Sounding stones join their notes rich and clearĪnd the dancers with flutes now appear.” 7 775 B.C., mentions two songs, or groups of songs, that must have been well known then in the early 8th century B.C. One of the later odes, a poem assigned to the time of King Yu, c. However, we know the names of many of the most famous of the songs and a number have been identified among the poems of the Book of Odes so that the words of those have survived. It has been declared that the ancient music of China was hopelessly lost at the time of the Burning of the Books, 212 B.C. The great antiquity of certain songs, musical instruments, and theories of music stands revealed, whoever may have been later credited with the invention of them. The references in the Odes leave us in no doubt as to the importance of music in the life of ancient China. Thus the internal evidence of this poetry is of the first rank. Confucius, 551-497 B.C., first gathered and edited these poems, but scholars believe now that he did not alter the texts. Some of the odes were written as early as Shang, 1766-1122 B.C., a great many are of early Chou, 1122-770 B.C. The Book of Odes is really an anthology of verse comprising the songs and ballads of the various states. It is generally agreed, however, that in the case of the poetry we have not only the oldest texts but those the least tampered with. 6 Whether the historical accuracy of those parts of the classics which deal with such remote periods as the era of Shun is to be trusted is a question. They are not mentioned in the earliest literature, the Classics, 5 although Shun, to be sure, is there represented as a singer and composer, having amazing ideas as to the use of music in government and appointing a Director of Music who instructed the noble youth and gave concerts at the court. These legends may be the pure fabrication of later times made in the effort to glorify the early ages and hold them up as examples for future generations to follow. 4 Shun is also said to have been the inventor of the pan pipes, p’ai hsiao, a development of the lüs. Shun was himself a musician and composed the piece called Ta Shao, 3 the sweet strains of which so impressed Confucius sixteen hundred years later that for three months he thought of nothing else. 2 However, it was to the Emperor Shun (2255 B.C.) that the Chinese looked back with greatest veneration as the founder of their philosophy of music. The legend goes that he sent one of his ministers to Ta-hsia, a far distant place beyond the Kunlun mountains (probably Bactria), to obtain bamboos of uniform thickness from which to make the lüs. To him is attributed the honor of bringing order out of chaos by inventing the his, a series of pitch pipes by which all other instruments were regulated. He is said to have encouraged the practice of music, teaching that it was in accordance with the rules of propriety and made the people happier and better. Legends cluster around the name of Huang Ti, the Yellow Emperor, who ruled about 2698 B.C. 1 Nü Wa, mythical female sovereign who succeeded Fu-hsi, has been credited with the invention of the shêng or Chinese mouth organ. He was said to have introduced the lute and the lyre. According to tradition it was invented by Fu-hsi (2953 B.C.), first of the Five Divine Rulers. A study of the instruments depicted, especially those on the earlier monuments, brings up a number of interesting points about their origin and use and about Chinese ideas of music in general. There are later examples also, occurring on porcelains, on textiles, and on the Ming coromandal screen. Others are the T’ang clay mortuary figurines already described in previous numbers of the JOURNAL. Some of these are in bas relief carved on the stone sculptures, notably the Wei votive stelae, where bands of celestial music makers appear above the niches. Among the Chinese collections of the University Museum there are a number of figures representing musicians with their instruments in their hands.
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