Three days later, Li Zhao and Chai Shao returned home. Duke Tang's mansion held a grand return banquet and invited all the Li clan members who could be invited.
Li Zhao and Chai Shao paid their respects to Madam Dugu, Li Yuan and Madam Dou, and also greeted other members of the Li clan.
Afterwards, Li Jiancheng brought other members of the Li clan who were over 20 years old to drink and chat with Chai Shao, while Li Zhao went to the backyard to find Li Xuanba and Li Shimin.
"Da De, your sister has finished composing the music for you. Would you like to listen to it?" Li Zhao took out his pipa. "Don't run away."
Li Xuanba sighed, "I'm not planning on running away. Also, please continue to call me Sanlang, sister."
He really wanted to run away because his elder sister played the pipa and would definitely let him play with his second brother.
Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty believed that music other than "orthodox music" would lead to the destruction of the country, and he did not appreciate music skills, so he dismissed most of the musicians and returned them to the people. However, Yang Guang loved all kinds of music, so Pei Yun collected more than 30,000 musicians to enter the palace for Yang Guang, and composed and played music for him.
The upper class of the Sui Dynasty still had Xianbei customs. In the Northern Dynasties, some people combined the plucked instruments of the Western Regions with the traditional pipa, and improved it into a new pipa that could play both the traditional Qingshang tune and the Western style.
The upper class nobles of the Sui Dynasty were very fond of the new pipa. Although Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty did not like it, he could not stop the upper class nobles of the Sui Dynasty from loving the new pipa.
After Yang Guang began to enjoy music freely, the upper class nobles of the Sui Dynasty no longer had to hide their music, and the new pipa, like the qin, became a required talent for the upper class.
Li Xuanba and Li Shimin began learning the qin and pipa at the age of five.
Li Shimin was lively and liked all kinds of entertainment that moved and made sounds, but Li Xuanba was not very interested in musical instruments.
Besides, except for him, everyone in the Li family, both men and women, loves music. As soon as the music starts, his place will be surrounded by a crowd of people, and a group of female servants in the backyard will play music together.
Noisy, tiring.
But since my sister is coming back, I still have to give her face.
Li Xuanba wrinkled his face like an old man and slowly tuned the pipa.
Li Shimin was already holding the pipa horizontally, leaning forward and playing the pipa "click, click", while looking up and yelling, very much like those silly little boys in later generations who play guitar to show off.
Li Xuanba looked at his second brother's silly look and really wanted to draw this scene to show his die-hard fans in the future. His marketing account had new material to use to criticize Emperor Taizong of Tang.
The scores of the Sui Dynasty were not universal musical scores, but were recorded in words, with fingerings for each instrument.
Such music scores are not easy to pass down, and the scales and rhythms are unknown to later generations, so there is a saying that "ancient music cannot be completely restored." The ancient music restored by later generations are all new arrangements, and one ancient music score can be used to arrange countless kinds of music.
Although Li Xuanba did not have much musical literacy in his previous life, he still knew the musical notation. While practicing the pipa following the fingering, he was thinking about whether he should make some contribution to the music world in the future when he became an idle prince.
This is a matter for the future. Now he is just thinking about it, maybe he will forget it when he grows up.
Although the music scores are difficult to pass down nowadays, they are very suitable for teaching musical instruments. Li Xuanba and Li Shimin practiced the music scores for a quarter of an hour and were able to play them.
Li Shimin smiled and said, "The music composed by my sister is really beautiful. If it gets out, it will definitely spread all over the streets and alleys."
Li Xuanba said with a straight face: "You can't sing in front of outsiders now. It will affect my sister's reputation."
Li Shimin's face fell: "I hate fame. It's annoying to talk about fame all the time."
Li Zhao smiled and said, "It doesn't matter. I'll close the door and sing it myself. But even though I can't sing this song, once the music score is ready, many people will definitely write new lyrics, and Sanlang's talent will still spread throughout the streets and alleys."
Li Xuan said domineeringly: "Thank you, sister."
