In the past, there were no other entertainment activities. During the slack season, the villagers loved singing songs to each other. "Eating fire grass smoke" is a unique love and social activity for Yi youths. Young men and women from different villages meet for gatherings, eat fire grass smoke, play piano and sing, and dance cigarette box dance.

A Jiawen was born in Quzuo Village in 1939 and has been interested in folk music since childhood. At the age of 12, he began to learn four strings from his father, A Chengbao, and at the age of 15, he learned to sing and play the strings with the adults in the village. There were no recorded scores and no decent recording tools at that time. Ajiawen memorized sound by note and learned key by key. At the age of 18, he was already a well-known local "Prince of Four Strings".

In the 1980s, A Jiawen began to formally study the Yi folk song Haicaiqiang, and used the ukulele to accompany the Haicaiqiang. Haicai tune, Si tune, Shayou tune (also known as yam tune), and Wushan tune are collectively known as the "Four South Yunnan tunes". Ajiawen has mastered all the playing techniques of these four tunes.

There are many branches of the Yi nationality, and the folk songs are varied in tune, but as long as Ajiawen holds the ukulele, there is no one that he cannot play. In addition to inheriting traditional skills, Ajiawen has also developed his own unique playing skills. His fingering is skillful and fluid, with endless variations, and he pays great attention to emotional coherence when he plays.

Since 1993, A Jiawen has participated in more than 20 music competitions held in Beijing, Hong Kong and other places. His superb performance skills have captivated audiences at home and abroad. In 2003, A Jiawen's four-string solo best album came out. In 2008, Ajiawen was rated as the representative inheritor of the Yi Haicai accent of the national intangible cultural heritage project.

"To appreciate Teacher Ah's four-stringed music, you have to lie down and listen to it with your eyes closed. His qin sound will bring you to the mountain stream, Longtan, dense forest, and remind you of the 'Amei' in your heart, forgetting to eat and sleep ." A four-stringed master commented.

The successor of the violin craftsmanship

A red xylophone that retains the traces of the years, the top of the piano is a vivid faucet, the round body is engraved with exquisite patterns, and the back of the piano board is full of small black characters, recording his performance experience. "This is the ukulele made by my grandfather more than 30 years ago. The sound quality of this violin is very good, and I have followed him for the longest time. He uses this violin to participate in competitions, performances, and video recordings." Ah Jiawen's eldest grandson Zhifa said, "Ukulele performance requires a high level of timbre, and my grandfather felt that the qin he made was worthy of his own performance."

A Jiawen started learning ukulele making at the age of 30, and finally made a violin that he was satisfied with at the age of 35. The violins he produced are beautiful in tone and fine in workmanship, and have won a good reputation in the local area. The master of playing qin is also a master of violin making, and many people come here to buy violins. Selling ukuleles has become the main source of income for Ajiawen's family. It usually takes several months to make a piano, and the supply is often in short supply.

In December 2016, A Jiawen died of illness. "Master Ajiawen is gone, and there will be no people in their family who can make qin." The words of the villagers made Azhifa feel a little stinging in his heart. A Zhifa has been learning piano-making from his grandfather, but before his grandfather's death, he had not had time to master all the craftsmanship of piano-making. In the past, the leading head of each qin was carved by A Jiawen himself, and he set the tune and strings. "If I can't learn it and don't keep doing it, our family's piano-making skills will be cut off." A Zhifa said.

Facing the fine violin left by his grandfather, A Zhifa devoted himself to learning the carving of the faucet, from the moment he sat down in the morning until midnight. The first decent dragon head, he carved a full 4 days. It was only half a year after A Jiawen's death that A Zhifa really mastered the skill of making piano.

A Zhifa told reporters that the shape of the ukulele originated from an ancient local legend: there was a demon dragon that endangered the village. A young man named A Long led the villagers to defeat the demon dragon and made it into a ukulele. "The dragon skin is the surface, the keel is the stem, the dragon tendons are the strings, the dragon scales are the picks, and the dragon head is the head." A Zhifa slowly stroked every detail of the accordion, "Every piano is made from What comes out of the hands of the violin maker is special."

