Chapter 13
Deng Haiqiong (Haiqiong Deng)
 Internationally renowned zheng (guzheng) virtuoso
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMgrTaKdFyM
 Director of FSU Chinese Music Ensemble
Zheng, History, Politics
 Chapter focus: “a particular instrument, the zheng, which
we will discuss through the lens of Chinese history and the
political movements and ideologies that have shaped it.”
 Dynastic era
 Qin (3rd century BCE)
 Han (202 BCE-220 CE)
 Tang (618-907)
 Ming (1368-1644)
 Qing (1644-1911)
 Republican Era (1912-1949)
 Communist Era
 Initial Communist period (1949-1965)
 Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)
 Period of Openness\Internationalization (1980-pres.)
The Zheng
 Figure 13.1 – Labeled Diagram (p. 324)
 Board zither
 21 nylon/metal strings
 Movable bridges
 Musical Guided Tour (transcript, pp. 325-26)
 Tunings, playing techniques and textures,
ornamentation
 gua-zou = glissando
The Zheng in Imperial China
 Qin (3rd c. BCE)
 Legend of “dispute” (= zheng) between two sisters in
imperial palace

In their fight, 25-string zheng broken in half. One “half
instrument,” with 13 strings, sent by Qin emperor to imperial
court of Japan, became koto; the other, with 12 strings, sent to
court of Korea, became kayagum.
Koto
CD 2-1 – traditional
CD 4-24 Rin’s Sakitama – contemporary
Kayagum
Japan/Korea: Koto and kayagum
 Koto – “Tori no Yo ni (You ni)” (Like a Bird), composed by Sawai Tadao
(same piece as CD 2-1)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hojU-Q9-LZo
 Sankyoku (koto, shamisen, shakuhachi)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwCuI3Xn7_E
 Rin “Sakitama” music video
 (recording CD 4-24)
 Also features the biwa
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICkPs-xlgpY
 Kayagum
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TrWww6lR_s
Han Dynasty (202 BCE-220CE)
 Zheng had mixed reputation – “vulgar” for some, high
moral character for others
 Solo tradition of zheng playing may date back to this era,
though mainly an ensemble instrument.
 Confucius, Confucianism, and the qin (zither)
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Moral virtue as “right” social order
Proper music/instruments for each social class
Junzi “superior individuals” (though not necessarily by birth!)
 Seven-string qin (guqin) zither the instrument of choice for junzi
 Confucius himself played the qin
 CD 4-25 – solo qin performance (melody based on ancient
Buddhist chant)
Clockwise: Qin; koto, qin … kayagum; zheng
Junzi playing the qin
(Could it be…
Confucius?)
Qin videos
 “Remember Old Friends,” perf. by Deng Haiqiong
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMgrTaKdFyM
 From 8:20-end of the video (which is a TV profile of
Haiqiong)
 Tao-Chu Shen qin performance
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvhKTFzQG8Y
 Fight scene (Jet Li vs. Donnie Yen) from Hero (2004)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeeoEpmyb2Y
Tang Dynasty (618-907)
 Another golden age for China
 Zheng reached its apogee during this period
 Music ministry – 30,000 musicians and dancers from
throughout empire employed
 Zheng
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In many different ensembles
elaborate decoration (silver-engraved frames, jade bridges),
earliest known examples of notation
Women performers (continuing association) – Emperor Xuanzong
 Silk Road – pipa and other instruments brought to China (CD
4-26 – zheng, pipa duet)
Silk Road Ensemble
Wu Man (pipa) and Kayan Kalhor
(kamanche) of the Silk Road
Ensemble, directed by Yo-Yo Ma.
Ming and Qing dynasty
 Chinese opera
 Peking (Beijing) opera


Traditional
 Golden age, early 20th century (late Qing – Republican era)
Revolutionary (Communist era/Cultural Revolution)
Peking Opera examples
 UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage “Peking Opera”
video
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtV3iAuYN48
 The Red Lantern (Legend of the Red Lantern) --
Revolutionary/Model Opera – 1964)
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Plot: three generations in family of Chinese
revolutionaries, China-Japan war (1937-1945)
CD 1-5 (vocalist Wei Li)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0mtijWiR6g
 Leehom Wang “Mistake in the Flower Fields”
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSNVCPkNl4U
Regional Styles: Traditional Solo
Zheng Music
 Crystallized late Qing dynasty era (mid/late 19th c.)
 Shandong, Henan, etc.
 Each regional style: distinctive yun (regional character)
 Deng Haiqiong studied Shandong style w. Gao Zicheng
 “Autumn Moon over the Han Palace” (CD 4-27; pp. 332-34)
 Baban form -- length per cycle 68 ban (1 ban = ban + yan)
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8 phrases per cycle
All phrases 8 ban in length, except Phrase 5 (12 ban)
Yijing of sadness (but complex – “gentle, moderate, controlled”)
Intricate ornamentation of melody
16 steel-stringed zheng (rather than 21 nylon-steel)
Communist Era
 Conservatories and conservatory solo zheng tradition
actually hark back to Republican era, pre-communism
(1912-1949)
 “Return of the Fishing Boats” (Lou Shuhua, 1936)
 Communism: music overtly political, ideological, “On the
Golden Hill in Beijing” (CD 4-28, sung by Li Xiuqin)
 Folkloric research, appropriation of “folk traditions,” and
harnessing of Western elements (compositional, piano/harp)
all fed into solo zheng style

“Spring on Snowy Mountains” (CD 4-29, pp. 338-40), comp. Fan
Shang’e
 Programmatic music
 “Tibetan” melody, revolutionary program, piano/harp techniques
(tremolos, arpeggiated chords, etc.)
“Fighting the Typhoon”
 OMI 26 (excerpt, performed by Deng Haiqiong
 Classic performance by the composer, Wang Chang Yuan
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEvyu1rTOvM&index=3
4&list=RDiclV4wcVBQ8
 …and from a more recent concert by WC
 “High Mountain, Flowing Water”
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=293&v=UBbUuvGl8kc
Period of Openness
 1976-1979 – Turbulent years following Mao’s death
(Gang of Four)
 1980s – Deng Xiaoping ushers in “Period of Openness”
 “Whatever they write or create can only be investigated
and resolved by artists. There will be no [political]
interference in these matters.” (D. Xiaoping, 1979)
“Music from the Muqam
 CD 4-33 – “Music from the Muqam” (second half)
 Based on Uighur musical tradition
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Word muqam related to Arabic maqam
Mode/scale (D F# G A C)
Five-beat meter (aksak = “limping” rhythms)
Melodic ornamentation
Elements of formal design
 Chinese conservatory elements
 Profusely virtuosic style (e.g., gua-zou glissandi), and thus Western
influence
 Equal-tempered “translation” of the traditional Uighur mode
 Problems of musicultural appropriation (also Tibetans and other
“minority” groups in China)
Tan Dun
 Tan Dun
 CD 4-32 – “Desert Capriccio” from Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon – featuring Yo-Yo Ma
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhCHw0Ovqf4
(swordfight scene)
 Other scores include Hero
Cui Jian
 “Nothing to My Name”
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYwsPt854Xo&list=RDkYwsPt
854Xo#t=21
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvn8Ql5GOYA (live)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzNZKOZpoBU
(documentary)
 “Fake Monk” (w. zheng)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXbC2f1BV_Y featuring zheng)
Bei Bei
 CD 4-31 – “Hot Thursday” from Into the Wind
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGZR8j5hhjo
(music video)