Blind Abing

His original name was Hua Yanjun, He was born in 1893 and died in 1950.His father and mother died very early,he was adopted by the Taoist Hua Qinghe, master of the local Leizundian temple, and so became a Taoist apprentice. From his childhood onward, Blind Abing learnt music from Hua Qinghe. Later, when Abing came across a tune he liked, whoever it was that was playing it, he did his utmost to learn from them, with the result that he learned to play many of the local instruments quite well.

When he was a Taoist, since he loved performing, he also joined a chuigu (traditional wind and percussion) ensemble, playing in wedding and funeral processions. The Taoists believed this was causing them to lose face, and so they ejected him from their ensemble. Thus, Abing became a chuigu player. While a chuigu player, again because he loved performing, he often went to the market to play, or wandered about the streets until someone called on him to perform. The chuigu ensemble believed him to be contravening their customs, and consequently excluded him from their group. In this way, he became a pure and simple wandering street musician.

Originally, Abing wasn't blind. When he was thirty-five (1927), he didn't get immediate treatment for an eye disease and completely lost the sight of both eyes. From this time onwards, he was known as Blind Abing, and ordinary people gradually forgot his original name. He himself often told people not to use his original name, saying, "I haven't used the name Hua Yanjun for ages, no one knows it. It's better if you call me Blind Abing; that's the name that everyone on the street knows."

There were also those who considered Blind Abing a beggar. He never freely accepted charity from other people; he simply relied on performance to maintain himself. When people asked him to perform, even without giving him any money, he was still happy to do so.

Not only could he play solos on various instruments, he could also sing, accompanying himself on the huqin [two-stringed fiddle, another name for erhu] or pipa. He could make up lyrics. Everyday he went to small stalls or smoking rooms to hear the day's news; what he heard in the morning was on his lips in the afternoon, being sung in a rhythmic, musical form. When Wuxi was controlled by the Japanese puppet regime, information about the anti-Japanese war was naturally not found in the newspapers. But, Blind Abing's singing voice, from start to finish, was never at the service of the puppet regime. He sang numerous songs which discredited them, and although he was often threatened, he paid no regard.

Cai Wenji

Cai Wenji was the daughter of Cai Yong, a famous scholar and official of Eastern Han. Her name was Yan, her style Wenji and she was both a learned scholar and a proficient musician.

On one occasion, as she listened to her father play the qin, she asked: "Father, is the second string broken?"

It was, but Cai Yong suspected that his daughter had just made a lucky guess. He deliberately snapped the fourth string to test her and was astonished when Cai Wenji said: "Now the fourth string is broken too."

Cai Wenji married a man named Wei Zhongdao from Hedong. Following his untimely death, she returned to her father's house as a widow. Towards the end of the Han era, the country was thrown into turmoil. Cai Wenji was captured by Hu troops and carried off to their city. She lived in the Hu territory for twelve years as the concubine of a Xiongnu prince, named Zuo Xian and bore him two sons.

A sincere friendship had existed between Cai Yong and the Wei warlord, Cao Cao. Sensing Cai Yong's loneliness, the warlord sent precious gifts to Prince Zuo Xian in exchange for Cai Wenji.

Thus, Cai Wenji returned to her homeland where Cao Cao arranged for her to marry an officer named Dong Si. After Cai Yong's death, all his work would have been lost if not for the fact that his daughter had a good memory. She set down all that she remembered, word for word and presented it to Cao Cao.

Cai Wenji had led a turbulent life. In some ways, even her good memory proved to be a burden to her as she constantly longed for the two sons she left behind in the Hu region. She was also haunted by thoughts of her carefree childhood. Poetry was her consolation and this was where she expressed her sorrow and anger in works such as Poems of Sorrow and Resentment and Eighteen Laments Sung To A Hujia from which the following excerpt is taken:

"At the time of my birth, the land was at peace,
But later, the Han Dynasty fell into decline.
Heaven is unkind, allowing wars, suffering, separation;
Earth is unkind, that I should have to live at such a time.
Weapons of war are everywhere, making the roads perilous.
Soldiers and people fleeing to exile, suffering together.
The land, billowing clouds of smoke and dust, is a prisoner of the Hu.
Integrity and willpower have disappeared.
I cannot accept the vulgar barbarous customs,
Humiliated and abused, to whom can I turn?
I sing to my hujia and qin,
But no one knows my anger and my grief."

Yu Boya

Yu Boya used to be a famous musician in Chu kingdom during the Spring and Autumn Period (770 - 476 B.C.). Although good at musical instrument, he was always depressed for few people can keenly comprehended his music. One day, on his way back to his country after a diplomatic mission, he was blocked here by a sudden heavy rain. When it cleared up, Yu Boya played a piece of music. Zhong Ziqi, a woodcutter, understood quite well the message conveyed in Boya's music - a vivid description of mountains and rivers, then traced the music and found Yu Boya. Thus the two became bosom friends. One year later, when Ziqi died, Boya, knowing there would be no one else to appreciate the beauty of his music, smashed his lute in grief and never again played music.