Li Zhengui, who arrived at the venue ahead of schedule, took out his reading glasses from the satchel he was carrying, and carefully looked at the written materials we had prepared in advance. "Mr. Li, can you please take a look at this shooting angle?" "Yes, the environment outside the window is a little messy, and the effect should be better if you close the curtains and turn on the lights." As the pioneer and founder of Chinese national percussion music, Li Zhengui Always treat everything with a rigorous style and a peaceful attitude. He develops and strengthens the professional teaching system and team in the way of "moistening things without sound". Li Zhengui said that "historic chose him" to enter the Chinese national percussion major, and he has also worked hard for more than 60 years.

Over the years, he has been rooted in tradition and professional, and has successively published textbooks and monographs such as "Chinese Music Encyclopedia: Percussion Volume" (editor-in-chief), "Practical Course of Chinese Percussion", "Percussion Music Collection", "Chaozhou Gong and Drum Performance Techniques" and other textbooks and monographs , published papers such as "Exploring the Characteristics of Chinese Gong and Drum Music", "On the Artistic Characteristics of Tujia Daliuzi", "Exploration and Reflection on the Construction of Chinese National Percussion Music", and created "Xiangxi Style", "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea", "Drum Poems", " Soaring Cannons", "Horse Lantern Dance" and other works. Bit by bit, he personally established the national percussion major of the Central Conservatory of Music, and introduced the folk percussion that roams between the heavens and the earth into the professional art field, bringing it to a new academic height and showing a new world.

Two opportunities to embark on the road of "people fighting"

In 1941, Li Zhengui was born in an ordinary worker's family in Chongqing. His father lost his father at the age of 2, and his mother raised him and his elder brother with hard work and hardships. When he was a child, although the material conditions were scarce, it never affected his love for literature and art. During the War of Resistance Against America and Aid Korea, Li Zhengui was called by a primary school teacher to the school broadcasting room to sing the song "Aunt Wang Wants Peace" for the teachers and students of the school. Besides singing, he also likes to play the flute and huqin. When he had no money to buy musical instruments, he went to the musical instrument store to steal teachers and made a simple erhu by himself; when he had no money to hire a teacher, he followed the radio to teach himself. Li Zhengui recalled that his first really decent musical instrument was a python-skin mahogany erhu bought by his mother for 10 yuan when he was in the third year of junior high; the first professional teacher in the true sense was the one he met during the training in the Youth Palace in high school. An erhu teacher at the Chongqing Song and Dance Theater.

The first turning point in Li Zhengui's musical life came in the spring of 1960, when the Central Conservatory of Music, Shanghai Conservatory of Music and Sichuan Conservatory of Music joined forces to recruit students in Chongqing. After entering the school, Li Zhengui studied under Professor Lan Yusong, an erhu educator and musicologist. In 1961, the Wheel of Fortune once again turned out a new card for Li Zhengui, making him become associated with Chinese national percussion music. During the summer vacation that year, the Central Voice organized a number of "Learning Groups from the Folks" to go all over the country to collect folk music and learn folk music. As a first-year erhu major, Li Zhengui followed Jun Chi (team leader, composition), Yuan Jingfang (yangqin), Li Wanfen (guzheng), Wang Guotong (erhu, Gaohu), Hu Zhihou (suona, Guanzi) and others to collect and study in Guangdong. He was assigned to learn Chaozhou gongs and drums from the Guangdong Song and Dance Troupe Tan Peimin, thus starting a new journey in the profession of Chinese national percussion. "This is the first time I have come to the southeast of the motherland, and it is also the first time I have experienced the artistic charm of Chaozhou gongs and drums. I go to study and practice without sleep every day." When the school started in September in the fall, the study group for collecting wind held a report concert in the school's small auditorium. Li Zhengui played the Chaozhou big gongs and drums "Throwing Nets to Fish" and small gongs and drums "Pink Butterflies Picking Flowers" and other music. ,Widely acclaimed.

Because of Li Zhengui's serious and hard work in the national percussion major, coupled with the intention of the Central Conservatory of Music to train him, since the second year of college, in addition to majoring in erhu, the school has successively arranged for him to follow folk musicians Zhu Qinfu, Zhao Chunfeng and Xi'an "Yi Secular Society". "Qin Opera Troupe Director Liang Jianguo learned from ten gongs and drums in southern Jiangsu, folk gongs and drums in Hebei and Shandong, and Qin Opera gongs and drums. First "know" the music genre, then "worship" the drum king, and switch from erhu to "minda", which shows the good intentions of the school and the folk music department in preparing for a new major. In 1965, Li Zhengui, as the first graduate of the Chinese National Percussion major trained by the Central Conservatory of Music, stayed at the school and became the founder and first professional teacher of the "Mind Play" major.

