High Mount Flowing Water
During the Spring and Autumn Period, there was a man called Yu Boya , who was a famous music master at that time, having a good command of the temperament and superb skills in playing the musical instrument.
Once, on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, Boya was boating for sightseeing. The moon was bright and a cool breeze was blowing gently. With myriads of thoughts welling up in his mind, he began to play the musical instrument. The melodious music became more and more beautiful when a man on the bank shouted “bravo!” Hearing the shouting, Boya came out of the boat, and saw a woodcutter standing on the bank. He knew that this man was keenly appreciative of his talents, because he understood his music. He immediately invited the woodcutter to his boat and full of zest, he played the musical instrument for him. When Boya played a piece of music eulogizing the high mountains, the woodcutter said, “Wonderful! The melody is as magnificent and dignified as Mount Tai which reaches the sky!” When he played a piece of music depicting the turbulent waves, the woodcutter said, “Wonderful! The melody is as vast and mighty as the great rivers!” Boya was excited, and said, “Bosom friend ! You are really my bosom friend!” That woodcutter was Zhong Ziqi . Since then, they had been very good friends.
High Mount Flowing Water played by Boya was divided into two parts later, one is High Mountains, and the other is Flowing Water. America sent out two spacecraft on August 20, 1977.
Expecting to meet humankind in other planets, the spacecraft carried a gold-painted bronze record consisting of 27 pieces of world-famous music. Flowing Water was chosen to represent Chinese music in that record.
Changing Faces
Changing faces is a difficult technique in operatic performance. It is considered to be a stunt that can only be mastered after extensive training. Face changing is also a special technique used to exaggerate inner feelings of characters, portray their dispositions, set off the atmosphere and improve effects. Facial changes expressing sudden changes in a character’s feelings are done in four ways:
Blowing dust : The actor blows black dust hidden in his palm or close to his eyes, nose or beard, so that it blows back into his face.
Manipulating beard : Beard colors can be changed while the beard is being manipulated, from black to gray and finally to white, expressing anger or excitement.
Pulling-down masks : The actor can pull down a mask that has previously been hidden on top of his head, leaving his face red, green, blue or black to communicate happiness, hate, anger or sadness respectively.
Mop : The actor mops out the greasepaint hidden in his sideburns or eyebrows, around his eyes and nose, to change his facial appearance.
Colors in Chinese Opera Masks
The main color in a facial makeup symbolizes the disposition of the character.
Red indicates devotion, courage, bravery, uprightness and loyalty. A typical “red face” is Guan Yu , general of the period of the Three Kingdoms, famed for his faithfulness to his Emperor, Liu Bei .
Black symbolizes roughness and fierceness. The black face indicates either a rough and bold character or an impartial and selfless personality. Typical of the former are General Zhang Fei (in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms) and Li Kui in the Water Margin), and of the latter is Bao Gong , the semi-legendary fearless and impartial judge of the Song Dynasty. Yellow signifies fierceness, ambition and cool-headedness. Purple stands for uprightness, sophistication and cool-headedness.
The reddish purple face likewise shows a just and noble character, for instance, Lian Po in the well-known play Jiang Xiang He The General Reconciled with the Chief Minister), in which General Lian was proud and impetuous and quarreled with the chief minister with whom he was ultimately reconciled.
Blue represents staunchness, fierceness and astuteness.
White suggests sinisterness, treacherousness, suspiciousness and craftiness. Commonly seen on the stage is the white face for the powerful villain. It highlights all that is bad in human nature: cunning, craftiness, and treachery. Typical characters are Cao Cao, powerful and cruel prime minister in the time of the Three Kingdoms, and Qin Hui , treacherous Song Dynasty prime minister who put the national hero Yue Fei to death.
Green tells the audience that the character is impulsive and violent and depicts surly stubbornness, impetuosity and a total lack of self-restraint.
Petty Painted Face. For the clowns in traditional dramas, there is a special makeup called Xiaohualian , i.e., a small patch of chalk on and around the nose to show a mean and secretive character, such as Jiang Gan in the Three Kingdoms who fawned upon Cao Cao. It is also occasionally painted on a young page or an ordinary workingman, often to enhance his wit, humor or jesting and to enliven the performance.
Chime Bells of Marquis Yi of the Zeng State
In 1978, Chinese archeologists found in the tomb of Marquis Yi of the Zeng State a huge underground music palace, located at Leigu Mound of Suizhou County, Hubei Province.There unearthed a large amount of valuable musical instruments of the Warring States Period, including chime bells, chime stones , Jian drum, hand drum, Chi (bamboo wind instrument), Pai Xiao, Sheng, Qin, Se (25-stringed horizontal harp), and so on. Among the excavations, there are 64 articles of bronze chime bells preserved in good condition, which can be divided into eight groups according to size and tone order and hung on the three-tiered bronze-wooden bell cot. This is the famous Chime Bells of Marquis Yi of the Zeng State, the largest and most intact set of chime bells that exists today in China. The largest bell is of a person’s height, weighing over 200 kg. Inscriptions in Zhuan script (Seal script) inlaid with gold are engraved on the body of each bell. Its total volume range covers five octaves, slightly less than modern pianos. The set of bells is beautiful and mellow in tone color, featuring a whole set of high, medium and low voice parts, while inflection is allowed for some modes of ancient Chinese music. It can virtually play all of the 12 semitones, as well as melodies from pentatonic to diatonic scale.
