The dragon's lips are where the sound comes from;
The dragon gum is where the sound comes from.
Originally, the word "dragon gum" refers to a piece of hard wood at the end of the guqin that is used to support the strings. It is the key component that enables the guqin to make sound.
This zither is named after Dragon Gum.
One is to show the true meaning of the sound of the zither, taking the idea that great sounds are silent and great ways are simple.
The two are homophones of "dragon gum" and "dragon chant", which refers to the unusual sound of this zither.
Its timbre is not ethereal and noble, but rather deep and distant, like the roar of a dragon or a tiger, majestic and breathtaking.
Dragon Gum was created 2,300 years ago in the long-extinct ancient kingdom of Daqi, and was personally crafted by the music master Xi Mengquan.
After the fall of Daqi, it wandered thousands of miles and finally came into the hands of Emperor Liang Su Yu, where it became a treasured collection that he put aside.
The most well-known and miraculous legend about this zither is the story of Xi Mengquan taking the zither from the Dragon Palace.
This music saint was uninhibited by nature. Once during his nap, he casually fell asleep on a rock in the courtyard. He fell into a hazy dream, and his soul left his body, traveling to the Dragon Palace. He saw many wonders that did not exist in the human world, and picked a bunch of huge blood jade coral. Who knew that this coral was actually the gums of the sleeping Dragon King!
Suddenly the earth shook and the sea surged. What he thought was the Dragon Palace was actually the huge body of the Dragon King!
At this moment, Xi Mengquan was naturally awakened suddenly. He was about to breathe a sigh of relief, but he found that the rockery under him had turned into blood jade coral!
Is it a dream or not? Is it real or an illusion?
In any case, according to legend, Xi Mengquan used this piece of blood jade coral to make the dragon gum guitar body.
But in Chen Kuang's memory, the musician who bought him for a bushel of rice said something completely different to him.
"Xi Mengquan didn't travel to the Dragon Palace. How could he have such a refined interest? He's such a boring guy."
The musician threw him a tattered sheet of music.
This musical score was written in Braille and was only circulated among musicians. It was equivalent to a secret code and was not known to outsiders.
In addition to the songs, it also records some unheard-of rural ghost stories.
"That year, he was traveling by boat through Dongting Lake when he saw a dragon king oppressing fishermen, forcing them to sacrifice young girls and drowning them alive in pig cages. So he abandoned his boat and jumped into the lake, knocking out all of the dragon king's fangs."
"After venting his anger, he discovered that his sword was broken. It happened to be the tooth that had been knocked out and still attached to the gum. He saw that it would be handy, so he washed it in the lake water and sharpened it into a sword."
The child with his eyes wrapped in thick bandages heard this and raised his head and asked in confusion:
"Isn't it Qin?"
The musician reached out and touched his head, then asked in a rather naughty tone:
"How do you know it's a qin? Have you ever seen a qin? Do you know what a qin looks like?"
The child shook his head and answered honestly:
"Before my family was poor, I didn't see it, and now I can't see it."
The musician laughed:
"If you can't see something, of course it's what you think it is."
"If you think it's a sword, then of course it's a sword."
When encountering injustice on the road, draw the sword and slay the dragon. The zither is not a zither, but a sword.
That’s another story.
But the musician's tone was familiar and calm. He was leisurely and seemed to know Xi Mengquan.
However, how could this be possible? The musician was poor and spent a bushel of rice to buy Chen Kuang as an apprentice in order to sell him to the palace.
I bought a bushel of rice and sold it for three ounces of silver.
It's simply a business with no capital investment.
How could such a scoundrel know the music master whose song "Heavenly Questions" shattered half the mountains and rivers and was as if in the clouds?
Chen Kuang once regarded all the strange stories recorded in the music score as stories.
Until one day he became a court musician.
Emperor Liang was in high spirits and took out the dragon gimbal as a bet, asking the musicians of the Taichang Temple to have a competition.
Only then did Chen Kuang realize that the Dragon Gum had been silent for a thousand years and no one could play a complete piece of music anymore.
Anyone who could play one verse would be rewarded with a pure gold goblet.
The musicians passed it around and tried to play it, but no one could hit the second note.
When he arrived at Chen Kuang's place, he subconsciously thought of that rural ghost story.
When he was a child, he had never seen a zither or a sword.
Both things were just chaotic concepts to him, mixed up into one in his mind.
What if the zither could be a sword?
“Zheng——”
He played the first note, which was filled with murderous intent, followed by an unparalleled dragon roar.
However, the expert attendant beside Emperor Liang became alert instantly and drew the long sword at his waist. The noise caused by metal interrupted the beginning of the second section of the song.
So that was the sword.
Chen Kuang thought so, and even though Emperor Liang begged him repeatedly, he could no longer play the tune.
This was the only time he was praised by Emperor Liang.
Not long after that day, the popular Chen Kuang was framed and nearly whipped to death by Luo Lezheng.
Because of his hand injury, he was unable to play and was soon forgotten by Emperor Liang.
The pure gold cup that was given to him never reached his hands in the end. No one knew who had robbed it along the way.
…
Huo Hengxuan watched him carefully tuning the piano, but soon lost interest. He leaned against the railing, chewing a steamed bun, but his eyes were fixed on the sky outside the window.
As the sky darkened, those strange starlights reappeared.
This time, they were no longer stable, but flickered.
After Chen Kuang finished debugging, he looked down at the piano.
Most of the body of the zither is made of transparent blood jade, but the slightly tilted head is a moist snow-white color. The whole zither is narrower and longer than ordinary zithers.
It really looks like a broken tooth attached to the gum.
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