A proponent of an ailing, ancient form of temple music, Hu Qingxue is on a mission to ensure it will continue to resonate into the future, Xin Wen reports.

Hu Qingxue leads a band of musicians to perform Jing Music at Beijing's Zhihua Temple. The traditional art form is inscribed on the list of the national intangible cultural heritage. (YANG ZHIGUO / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Like letters from heaven, score containing long musical notes hangs on the window of Hu Qingxue's office, which, for two decades, has also doubled as the backstage area for a band in Beijing's downtown.

Hu, 47, has played the music inscribed on the notation since he was 17. Called Jing Music, it has been preserved and inherited by consecutive generations of monks for 577 years.

Every day at 10 am and 3 pm in the Zhihua Temple, Hu, a 27th-generation inheritor of Jing Music, strikes up a band consisting of seven other musicians for a free, 15-minute performance given to visitors from both home and abroad.

Resounding and solemn, the music is passed down from generation to generation with verbal guidance and is usually played with wind and percussion instruments. All musicians who know about the traditional temple music first learned to sing the musical notation called gongche pu, a traditional Chinese notation system, before playing it with instruments.

Hu, who mainly plays wind instruments in the band, was born into a farming family in Qujiaying village in Hebei province. The village, about 100 kilometers from downtown Beijing, has preserved the centuries-old tradition since the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) despite several periods of interruption.

In October 1991, as part of the Qujiaying Village Concert band, he performed at the Beijing Working People's Cultural Palace and encountered his future master, a monk from the Zhihua Temple.

"I remember that the monk musicians, in their 50s, from the temple, felt satisfied with our performance and that's why they decided to take us as their apprentices," says Hu.

Two months later, Hu and five other youngsters came to the Zhihua Temple to learn the art of Jing Music.

"It was not easy to learn the traditional music form," admits Hu.

"The skill to sing the notation did not come easy. Since the gongche pu was named for its use of 10 Chinese characters as pitch symbols, it takes apprentices up to seven years to be able to sing the notation proficiently."

Hu Qingxue. (YANG ZHIGUO / FOR CHINA DAILY)

In addition, the students need to learn from their masters in person to understand the key notes of the musical pieces, as well as the detailed musical changes, such as the raising of pitch in half steps.

Yang Zhiguo is a curator of the Zhihua Temple, which has been known as the Beijing Museum for Cultural Heritage Exchanges since 1992.

"After years of preservation and inheritance, we felt that the sound and spirit carried by Jing Music is a great embodiment of our traditional culture. The tunes are handed down for generations largely due to their prevalence in, and embodiment of, folk culture and soul, with their rich tones and catchy melodies," he says.

To develop it further, Yang says, his aim is to cross generational lines, "so that this traditional music will be embraced by a larger number of people, not just exist and be performed at the Zhihua Temple".

The temple, located 5 km east of the Forbidden City, was built in 1444 under the rule of Zhu Qizhen, also known as Emperor Yingzong, during the Ming Dynasty. It was originally erected as the family temple of Wang Zhen, the emperor's favorite eunuch and supervisor of the Office of Rites.

Hu Qingxue leads a band of musicians to perform Jing Music at Beijing's Zhihua Temple. The traditional art form is inscribed on the list of the national intangible cultural heritage. (YANG ZHIGUO / FOR CHINA DAILY)

The temple, in its golden age, occupied an area of around 20,000 square meters, with five courtyards in its west, east and central sections. Nowadays, only the main buildings remain intact.

According to Yang, Wang took advantage of his position, managing to remove the Ming imperial court's musical scores and preserve them in his family temple.

In the present day, though, Hu's performance includes mostly original songs, with many being examples of Ming Dynasty court music that have been passed down, and a few adapted from percussion instrument musical scores from Qujiaying.

The instruments for performing the Zhihua Temple's Jing Music mainly include the bili (pipe), flute, yunluo (a set of gongs), sheng (Chinese reed wind instrument consisting of bamboo pipes) and drums. Sometimes other percussion instruments, such as cymbals of varying sizes, will participate.

The band is similar to that of the royal court ensembles. Among them, the pipes take a leading role, among which is Hu's instrument.

"We try to create an experience with our visitors, to get them involved with the music during the 15-minute performance, to build a connection between musicians and the audience," Hu says.

Hu Qingxue leads a band of musicians to perform Jing Music at Beijing's Zhihua Temple. The traditional art form is inscribed on the list of the national intangible cultural heritage. (YANG ZHIGUO / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Hu's band now performs in art colleges and at various music festivals across the country. However, a major concern for Hu is the selection of the right successor to carry the ancient music's torch into the next generation.

"Though Jing Music has been inherited for centuries, we are facing challenges introducing younger listeners to this fine music and finding right people to follow in our footsteps," he says.

"To learn the music demands far more than mere patience. It requires a great deal of time studying the musical notation, as well as its long history and cultural tradition," he adds.

Around five years ago, Hu selected several percussion apprentices from Qujiaying, among other places, to study Jing Music at the temple.

"But they didn't persist with it for too long, quitting within three years," says Hu.

"I'm patient and will wait for the right person, and I believe there is someone who is destined to be the next inheritor of Jing Music."

In 2006, the Zhihua Temple's Jing Music was among the first folk arts to be inscribed on the national intangible cultural heritage list.

Contact the writer at xinwen@chinadaily.com.cn