This is exactly the career path he had thought of, and his sister is going to help him complete the first step.
After sorting out the poems he could recite, Li Xuanba discovered with a headache that there were not enough poems.
At most, he can recite more than a hundred poems. If he wants to fit the character, he can use even fewer poems. Moreover, the rhymes of poems after the Tang Dynasty may be different from those of the Tang Dynasty. Now that he is young, he can use "I learned poetry so the rhymes are irregular" to get by, but it will not work when he grows up.
During the Sui and Tang dynasties, poetry was highly valued, and even high-ranking officials who did not like poetry would be excluded. For example, Yang Zuan, a minister of the Tang Dynasty, was a high-ranking official and a capable official, but because he did not like to write poetry, he was accused of not understanding elegance and was despised by his colleagues.
Li Xuanba also tried to write poetry himself, but he was not talented enough. He had to write poetry at every gathering, but he did not have that many poems to write.
How to prevent others from inviting him to write poetry? Li Xuanba thought about it and decided to create an image of a "mad scholar" who was different from others while the Wei and Jin dynasties were still popular. He told others that he didn't like writing poetry, but wrote more lyrics and occasionally wrote one or two poems to show his talent.
In later generations, "poetry and lyrics" were listed side by side, as if lyrics and poetry were both "traditional literature", but this is not the case.
The full name of "Ci" is "Quzi Ci", which is the "popular lyrics" that became popular in the market.
Quzici already existed among the people during the Southern and Northern Dynasties; it began to develop in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, for example, "He Chuan" and "Yang Liu Zhi" were originally folk songs of the Sui Dynasty; in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, a large number of literati participated in the creation of quzici, and literati poetry emerged; the Northern Song Dynasty accumulated a lot of knowledge and created the glorious "Song Ci".
The rules of the level and tone of "Cipai" are actually "ancient music scores". First there was the first lyric, and after it became popular, other literati continued to write lyrics according to the music score, and then a "Cipai" was formed. To use a metaphor from later generations, it is "covering and writing lyrics".
For example, "Man Jiang Hong" is a new tune created by Liu Yong. When Liu Yong was young, he was a frequent visitor to brothels. Whenever musicians composed new tunes, they would ask Liu Yong to write lyrics. After the new tune became popular, literati followed suit and sang it, and the tune of "Man Jiang Hong" was passed down.
At this time, the ci was in its infancy and there were few ci forms. Li Xuanba would take any ci from later times and call it a "new song". He had the final say on the level, pitch and rhyme. If there were any inappropriate words in the ci, he could change them at will.
Ci is now a "folk art", and although writing lyrics is now an elegant thing that literati do occasionally, if you ask a literati to write lyrics, you are treating them as musicians. Although the upper class nobles will sing along, they will not write their own music and ask Li Xuanba to write the lyrics.
Yang Guang could have found Li Xuanba, but given Yang Guang's personality, he would only write lyrics himself and let others sing.
After this, Li Xuanba's "literary route" became very clear.
He still needed to read people's eyes. When he attended literary gatherings, if someone asked him to perform an elegant work, he would compose music and lyrics. Occasionally, when he encountered a scene that was just right for a poem he could recite, he would take out a poem to prove that he could write, but just didn't like to.
After he became famous, he devoted himself to writing. He was not good at writing parallel prose, so he wrote prose from the Qin and Han dynasties, thus starting the ancient prose movement.
The Classical Prose Movement was a movement advocated by Han Yu that sought to abandon the ornate parallel prose and return to the meaningful prose style of the Han and Tang dynasties. It was called a "Renaissance" movement that was actually innovative while referring to the past.
Li Xuanba has been active on the Internet for so many years, so shouldn't he be able to write satirical articles easily?
When his brother becomes emperor, he can put all the poems aside, no longer have to copy poems to pretend to fit in, and focus on writing articles to satirize current affairs.
When his brother was scolded, he still praised him for his good sarcasm and said he was a mirror.
Put your hands together, spread your hands. Isn't this great writer's status established? With the status of a great writer, he can gather a group of literati in the officialdom to "form a clique for personal gain".