Learn from "the best teacher in the world"

Li Zhengui was only 24 years old when he stayed at the school to work, and it was a good year for a career. However, successive political campaigns disrupted all plans. It was not until the college entrance examination was resumed after the "Cultural Revolution" that he officially recruited the first batch of students majoring in Chinese ethnic percussion (4 students in the attached middle school and university), and it has been 13 years since he stayed at the school to teach. "The establishment of the 'Minda' profession started from scratch. Although it is necessary to paint on a piece of white paper, it is not water without a source or a tree without roots. This 'source', this 'root' is 'history' It is a long-standing, diverse and colorful folk music art of gongs and drums." Li Zhengui believes that, as a brand-new specialty of national instrumental music, if "Minda" wants to truly "stand up", it must take root in the folk and learn from the folk music and art of gongs and drums. Nutrition.

Since the 1980s, Li Zhengui has insisted on teaching while visiting various places across the country to collect folklore. He has gone to Anhui, Hunan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, Shandong, Sichuan, Chongqing, Guangdong and other places to collect and sort out folk gongs and drums materials, and learn from teachers. , and selectively compile the repertoires they have learned into the teaching materials and incorporate them into the teaching content. He has used the winter and summer vacations to watch and study many times the "flower lanterns" in northern Anhui, the "Daliuzi" in western Hunan, and the "Jiangzhou gongs and drums" in Shanxi. "I was particularly impressed by the majestic gongs and drums performed by local farmers in Shanxi in 1984. Especially the performance in the square, the rough dance, the sonorous drum beat, the bold spirit, and the loess that permeated the air. It really makes people feel like they are shaking the world. I was in tears, and I was fascinated by it. The folk gongs and drums full of rich life flavor will always be my 'the first teacher in the world'." Therefore , For decades, he has been advocating that teachers and students majoring in "people fighting" should "go deep into the people and trace their roots back to the source", and set an example. "However, learning folk music should not be just a 'setter', because not all folk music materials with distinctive personality and earthy fragrance are suitable for professional teaching. Therefore, while learning, recording, arranging, and creating, It’s the norm every time I collect style.”

Li Zhengui believes that the development of Chinese folk music is not just a simple inheritance, but a re-inheritance and re-development after innovation and development on the basis of predecessors. "Jiangzhou drum music in Xinjiang County, Shanxi Province is a successful example of the innovative development of traditional art in my heart. In the mid-to-late 1980s, when there were only two or three programs of Jiangzhou gongs and drums, my colleague, Wang Baocan of Shanxi Song and Dance Theater, took me with me. When I went to Xinjiang County to collect wind, I was so excited when I saw the local Shanxi Jiangzhou Drum Music Troupe perform "Flower Knocking Drum" with a flat drum. "Since then, every summer, Li Zhengui will go to Xinjiang County to live for a period of time. He will eat and live with Wang Qinan, the founder of the Shanxi Jiangzhou Drum Music Troupe, the director of the Cultural Center, and the members of the group. A traditional and expertly crafted piece. As the first teacher and founder of the "people's playing" major in my country, Li Zhengui personally made suggestions for the development of traditional percussion music: in the early 1990s, he composed a solo work "The Story of Loess" for a drum with a diameter of more than two meters. , performance form, repertoire skills, stage lighting, etc., all have to be conceived for the design of the entire program, and it is also one of the repertoires of the Shanxi Jiangzhou Drum Art Troupe. In the textbook, he believed that only by publishing the musical scores could the works be performed and disseminated more widely; when he held the "Li Zhengui Chinese Percussion Concert" at the Beijing Concert Hall in May 1993, he specially invited the Jiangzhou Drum Music Troupe to come to Beijing to cooperate with him. He jointly performed "Rolling Walnuts" on stage, realizing the fusion and collision of folk art and professional education.

Compared with other majors in the folk music department, the "mind playing" major was established relatively late, and Li Zhengui believes that there is still a lot of room for development. He hoped that the younger generation could keep the fine tradition of "folk gathering". For the major of national instrumental music performance, folk music is really an ocean that must be invested in it. Whoever enters deeply, who enters for a long time, and who enters into self-forgetfulness, will be different and have a long-lasting artistic career; With an open mind, on the basis of deepening the cognition of the connotation of traditional national culture, he organically integrates the elements of the times into the traditional performance forms, and integrates with Western percussion music to promote and develop together.

Develop the "people's fight" profession from scratch

From being arranged by the school to study Chinese national percussion music in 1961, graduating in 1965 and staying at the school to start a business in Xinjiang, to the last two graduate students graduating in 2021, Li Zhengui has always regarded "teaching and educating people" as the sacred duty of a teacher. Today, a "Jia Zi" has passed. With the joint efforts of the teachers of the Central Conservatory of Music, the Department of Folk Music and the Teaching and Research Section, the teaching system of the "Folk Fight" major has been initially formed. Qiao Jianzhong, a national music theorist, commented in the preface of Li Zhengui's first percussion textbook "Practical Course of Chinese Percussion" (in Taiwan in 1994): "On the one hand, it respects elegance and respect for the people, and at the same time, it uses ' There is no certain teacher's attitude of 'converting to benefiting from many teachers', changing falsehood and seeking truth, taking the essence and applying the great, so as to combine 'learning' (learning from folk artists) with 'teaching' (instructing students), 'inheriting' and 'creating' ' Organically integrated, making it the foundation that underpins this new profession."

