Here are some details on the cross beams :
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If you think that these round insignia above belong to some Japanese Shogun family of last century or some brand logos of large industrial conglomerate today, then you are mistaking! They are the decorative design at the lower cross beams of Marquis Zeng's musical bell set. In fact, they were already there quite a few years before the great Greek philosopher Aristotle was born.
Music
#1 : Melody of Chu (
).
These
2 old melodies are played mainly with the musical instruments unearthed from Marquis
Zeng Yi's tomb. Of course the organic instruments, e.g. bamboo flutes, etc., have been replaced
with new replicas. The bronze bells and stone chimes are the only unique musical
instruments made in the early days of human history, but are still performing
today. They are not only 2445 years old, but they are finely tuned and perfectly pitched instruments
belonging to a large and highly complex orchestra. They have been sleeping through the
better part of the
entire development of human civilization and now they have risen from the
grave to show their enriched and mellow voices to the entire
mankind! The unbelievable cache of musical treasure
consists of 124 instruments belonging to 8 different major groups of wind, earth, string and percussion
instruments as well as 4 types of drums, etc., forming one massive orchestra in the Marquis's
underground musical palace. The sounds of these musical bronze bells are
particularly rare and unprecedented audio experiences, not only because they are the
only existing and performing musical instruments designed and made at the
sprouting days of human civilization, but because they have been air cured and time cured for all those years in cool
underground temperature that all their internal stress and strain have been completely
relieved, their tones have now become preciously mellow and lingering. They have in fact become better and more priceless
during the silent passing of history. Now their melodious notes reverberate through the
orchestration with each vibrating note calling and touching every resonating
soul (listen especially to the reverberating sound of bells)..... The "Melody of Chu" and the tune below "Chuk Yuen
at the Ferry Crossing" are both popular music composed for string
instruments in the Ming and Ching dynasties. They are roughly say 500 years old classical music
equivalent to the early Barrock music of Europe. They are here re-arranged and played
with these unique and original flat bells of the Marquis because they are appropriate for the occasion
since these
bells were gifts from a king of the ancient State of Chu ..... Both melodies are
performed by the present day 'Marquis Zeng Yi's Orchestra, Hu Bei,
China'....
Music #2 : Chuk Yuen at the Ferry
Crossing (
)
The story of Chuk Yuen :
Chuk Yuen (
340
- 278 BC ) was the patriotic poet of the State of Chu (
)
during the Warring States epoch of the Chinese history.
He was once a highly trusted administrator of the King Wai of Chu (
).
Unfortunately his talents attracted jealousy and offended the rival Shan-Guan DaFu (
)
who deviously told lies behind Chuk Yuen's back and caused the king to
distant him and sent him to a remote post. One day the king was lured to go into the State of Chin (
) to sign a peace treaty. Chuk Yuen heard of it, he rushed back to plead his king not
to go and not to trust Chin. The king ignored his plead. On entering Chin, the king
was indeed ambushed and taken hostage for demand of ransom. He tried
unsuccessfully to escape and eventually died in Chin. Because of
that the State of Chu
was badly weakened. Chuk Yuen
wrote a large series of poems, including the famous Li-So (
), into which he poured his love for his country, his disappointments, his hopes,
his sadness, his sentiments, his emotions and his anger, but above all, his eternal
devotion as well.
As King Wai died, the Crown Prince ascended as
King Ching Shuang (
) of Chu. He
banished Chuk Yuen into more remote exile after again hearing false accusation about
his poems. Now Chuk Yuen became desperate. He wrote many other poems sighting also exemplary
historic events of China ancient to his own time. They are all beautiful and
talented verses of emotion and devotion as well as desperation..... One day he
was seen loitering at the banks of the River Mi-Loh (
) with his hair down in disorder. He was looking thin, ill and very lost. A ferry
boater approached him and asked "Aren't you our lord administrator Chuk
Yuen? Why are you looking so desperate?". Chuk Yuen replied " Because I see
everywhere people are smeared by mud and dirt, I alone am clean. People in the country
are all drunk and I alone am sober..... ". ... In his desperation, soon Chuk Yuen threw himself into
the River of Mi-Loh.
Chuk Yuen's many poetical writings are beautifully moving and inspiring. His style influenced Chinese literature and poetry immensely and have touched many hearts down the history. People of Chu remembered him on the 5th day of the 5th month of the Lunar Calendar, the day of his drowning (in 2002 this day falls on June15th in the Gregorian Calendar). They offered him rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves so that the fishes wouldn't get them first. They would race boats into the depth of Mi-Loh River each year to dispose the dumplings. In time, this became a day of Dragon Boat Festival, when everywhere in China, and today in Hong Kong and Taiwan, teams of Dragon Boats are raced on this day. People are selling rice dumplings in the streets. It has been going on like this ever since Chuk Yuen's death ages ago. In the days of wars and revolutions as well as foreign invasions as patriotic feelings ran high, all the more people remembered Chuk Yuen. So, for approximately 2200 years the Dragon Festival has always been observed without a break and with undiminished compassion ...
Notes for Music : These audio files are prepared in .WMA (Windows Media Audio) format. When the Windows Media Player comes up, you may minimize it and continue whatever you are doing. The music are programmed to repeat but you can change them by clicking on the pink hyperlinks or stop the music by closing the Windows Media Player. Your browser may need buffering. If it does, it would take a few minute to load into memory, but it's worth the waiting.... Meanwhile, if one of the audio files gets corrupted, try the second tune! In case some Browsers do not handle the .WMA format, I have also prepared the same music in .MP3 format. Just click MP3-#1 or MP3-#2 here. However, they do take slightly longer time to download for playing.....
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