Fang Yun looked at Cui Mu with a smile, waiting for his answer.
"I am still young and don't understand much. I can only tell you what I have seen with my own eyes. Last year, the Kingdom of Jing was defeated and Grandpa cursed the treacherous ministers. His condition became worse. Even the doctors and medical books were useless. This year, Mr. Fang appeared. Grandpa, father and others said that you are the hope of the Kingdom of Jing and the hope of the human race. They are very happy. Whenever I hear your poems, I will write them down and hang them in the study. Whenever there is something about you, our whole family will discuss it after dinner. I think that Grandpa is willing to exhaust his talent to create a literary treasure for you. He is placing the hope of the revival of the Kingdom of Jing and the rise of the human race on you. It is his last effort for the Kingdom of Jing and the human race."
When Cui Mu talked about how Mr. Cui's condition worsened, his eyes turned red, but he insisted on not crying.
The boy's tender voice was simple and sincere, without any profound truth, but everyone, including Fang Yun, was moved.
Mr. Cui smiled with satisfaction.
Fang Yun looked at Cui Mu carefully, nodded, and said, "Do you think it's a pity that the Cui family lost the opportunity to exchange the cultural treasure for official titles?"
Cui Mu thought about it and hesitated.
A middle-aged man next to him said sternly: "Just say whatever you think! Don't hide anything!"
Cui Mu had no choice but to say, “Of course I feel sorry for it. But Grandpa said a few days ago that you have a greater chance of being canonized than Lord Jianmei. If you are canonized, our Cui family can publicize that your literary treasure was infused with my grandfather’s talent. The benefits will definitely be greater than ordinary official titles!”
Everyone in the room laughed, and Feng Yuanjun laughed the loudest. What the child said was true.
"Have you memorized the Three Character Classic?" Fang Yun asked.
Cui Mu raised his head proudly and said, "I have memorized everything Mr. Fang wrote!"
Fang Yun joked, "You've memorized The Romance of the West Chamber, too?"
"Ah? That counts as well?" Cui Mu's eyes widened, his face full of sorrow, finally revealing the look that a child should have.
Everyone laughed again.
"Then recite the Three Character Classic for me," Fang Yun said.
Cui Mu immediately recited the Three Character Classic aloud, word for word.
Fang Yun also tested Cui Mu on some elementary knowledge and his views on some things. The questions he asked were all based on his own thoughts. It was impossible for anyone to teach him how to answer them.
In the end, it was discovered that this child was indeed quite outstanding. If he were placed in the Fang family school in Dayuan Prefecture, he would definitely be a top student.
"Yes, you have a solid foundation, a quick mind, appropriate responses, and your own opinions. You are not completely influenced by external things. You are good enough to be my disciple." Fang Yun nodded.
Several members of the Cui family nearby immediately winked at Cui Mu.
Cui Mu hesitated for a moment, then shyly knelt in front of Fang Yun holding a cup of tea. He said respectfully: "Student Cui Mu, I serve tea to you, sir."
Fang Yun took the tea with one hand and helped Cui Mu up with the other.
There was a flash of excitement in Mr. Cui's eyes, and his breathing became rapid. The Cui family members immediately stepped forward to help him.
Feng Yuanjun said: "Let the old man rest first, we will go out first."
After leaving the bedroom of Mr. Cui, Feng Yuanjun helped Fang Yun and the Cui family decide on the matter of talent injection, and then asked Fang Daniu to go back and get the Zhendanqin.
While Fang Daniu was taking the zither, Fang Yun chatted with other members of the Cui family. He found that the Cui family was indeed a family of scholars, and indeed a family that produced the old scholar Cui. Although no one in the family was a juren, and the highest rank was a scholar, they were all very sensible.
Not long after, Fang Daniu came back with the Zhendanqin. Everyone in the Cui family showed sadness, but no one objected.
Cui Lao's eldest grandson personally brought the Zhendanqin to Cui Lao's bedroom. Not long after, a new Zhendanqin was taken out.
The body of the vibrating guitar was originally black, but the base color of the wood has been revealed over time. It is now brown. Affected by the vibrations of the strings and the sound, some parts of the body have slight cracks, forming an extremely rare bellows crack.
Most of the strings are as white as jade, but some parts have changed color due to frequent contact with fingers.
Compared with the previous vibrating piano, the surface of the new piano has a very light luster, and the whole piano exudes a strong aura.
Fang Yun knew that this piano carried the hopes of Mr. Cui.
Fang Yun wanted to meet Mr. Cui, but the Cui family said that the old man was sleeping and it was inconvenient for him to see people. Fang Yun had to give up, and even gave up the idea of playing a song for Mr. Cui.
Before leaving, Fang Yun gave Cui Mu some instructions and also said vaguely that he would tell him when the old scholar Cui passed away.
Without the support of his talent, Mr. Cui would not live past August.
The Cui family was very understanding and politely saw Fang Yun off.
After getting in the car, Fang Yun felt a little depressed.
Feng Yuanjun advised: "This is your first time to encounter such a thing, so naturally you can't get over it. However, you can think of it this way. Since it has already happened, it is useless to think about it. It is better to learn the qin well and exert the power of this Wenbaoqin to kill monsters and barbarians. The more you kill, the happier Mr. Cui will be."
"I understand. It's not that I can't get over it. I'm just a little sad."
"That's good."
After returning home, Fang Yun placed the Wen Baoqin on the piano stand.
