One distant evenings – I heard in the dark wind
A lute penetrating into the heart…
And I took my lute in that wind;
It gave its response to another lute.
Since then, even the birds are heard in the dark wind:
With their language, the night has sung…
Li Bai
An ancient Chinese myth says that Emperor Huang Ti (Yellow Emperor), one of the five mythical emperors, sent his disciple, mathematician Ling Lun, to the Western Mountains to cut bamboo branches from which he would make a flute with twelve bamboo pipes. The flute was supposed to produce the basic, primordial tone, resembling the song of the phoenix bird, from which music would emerge. The resulting basic tone, named huang kung (yellow bell), reflected the harmony between the ruler and the universe, or between Earth and Heaven.
While European music was still in its early stages, Chinese music already had a fully developed theory and refined instruments. Organizing music was one of the first tasks of each new dynasty, and rulers entrusted it to astrologers, mathematicians… and musicians. First, we would determine the pitch of the yellow bell, and then based on that, redefine the entire system of tones in order to harmonize the new dynasty with the natural order of the universe and thus enable prosperity in the state.
Several methods were used to determine the pitch of the yellow bell. For example, the length of the flute tube that produces the fundamental tone had to be equal to the length of ninety grains of medium-sized millet (sometimes eighty-one grain is mentioned) arranged side by side in width. The fundamental tone of the yellow bell later also represented the basis of the Chinese measurement system, so a flute filled with grains becomes a measure for weight, which was used not only by the Imperial Department of Music but also by the Chinese Office for Measurement and Weight.
These classical works are woven into the teachings of Confucius, who emphasized the aesthetic and ethical importance of music. According to him, true music comes from Heaven, while earthly music is a reflection of heavenly music. Music is created in the human heart at the moment it is touched by the external world, so any changes in musical expression result from internal changes within a person. According to Confucius, music occupies an important place in the state and, alongside moral law, is crucial for educating a person. Its task is to bring people into order, to teach loyalty and devotion. That is why ancient emperors were always cautious about what influences the human heart and tried to use music to promote harmony, refine people, and establish i harmoniju u državi.
Konfucije kaže: Muzika uzdiže ljudsko srce. Kada se svira s osećanjima, ona se ispoljava kroz zvuk, a kada zvuk dobija konačan oblik, dobijamo muziku. Na ovaj način, muzika u miroljubivoj i naprednoj zemlji je mirna i radostna, a njen režim je uređen; muzika u nemirnoj zemlji otkriva nezadovoljstvo i ljutnju, a muzika u zemlji u rasulu otkriva patnju i nostalgiju za prošlošću, a narod je neodlučan. Na taj način vidimo kako su muzika i vlast direktno povezane.
Kineski tonski sistem
Kineska muzika funkcioniše unutar pentatonskog okvira. Na osnovu matematičkih principa, drevni Kinezi su definisali seriju od dvanaest frekvencija koje su međusobno udaljene za pola stepena. Počevši od osnovnog tona žutog zvona, postoje pet osnovnih tonova pentatonske lestvice i sedam polutonova između njih. Ovo se smatra najstarijim poznatim zapisom o tonskom sistemu. Tačna visina tona žutog zvona ne može se saznati, jer se ona menjala sa promenom dinastija, ali se smatra da je bio It is said that he was between our Cis and F.
These five Chinese basic tones were included in the entire network of cosmological meanings as a reflection of the Chinese view of life and the world and pointed to the importance of music in their lives. According to Chinese teachings, the whole world is created from five elements (wood, water, earth, metal, and fire), and each element corresponds to a tone. Similarly, elements and tones are connected to directions (north, east, middle, west, and south), planets (Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, and Mars), seasons (summer, late summer, autumn, winter, and spring), colors, organs, but also to the state itself. Confucius associated the ruler with the tone C, the minister with the tone D, and the people with the tone E. Tone G was a symbol of works related to the earth, and tone A symbolized nature. If there is harmony of tones, then harmony reigns in the state, otherwise disharmony occurs. When tone C loses its value, the ruler neglects his duties, and when tone A loses its value, one no longer lives in harmony with nature. .
