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8/17/2019 Untitled Extracj Pages - Copy (2)
1/1
CHINESE
MUSIC.
ON CHINESE
MUSIC.
Music in
China
has
undoubtedly
been
known
since
the
remotest
antiquitj-.
It
is
said
to
have
been
invented
by
the
Emperor
Fu
Hsi
(B.C.
2852);
but
the invention
of
music
can
scarcely
be
attributed
to anybody.
The
revelation
of it
must
have
proceeded
from
man's
admiration
of
Nature. It is, say
the
Chinese,
the
essence
of
the
harmony existing
between
heaven, earth,
and
man
;
and
since
we
believe
that
all human beings
come forth from
AdaiM
and subsequently from Noah,
we
may
reasonably
infer that the chiefs
of each
of
the gi-ear
famihes
carried
with them the
principles
of
the
then
existing
music
;
these
principles, differently
influenced by
the
more
or
less
artistic skill of the
different nations,
have
formed
the various
systems, which
at
first
seem diametrically opjiosed,
but which,
when
compared and
deprived
of their special and
characteristic individuality,
show
such
coincidence,
such
strildng similarities.
as
to render their common
origin
indubitable.
The
first
invaders
of China^ certainly
brought
with
them
certain
notions
of music. The
aborigines
themselves-
had also
some kind of
musical
system, which
their conquerors admired
and
probably
mixed with
their
own.
We
read
in the
jg
M
( T'ung-tien) that the
music of the Emperor
Fu
Hsi was
called
^ ^
(fu-lai)
or
jj;
$
(li-pen)
;
that
of
the Emperor
Sh^n Nung,
^
$f
(fu-t'e)
or
f
^
(hsia-mou):
and
that of
the
Emperor Huang
Ti,
j^ ^
(hsien-chih),
or
the
all-pervading
mfluence. ^ What
the
real
meaning
of
these names was is not
known, and
they may
be
compared
to
the
obscure
musical terms
of
the Bible.
At
that time music
was
not regulated
by
any
laws ;
each
Emperor
had
his
own system, and
they
did not
always
agree.*
Beginning with Huang Ti,
the
Yellow-
Emperor
(B.C.
2697),
Chinese
music assumes
its
characteristic
fonn.
A
certain
note
is
taken
as
the
base
;
sounds are
fixed,
and receive
names
;
comparisons
are
di-awn
between the
notes
and the celestial
bodies
;
music
becomes
a necessity in the
State
—
a
key
to
good
government.
Huang Ti hears it.^ To obey
the desire
of his
human nature,
he renders it manifest
through all
the Empire to
comply with the
wishes
of heaven;
he
practises
it,
to be
in accordance with
the rites of
propriety; and he
establishes it
in the Empire,
to render the people better
and
happier. The
succeeding Emperors
followed
the system
of
Huang Ti,
and composed
hymns
the great
Shun
(B.C.
2255)
composed
the
piece
called
Ta
Slaw,
the very same
which,
1,600
years later,
so
deeply impressed
Confucius
that for
three months
he
did
not
know
the taste
of
meat, **
—
that
is,
he
was
so
captured
by
the
beauty
of
the
piece that
for
three
months
he
thought
of
nothing else.
All the
philosophers
are
unanimous
in their praise
of ancient music
'
They
were
a
band
of
immigrants
fighting
their- way amongst
the
aborigines,
and
supposed to
have
come
from
the
south
of
the Caspian Sea.
''
The lA, the Kiuii,
and
the
Fc.ng
tribes,
remnants
of
which are said
to be .still
in existence
in
South
China.
'
The
5g
^
(T-img-tien),
or
Complete
Dictionary,
by
jj^
fg
(Tr
Yu),
says
:
{i^
^
|^
^
|fc
^
ij^
^
See
Preface to the
^ M
K
^>.
^^hich says :
J.
^
;j;
^
^ |||
^
^
^-
^.
^ fe
fi
^
-^
*
m,
chapter
^3
^
^
±
}^
X
M
±
i^
% H
:t ^
m
M-
M
:t
i- ).
±
'M-
'
Sec
^
^,
which
says
iF
^
^
Wi
tU
E
M
T^
^]i
^
%
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