After finally traveling through time, would it be worthy of the time travel master to do nothing? Li Xuanba is hiding now only because the emperor is Yang Guang, not because he is really a nobody.
In his previous life, he had been struggling at the bottom of society all his life. His life finally started to improve a little, and he traveled through time when he was preparing for the adult college entrance examination. It was impossible for him not to desire fame and fortune.
As for a sense of morality or something, he has it, but not much, probably not as good as his brother who is a pure ancient indigenous person.
Li Xuanba pursued everything for himself and the people he cared about. He was not planning to make a big splash in the court out of a noble sentiment of worrying about the country and the people, but just wanted to make a name for himself and make his family live a better life.
Using the Sui and Tang version of "Wenyu Wenchaogong" as a brick to knock on the door of the literary world and using satirical prose to forge his own divinity in the literary world was what Li Xuanba had thought about for many years and finally determined for himself a good career plan.
Now, when his third sister and brother-in-law pass on the score of "Man Jiang Hong", he has finally taken the first step.
As for the literary duel with Zheng, it was just an unexpected surprise, and it also helped him sort out and perfect his future path.
Although Li Xuanba doesn't like noise, he can endure temporary commotion for the sake of his career path.
As he expected, when the sound of the pipa rang out, more and more people gathered in the small courtyard where he and Li Shimin lived.
Mrs. Dou was chatting with Li Da Niang and Li Er Niang, who had returned home to spend some time with their parents during Li Zhao's return party. After hearing about the excitement, Mrs. Dou brought Li Da Niang, Li Er Niang, and a group of Li Yuan's concubines, as well as the female guests who were attending the banquet, to join in the fun.
There were two seven-year-old children among the group of women, and various musical instruments such as the qin, zheng, pipa, konghou, flute and so on were played one by one.
Some of the women were having so much fun that they asked someone to bring a big drum and danced on it to add to the fun.
The women loved Li Zhao's song "Man Jiang Hong" very much. Encouraged by Mrs. Dou, Mrs. Li, Mrs. Li Er Niang and Mrs. Li San Niang danced with swords together.
Li Shimin was so crazy that he threw away his pipa and jumped onto the big drum, saying, "Ah Xuan, come and play too!"
Li Xuanba sighed, took two balls of silk thread to plug his ears to filter out the loud sounds, and then took a small hammer to hit the gong.
Li Shimin jumped up and down and beat the drum with his feet, Li Xuanba beat the gong with an expressionless face, and the three married ladies of the Li family danced with swords.
The three men's sword dance can probably only be described in Du Fu's "Sword Dance" as "As swift as Yi shooting down the nine suns, as agile as emperors riding dragons. Coming like thunder and stopping like the clear light of the river and the sea."
As Li Xuanba watched, the corners of his mouth curved up slightly, and his half-closed eyes widened and opened brightly.
However, Li Shimin, who usually kept his eyes wide open, now had his eyes half-closed because of smiling.
If I hadn't seen him so energetic and sweating profusely, I would have thought that Li Jia Erlang and Li Jia Sanlang had swapped places at some point.
After singing "Man Jiang Hong", the women played other heroic songs that were popular at the time.
Who says women only love sad songs? They can sing military songs, war songs, or short poems describing chivalrous deeds. There are some songs that neither Li Shimin nor Li Xuanba have ever heard.
Old Madam Dugu came for a while with the help of a cane, and she left quietly without asking Madam Dou to serve her.
After they left, old lady Dugu sent someone to bring a large amount of fine wine so that the women in the mansion and the female relatives of the guests could get drunk. The granddaughters also stayed at home and would return home the next day.
Still not satisfied, Li Shimin, who was caught by Madam Dou herself, held the wine jar and said, "I want to drink too!"
Li Xuanba chased after Li Shimin: "No! Children can't drink alcohol, they will get sick!"
Li Shimin walked his brother around in circles: "I'm not you, Xuan."
