Hua Yanjun

A Bing

A Bing (August 17, 1893 - December 4, 1950), formerly known as Hua Yanjun (Hua Yanjun), was born in Wuxi City. He is a folk musician and a Taoist of Zhengyi school. He was blind due to eye disease.

A Bing assiduously studied Taoist music, kept improving, and extensively absorbed the tunes of folk music. He created and performed more than 270 pieces of folk music in his life. His father Hua Qinghe is a Taoist of leizun hall, the Taoist temple of Sanqing hall in Wuxi City, and he is good at Taoist music. Hua Yanjun lost his mother when he was 4 years old and was raised by his aunt. At the age of 8, he became a Taoist priest with his father in leizun hall. He began to study in a private school for three years, and then learned drum, flute, erhu, Pipa and other musical instruments from his father. At the age of 12, he has been able to play a variety of musical instruments, and often participates in activities such as confession, chanting and playing music. When he was 18 years old, he was praised as a performer by Wuxi Taoist music circle. On December 4, 1950, a Bing died of illness at the age of 57.

At present, a Bing has six erhu tunes: Er Quan Ying Yue, Ting song, Han Chun Feng and Pipa tunes: big waves washing sand, dragon boat and Zhaojun leaving the fortress.

Life of the characters

On August 17, 1893 (the 19th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty), a Bing was born in the Yihe mountain house beside the leizun hall in Wuxi. Hua Yanjun lost his mother when he was 4 years old and was raised by his aunt.

In 1901, he became a Taoist priest with his father in leizun hall. He began to study in a private school for three years, and then learned drum, flute, erhu, Pipa and other musical instruments from his father.

In 1905, a Bing began to learn how to play the flute. His father often asked him to play against the wind and hang an iron ring on the end of the flute to enhance his wrist strength. Later, he simply changed the iron ring into a weight. When a Bing was learning erhu, he worked harder, with blood stains on the strings and thick cocoons on his fingers. The outer string of the erhu used by a Bing was much thicker than the ordinary string, which was inseparable from his perennial practice Yes.

In 1910, a Bing officially took part in playing Taoist music. He was known as "little master of heaven" for his talent and good voice.

In 1918, when his father died, he became the great Taoist of leizun temple. Later, Hua Yanjun began to smoke opium and go whoring because he made friends carelessly. Later, he suffered from eye disease and became blind. He was unable to take part in legal labor, so he made a living by performing arts on the street.

In 1929, she married Dong caidi, a rural widow in Jiangyin.

In 1933, he lived with a widow. He composed and sang the news of "the 19th Route Army bravely fighting the enemy in Shanghai" and played "March of the volunteers" with his family's mahogany huqin. After the Japanese occupied Wuxi, a Bing and his younger brother took refuge in their hometown. He soon went to Shanghai, worked as a zither player in Kunqu banxianni society, played Sanxian, and acted as a blind man in the film "qichongtian". At that time, his work Tingsong was a heroic and emotional erhu solo, which poured out the patriotic enthusiasm of not wanting to be a slave. In the 28th year of the Republic of China, he returned to Xicheng and started his old business again. Every morning, he went to the teahouse to collect all kinds of news, came back to design and create. In the afternoon, he sang in front of the teahouse of Chongan temple. At night, he played erhu in the street, playing his "cold spring breeze". He can play the lute on his head. He can also use the erhu to imitate the sounds of men, women, young and old talking, sighing, laughing, crowing of chickens and barking of dogs. After the victory of the Anti Japanese War, he was forbidden to talk and sing news in a fixed place of Chongan temple. In the 36th year of the Republic of China, he suffered from a lung attack and vomited blood in bed. Since then, he no longer went to the streets to perform arts. He had a hard life repairing huqin at home.

After the liberation of Wuxi on April 23, 1949, a Bing and his music "two springs reflecting the moon" were reborn. In the summer of 1950, in order to explore, study and preserve folk music, the teachers and students of the Central Conservatory of music commissioned Professor Yang Yinliu and others to make a special trip to Wuxi to record three erhu songs, namely, er Quan Ying Yue, Ting song, Han Chun Feng Qu, and three pipa songs, namely, big waves washing sand, dragon boat and Zhaojun leaving the fortress.

On December 4, 1950, a Bing died of illness at the age of 57. He was buried in the tomb of Taoist Yihe Shanfang at the foot of can mountain in the western suburb of Wuxi.

In May 1979, the tomb was destroyed and the bones were collected by Wuxi Museum.

In 1983, he was moved to the east foot of Huishan mountain and the south of Erquan. The cemetery covers an area of 742 square meters. The main body is composed of tomb wall and wing wall, which looks like a music stage. The old tombstone is now in the Museum of Wuxi. The colored tombstone is composed of the Chinese Music Research Institute, Wuxi wenlianli, Yang yinliushu, a bronze statue of a Bing, a blind man in front of the tomb, and a sculpture by Qian Shaowu.