There are many processes in making ukulele. Under the condition that all the materials are prepared, only two can be made a month, and the preparation of materials takes more time than making the violin. In A Zhifa's violin-making workshop, round panels are built into high stacks. These are all materials for violin making. "If the wood is too hard, the sound will be bad. The wood needs to be dried and pressed, and it will take two full years before the production can officially start. If you want to make a good piano, you have to wait." A Zhifa said.

The faucet made by A Jiawen is majestic, and the faucet made by A Zhifa is flamboyant. There were also people who hoped that A Zhifa could follow the grandfather's faucet, but A Zhifa refused. "The piano I made also has its own characteristics. Others will know that it is made by our family, but also know that it is made by A Zhifa."

Let the sound of the piano spread farther

The melodious piano sounded, and A Jinsuo, the eldest son of A Jiawen, sang the famous "missing tune" of the Yi people for everyone. This song used to be A Jiawen's best song, and it sang the thoughts of "Amei".

The melodious sound of the violin and the lingering melody are unforgettable. Ah Jinsuo's "Amei" sat across from him and smiled shyly.

Ah Jinsuo recalled the days when he was playing the piano with his father when he was young. Under the blue sky, in the mountains, the birds chirped and the wind sounded, and the sound of the ukulele seemed to be integrated with nature.

National art originates from life. With the change of society, the custom of eating fireweed and cigarettes has declined, and the ukulele is no longer popular among young people. "There are not many people who can play the entire accompaniment tune. In the past, the four strings that accompany singing and dancing can be saved, or they can be played instead." A Jinsuo said.

In 1993, Tian Feng, a professor at the Central Conservatory of Music for Nationalities, founded the Yunnan Ethnic Culture Training Center in Kunming. A Jiawen was hired as a teacher, responsible for teaching Yi folk tunes, four-chamber, troupe, and miscellaneous strings. After returning to his hometown in 1998, Ajiawen raised funds from various sources, set up the first local Yi four-string performance inheritance class, and established a four-string team in the village. In order to expand the inheritance, Ajiawen broke the tradition of passing down the tradition of passing down the four strings of the Yi nationality to men and not women, and allowed more young people to join the Sixian team.

Ajiawen's standards for accepting apprentices are very low. As long as he is willing to learn, he is willing to teach. His standards for accepting apprentices are also very high. Those who do not study sincerely or seriously are not considered apprentices. Ajiawen has taught more than 200 apprentices, many of whom have become outstanding folk artists. Xu Guoyong, who was named the provincial intangible inheritor last year, is one of his "closed disciples".

"Yi boys can sing and dance, but if they don't know how to play the piano, they will be laughed at." Since he met A Jiawen in 2000, Xu Guoyong went to school again and again. . "The teacher is usually very good to us, just like Dad. But when it comes to teaching tunes, he never smiles at the students. If you play a wrong tune, you will be criticized. You have to practice every note until it is accurate." Xu Guoyong still remembers the strict teaching of Ajiawen.

Under the inheritance of old artists such as A Jiawen, Hou Baoyun, Shi Wanheng, etc., the four-string strumming, the Haicai tune and the cigarette case dance have gradually expanded in the local audience.

Although A Jiawen is gone, the Four Strings Team he founded has gone further and further. In 2017, at the 10th National Folk Song and Dance Music Exhibition in Yunnan Province, the "Age Si Xian Zhuan Hua Music" performed by the Quzuo Village Si Xian Team won the gold medal in the instrumental music category. A Jinsuo said that the Sixian team is often invited to exchange and learn from other ethnic areas. "We played the four strings, they played the matouqin, and compared to each other, no one was stage fright."

Today, Ah Jinsuo is a teacher of ukulele in the ethnic culture class at the Central Primary School of Shaochong Town. "What I teach is more authentic, and I hope to preserve the national traditions. The innovative ones are left to young people to do."