"Little River Running Water" still does not see the "Golden Phoenix" in the world
Li Caifeng, the representative inheritor of Midu folk songs, dies at the age of 79
Name: Li Caifeng
Gender: Female
Year round: 79 years old
Cause of death: Died of illness
Status during his lifetime: Representative inheritor of Midu Folk Songs (a national intangible cultural heritage project)
On July 3, in Duohu Village, Yinjie Town, Midu County, Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, Li Caifeng, who sang folk songs all her life, finally stopped singing at the age of 79.
When Li Caifeng could speak, he would sing.
In Duohu Village, a Yi family village, everyone has to open their mouths and sing folk songs to herd cattle and sheep, go up the mountain to chop firewood, and find people.
Singing is the most common way for them to express their emotions.
In 1959, the film "Five Golden Flowers" filmed by Changchun Film Studio went to Yunnan to shoot, and 16-year-old Li Caifeng was selected as an extra in the love song duet scene.
At that time, many people from far and near villages knew about this girl who was very good at singing.
Ten years ago, Li Caifeng was selected as the "Representative Inheritor of Midu Folk Songs (National Intangible Cultural Heritage Project)".
During the three days of the wake, the second son, Li Bi, played "Sheep Sheep Tune", "Little River Running Water", "Black Seven La Bai" and other Midu folk songs that his mother sang for a lifetime in the mourning hall at home.
In his opinion, his mother's penetrating singing sang the joys, sorrows and sorrows of many ordinary people.
"My mother is gone, and my pain is as deep as a canyon." The mother's voice emerged from the audio, and childhood unfolded in front of Li Bi's eyes.
Li Bi recalled that when he was a child, on nights without electric lights, Li Caifeng often held him or his brother to bake by the fire, and hummed "Lullaby" in his mouth.
In Li Bi's words, singing is a mother's innate skill.
Singing Midu folk songs is also her destiny.
Her "Little River Running Water" has the innocence of a girl
In the papers and folk song books related to the Midu folk song "Little River Running Water", singer Gong Linna has seen the name "Li Caifeng" more than once.
Gong Linna also loves to sing "Little River Flowing Water". In March 2020, she finally went to the origin of this song - Midu County, located in the western part of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and southeastern part of Dali Prefecture, to collect the wind.
That was Gong Linna's first visit to Midu.
A local reporter in Yunnan told her that if you want to listen to the authentic "Little River Flowing Water", you must visit the old man Li Caifeng in Duohu Village.
Nearly eighty years old, she lives on a high mountain with the same high-pitched singing voice as the Yi people.
In the early spring morning when it was warm and cold, Li Caifeng, dressed in Yi costume, stood at the entrance of the village to greet Gong Linna.
The village was cleaner than expected, and the people in the village respected Li Caifeng. Gong Linna thought that the old man should live happily in his later years.
The Yi traditional culture training center built in the village in 2017 is a brick and wood structure, two of which belong to Li Caifeng.
Looking at the well-equipped tables, chairs and benches in the training center, Gong Linna's heart warmed, "I can feel that the country attaches great importance to such folk artists."
At the same time, however, she couldn't help feeling a little sad.
Folk artists like Li Caifeng are already old, and Gong Linna is worried that with the passing of these folk artists, some voices and some melody may also disappear.
The inheritance of folk songs is facing the crisis of fault.
Therefore, she cherished the visit very much.
Li Caifeng invited her to sit in the old house.
By the fire pond, Li Caifeng sang a number of Yi folk songs such as "Sheep Sheep Tune", "Lullaby" and "Little River Flowing".
She sometimes shook her head, sometimes closed her eyes gently, sometimes waved her arms, and the silver headdress collided with a rustling sound.
The occasional cackling of chickens did not interrupt her emotions.
The pot of water that was burning on the fire pond continued to rise and white mist swept up on the two of them, and was quickly dissipated by Li Caifeng's singing and exhaled breath.
Gong Linna has a notebook spread out on her lap to record the score, melody and pronunciation in time.
Some Yi pronunciations that she did not understand were replaced by Pinyin.
When this younger generation, who is also focused on the inheritance of folk songs, sings his own understanding to Li Caifeng, occasionally, Li Caifeng will give a few pointers, "Take a little more time for the next two rows..."
Listening to Li Caifeng's singing, Gong Linna heard a relaxed singing voice, as if telling a story, full of emotion and restrained.
On the way to search for unique voices everywhere, Gong Linna has seen many old people, and Li Caifeng's authenticity makes her deeply appreciate.
People are like singing, and singing is like people.
When Li Caifeng opened her voice and sang "Little River Running Water" in Yi language, Gong Linna was shocked and felt that the person sitting in front of her didn't look like an old man at all, "Her expression is more like a fifteen or six-year-old girl, and she is full of energy. Although the voice is old."
