Riding the wind of rebirth

"Elbow, what are these characters?" Mai Xiaomiao asked Zhou Zhi as they approached a book filled with strange characters.

“Xiao Miao has stumped me too.” Zhou Zhi looked at the books in the counter: “I only know that this is a qin score. There’s a scene in ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ where Jia Baoyu doesn’t recognize the qin score, so Lin Daiyu teaches him a few simple ones. I remember something similar to this. The characters ‘大’ and ‘九’ on it mean pressing the ninth fret on the qin with your left thumb, and the hook with the character ‘五’ means hooking the fifth string with your right hand. That’s roughly the idea. Each character on it actually refers to the fingering and the position of the fret. I don’t know anything more specific. We’ll have to ask Mr. Jiang to explain it to us.”

Jiang Tianxi smiled and said, "This is the Chuncaotang Qinpu (a type of Chinese zither score) that our school has collected and restored. It consists of six volumes and was compiled by Cao Shang and other musicians in the Qing Dynasty. This set is a copy published in the sixth year of the Jiaqing reign of the Qing Dynasty."

“The characters on these are not ordinary Chinese characters, but rather ‘musical notation’ used to record musical scores. This type of musical score is called ‘tabuli’.”

"The so-called 'reduction of characters' actually means that the more distinctive parts of the fingering techniques and terminology of the guqin are removed and then combined. Simply put, it is a simplified combination of Chinese characters."

“Besides the Chinese numerals '1' to '13' on the thirteen frets and '1' to '7' on the seven strings, all fingering techniques, speed, and dynamic expressions can be transformed into tablature elements.”

"For example, the index finger is represented by the 'person' or 'person' radical of the character '食', and the ring finger is represented by the 'evening' radical of the character '名'."

"So, '中' and '大' actually refer to the middle finger and thumb, because these two characters are simple, so we just use '中' and '大' to represent them. Right, Grandpa Jiang?" Mai Xiaomiao asked, pointing to a few words in the book.

“Little Miao is indeed clever, just like that.” Jiang Tianxi laughed: “Look here, these two radicals are actually the fingering of the right thumb. ‘乇’ means ‘托’, which means the thumb is extending from the string; ‘尸’ means ‘擘’, which means the thumb is inserting into the string.”

“These simplified Chinese characters, when combined, become the ‘musical notation’ we see. Take this character as an example. It is composed of the upper part ‘大’ and ‘九’ and the lower part ‘乚’ and ‘五’. The upper part represents the fingering of the left hand, which here means pressing the ninth fret with the left thumb. The lower part is the fingering of the right hand, which here means plucking the fifth string with the index finger. This is how a sound played with a special technique is expressed.”

Below the books is a guqin, a Song Dynasty guqin called "Long'ao" from the collection of Sichuan University Museum. Sichuan is renowned throughout the country for its guqin collection, and this guqin is something that Sichuan University Museum can be proud of. It is now on display to complement the exhibition.

Mai Xiaomiao placed her hand on the glass surface of the display case and mimicked the movements on the ancient zither score from a distance: "How interesting! The ancients were really clever!"

After leaving the exhibition, Zhou Zhi took Mai Xiaomiao to the small street behind the Sichuan Conservatory of Music. When they returned to Suihuaxuan, Zhou Zhi had a brocade pouch tucked under his arm, inside which was a long object.

"What is this?" Feng Xueshan asked, her belly protruding.

"I bought this stuff on the musical instrument street," Elbow said with a smile.

Mai Xiaomiao took out a book and opened it: "Sister Xueshan, guess what this is?"

Feng Xueshan glanced at it: "This is sheet music."

Mai Xiaomiao's eyes widened: "Sister Xueshan, how did you know?"

"Yes, how did you know?" Zhou Zhi also found it strange. Feng Xueshan liked listening to Teresa Teng and Faye Wong, and he never knew that she had any knowledge of these things.