Li Zhengui said frankly, "For the establishment and development of the 'people's fight' major, it has gone through a cycle from students to teachers, and then to students. From the initial ignorance to today's little knowledge, 'teaching and learning' has inspired me, teachers. Interact with students on an equal footing." In the eyes of the students, Teacher Li is strict but not harsh, gentle but not shy. Because he never "speaks nonsense" when he is in the main subject. In class, he needs to point out the problems of students and put forward requirements and suggestions; after class, he is integrated with students to achieve trust and equality. "The coexistence of gratification and pressure are the two feelings I feel as a teacher. Whenever I see that students have achieved results and progress, and can use their intelligence to give back to their hometown and society, I feel very gratified. But at the same time, I have been teaching for more than 60 years. There will also be an invisible pressure accompanying me in the process. Because teaching needs to change with the needs of social development, this requires me to continuously learn and update knowledge. This pressure is also a sense of mission and responsibility.” Li Zhengui said.

The performance skills, techniques and styles of Chinese national percussion music mainly originate from the folk, and it is far from enough to establish a professional, systematic and innovative teaching system. On the other hand, the development of Chinese contemporary music is more modern and international, and the society's demand for music talents is also more diversified and diversified. Therefore, Li Zhengui established the professional development idea of "focusing on China and learning both Chinese and Western". While majoring in ethnic percussion, students also learn some commonly used western percussion. In addition to solo training, they also have ensemble and ensemble training. Because of its wide professional caliber, the career development of students is also more diverse. For different career choices of students, Li Zhengui will make the best use of the situation according to their personality characteristics, hobbies, professional level, etc. He believes that university is an important period of life development, and it is the teacher's responsibility to grasp and determine the correct development direction for students at a critical time node.

Whether the music performance profession can continue to develop, works are also a key factor. Folk music has a tradition of "integration of creation and performance", and many classic works of modern folk music are also the results of "performing and excellent performance" by professional performers. Therefore, in addition to teaching, Li Zhengui also attaches great importance to creation. "But you can't write for the sake of writing, you must have the enthusiasm and desire to create." Li Zhengui introduced his two works "Drum Poems - For a Group of Chinese Drums" and "Climbing Cannons": the former was originally created by Tan Dun Li Zhengui was very impressed after listening to the passages played by "drums" in the wind and percussion music "Cut and Cut". After obtaining the author's consent, he created this pure drum work "Drum Poems"; the latter is a percussion ensemble work , "It's a piece dedicated to my hometown that I presented with professional performance techniques after watching the performance of a farmer's gong and drum team in Cuntan Township, Jiangbei County, Chongqing."

Retire and never stop fighting for the people

The establishment of a major requires not only students and teachers, but also a curriculum system and teaching content that supports the major. Li Zhengui, who retired in 2005, said with a smile that he "retires without end" and continued to take graduate students until 2021. In 2010, he led the team to start the compilation work of "Chinese Music Encyclopedia: Percussion Volume". It took 6 years to hold 27 plenary meetings of the editorial committee, and finally published the first monograph of 1.6 million Chinese folk percussion classics. Over the years, Li Zhengui has been working hard, and the world's first Chinese-English bilingual textbook "Chinese Music Easy Learning (Chinese National Percussion)" compiled by his team will also be published this year.

With the development of society and economy, off-campus art education institutions have sprung up, but at the same time, there is a mixed situation. In 2018, Li Zhengui was invited by the Talent Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Shanghai Percussion Association to participate in the review and editing, and formulated the "Percussion Performance Professional Ability Evaluation Course (Chinese National Percussion Volume)". He said: "This set of courses is divided into 5 levels. It not only sets up assessment standards for teachers outside the school, but also for the first time includes 11 'basic skills exercises' compiled by me based on years of teaching experience. It is important and necessary for professional and non-major students to allow more people in the industry to share the practical basic skills practice content in their teaching process." In recent years, Li Zhengui has left all 11 music academies in China. Over and over, "the creation and development of the civil strike profession and the promotion of basic skills" are the two major themes of his academic lectures. He said that teachers and students in the new era should "know their roots" professionally and be solid in technology.

Time flies, time goes by without a trace. Li Zhengui, who has entered his old age, has never diminished his passion and affection for Chinese folk music of gongs and drums. "Diligence and dedication, inheritance and development; innovation and leadership, forging ahead; serving as a teacher, establishing morality and cultivating people" is his self-encouragement, and it is also a common word of encouragement with young teachers and students.