Li Xuanba ran a few steps and couldn't catch up anymore. He panted and said, "Sister, second sister, third sister, help me!"
The three young ladies of the Li family laughed so hard that they fell backwards and forwards: "No help! Go after him yourself!"
Li Xuan gnashed his teeth in arrogance.
Seeing that his brother could no longer run, Li Shimin opened the small wine jar, poured a mouthful of wine into his mouth, and then his eyes widened: "Oh, why is it vinegar?"
Mrs. Dou, who had been watching Li Shimin and Li Xuanba playing with a smile, bent her waist, clapped her hands on her thighs and laughed out loud.
Li Shimin felt wronged: "My queen, you lied to me!"
Madam Dou: "Hahahaha, Daxiong, be good. Vinegar and wine have the same origin. They are the same."
Li Shimin spat out the vinegar in his mouth: "It's different!"
Li Xuanba also laughed so hard that he couldn't breathe: "You deserve it! Don't you want to drink? Keep drinking!"
Li Shimin rolled his eyes around and then put the jealous jar close to Li Xuanba's mouth.
Before Li Xuanba could react, his second brother poured a mouthful of vinegar into his mouth: "Poof!"
Li Shimin was filled with jealousy.
Li Shimin blinked.
The women laughed so hard that tears came out.
While helping Li Shimin wipe his face, Li Zhao laughed and scolded, "It's your fault! Who told you to bully Sanlang?"
Li Xuanba quickly went to find some water to wash the vinegar taste out of his mouth.
The water tasted sweet and smelled like grapes... No, it was wine! After Li Xuanba finished a whole glass of "water", he realized that what he drank was actually wine.
Li Shimin was dissatisfied and said, "Ah Xuan is so cunning. You don't let me drink, but you drink so happily. No, I want to drink too...ah? Ah Xuan! What are you doing!"
Li Xuanba put down the cup, picked up the pipa, and climbed onto the drum.
"The winding river comes from the sky!" Li Xuanba strummed the pipa randomly and sang a tune that no one else could understand.
The women stopped drinking and looked up at Li Xuanba who was drunk.
This song has no tune, no lyrics, and sounds like a casual joke among street people, extremely vulgar. But when sung by a child, it has a childish and childish tone.
Li Xuanba forgot the lyrics while singing. He thought about it and felt dizzy, so he threw away the pipa, curled up on the drum, and snored loudly.
He was knocked out by a glass of wine.
The female members of the family were enjoying Li Xuanba's performance, but they didn't expect that Li Xuanba would fall asleep immediately, which caused another burst of laughter.
Li Shimin climbed onto the drum and poked his brother's face: "Ah Xuan, wake up."
Li Xuanba: "Snoring…Snoring…"
Li Shimin poked: "Da De, wake up!"
Li Xuanba turned over: "Snoring...Snoring..."
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Li Shimin shook his head and sighed: "Mother, Ah Xuan is drunk! Fortunately, I didn't drink."
Madam Dou smiled and said, "Come here, take Sanlang away, and we will continue drinking!"
"Okay!" the women laughed.
Li Shimin was worried about Li Xuanba, and although he still wanted to play, he left with his brother.
Their small courtyard was occupied by the female relatives, and Li Shimin and Li Xuanba were arranged by Madam Dou to sleep in Li Zhiyun's courtyard.
On the way, they met Li Yuan who was stopped by servants at the gate of the courtyard.
Li Yuan was also slightly tipsy and asked in confusion, "What? Is there a place in the Duke of Tang's mansion that I, the Duke of Tang, cannot enter? I just came to ask Madam if the banquet should be over."
The maidservant at the gate smiled and said, "It was the order of the old lady and the lady. The ladies are having a great time, so men should not disturb them."
Li Yuan was dissatisfied: "I am the Duke of Tang!"
The maid asked, "Does the Duke want to ask the old lady and the mistress?"
Li Yuan hesitated for a moment, then pointed at Li Shimin who came out of the courtyard and Li Xuanba who was carried on the back of a servant: "They are men too!"
