Walking on the country road in Changgou Village, Huaxun Town, Anzhou District, Mianyang City, Sichuan Province, I can hear the sound of the guqin from a low bungalow from time to time, as if I can press the pause button for time, making people instantly Returning to peace and tranquility, this is the 59-year-old peasant luthier Rao Fenyou playing the piano.

Walking into Rao Penyou's house, the first thing you see is the "carpentry room", where a lot of wood is neatly stacked, most of which are paulownia and fir, which are the raw materials for making guqin. On the wall of another room in the "woodworking room", there are more than ten lacquered guqin hanging, which are drying naturally. This "woodworking room" with bursts of woody fragrance seems to have a kind of magical power, which can isolate the hustle and bustle of the outside world, and let Rao Fenyou immerse in the world of Guqin, calm and leisurely, and calm and cultivate his mind. "When the sound of Guqin sounded At that time, the whole world seemed to be quiet."

Over half a hundred years old, listening to music to pursue childhood dreams

When he was young, Rao Fenyou came from a poor family and went out to work when he was a teenager. At that time, near the railway station in Kunming, Yunnan, Rao Fenyou and his companions were in a hurry. Suddenly, a deep and rich piano sound floated into Rao Fenyou's ears, making his anxious heart immediately calm down. Walking along with the sound of the piano, Rao Fenyou saw an old man sitting in the yard playing the piano from a distance. "I didn't know what kind of musical instrument it was at the time, but I only saw a wooden board about one meter long." That year, Rao Fenyou was 17 years old. At this time, he did not know that a chance encounter when he was young turned out to be him. The love that I will pursue after spending all my savings in the second half of my life.

Later, Rao Fenyou came to Haikou, Hainan to work. When I thought that I was in my 30s and had been away from home for many years, but my work was still not so smooth, I felt very upset, so I unknowingly went to a shopping mall to relax. It was in this shopping mall that the melodious melody from a corner comforted Rao Benyou's anxiety. He followed the sound and came to a musical instrument workshop. After the owner's introduction, the music just now came from the guqin. "It turns out that it's called Guqin!" Rao Fenyou recognized at a glance that it was the kind of musical instrument he saw at the Kunming Railway Station in Yunnan. The reappearance of Guqin made Rao Fenyou very excited. He had the idea of enrolling in a class to learn Guqin, but the high cost of study made him have to stop.

In 2014, Rao Penyou went to the vicinity of the Sichuan Conservatory of Music to hang out and saw a guqin in a piano shop. "The sound of that piano is low, I like it very much, but it costs 60,000 yuan, which is a bit expensive." Rao Fenyou thought when he came out of the piano shop, he can make it himself if he can't afford it! At this time, the "seed" of Guqin buried in his heart at the age of 17 finally took root when Rao Fenyou was 52 years old.

Ancient skills, hard work for many years

Guqin is one of the oldest and most representative Chinese traditional musical instruments, with a history of more than 3,000 years. Guqin is made through more than 100 processes such as material selection, varnishing, tuning, etc. A good Guqin takes two or three years to complete. In 2003, Guqin was included in the Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO, and the art of Guqin became the second Chinese cultural category to be included in the Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity after Kunqu Opera.

Rao Fenyou worked as a carpenter and learned lacquer art, but he did not understand the rhythm, which became the biggest obstacle for him to make Guqin. "It took me three years to make my first guqin, but I couldn't play the sound." Rao Penyou was not discouraged, but worked harder. Buying books, searching online, and groping repeatedly... Rao Fenyou stopped his work and devoted himself to making Guqin.

Not only that, Rao Fenyou also used the ancient method of piano making on the basis of pure hand-made. "For example, in 'scraping the tire' and 'painting', others may use tile ash, but I use deer antler cream, buy deer antler at the drugstore, and mash it into coarse, medium, and fine powders when I get home; The 'raw lacquer' is also used, that is, natural lacquer scraped from the tree without any processing." Rao Fenyou said that in terms of material selection and process, it has basically achieved the restoration of the ancient method of piano making.

"If you make a guqin by machine, you can make a guqin in a month at most, but it takes two or three years to make a guqin with pure handmade ancient methods. Among them, the 'air-drying' link is the most time-consuming, because it is all in the shade and ventilated. It takes a long time to dry naturally.” Rao Fenyou admitted that using the ancient method of making a handmade guqin requires not only knowledge of woodworking, lacquer art, rhythm, etc., but more importantly, being able to endure loneliness, “Not only is the process complicated , The time period is long, and the guqin made may not be as good as it should be, and if you can't stand loneliness, you can't make it at all!"

During the eight years of making Guqin, Rao Fenyou has been crossing the river by feeling the stones, and encountering difficulties and failures is a common occurrence, "I have also consulted the masters before, but some crafts are kept secret and others will not say, So for so many years, I have been exploring by myself." Rao Pengyou said that in the past eight years, he has made three batches of guqin, a total of more than 20 pieces, of which there are also better ones, and more than 10 pieces have been sold.

Tempered by the piano academy, entered the hall and received professional recognition

In April of this year, Fenyou Rao learned from a friend that the Fuxi Qin Academy in Beijing was recruiting students, and Li Xiangting, a guqin performer and a professor at the Central Conservatory of Music, was teaching. Rao Fenyou was immediately moved, "In the past two years, I have encountered a bottleneck in piano making, and I have been unable to break through. I want to learn from the big coffee and learn from it."

When he arrived at the Fuxi Qinyuan, with the raw materials and tools of the Qinyuan, Rao Fenyou started to make a piano. After three or four days, he made a simple piano. After being screened by masters, teachers, and Li Xiangting's proud disciples of the Qin Academy, Guqin finally had the opportunity to pass it to Teacher Li Xiangting for a personal audition. "I was very nervous at the time, because some of the brothers we studied together repeatedly revised more than ten places and failed to pass. They were still professionals, while I was only an amateur." With uneasy feelings, Rao Fenyou finally waited for the result. --Once through. At this time, Friends Rao was stunned for a moment and then overjoyed. Teacher Li Xiangting also signed the name "Fuxi Qinyuan, supervised by Li Xiangting" on the piano.

Just when Rao Fenyou finished his studies and was about to leave, the person in charge of the Fuxi Qin Academy asked Rao Fenyou if he could make two more guqin for the Qin Academy and keep it for the Qin Academy to play. Seeing that his pure handmade ancient method of piano making skills was recognized, Rao Fenyou was very happy and agreed to leave after finishing two pianos.

Today's Rao Fenyou can not only make pianos, but also play music. Although the rhythm can't keep up, he can also play some simple songs completely. After the interview, Rao Fenyou played his favorite song "Three Stacks of Yangguan", "I am very quiet by nature, the guqin is like my confidant, and every time I play the piano, it can bring me a peaceful and peaceful enjoyment. "