Character story

A Bing's life is full of plot ups and downs like a drama. It is said that the only image left in his life is a standard photo on the "good citizen card" during the period of the puppet rule in Wuxi. The middle-aged man in the photo, wearing blind glasses, describes the face of a thin middle-aged man under a broken felt hat, showing the hardships and vicissitudes of life. Perhaps the fate of a Bing's suffering, is the achievement of his soul stirring music. The illegitimate son of Hua Qinghe was deprived of the right of family love. When his biological mother reluctantly ended her life to resist secular discrimination, some secret parts of the child's character have been visible. After several years of foster care, the boy returned to his father Hua Qinghe. What he saw in his eyes may be more confused. According to the information, he called "Shifu" to his father who was a Taoist. Huaqing and Xuemei are proficient in all kinds of musical instruments. Abing studied hard and soon mastered the playing skills of erhu, Sanxian, pipa, flute and other musical instruments. At the moment, ah Bing still thinks that he is just an orphan who has been taken care of by a kind-hearted person. However, when he was 21 years old, a Bing suddenly understood his life before Hua Qinghe died of illness.

Hua Yanjun, the new Taoist in charge of leizun hall in Dongxu palace of Taoist temple in Wuxi City, seems to be indulgent, eating, drinking, whoring, gambling and even taking opium. The absurd life brought absurd results: because of syphilis, he was blind and lost control of Taoism. After living on the street, the people arranged for Dong caidi, a rural widow in Jiangyin, to take care of him. This is the contradiction in the world. Ah Bing in pain and despair did not break the pot. In the days to come, a creative folk artist, who is famous for "blind ah Bing", will be born.

A Bing's music is the most moving in this period. There are many stories about the spread of Erhu opera Er Quan Ying Yue. It is said that Li Songshou, a professor of Nanjing Normal University, was a neighbor to a Bing when he was a child. He liked erhu when he was young, and he often got a Bing's advice on playing techniques. Later, he was admitted to the Department of folk music of Nanjing Art College. It was very cold every day. He moved his fingers outside his teacher's piano room and pulled a piece of music that a Bing taught him. At the end of the song, a man came to ask him what he played. The teacher told him that the man who asked him was Professor Yang Yinliu from the Central Conservatory of music. Li Songshou said that the music was taught by a folk artist in his hometown, and there was no name. Yang Yinliu said that the music is good and that they are collecting folk music. They want to record such good folk music with wire recorders just imported from abroad. Li Songshou made an appointment with Professor Yang and returned to his hometown until September when Yang Yinliu, Cao An and two professors came to Wuxi. This time, the mission they brought was to record Taoist music in Wuxi. After recording the Taoist music, Li Songshou insisted on asking them to record a Bing's music. When a Bing finished playing a song, Professor Yang Yinliu asked the name of the song in a low voice. A Bing said that there was no name. Professor Yang said that it's impossible to have a name. You have to think of one. Ah Bing went on to say that it's called Er Quan Yin Yue. Professor Yang also said that the name of "Yinyue" is similar to Guangdong music, or yingyue. Is there Yingshan Lake in Wuxi? Ah Bing said, "OK, your knowledge is great. I'll listen to you.".

On this matter, Mr. Li Songshou said in his recollection article: on September 2, 1950, my wife and I accompanied Yang Yinliu, Cao An and the two gentlemen to find a Bing for recording. On that day, the recording began at 7:30 p.m. At the time of recording, a Bing was in poor health, and his hand was not strong enough. Qin was also found temporarily, so the preserved Er Quan Ying Yue was not the best. A Bing's last performance was on September 25, 1950, which is the 23rd day after recording. It seems to be an artistic performance at the founding meeting of Wuxi Dental Association. A Bing supported the sick to go out. Because he walked slowly, the performance was almost over when he arrived at the venue. I helped a Bing to the stage and sat in front of the microphone. This is a Bing's first and only performance in front of a microphone in his life. At first, a Bing played the pipa. Later, someone asked him to play erhu. My wife and I asked him to pay attention to his health and not to play. A Bing said: "I play the piano for the folks in Wuxi. I'm willing to die." Then he pulled up "Er Quan Ying Yue", which he had played many times. I remember it was full of people, even the windows. At the end of the performance, applause and cheers kept coming from the audience. When ah Bing heard it, he took off his hat and nodded.

Music works

《

The Moon Over a Fountain

》

The work was created in 1950 by recording erhu music. Hua Yanjun is an outstanding folk musician in China. He is from Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. He has been in music since childhood, and has been adapted into various forms of instrumental music. He is famous at home and abroad for his beautiful lyric melody and deeply moving musical connotation.

《

Tingsong

》

Tingsong, also known as Tingsong, seems to describe Yue Fei, a great patriotic general in Song Dynasty. The Song Tao praises Yue Fei, a national hero, for his unyielding character and firm self-confidence. It also praises the Chinese people's lofty national integrity and strong will to fight

Chinese PinYin : Hua Yan Jun1