Li Shimin was puzzled: "Yeah, what are you talking about? Didn't you say before that my brother and I are children, not men? My brother is drunk, I will leave first."
Li Shimin swaggered away with the servant who was carrying Li Xuanba on his back.
Li Yuan: "…"
The maid asked, "Do you want me to go and ask?"
Li Yuan waved his hand: "No, no, it seems that they don't want to end the party. Come on, Bishamon, let's go to the front yard and continue drinking!"
Li Jiancheng was a big drinker, and he was delighted when he heard this: "Great! We've already drunk Chai Shao, who should we choose next?"
Li Yuan said: "Drink your eldest and second brother-in-law too!"
Li Jiancheng said excitedly: "Okay!"
So the father and son put their arms around each other and went to the front yard to drink again.
That night, people in the front and back yards drank until dawn, and men and women all lay drunk in the yard, sleeping with the flowers and plants.
The next day, the tune of "Man Jiang Hong" spread.
It spread from the homes of princes and nobles to the brothels of Qin and Chu, and then to the streets and alleys.
In order to make friends with the powerful and wealthy, the first wave of lyric writing arose among the poor intellectuals, who hoped that their poem "Man Jiang Hong" would catch the eye of the nobles.
The fame of Li Sanniang and Li Xuanba, brother and sister, also reached the ears of a wider range of people along with the "popular song" "Man Jiang Hong".
As for the name "Li Zhao", apart from Li Yuan, Madam Dou, Madam Dugu and the three brothers Li Jiancheng, Li Shimin and Li Xuanba, only Chai Shao knew it. Chai Shao also gave Li Zhao a new character, "Yin". He often called himself "Knowing Music".
Li Xuanba commented, what a cheesy love talk.
The original version of "Man Jiang Hong" was locked in the backyard of the noble women's family, and was only played and sung quietly by close friends at private gatherings.
But there is no impenetrable wall, and no song can be hidden. The original version of "Man Jiang Hong" eventually reached the ears of some people.
Although it seems that no one in the outside world sings the original version of "Man Jiang Hong", it seems that everyone knows the first song "Man Jiang Hong".
Yang Guang also heard "Man Jiang Hong" and immediately composed a song and ordered the musicians to play it.
He really likes this kind of song which is a combination of folk tunes and literati's lyrics. He thinks it can be appreciated by both the elite and the masses and has a sense of prosperity and peace.
When the news of Yang Su's serious illness came, Yang Guang was discussing with Pei Yun about collecting short poems from all over the country and compiling a "Ci Pu" to promote this very interesting folk "popular music" in the court.
"Yang Su refuses to take medicine?" Yang Guang was overjoyed and inspired to write a new poem based on the folk tune "Yangliuzhi". He used the idea of "breaking willows" in advance to see Yang Su off.
This poem was secretly passed to Yang Su by someone with ulterior motives.
Yang Su was already seriously ill due to a surge of blood and qi. After hearing this poem, he fainted and later became bedridden, unconscious. Even if he wanted to take medicine, it was incurable.
As a result, Yang Su, who was supposed to die at the end of July, passed away at the end of June.
Yang Su finally died, and Yang Guang felt relieved. He held a very high-profile funeral for Yang Su, posthumously awarded him the title of Guanglu Dafu, Taiwei Gong, and ten prefecture governors, and the posthumous title of "Jingwu". He also ordered the Minister of Rites to hold a grand and luxurious funeral for Yang Su, which was far superior to the funerals of ordinary princes and county kings.
Yang Guang also personally mourned for Yang Su, and "touched by the scene" he wrote the poem "Yang Liu Zhi" and ordered people to sing it in front of Yang Su's spirit.
Yang Xuangan, the eldest son of Yang Su, who had heard "Yangliuzhi" at his father's bedside half a month earlier, bit his finger, wrote down Yang Guang's "Yangliuzhi" on paper, and then burned it in front of his father's spirit. The hidden resentment in his heart is not mentioned for now.
The news of Yang Su's death also spread to Daxing City.
