Yuan Zhongping

Yuan Zhongping

Yuan Zhongping, born in 1959 in Taipei, is the founder of the New York piano club. He learned Qin from sun Yuqin in Taipei, Wu Zhaoji in Suzhou and Zhang Longyan in New York. He is engaged in composing and has won the Golden Tripod Award for best composition in Taiwan. At present, he has settled in the East Village of New York City and founded the New York violin club and Zhichan Art Center. Yuan Zhongping took the piano to the end of the world, and the music and morality were integrated among the Mohist strings.

brief introduction

Yuan Zhongping, born in 1959 in Taipei, is the founder of the New York piano club. Guqin player. He teaches "finger zen and health cultivation", mainly in calligraphy, Taijiquan and Qigong. He also teaches Guqin at Nanhua University in Taiwan and Qingdao University in Shandong Province in China.

Life of the characters

Yuan Zhongping, whose ancestral home is Jiangxi, has been a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner for generations, and is known as Shengmao hall. During the Anti Japanese War, my father and uncle joined the army in order to defend their country. They graduated from the 13th Huangpu Military Academy. His father was both a soldier and a scholar. He was good at poetry and was good at playing flute. Yuan Zhongping, born in Taiwan, liked to watch his father write calligraphy when he was a child. Every new year, you can enjoy the beautiful and practical Spring Festival couplets of your father. "Maybe it's because I like to see my father's calligraphy. As a teenager, I already like to use a brush to copy Baishou characters," he said Yuan Zhongping was a famous singer on campus in Taiwan. He and the famous musicians Tong Angu and Qiu Yue were classmates of Fuxing business, industry, art and engineering. They all like music and art. Yuan Zhongping is the head and conductor of the school chorus. In 1978, three people formed the chorus "traveler", which is popular among thousands of fans. At that time, Yuan Zhongping was the most enchanted and surrounded by girls among "travelers". Yuan Zhongping became famous when he was young. He was often recognized by fans and asked for autographs. He said that at that time, all men in Taiwan faced the problem of military service. He was exempted from military service because of amblyopia in his left eye. At the peak of his popularity, he resolutely stepped back and came to the United States to study in 1983. In 1989, Yuan Zhongping won the Golden Tripod Award for best composition sponsored by the information bureau of the executive yuan of Taiwan for his album "happy journey". Taiwan seamount records Co., Ltd. has published a rich folk ballad style album "traveler trio" for them. The whole album is romantic and full of nostalgia.

My notes

On Friday, April 6, 2007, world weekly, on March 25, 2007, Yuan Zhongping, a Guqin player who pursues the unity of Qin and morality, wears a "Hanfu" and takes the Qin to the world. He worships a famous teacher in Wumen, visits high scholars in the mountains, and plays Qin and chess in the cave. He is pure and refined, and remains independent from the rest of the world. When he was young, he never left a blank. Now he has traveled all over Qingshan. People are not old. On the Qinghai Plateau, on the Gobi desert, at the foot of Lushan Mountain, in immortal cave, by the Yellow River, Yumen pass , leaving his trace and piano sound everywhere. In the world of New York, he is a Guqin player. since the "Taipei Art Gallery" of the Chinese News and cultural center in New York became history in 2002, Yuan Zhongping has not seen him for several years. When he meets again, he has turned into a "Taoist monk". He is dressed in Taoist clothes, with long hair and long sleeves, which adds a bit of immortality. Yuan Zhongping said to the reporter with a serious face: "I don't wear this dress for interviews. I usually wear it when I go out." He asked why he wanted to show off his "strange clothes"? He said that this was the official "Hanfu" in China. At first, it was used for playing Guqin. He lived a life of wandering around the world and simply returned to his true colors. the Guqin player, who has won the true biography of Wumen, said that Guqin is the most representative of Chinese traditional culture and has been respected and loved by intellectuals and foreign dignitaries since ancient times. For him, Guqin is not only a musical instrument, but also a key to the mystery of the universe.

