Waves Washing the Sand

Introduction

A signature Dongjing piece of the Dayan Naxi Ancient Music Association, listed with Shuilongyin and Shanpoyang

Langtaosha, Waves Washing the Sand, is one of the representative Dongjing pieces of the Naxi ancient music of Lijiang, and the Dayan Naxi Ancient Music Association lists it with Shuilongyin and Shanpoyang as the signature works of its Dongjing repertoire. Naxi ancient music is made up of the Baisha fine music and Dongjing music, and accounts of it say that it keeps intact lyric tunes and song tunes handed down since the Tang, Song and Yuan. Within that repertoire Langtaosha is heard as a graceful Song lyric tune, set against the solemn Tang eight-trigram dance and the vast, open Shanpoyang of the Yuan. Dongjing music began as the ritual music of lay societies chanting the Dadong Scripture and spread among the Han, Bai and Naxi of Yunnan; it arose in the Yuan and was formally founded in the early Ming. Today the Dayan association plays every evening, all year round, in its hall in Mishi Lane off Xinyi Street in the old town of Lijiang.