Virtual Pole Press: Gently twist and slowly wipe the pick, sing the infinite things in your heart.
Cultural inclusion refers to the internalization phenomenon that occurs when different cultures come into contact with each other, and this process includes many stages such as acceptance, synthesis, and creation, through which culture absorbs external factors to enrich itself. Cultural inclusion is different from both cultural confrontation and cultural assimilation, which is a process of systematic absorption, transformation and reconstruction of foreign cultures and heterogeneous cultures, and at the same time it is also a process of revaluation, reflection and transformation of local cultures. The artifacts depicted in his works by the Persian miniature painting Holy Hand Abasi in his works perfectly embody the fusion of Eastern and Western art.
▲ Reza Abbasil's "WesternErs' Musical Figure"
In 1634, watercolor on paper depicted gold miniature painting
This miniature painting of Abbasi depicts a western-dressed musician sitting cross-legged on the ground, holding an instrument that resembles both a pipa, a guitar, and a violin, and is like a slow twist and multiplication, singing the infinite things in his heart. This instrument belongs to the "Udqin" type of plucked instruments, known as the "King of Middle Eastern Instruments", it is regarded as the common ancestor of many plucked instruments in Eurasia.
▲ Udqin of Turkey, 1916,
Materials: spruce, mulberry, mother-of-pearl, frankincense,
80 × 36.4 × 18.9 cm
Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
The ud is a curved-neck plucked stringed instrument, which differs from other plucked instruments in that the ud's lattice disappeared during its evolution (this is no different from the bowed string instrument violin). Compared with the lute, the Ud qin has no phase on the neck, no product on the body, and no ingot, which allows the players of the ud piano to better express the techniques of portamento and vibrato. Most Uds have 11 strings, of which 10 are divided into 5 pairs of double strings, and the 11th string is played separately. The back of the Ud qin has a semi-circular convex surface, unlike the flat back of the guitar, this design can make the ud resonate and pop out the composite tunes.
▲ The back of the Udqin
Ud players traditionally had to use plucked plucks made of eagle feathers or hawksbill turtles as long as an index finger, but later for more flexible expression people abandoned the plucks and played them directly with their fingers. The ud is also slightly different in the middle east, and the Persian ud (Balbat) is smaller than the Arab ud.
▲ Christians and Muslims played the Ud together in the 13th century
The Udchen came to Europe through the great cultural exchanges of the late Middle Ages and evolved into a variety of instruments in the West.
▲ Left: Latin guitar; Right: Moore guitar
At this time, Europe also appeared in Europe, the miniature version of the oud piano with bowed strings, the predecessor of the violin.
▲ Huqin and earthen pipa
In fact, the ud is also derived from the European rut, which was popular from the Middle Ages to the Baroque period, and the guitar, which is popular in modern times. Similarly, the pipa, Ruan Xian and Yueqin, which are popular in the East, are also inextricably linked to the Oude qin in the Middle East.
▲ [Safavid Persia] Mirza Ali's Five-Volume Poem for Nizami
The accompanying illustration "Kuslav plays the Ud",
1539-1543 Ink paintings on paper depict gold miniatures
Collection of the British Library in London, UK
The wide body of the Oude piano embedded with screws and the backward folding head of the Udjeong in the picture above are reminiscent of the Tang Dynasty lute collected in Shosoin, Japan.
▲ [Sheng Tang] Rosewood painting inlaid with screw tungsten pipa
The collection of the North Courtyard of the Shosoin Temple of the Todaiji Temple in Nara, Japan
▲ The back of the pipa is dyed with ivory, green deer antlers, rosewood,
Black persimmon wood, boxwood mosaic into diamond pattern and begonia pattern,
Lv's pattern design is inspired by this
The quxiang pipa was an instrument that was introduced to the Central Plains through Persia during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. This instrument is four-stringed, four-pillar, horizontally hugged, and played with plucked bullets. The Old Book of Tang and Li Lezhi records: "Pipa, five strings and kabuki have been loved since Wenxiang, and after the Heqing Dynasty, they were especially prosperous." From this text, it is not difficult to see that "pipa" and "five strings" are two proper nouns that distinguish them from each other, the four-stringed piece is called the lute, and the five-string straight term is called the five strings.
▲ A piece of "five strings" and five "pipa" in the Shosoin Temple of Japan
▲ Comparison of "five strings" and "lute"
▲ Five strings
The five strings or lute were originally played with "plucks", because the use of the plucks will damage the body, so there is usually a piece of "plucking" on the body. The four-stringed pipa of Shosoin is a color painting directly painted on the wooden piano, while the plucking of the five-string pipa is a collage of screws embedded in the whole tortoiseshell.
▲ Tortoiseshell screw on the five-string lute "plucking"
This piece of plucking is extremely exquisite: a Bactrian camel carrying a huren playing with the pipa, and in the background is a tall tropical plant, or a date palm tree, or a palm tree, the breeze is gentle, the piano is fluttering, causing the five-colored parrot to dance, and even the camel can't help but turn his head to look at the pipa saint, and the musician's arms are a lute similar to the Oude piano. Why does the image of the five-string straight lute appear on the plucking of the curved lute? Perhaps the luthier wants to convey to us some kind of cultural exchange message, while at the same time sketching a brief history of the evolution of the Chinese and foreign pipa.