In addition to singing, Li Caifeng is willing to bring up some past events: when he was young, the villagers often made appointments to go up the mountain to chop wood or herd sheep and cattle, and they brought dry food for several days when they went there.
Life on the mountain is difficult and monotonous, and it all depends on singing to relieve the boredom.
The song has their yearning for love, praise to nature, and exuberant vitality.
"That's why it produces a romantic song like "Little River Flowing Water"." According to Gong Linna's interpretation, "the moon comes out bright and bark" is like a girl's eyes "bright and bark", talking about the moon, but actually singing herself.
Hearing the news of Li Caifeng's passing, Gong Linna entrusted a friend to send flower baskets and gifts.
In the search for a sound map that is not "One Voice from a Thousand People", she is fortunate that she has visited this simple folk artist and recorded some sound traces that should be recorded.
"In a few decades, these elderly people will grow old. I am afraid that such pure folk songs can only be found in the classrooms of the Conservatory of Music." Someone once commented under the video of Li Caifeng released by Gong Linna.
From rural peasant woman to inheritor of Midu folk songs
Li Caifeng became famous late.
Before the age of 54, Li Caifeng was a rural peasant woman through and through.
When she was young, she worked as a hygienist, operator, and a solo performer in the county lantern troupe, but her work has always been her constant background.
He raises chickens, herds sheep, and chops firewood. He also grows buckwheat, wheat, corn, peas and other crops on more than one mu of land.
She lost her father at the age of 9 and was sensible. As the eldest daughter, she helped her mother with family affairs and took care of her younger brother.
Life was hard, and singing folk songs became one of her few pleasures.
In 1959, the film "Five Golden Flowers" produced by Changchun Film Studio went to Yunnan to shoot, and 16-year-old Li Caifeng was selected as an extra in the love song duet scene.
Although there is no close-up of her in the film, many people in the villages near and far at that time knew about this girl with great singing skills and heard that her Yi name was Laixiang.
People who have seen her say everywhere that Laixiang is a woman among the women by the Duohu River.
Li Huachang, director of the village committee of Duohu Village, is a distant relative of Li Caifeng. She called her aunt since she was a child, and can walk to her house in six or seven minutes.
"The food she cooks is delicious." Li Huachang knew from a young age that she had the final say in Li Caifeng's family.
In Li Huachang's eyes, Li Caifeng is the man among the women on the Duohu River.
She can do what a woman can do, and she can do what a man can do.
The skills of ethnic embroidery and paper-cutting are a must in the village. Diligence can endure hardships, and farm work is also handy.
"A strong personality, a sense of justice, and outspoken. She dares to say what others dare not say when she encounters things that are unbearable in the village."
One month before her death, Li Caifeng, who was hospitalized in Dali Prefecture People's Hospital, was still thinking of a blind neighbor. She had no children and no daughters. She was 76 years old and was a well-known "Five Guarantees" in the village.
Li Caifeng entrusted another neighbor to bring her some meals, worried that she would starve.
Not long ago, in front of Li Caifeng, Li Huachang joked, "You are a woman." The old man who could carry two or three hundred catties of firewood and grain on his back laughed cheerfully, "It's impossible." Until last year, she He also insisted on going up the mountain to chop firewood every day to exercise.
Everyone in the village said that the age of 54 was a watershed in Li Caifeng's life.
In 1997, the 54-year-old Li Caifeng broke into the CCTV reporter's camera, and her clear and natural singing has since spread to more people's ears from remote mountainous areas.
Li Huachang recalled that in those days, it was not uncommon for people to sing well in Midu County, but too many people could not sing naturally when they faced the camera.
And Li Caifeng is cheerful, bold, not afraid of the camera, and has outstanding vibrato, so she was selected by the CCTV program group.
On the evening of January 5, 2006, at the concert site of "Listening to Yunnan" in the Centennial Lecture Hall of Peking University, accompanied by the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra, Li Caifeng sang the "Black Qilabbai", known as the heroic epic of the Yi nationality, in Yi language.
This folk song, which she can sing since she was 8 years old, tells the story of the first king of Nanzhao Kingdom, Xinuluo (Hei Qi La Bai), who became a king from a shepherd.
After the whole performance, the teachers and students in the audience kept shouting "Mom can't sing well" and "one more song", and Li Caifeng came back to sing a Yi love song.
After the song, Li Caifeng raised the microphone and said, "I want to say a few words here tonight, all the teachers and students of Peking University, I will leave a deep impression on you."
After speaking, Li Caifeng burst into tears.
