The result is, 1032.
The last step is the simplest "addition and subtraction". Add the upper and lower rows of the product results of the two times: 5150+1032=6192.
Xiang Zhong dipped his fingers in water and secretly calculated the answer using Arabic numerals. He just wanted to check whether the calculation using "planning" was accurate.
He was extremely impressed by the result: there were no mistakes at all, and he thought to himself: "This ancient man is really awesome!"
Humans have two hands and ten fingers, so counting is born in the "decimal system". This is the case for most early humans in the world. Of course, there are exceptions. Some places are hot and have many opportunities to go barefoot. The ancestors of those people, including their toes, created the "twenty-digit system", but they are definitely a minority.
Mr. Zan Yi didn't know that Xiang Zhong would still use water as a tool, secretly calculate, and have a more advanced algorithm. He was just surprised that this child learned so fast that he didn't even know what to teach him later!
Guangkang taught Guqin, which required a certain amount of fingering strength. However, Xiang Zhong was too young and had immature hands that could not handle string strength, so he was taught to play the xun instead, starting with the simplest four-hole fish-shaped xun.
This kind of ancient xun is made from pure soil, has a thin and hollow body, and the thickness of the carcass is only about 3 mm. I really don’t know how it was dug out to make it hollow inside and smooth to meet the requirements of the sound.
The whole xun is only the size of a duck egg, like a puffy puffer fish. The mouth of the fish is where the player blows air from his lips. The fish has two sides: the front and the back. There are fish scales on the front, and the name of the instrument "Huanggu" is engraved on the back. There is a hole in the lower right corner of the word "gu"; there are two holes of the same size in the two positions of the fisheye on the front.
When playing, hold the fish upright, "mouth to mouth" with the fish's mouth, and hold it with both hands in a wrapping posture. The index fingers of both hands in the gesture can be used to seal the holes of the fish's eyes; and the right hand The thumb can just be used to plug the hole in the lower right corner of the word "gu" on the reverse side.
In this way, with a mouth and three fingers: the two index fingers of the left and right hands and the thumb of the right hand, you can play decent tunes!
Xiang Zhong likes this "fat puffer fish" very much, especially the kind of human voice when he blows it at the fish's mouth. It has a rich, whimpering, plaintive, and weeping sound quality. As soon as he blows it, there is a sound that can change instantly. It's as if you close your eyes and blow the wind, and you're in the Hufeng frontier, in the vast desert. The innate sense of desolation and loneliness will come out spontaneously. You don't need to use too complicated techniques, just blow the sound and you will be there. It's enough to make wanderers shed tears and knights drop their swords.
It is such a magical instrument. Mr. Guangkang specially asked Xiang Zheng to demonstrate how to play it according to the guqin music. The tune is very simple, one xun and one qin, playing in two phases, sometimes dialogue and sometimes harmony, just like two wise men. It sounds like the speaker is discussing profound knowledge, and people can't help but think of many scenes: Xun can express the roar of war horses, while Qin can represent the thousands of mountains and rivers and endless ravines trampled by horses... The sound of the music enters the scene. To Xiang Zhong's ears, the volume was very low, but it did not prevent him from appreciating the beauty of it.
Although there are only four holes, there are many blowing techniques: for example, blowing from the mouth can send concentrated and even airflow to blow out a stable long sound; you can also blow the air intermittently to produce a "crying" sound ", whimpering" sound effect; when the two are combined, it is like the sound effect of Meng Jiangnu crying down the Great Wall.
Let’s talk about your fingers. If you just block or open three holes individually, you will only get a few notes. Compared with the normal scale, it is far from enough. So how can you produce richer sounds?
Xiang Zhong discovered that when Mr. Guangkang was playing, his fingers sometimes fully covered the hole and sometimes half covered it. This allowed a hole to emit different pitches due to changes in the covering area; in addition, the fingers sometimes vibrated up and down. When covered, it produces an effect similar to an "owl's hoot".
This is so much fun!
So Xiang Zhongyong started experimenting, and the music in his head was much clearer than what others were playing. After repeated practice, he finally figured out the six-note scale "123456", which is the maximum width scale of this four-hole xun for beginners.
Xiang Zhong also discovered that the note 4 was missing in all the songs taught by Mr. Guangkang, and he was able to successfully play the note 4 by referring to the playing method of 2.
In fact, as long as he is willing, all other rising and falling semitones between 1 and 6 can be played by fine-tuning the fingertips in an area the size of the hole in the plug. However, the tunes he knows do not need to use those semitones. There is no need to adjust the accuracy to this level.
Xiang Zhong summarized the fingering rules for himself: "Don't worry about the hole you blow with your mouth, just focus on the fingering: pretend that the three holes controlled by the index finger of the left hand, the index finger of the right hand, and the thumb of the right hand are A, B, and C respectively. but:
When 1 is played, A, B, and C are all blocked;
When playing 2, the remaining finger should remain completely blocked, and the second finger should be released halfway;
When 3 is played, A and C remain motionless, and B is freed from all obstructions;
When playing 4, half of A and B are placed each, leaving C as they are, completely blocked;
When 5 is played, A and B are all released, leaving only C unchanged, still blocked;
When the 6 is blown, all three fingers of A, B and C are open and not blocked. "
Practice this regularly and repeatedly until you no longer think about whether to plug the hole, empty it, or plug half of it. This process will become completely accustomed to it and will be omitted naturally. Muscle memory has been formed, and the fingering and pitch are matched one by one. It has become a fixed action.
Although there are only 6 degrees in the scale, as long as the upper 8th degree and the lower 8th degree are mixed, many songs can be satisfied, such as the famous best soundtrack "Su Wu Shepherd", "A Laugh from the Sea", and even Japanese The ocarina song "Original Scenery of My Hometown" by the composer Soujiro... Of course, Mr. Hiroyuki has never heard of these, but Xiangzhong felt that using xun to practice these familiar songs is really suitable. .
He learned the tunes taught by Guangkang in a few strokes. Seeing that there were no new tunes, he first played other familiar ones in his memory, and had a great time playing them.
Guangkang, on the other hand, heard mixed feelings, shaking his head and sighing: "What should I do? He can compose new songs by himself, and there is simply no way to teach this child!"
It was Mr. Zhan Hui's turn to teach Xiang Zhong "calligraphy": writing and literacy were both one-time "passes" for Xiang Zhong. Not only that, he also "creatively" wrote a bunch of "calligraphy" for Mr. Zhan. "Novel" fonts: Xiaozhuan, official script, regular script, running script, cursive script, and even English, Japanese, Arabic...
After Xiang Zhong wasted many rolls of precious cloth to write this pile of strange fonts, and proudly showed it to Mr. Zhan Hui, Mr. Zhan only felt that everything in front of him was "Book of Heaven"! I have no idea what other weird things are hidden in this child's mind!