Both Yang Yuhuan and Nunu were curious about the Wenbaoqin. Nunu jumped onto the qin and plucked the strings with his little paws, but the sound was so unpleasant that he couldn't help covering his ears and standing far away, whimpering as if to say: Broken qin!
After being disturbed by Nunu, Fang Yun felt much better and started to try out the piano.
Fang Yun first placed his right index finger on the strings and plucking them inwards, which is the "mo" technique in the basic guqin technique.
"Buzz..."
Fang Yun nodded. The tone was pure, and had a unique power that ordinary pianos did not have. If you listened carefully, it really sounded a bit like a war drum.
Then, Fang Yun still played the piano with his right index finger, but he played from the inside to the outside, which is called "picking".
Then change to the middle finger, and flick from inside to outside. This cannot be called "picking" but "picking".
Fang Yun slowly tested the sound with both hands, first using basic fingering, then combined fingering, and felt that the Jinshi Wen Baoqin was more and more easy to use.
After trying out the Wen Baoqin, Fang Yun and Yang Yuhuan tried to play a piece of music "Autumn Wind Tune" together. Although Fang Yun's mastery of the instrument was not proficient enough and the two of them frequently encountered small problems during the performance, they were both very satisfied with the feeling.
Nunu was also extremely envious of the two people's harmonious music. After Fang Yun finished playing, he tried to pluck the strings with his little paws. The sound of the strings shook his whole body. He looked like he couldn't bear it anymore, so he jumped away from the zither and cried, as if he would never touch this damn thing again.
In the evening, the doorman came in and said, "Master, there is a man outside the door, claiming to be a servant of the famous Bian family. He said he is willing to accept a third of the dragon horn of the dragon king in exchange for a talent injection, but the prerequisite is to accept three disciples of the Bian family as students."
"Oh. I understand. Let him go." Fang Yun said without raising his head.
"yes."
Not long after, General Dinghai Yu Xingshu sent a letter via wild goose.
Fang Yun opened it and saw that it said that the Mid-Autumn Literary Festival would be held in a month. Because of the Holy Ruins, it would probably be the largest literary festival of the year among the ten countries. Fang Yun was asked to spend more time on Mid-Autumn poetry and go to the military camp after returning from the Holy Ruins. He didn't need to go now.
Fang Yun was worried about not having time to learn the qin. So he reallocated his study time, two hours for sleeping, two hours for eating and resting, ten hours for reading and studying the classics of the saints, and the other ten hours for practicing the qin.
So Fang Yun played the piano in his study, while Yang Yuhuan played the zither in her boudoir.
In order to improve his qin as quickly as possible, Fang Yun did everything possible. He listed the music for the qin exams of later generations, a total of ten levels, and then wrote out all the music scores for the first and second levels of the qin. He wrote all the fifteen songs, including "Xiang Fei Yuan", "Guqin Yin", "Liang Xiao Yin" and "Shuang He Ting Quan".
After composing fifteen pieces of music, Fang Yun memorized the music score of "Xiang Fei Yuan" and began to play it.
It doesn't matter if you don't play it. Once you start playing, Fang Yun feels like he can't stop, because he finds that his fingering and understanding of the way of playing the zither have suddenly improved to a whole new level. His playing is exceptionally smooth, and it doesn't feel like his first time playing it, but like he has played it hundreds of times.
Fang Yun was so engrossed in playing the piano that he didn't realize it until Fang Daniu reminded him at night that he realized he had played the entire night and he reluctantly stopped.
Unable to play the piano at night, Fang Yun carefully recalled the process of playing the piano and found that his skills were becoming more and more proficient, and he had his own emotions, but he always found it difficult to integrate his emotions into the sound of the piano. If he could not do this, he would never reach the first level of the way of playing the piano, "the sound and emotion are rich".
Fang Yun did not give up. Instead, he closed his eyes and thought slowly, slowly looking for his own problems. It took him half an hour before he suddenly figured it out.
"I see! I played the piano for war songs. I was too eager to win and too utilitarian, and I lost the purest and most essential pursuit of music. To be precise, music is originally a kind of sound wave like various noises, but the reason why music is music is because it is integrated with emotions! Yes, emotions! This is the key!"
Fang Yun suddenly opened his eyes and smiled.
“When playing a piece of music, the score, fingering and technique are not the most important, and should not even be the first step. The first step should be to understand the theme and story of the music. First, know what story and scenery the music is telling, and then you can have a preliminary understanding of the emotions in the music!”
“Understanding the composer’s emotions and trying to interpret the music with the composer’s emotions is the first step.”
“Then, after being able to play the piece as you wish, forget the original author’s feelings and re-experience the original sound of the tune.”
"Then, based on your own understanding of the piece of music, you can build up your own emotions."
"After that, you can put your own feelings into the music. This is probably the first level of the art of playing the qin, 'the combination of sound and emotion'."
"A higher step, where you don't have to think about it deliberately, you don't have to integrate it deliberately. When you pluck the strings, the strings will automatically convey the voice from deep within your heart. At this point, it should be the second level of the way of the zither."
"If I want to use the war song later, the first step is probably to integrate my own emotions. If I can't integrate my own killing intent and fighting spirit into the war song, how can I make the war song kill the enemy!"
Correction: There was an oversight in the previous chapter. Feng Yuanjun didn't know Fang Yun had a literary talent. It should be Wen Gong. I would like to correct it. Sorry.
.(To be continued..)