Years later, looking back on the "highlight moments" in her life, she said that she shed tears of joy, excitement, and unforgettable tears.
The performance was accompanied by their second son Li Bi, both of whom went to Beijing for the first time.
When visiting the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall, Li Caifeng cried.
Li Bi said that aside from the complex in the bones of the older generation, her mother was grateful for the new experience that singing brought her, "After all, it was the first time to fly, the first time to perform on such a big stage, and the first time to go to the capital. "
In Li Bi's view, in the commercial society with developed communication, the original ecological things have gradually become the scenery in the rearview mirror, and the distance is farther and farther.
"In my mother's songs, I can't find the slightest commercial flavor. Some folk songs sing about the emotions of the general public."
In May 2011, Midu folk songs were included in the third batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.
The following year, Li Caifeng was selected as the representative inheritor of Midu folk songs.
Sometimes, Li Bi felt that his mother seemed to be "fallen from the devil" and took the identity of the inheritor too seriously. He officially accepted 16 disciples who inherited the folk songs of Midu, and went to various schools to sing folk songs and popularize folk art. Do more things."
best mother, best grandma
In the eyes of children and grandchildren, Li Caifeng is the best mother and the best grandma.
Even though she only has a fourth grade of primary school education, she attaches great importance to her children's education.
In the eyes of the eldest son, Li Qiang, the mother's ideological pattern is completely unlike that of a rural woman who has never seen the world.
"In the mountains, reading is the only way out. If this road doesn't work, it will be difficult to get out of the mountains." She emphasized to her sons more than once that she must rely on reading to break the shackles of fate.
Later, the four sons walked out of the mountain one after another.
Two settled in the county seat, and two worked abroad.
Li Bi recalled that about 40 years ago, when he was a junior high school student in Midu County No. 1 Middle School, Li Caifeng carried 6 rafters weighing more than 100 jin on his back in order to raise living expenses for him. He started from Duohu Village and walked 36 kilometers to the destination. county seat.
In the market and on the street, she used her penetrating voice to sell rafters.
One sold for 7 cents, and finally 4 were sold, and the remaining 2 were deposited with acquaintances.
Carrying the money, Li Caifeng trotted to deliver it to her son who was living at the school.
After a few chats, before 7 o'clock in the evening, Li Caifeng returned with a flashlight.
In order to save money, she was reluctant to live in a hotel in the county town.
At that time, there was no road between the county seat and Duohu Village, and it was 72 kilometers back and forth, all by walking.
He knew how difficult it was to walk on the mountain road.
He couldn't bear to think about some details.
The young Li Bi was saddened to see his mother's back figure 1.5 meters away.
On the way, he thought, his mother must have sang a lot of tunes.
In September 1999, Li Caifeng's youngest son died unexpectedly.
Two months later, Li Bi's son Li Runze was born.
In order to dispel the sorrow of the white-haired person sending the black-haired person as soon as possible, Li Bi took his mother to live in the county town and asked her to help take care of the new life.
This wait is 13 years.
In Midu County, Li Caifeng's spoken Chinese improved by leaps and bounds.
Li Bi's lover was a Han nationality and could not understand the Yi language. In order to avoid misunderstanding by his daughter-in-law, the old man communicated with his son in Chinese at home.
Erlai Midu County is a place where diverse cultures blend. She was worried that her grandson could not understand the Yi language. When she sang folk songs to put her grandson to sleep, Li Caifeng also switched to Chinese.
She told her little grandson that she was a sheep and he was a rabbit, and they were very compatible, so they could eat grass together.
As far back as I can remember, Li Runze especially likes grandma to sing and toss with him on her back.
"Sheep Sheep Tune" and "The Painter's Song" are nursery rhymes that grandma often sings to him.
He could feel the peace in his grandmother's ethereal singing, "like a child who likes to hear the sound of rain."
He has never forgotten that when he was 6 years old, his grandmother took him for a walk along the Erhai Lake.
That year, a lymphoma grew on his neck, compressing the nerve.
The doctor said that the operation is difficult, but if the operation is not performed as soon as possible, it will be life-threatening.
After listening, Li Caifeng burst into tears. Before her son and daughter-in-law made a decision, she took her grandson out of the state hospital and went to Erhai Lake.
She held her grandson's hand, pointed to Erhai Lake, and said a lot of words, but it was already blurred in the wind of Erhai Lake.
Li Runze only remembered that on that day, the tune that grandma hummed was different from the previous one, the tune was sad and desolate.
Her pace was fast, and she walked with him for a long time. When he couldn't walk, she carried him back to the hospital.
Only after he became sensible did Li Runze know that grandma's energy would be exhausted and she would feel tired.
Needlework for a long time will make her eyes uncomfortable, and the hand holding the needle will tremble slightly.