How can Yuan play the piano

"At that time in Taiwan, I knew nothing about the so-called piano, chess, calligraphy and painting. After coming to New York, I heard the sound of Guqin from a tape. It's so beautiful! It attracts me deeply, like an old friend I haven't seen for many years, familiar and strange. " Yuan Zhongping was fascinated by the sound of guqin, and then began to study the history of Guqin. He said that before in Taiwan, he never thought of "seeking roots"; instead, when he came to the world stage in New York, he was particularly eager to find his own cultural source and build a spiritual home. it is said that the Yanjing Library of Harvard University in Boston has a large collection of ancient Chinese books. He made a special trip from New York to Harvard to look for piano scores. To his surprise, there are a lot of Guqin scores in the Yanjing library. He asked to copy them. With the consent of the library, he photocopied two boxes of Guqin scores, including songfengge and kumuchan. Gao was happy to return to New York. although he had the score, he didn't have it yet. He practiced it slowly with the fingering method in the score. There are no symbols of rhythm, beat and speed in the score, so it is necessary to arrange and explain different music in the complicated fingering according to the player's cultivation and instrumentality, so as to show everyone's feelings. "Therefore, playing Guqin is very interesting and difficult. It can be said that Guqin is not only a musical instrument, but also a Taoist instrument. " The first Guqin is actually a Ming Dynasty guqin, which was repaired by Xu Wenjing. It looks like a dragon and a Phoenix. The shape of the ancients is simple and the tone is pure and elegant. He clearly remembers that it was Tomb Sweeping Day, and "it rained a lot during the Tomb Sweeping Day". In the drizzle, he went to Kennedy International Airport to pick up his classmate's plane, so he took the word "Tomb Sweeping Day" as his Zhai number. Another significance is to commemorate his father. On the eve of Yuan Zhongping's going abroad, his father, a Confucian general in his military life, presented him with the eight characters of "clear and bright in the bow, with lofty ambition". "In those days, I took the music score as my teacher, groping bit by bit. At night, I even held the piano in bed, plucked the strings, and listened to it. It was like the sound of the pines in a remote valley. It had a world of its own. However, the world of guqin, which is really far-reaching and broad, has not yet begun. " Yuan Zhongping decided to visit a famous teacher. He found out that sun Yuqin, a Guqin player in Taiwan, was worshipped by him. sun Yuqin has been practicing Zen for many years, and the style of Qin is vigorous. One day, sun Yuqin played a volume of Guqin playing tape as a teaching material, in which Wu Zhaoji, a Guqin master, played "plum blossom Sannong". "Sun Gong told me that Wu Shi's music has a special rhythm and different styles, and he is proud of the music." From sun Yuqin's mouth, Yuan Zhongping learned Wu Zhaoji's name for the first time. In 1987, Taiwan lifted martial law and opened up to visit relatives on the mainland. Because of his long-standing knowledge of Wu Zhaoji and his father's instilling in their brothers the idea of the motherland since childhood, he hoped that they would not forget their ancestors. Yuan Zhongping, a native of New York, did not know his father. With a passion and impulse, he flew to Shanghai, China for the first time, hoping to find a famous teacher to guide him to practice. Wu Zhaoji, the great master of the generation, was taught by his father Wu Lansun, a Confucian school zither player. As a result of his participation in the Yiyuan Qin club, he was taught by Wu Jinyang, a Guqin master who gathered the merits of various schools. He also got the secret biography of a famous Taiji master and created a special way of playing Qin, which combines Taijiquan, qigong and Taoism.

Learning from teachers

It's said that Wu Zhaoji lives in Suzhou, while yuan Zhongping goes to Suzhou by train from Shanghai. He has no specific address and there are so many people. How can he find it? After dinner, he strolled around Shiquan Street and visited a bone shop. He saw an ancient painting in which a Gaoshi was playing Guqin. He asked the owner if he knew there was a Guqin player Wu Zhaoji here? The owner replied, "I've heard of it! You go next door and ask It turns out that next door is Suzhou University Arts and Crafts Society. when he pushed the door into the shop, several elders were playing chess. After the leader asked about his intention, he called the girl in front of the shop to report to Wu Zhaoji's house. They asked him to sit down, chat and drink tea, and learned that Wu Zhaoji was once a professor of mathematics at Suzhou University. 30 minutes later, the girl came back and told Wu that it was late today and she could go tomorrow morning. In his heart, he was very happy. After a long search, he finally got his eyes. At dawn, the girl was waiting for him in front of the shop. She was walking all the way to the gate of Wu's house, with the willows on the side of the bridge and the fragrant flowers on the warm day. Yuan Zhongping recalled, "when you enter the room, it's quiet and elegant. It's in the middle of winter. On the old style heater, the steam of hot water comes out, like clouds rising in the mountains. The Tibetan robe sets off the snow-white beard on the chest. It has bright eyes and makes people respect. The tone is gentle and intimate. When you sit still, a touch of warm sunshine comes from the window behind him. It seems that he is directing the shooting. You can't see through the life experience in the wrinkles of his smile. You just feel like you are in the dust of the market. Naturally, you have an inexplicable yearning in your heart. Hanging on the wall are a number of ancient Qixian beds, which are full of treasure and brilliance After their conversation, Yuan Zhongping asked Wu Zhaoji to play a piece. "In front of me, I saw a generation of zither players playing. Fingers, sounds, zither and people were integrated into one For a while, he did not know the sound of the piano, but the sound of the wind was not clear. At the end of the song, I don't know where my spirit is, but the music is in my ears. I asked my husband to accept me. He said, "if you have a chance, you will meet in the future." In his smile, if I have any understanding. " Yuan Zhongping went from Hangzhou to Nanjing when he failed to pay homage to his teacher. At the Zhongshan Mausoleum in Nanjing, he sat on the steps, seriously thinking about the meaning of life and asking himself what he wanted. He was not willing to go back to his home. It was already night when he jumped on the train and turned back to Suzhou. White walls and black tiles, small bridges and flowing water, reflecting the moonlight, so quiet, he felt that he began to fall in love with the city and had another kind of closeness to rely on. He stepped on the bluestone road and worried about Wu Zhaoji's refusal of his apprenticeship? "Then I found myself lost. When a woman passes by, she asks for directions. She is kind-hearted

Chinese PinYin : Yuan Zhong Ping