Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 1208 Postscript 64: When the false is true, the true is also false

"The geese are coming, the geese are coming!"

Early in the morning, several men brought wild geese to the door.

Xie Shizhang personally went to check and found that there were six wild geese, only one of which had obvious scars on its feet.

"Not bad, not bad," Xie Shizhang smiled and praised, "Raise them all, and then pick the fattest two as betrothal gifts."

Xie Yiqin immediately paid a high price to buy them, and gave each of the men a reward.

Gold, silver, jewelry, silk and satin, etc., are just extras for the betrothal gifts for the royal family. The real core betrothal gifts are the phoenix crown, wedding dress and a pair of wild geese - the princess's wedding dress, which needs to be purchased by the prince consort's family and sent to the palace as a betrothal gift.

Back in the house, Xie Shizhang said, "There is not much floating wealth left in the family. Is there enough money for the wedding banquet? If not, I will lose face and go to borrow some from my old friends."

Wang Yitong said, "Don't worry, father. The wedding banquet in Luoyang will be funded by the royal family, and we only need to send betrothal gifts. The wedding banquet in my hometown doesn't need to be too grand."

The wedding banquet in Luoyang was held at the princess's home, and all the procedures were handled by the Zongzheng Temple. In particular, who should be invited to the wedding banquet needs the approval of the emperor.

The son-in-law can also hold a wedding in his hometown, pay for it himself, and invite guests himself, and the time can be postponed. Of course, the son-in-law and the princess will definitely not show up, it is purely the people in the hometown who are celebrating by themselves.

In Xie Shizhang's generation, there were only two brothers, but there were several cousins ​​and several clan brothers. His brother, who was a Jinshi official, died of illness while serving as the governor of Yingzhou, and some of his children and grandchildren stayed in Yingzhou (Kyushu Island, Japan) to settle down.

Xie Yiqin had many brothers and sisters in his generation!

After all, he had a father who was a romantic.

However, Xie Yiqin was the only one who passed the imperial examination and became an official.

Among Xie Yiqin's brothers, one younger brother worked as a government official in Shandong, one younger brother worked as a county official in Hebei, and one younger brother worked as a ship transporter in Duliu Town. Several other brothers worked as government officials or village school teachers.

The rest of the brothers made a living by farming.

The cousins ​​who moved to Yingzhou to settle down no longer had much contact with each other.

The shops in the town and the land in the countryside were handed over to the fifth brother to manage. The fifth brother was the only son of the famous prostitute in Baoding.

According to common sense, the family business should be managed by Xie Yiqin's younger brother. But the capable younger brother went to Shandong to work as a government official, and the rest were not capable of managing the household.

Xie Yan had more cousins ​​in his generation.

Wang Yitong only gave birth to three sons and one daughter, ranking the eldest, second, sixth, and thirteenth in the family.

With so many descendants, all of whom are studying, the family's small business can no longer support them. Xie Yiqin and several brothers who can make money are supporting them. If they continue to develop, they will split up sooner or later, and some of the descendants of the Xie family will soon become self-employed farmers.

(In addition, don't question why the eldest and second brothers are not married. If you look up more information about Jinshi in the Song Dynasty, you will know that there are many who are not married at the age of 25 or 26. They just want to get fame before talking about marriage.)

It's meaningless for the Xie family to come to the Luoyang wedding this time, and the main thing is to stay in the hometown to hold a banquet to celebrate.

...

Xie Yan is reading his grandfather's music score. He can't understand the musical terms, but there are a lot of text descriptions in the music score.

"Grandfather, is your "Guangling San" true or false?" Xie Yan expressed serious doubts.

Xie Shizhang answered ambiguously: "If I think it is true, then it is true."

Xie Yan understood: "When the false is made true, the true is also false, and when there is nothing, there is something and there is nothing?"

Xie Shizhang laughed and said: "You said these two sentences interestingly!"

Old liar!

"Did you make up all the piano scores of "Guangling San" yourself?" Xie Yan asked again.

Xie Shizhang said: "I don't have such a great ability. When I was 42 years old, I was invited by a friend to travel around Liaoning. At a used book stall in Liaoyang, I found a soaked ancient zither score. The handwriting was blurred and there were missing pages, but based on the score, it can be basically determined that it was the "Nie Zheng Assassinated the King of Han" from the Sui and Tang Dynasties."

