeing an elderly person's ardent expectations for his juniors, hearing a teacher's earnest teaching to his students, and experiencing a scholar's painstaking and lonely practice in the cultivation of piano!
(Original title: He opened a guqin door for us)
Source: Beijing Evening News
Author: Li Yang
Process Edit: L020
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