Guqin music for the pretentious peak lord: "White Snow"
I caught myself wondering: if I were to pose as a high-minded peak lord, what music would I play?
There are many classics to choose from, but the song of the day is "White Snow", if only because of the fable surrounding it.
Till this day, the most well-known chengyu (a type of 4-character idiomatic word that plays a very foundational role in the Chinese lexicon) describing highbrow, inaccessible art remains "阳 (yáng) 春 (chūn) 白 (baí) 雪 (xuě)", or "sunlit spring, white snow."
What does snow have to do with high art, one might ask.
The answer lies in "Dialogue with King of Chu", a classical text that describes a conversation the poet Song Yü (298-222 BCE) had with King Qingxiang of Chu.
I believe the context of the story is that there were people accusing Song Yu (who is still known for being Extremely Hot) of improper conduct in his private life. So when the King questions him about it, instead of directly answering the question, Song Yu came up with some interesting metaphors.
One of them goes: There once was a renowned musician who came to perform in the capital. When he performed a popular street song, a thousand people sang along with him. When he began performing more elevated music, only a hundred people were able to follow along. Finally, when he played the most aesthetically and technically challenging songs, only ten could follow.
(This is followed by some animal metaphors that are basically Song Yu's way of saying: "these losers can't understand a high-minded individual such as I, so they can only talk shit behind my back 💅")
The important bit here is the difficult music only ten could follow, since they are, specifically, the songs "Sunlit Spring" and "White Snow". If one were to look for highbrow music, one can't go wrong with the very song the word "highbrow" is named after.
A version of the song is still performed today, after nearly 3000 years. This one is based on a Ming Dynasty version:
Time to play this in a bamboo grove as my knee-length hair flutters gently in the wind, before I am rudely interrupted by my shidi yelling about something.
gummygunk
blakekathryn