Li Yuan and Zhang Sun Sheng brought their eldest sons to pay homage together, and the newlywed Chai Shao had no choice but to go on the long journey with Crown Prince Yang Zhao.
All eyes were focused on Yang Su's funeral. Li Xuanba, who had been quietly waiting for the opportunity, stretched himself, burned the draft that had been rewritten many times, and went to visit his teacher Gao Jiong with Li Shimin.
When Gao Jiong learned that Yang Su had passed away, he was so sad that he fell ill and only allowed his eldest son to pay tribute to Yang Su.
When Li Shimin and Li Xuanba paid a visit to Gao Jiong, Gao Jiong, who claimed to be ill, was in good spirits and was reading a book in the pavilion in the middle of the lake.
Li Xuanba glanced at Li Shimin. Li Shimin smiled at Gao Jiong and said, "Teacher, Xuan has something to tell you. I'm going to go play with Gao Sanlang first!"
After saying this, Li Shimin ran away without waiting for Gao Jiong to speak.
Gao Jiong looked at Li Xuanba in confusion.
Gao Jiong did not bring his servants with him. Li Xuanba asked his servants to leave along the bridge corridor in the water. As long as the voices were kept low, the people in the pavilion would not be heard by others.
"Teacher, I have something to ask you." Li Xuanba bowed respectfully.
Gao Jiong asked, "What is it that requires you to dismiss the servants?"
Li Xuan said: "About the future."
Gao Jiong asked, "You want to ask about your future career path?"
Li Xuanba shook his head: "I have seen the future, I just want to ask the teacher how to avoid future disasters."
Gao Jiong didn't understand what Li Xuanba said.
Li Xuan said domineeringly: "For example, Brother Zhaoxuan, whom my second brother just went to see, is the teacher's third son. He is also the excuse used by Empress Wenxian to frame the teacher for being unfaithful to Emperor Wen of Sui. In the future..."
Gao Jiong was shocked and angry: "What did you say! Empress Wenxian never framed me!"
Li Xuanba said: "Teacher, you don't know? That's right. Your father was an official under Empress Wenxian's father Dugu Xin, and was given the surname Dugu. You think you have a very close relationship with the Dugu family. Although you support the crown prince and don't want to dethrone the eldest son and establish the youngest son, which will lead to turmoil in the court. But the crown prince is also the son of Empress Wenxian. How could Empress Wenxian hate you just because you don't want her sons to kill each other?"
Gao Ying's chest rose and fell as he frowned as he looked at the seven-year-old child whom he could never understand.
He had long discovered that Li Xuanba was very mysterious and sometimes did not act like a child.
At that time, Buddhism was prevalent, and there were many legends about "wisdom from the past" and "Buddha descending to the earth". Gao Jiong unconsciously thought about the most mysterious things.
But he still asked: "But your father Li Yuan asked you to tell me this?"
Li Xuanba shook his head: "Father doesn't know about this now. Father doesn't know that I can predict the future. I only told my brother and my teacher."
"Predict the future?" Gao Jiong frowned. "Do you think I will believe you? What exactly do you want to say? If you can predict the future, why don't you tell your father, but tell me, an outsider? Aren't you worried that I will spread this matter?"
Li Xuanba said: "Because I can predict the future, I know that the teacher is deeply hated by the emperor and will die at the hands of the emperor next year, so I came to find the teacher. If the teacher spreads this matter, no one will believe the teacher. The emperor will also hate the teacher even more and think that the teacher has other intentions. What I came to ask the teacher now is how to save the teacher from the situation where he will die next year."
Li Xuanba wiped the corners of his eyes with his sleeve, and the ginger juice stung his tears.
He blinked hard, bowed and choked up, saying: "As a disciple, even if exposing myself will be dangerous, I don't want the teacher to die at the hands of a tyrant. Please teach me how to save the teacher."
Gao Jiong was dumbfounded. What? I'm going to die next year?!
He had just happily celebrated the death of the ungrateful son of a bitch Yang Su, and now he was going to die too?!