Xie Yan only knew that "Guangling San" was awesome, and asked curiously: "If it is "Nie Zheng Assassinated the King of Han", what is the relationship with "Guangling San"? "

Xie Shizhang's smile was a bit sarcastic: "The so-called music scholars of the Ming Dynasty, based on the description of the "Qin Book" in the pre-Song Dynasty, and using a suspected fake book "Qin Cao" by Cai Yong to verify it, they insisted that "Nie Zheng Assassinated the King of Han" was "Guangling San", and there were dozens of related papers. They were so sure, so I just followed their story."

"Can't these two zither pieces really be one?" Xie Yan asked.

Xie Shizhang said: "The Qin table only started to appear in the Tang Dynasty, and it became popular in the Song Dynasty. How could Ji Kang, who was sitting cross-legged on the Qin at that time, play the sound of "violent and violent, spears and swords crisscrossing" described in the "Qin Book" of the pre-Song Dynasty? And Ying Qu of the Cao Wei period wrote clearly in a letter to a friend that he heard Guangling Qingsan. The sound of Qingsan is thick, broad, quiet and distant. How could it be a song of assassination?" Xie Yan laughed and said: "So, those music scholars of the Royal Society are wrong?" "When I was young, I wrote a special music paper to refute the claim that the two songs were confused," Xie Shizhang said with even more sarcasm in his tone, "That paper was ignored, and they didn't even send me a rejection letter. Come to think of it, if my paper could be published, wouldn't all their dozens of papers become a joke?" Xie Yan felt the same way.

Xie Shizhang was full of bad ideas: "I won't refute it now, and I will compile "Guangling San" according to their preferences. They must regard it as a treasure. Hehe, before I die, I will compile the "Guangling San" from that year. Print hundreds of copies of the paper and send it to low-level music bachelors who want to stand out!"

Xie Yan was quite speechless. The old man was just angry here.

I have already submitted my invitation today, and in two days I will be able to visit Yang Linzhi, the music master, who successfully calculated the Twelve Equal Temperaments and composed "Taizong's Breaking Formation Music of the Ming Dynasty".

Xie Yan asked: "When Zu Weng was young, he should have been quite famous in Luoyang, right?"

Xie Shizhang said proudly: "I made friends with King Tao at that time, who was the sixth brother of Emperor Dingtai. At that time, I went to Beijing for the examination for the first time. Although unfortunately I failed, I amazed the Wenhui with my piano skills. There are scholars He introduced me to Prince Tao, and I stayed in Prince Tao's mansion for three full months. When I left the capital, I was given two thousand guan of treasure."

"Awesome!" Xie Yan praised.

Xie Shizhang said: "Because I had the reputation of being a civil servant, King Tao couldn't hire me privately, so he recommended me to be a piano player in the Hanlin Academy. I was still thinking about taking the imperial examination, so I declined politely. There were also other reasons for advocating the " The bastard with the same name as "Nie Zheng Assassins the King of Han" and "Guangling San" was the chief piano player of the Hanlin Academy at that time. I didn't want to be associated with him. It's stupid to think about it now. I should go to the Hanlin Academy to follow him. Let’s fight!”

"What happened next?" Xie Yan asked.

Xie Shizhang sighed and said: "The second time I went to Beijing to take the exam, King Tao had died of illness. I regarded King Tao as a close friend. Now that he is dead, why should I still play the piano in Luoyang? I only played one song in front of King Tao's mausoleum. Then he returned home sadly."

This old man is still a sweetheart.

Two days later, Xie Yan took his grandfather to visit Yang Linzhi.

Yang Linzhi's house is twenty miles away in the western suburbs of Luoyang. He doesn't want to live that far away, mainly because he can't afford a house closer if he has money.

"Some are welcome from a distance, some are welcome from afar!" Yang Linzhi smiled and bowed.

After Xie Yan paid his respects, he introduced: "This is my grandfather. Grandfather, this is Yang Hanlin."

Xie Shizhang bowed and said: "Cangzhou Xie Shizhang is so talented in writing and writing that I have met Yang Hanlin!"