Six or seven years ago, Li Caifeng was hospitalized due to myocardial ischemia. Her face was swollen, her eyes were hollow, her eyelids drooped, and her voice softened.
For the first time, he felt that his grandmother was really old.
However, the aging grandmother can still connect with the grandson who was brought up by one hand.
During college, Li Runze experienced a misdiagnosis. The doctor said that he had serious heart problems and might not live for three months.
He was bored in his heart and dared not tell his family.
But the daily contact with his family has not been interrupted, and his parents have not noticed any abnormality in him.
To his surprise, his grandmother heard something wrong with him on the phone.
No matter how hard it was to hide, he told grandma everything.
Soon, Li Caifeng went out of the village and took the high-speed train to Kunming alone, found her grandson's school, and persuaded him to go to a large hospital for an examination.
"That was the first time she took the high-speed train. I still haven't figured out how she bought the ticket." Li Runze said without hesitation that her grandmother has a high status in the family, but she has always been her "love" , is her most staunchly defended and favored descendant.
After the age of 13, every time he went back to the village to visit his grandmother, his grandmother would share with him who he had met recently, what he had talked to with them, and the interesting people and things he encountered when he went out to perform.
Sometimes, she would also close the door to chat with him about some parental short stories and gossip, and told him, "Don't tell others." In Li Runze's opinion, this is the "little girl" side of grandma.
Heaven and earth are her audience
As early as 29 years ago, Li Caifeng prepared a coffin for herself.
The tall cedar pine that has grown naturally on the edge of the family plot for many years is handed over to the carpenter in the village to make a thick coffin.
Six years ago, she sewed a set of Yi tops, trousers, aprons, and hair accessories by herself, and placed them in a designated place in the house. The family knew that it was the shroud that would be put into the coffin "in a hundred years".
On the 42nd day of the diagnosis of colon cancer, at 23:43 on July 3, Li Caifeng died in the new cement house next to the old house in Duohu Village.
On the afternoon of the first day, she was still hospitalized in the Oncology Department of Dali Prefecture People's Hospital, and she urged her eldest son Li Qiang to take her back to his hometown.
Everyone said that she should have a hunch that she wanted the fallen leaves to return to their roots.
When she was dying, her three sons were by her side.
At the last moment of her life, she glanced at everyone, closed her eyes and died.
There were no tears in the corners of his eyes as he left.
"It was a peaceful walk." Li Qiang recalled that two days before her mother was discharged from the hospital, she was still in the ward singing the "Sheep Sheep Tune" that she sang her whole life to the nurses.
On the afternoon of July 5, Li Caifeng, wearing a full set of Yi costumes, lay in the cedar pine coffin, officially saying goodbye to everything in the south of Caiyun, and was buried on a hillside higher than where she was born 79 years ago.
One day in late June, Li Runze, who was preparing for the exam, secretly took the high-speed train to the hospital to visit his grandmother without telling his parents.
When she saw her grandson, she was surprised and delighted.
She invited her grandson to the hospital restaurant for dinner, and ordered braised pork, fried pickles with potatoes, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, fried green beans, and radish and pork ribs soup.
All my grandson likes to eat.
Suffering from cancer, she could no longer eat anything, but in front of her grandson, she still ate a small amount of meals. "I want to show that I have improved in front of me, so that I can study and prepare for the exam with peace of mind."
When walking in the hospital garden, Li Runze held her, and she told him that she could hold on for another five or six years until he found a job before leaving.
He comforted her not to think so much, "People who haven't done bad things will definitely live longer."
Ten minutes before parting, the grandfather and grandson didn't say much, and the wind from Erhai Lake was quietly blowing.
In those ten minutes, Li Runze suddenly realized the state of mind of his grandmother when he was 6 years old, just like himself at this moment.
Before getting into the taxi, he hugged his grandmother tightly.
That was the last time the two met in real life.
After she left, her father told Li Runze that she had left him a set of Yi costumes that she sewed by herself and pointed it out to his future wife.
Li Runze has watched grandma comb her hair countless times, even if her hair sticks to the comb and falls one by one, he doesn't think she is old.
The strength of her grip on the comb was like a force supporting her hands to keep working, and there was a crackling sound from her head, just like the labor chant she used to call when she was young.
He felt that such a grandma always had energy accumulated in her vocal cords, allowing her to sing a song at any time.
Li Bi later checked and found that the audience hall of Peking University's Centennial Lecture Hall, which his mother will never forget, has a total of 2,167 seats.
In fact, her stage is much larger.
From childhood to adulthood, the mountains and rivers in the south of Caiyun have added her reverberation.
Heaven and earth are her audience.
Beijing News reporter Wu Linshu