"Linghu Chong possessed the sheet music for 'The Smiling, Proud Wanderer' given to him by an elder of the Hengshan Sect. He was once mistaken by Lin Pingzhi's maternal grandfather in Luoyang for the Lin family's Evil-Repelling Sword Technique because of the strange writing on it. Later, Ren Yingying played it in Green Bamboo Lane, clearing up the misunderstanding. Ren Yingying then taught Linghu Chong the piece, and from that moment on, she fell in love with him." "Hey! I forgot you've read 'The Smiling, Proud Wanderer'! The bookstore near the Sugar and Wine Company has a Hong Kong vertical edition of 'The Smiling, Proud Wanderer,' with color pages at the beginning. One page introduces the arts of qin (a stringed instrument), chess, calligraphy, and painting, and it has a picture of this sheet music." Zhou Zhi suddenly realized.

"You have a really good memory." Feng Xueshan laughed. She only liked reading romance novels and wasn't particularly interested in martial arts novels. However, Zhou Zhi was penniless in junior high school and would pester Feng Xueshan to rent him books. After reading them, he would tell Feng Xueshan vivid stories about them, which Feng Xueshan would actually listen to.

When they talked about their childhood, they both smiled.

"So you still remember." Zhou Zhi scratched his forehead. "It feels like just yesterday, but in the blink of an eye, the next generation is about to come into this world."

Dinner was a nutritious meal. For the sake of the pregnant woman, Zhou Zhi specially instructed the kitchen to make it lighter. The cold shredded chicken salad was changed to a roasted pepper flavor, but instead of green peppers, large bell peppers were roasted, mashed into a sauce, and served with some Sichuan peppercorn oil, salt, and cold chicken broth, emphasizing the original flavor.

After dinner, Zhou Zhi and Mai Xiaomiao helped Feng Xueshan take a walk. Feng Xueshan's feet were a little swollen, supposedly due to her lack of exercise. However, with Zhou Zhi and Mai Xiaomiao by her side, and given the pleasant environment of Suihuaxuan, she was happy to walk a few steps.

Yang Xiaodong and Yang He didn't return until after sunset. One was busy with work at the construction site, and the other had more work to do during his holiday than during school. They were both quite pitiful.

"There's cold congee, cold shredded chicken salad, braised vegetables, and water spinach salad," Zhou Zhi said with a smile. "Xiaodong can have some beer with your uncle."

"Let's skip it for the next few days, no drinking," Yang He said. "How's Xue Shan today?"

"That's good, you should go eat now," Feng Xueshan said. "Uncle Guan and the others will be here soon."

A short while later, Aunt Guan and Guan Dabin arrived, bringing with them glutinous rice balls.

Guan's mother has a very strong presence now. Her daughter has lived up to her mother's expectations since childhood, achieving something her mother never even dared to dream of: becoming a household name and a big star at such a young age, with a bright future ahead.

Guan's mother also serves as the deputy director of the Jiachuan Liaison Office in Chengdu. Some people from Manzhou who don't know her usually show an incredulous expression when they hear that she is Guan Tingting's mother, followed by a barrage of compliments.

Aunt Guan enjoyed that kind of situation. In addition, she and Guan Dabin had already built their own circle in Sichuan, so she could handle many things at the Chengdu office with ease. The county government really couldn't do without her.

Due to her personality, many matters in the county that were in Chengdu required her to take charge.

Upon seeing Zhou Zhiguan's mother, she grabbed his hand and sighed, "Children grow up and leave home. We originally tried every means to settle down in Chengdu, intending to stay with Tingting while she studied at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music. But now, she's traveling all over the world with her Sichuan Conservatory of Music student status."

“Tingting is pursuing further studies. With her current foundation, she will definitely reach even greater heights when she returns,” Zhou Zhi said with a smile. “Gavin Christopher is Mariah Carey’s acoustics teacher. Such an opportunity is something that others can only envy.”

“Yes, all that talk about 99% perspiration is a lie,” Feng Xueshan said. “Zhouzi is right. In artistic sports, talent is the most important thing. Only with talent can you have the right to work hard. Otherwise, ten years of hard work won’t be as good as someone who learns for a month. Tingting has both talent and early training, has been guided by famous teachers all along, and has a good image and temperament. Aunt Guan, you don’t need to worry at all.” (End of this chapter)