"Brother Xian, you're polite, please come in." Yang Linzhi felt that it sounded familiar, but he didn't think much more about it.

I came to the living room and sat down, and the maid brought tea.

After exchanging a few words, Yang Linzhi smiled and said: "I received the emperor's order two days ago, and I will play the piano at Bachelor Xie's wedding banquet to entertain."

Xie Yan really didn't know this, so he quickly raised his hand and said, "Thank you for your condescension, Yang Hanlin."

Yang Linzhi waved his hand and said: "As a Hanlin musician and a princess getting married, I should do my best."

Xie Yan took the opportunity to take out the piano score: "My grandfather also studied the art of piano a little, and compiled a "Piano Score" by himself, and asked Yang Hanlin to correct it."

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"Don't take it seriously, it's just a discussion." Yang Linzhi held it in both hands, seemingly taking it seriously, but in fact he didn't take it seriously.

A folk violin player, he didn't even get a bachelor's degree, and at most he was just famous in his hometown.

The title of the book is unremarkable, called Duliupu.

The preface is also very simple. He said that he learned piano at the age of seven and started collecting piano music when he was nearly thirty years old. This book contains three lost ancient tunes, completes seven incomplete ancient tunes, and records 12 self-composed Qin tunes.

"Um?"

Yang Linzhi frowned, and the text began with "Guangling San".

This thing is too famous and has been lost for too long. Every now and then, speculators claim to have discovered "Guangling San", but without exception they are all fakes.

The song "Thanks to the Prince Consort's Grandpa" is probably also a forgery.

Yang Linzhi began to think about how to deal with it, so as not to offend the future prince-in-law, but also not to take a fake poem seriously.

Alas, it’s difficult!

When he saw the music score of "Guangling San", Yang Linzhi suddenly became energetic again. Because he discovered that this forgery had taken a lot of effort and was actually quite interesting.

The so-called "tuning meaning" is an untitled piece of music whose function is to indicate the style, mode and tuning of the formal music.

Some of the tunes even come with lyrics.

Yang Linzhi raised his head and looked at Xie Shizhang.

Xie Shizhang responded with a smile, but the sarcasm in his heart was even worse. He spent twenty-three years creating the tune of "Guangling San" and revised the details dozens of times. Everything was written according to the characteristics of ancient music.

He wanted to see if this Yang Hanlin could distinguish the authenticity from the fake.

Yang Linzhi was so frightened that he didn't even bother to read the main tune of "Guangling San". The tune before the main tune was enough to study slowly.

The meaning of this adjustment was so fake that Yang Linzhi couldn't figure it out for a while, so he had to take out the piano and play it repeatedly to taste it.

He put down the music score and asked, "Brother Xian, have we met before?"

Xie Shizhang smiled and said, "At Prince Tao's residence."

Yang Linzhi instantly remembered and stood up and bowed again: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Your Highness, King Tao, was known as a music maniac back then. He entertained countless famous musicians in his life. You are the last piano player that King Tao entertained."

"Alas, my old friend has passed away." Xie Shizhang didn't know whether he was sighing at King Tao or at his own passing time.

Yang Linzhi asked: "Is this song "Guangling San" real? There is a murderous spirit in the tune, I'm afraid..."

Xie Shizhang said categorically: "I say it is true!"

Yang Linzhi left the score behind and said he would study it slowly, so Xie Yan said goodbye with his grandfather.

After the grandfather and grandson left, Yang Linzhi took out the piano and played "Guangling San" repeatedly to taste. He basically concluded that it was an ancient song, but he had doubts that it was not "Guangling San".

Xie Shizhang completed the missing parts perfectly, and Yang Linzhi didn't realize that it was completed by later generations.

Yang Linzhi finally showed surprise on his face when he saw the three words "Completed by the author" in brackets after the music.

Outside Yang's house, on the carriage.

Xie Shizhang took out another copy of "Duliu Pu" from his arms, threw it to his grandson and said, "Take it as a betrothal gift and put it on the gift list."

"No, how many copies did you bring?" Xie Yan said speechlessly.

Xie Shizhang smiled and said, "I copied a dozen or so. What if my life's hard work was burned or soaked by water if I didn't copy a few more copies?"

Xie Yan sighed, "That makes sense!"