Stray Soul | Chapter 1: A Strange Child (Part 7)
The mentality of Vazarl Nulu has long surpassed the point of caring about the opinions of the world. This certain form of thick-skin self-confidence can only come with age and many personal accomplishments. The manifestation is similar to blind pursuit of an objective. For Vazarl Nulu, until he decides otherwise, that objective is becoming a scholar.
As a creature of habit, he is quick to form routines. During the morning, he attends the lessons of Jaal Wenle. In the afternoon, every other day, he explores the safe parts of woodlands, fields and White Stag River within walking distance. At evening, when the lack of lighting limits his activities, he meditates in his room. On the days he spends at home, he learns woodcraft from Crenlan Nulu and some crafts related to textiles from Foalin Ohga.
Though Crenlan Nulu wants Vazarl Nulu to become a cultivator for the Nulu Clan, part of him still wants the craft passed down from his own father to survive for another generation. Through carpentry, Crenlan Nulu provides for his wife and son. He is proud of those skills, humble as they are. For Vazarl Nulu to want to learn these skills fills him with pride—both as an artisan and a father.
Similarly, Foalin Ohga was very glad that Vazarl Nulu, young as the child is, wants to learn various skills that would allow him to be independent. Her son seems to have an unquenchable appetite for knowledge. Both she and her husband could recognize that their son is not fond of play, and prefers to spend his time experimenting with various projects.
The couple have heard from their neighbors that Vazarl Nulu spends his mornings outside the classroom of Jaal Wenle. When they tried to bring up the subject, he would promptly divert their attention to some other project he is working on. Still, they are aware their son wants to learn letters. After all, they have seen his projects. Woodchips and plants fibers are processed into paper. Crushed charcoal mixed with rice glue for ink. Brushes made from his own hair. They know that he knows they cannot afford to send him to school.
Silently, the couple watched their son carve out his own path. All of his projects seem straightforward, but the creative ingenuity behind them are beyond their comprehension. They could only thank Heaven and their ancestors for blessing their son with seemingly unbounded creativity and strong sense of independence.
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In pursuit of his objective, Vazarl Nulu discovered that the teachings of Confucianism were translated and introduced to the Empire by someone similarly born centuries before, but the concept of “junzi” gentleman was not introduced in its entirety. That is, neither the Six Arts [1] or civil the Four Arts [2] are well defined. Jaal Wenle had mentioned practicing graceful calligraphy and enjoyment of music, poetry, and paintings, but made no specific requirements of his students to pursue these hobbies.
Vazarl Nulu, lacking reference on the daily lives of scholars, thought the exportation of cultural instruments from Eternal Moon Province to Golden Moon Province lacking. Thus, he set out to create his own guqin and weiqi set.
Cultural production is difficult.
A fell tree trunk has to be processed by hand using many tools to make planks of specific sizes. Surfaces have to be scraped smooth. The different parts have to be made individually, then assembled. Sap has to be harvested for the lacquer coating. Silk worms have to be raised. Silk threads have to be twisted tightly together in different numbers for the strings. Even with my knowledge of the instrument, manufacturing my own qin is no easy undertaking.
I can read music written for the major scale, but not for the pentatonic scale. There is also the “play by feel” element similar to bowing instruments. Right hand plucks. Left hand presses. Thirteen positions. Seven strings. Various fingering techniques. I can avoid written notation with some custom shorthand. Still, writing music will be time consuming.
A bamboo flute is easier to manufacture and write music for. But, not everyone can play the flute. The posture during performance is also less graceful. A guqin can be played more readily. The manufacturing cost makes exclusive what could otherwise be universal exposure.
Fundamentally, qínqíshūhuà [2] is a barrier to entry established by the ruling elites. Self-selection into social groups and perpetual emphasis on norms distinguish in-group members from out-group members. All cultures are “exclusive”, accessibility and definitions of “high” and “low” are only semantic elaborations.
All things considered, manufacturing the guqin is not too demanding. A few white lies of observing other musical instruments provided rationales for the inspiration. Father helped me with shaping the instrument. Experimenting with string sizes mostly requires waiting for silk worms to grow. Mother showed me how to spin thread and allows me to use her tools. I also made notes for future reference, in the event my strings break or my qin is different from those manufactured in the Capital.
Weiqi, on the other hand, is more labor intensive. I have to scavenge for shells and fish fresh water clams from the White Stag River. Discovering both a white and a black shelled species of suitable size, I had thought Fortune on my side. Only when I began shaping the shells into stones did I realize how much more arduous this task is compared to making a guqin. I, in a five-year-old’s body, had to chisel a rock to create the grindstone to shape the weiqi stones. Thankfully, after seeing me painstakingly chisel circles from the shells, father was kind enough to order a cutting tool from a blacksmith. Counting the number of strokes on the grindstone and remembering the pressure to use is both boring and straining. In retrospect, perhaps a wood set would be acceptable.
[1] The Six Arts are rites (abstract natural laws), music, archery, chariot riding, calligraphy, mathematics. Archery and chariot riding were dropped after martial pursuits were no longer as necessary for a “perfect” gentleman. The remaining four became the Four Arts.
[2] The Four Arts of ancient Chinese scholar-gentlemen; qín is music, specifically of the guqin instrument; qí is chess, specifically weiqi; shū is “poetic” calligraphy, which requires the scholar to also be learned to express poetic nature of the calligraphy; huà is brush painting.