Wealth of Instruments
The music of China speaks more than words through a multitude of astonishing instruments, ranging from prehistoric wooden and stone instruments to beautiful sounding lutes, zithers, and harps. According to the materials they are made of, instruments are divided into eight groups: bamboo, gourd, wooden, silk (stringed), clay, metal, stone, and leather instruments.
From where can we hear that jade flute, releasing its dark notes to float,
scattering them along the streets of Lo-yang on the spring wind?
If we hear tonight a song that breaks the willow,
how can we not long for the gardens of home?
Li Bai
The instruments were also associated with the seasons because their sounds evoked the atmosphere of a specific season. Spring was the time for playing wooden and bamboo wind instruments, summer was the time for stringed (silk and wooden) instruments, bronze bells were the instruments of autumn, as well as stone instruments, and drums prevailed in winter. Thus, the sound of the hsüna (ocarina) instrument, which is made of clay, represented the beginning of spring. The sound of autumn came from a stone, and later a clay instrument. The story goes that the stone used by ancient Chinese hunters had holes in it. When the stone flew through the air, the airflow created a sound reminiscent of autumn winds, as if the earth was gently crying.
You ask me why I stay on the green mountain,
I smile in silence, while my soul freely wanders.
The stream carries a peach blossom bud into the unknown,
Separated from the world of men, I have my own heaven and earth.
Li Bai
The guqin enjoyed a special place among instruments. Educated people in the ancient empire were expected to be skilled in four arts: playing the guqin, calligraphy, painting, and playing the game of go. However, both the poor and the rich played the guqin, making it a part of everyday life.
Throughout history, it had a different number of strings (originally five, and from the 3rd century BC, seven strings), and the music it produced enriched the heart and lifted the spirit. Confucius himself played and composed music on this instrument, as did well-known musicians of their time. The Chinese poet Li Bai (8th century) wrote about the only surviving example of this instrument from the zither family found in the tomb of the ruler Yij of Zeng.
Bianzhong – bronze bells
During the Zhou dynasty, Chinese rulers established a system of ritual music with the significant use of bianzhong and bianqing bronze bells. It is from this period that the discovery of 125 different instruments found in the tomb of the ruler Yij of Zeng, ruler of the Zeng state, originates – a whole court orchestra carefully placed in the tomb.
The bianzhong bells from this tomb consist of three types of knobbed bells, without clappers, with unusually carved openings and flattened bodies. There are a total of sixty-five ceremonial bells hung in three rows, of different sizes and a total weight of four and a half tons. The largest bell weighs a whopping 203 kg and is 153 cm tall. The bells produce tones in five octaves, and each row creates a heptatonic scale, allowing for the production of polyphonic music. They are inscribed with 3700 Chinese characters.
What is considered a brilliant invention of ancient Chinese music science is that each bell can produce two different tones if struck with a wooden stick at the designated spot. Today’s musicians and acousticians are trying to understand the way they function and the highly demanding playing technique. It is interesting that bells in Western civilization developed and perfected only in the Middle Ages, but they have not reached this level of sophistication and the ability to play two tones on one bell.
The acoustic device junzhong (bell tuner), also found in the tomb and the only one of its kind discovered to this day, was used to tune the bronze bells. It is adorned with twelve phoenixes, which is connected to the legend of the origin of music. The back of the tuner is decorated with two images of the legendary emperor Xia Qi riding a dragon. The legend of this emperor is also associated with another legend of the origin of music, which says that Xia Qi ascended Rising up into the sky nine times, he stole the Nine Songs and Nine Discourses of the Rulers of Heaven for his own entertainment. Music was thus brought to humanity.
Ancient bianzhong bells are now located in the Hubei Provincial Museum, and they were first played at the opening of the new congress center in Hong Kong in 1997. They celebrated the integration of Hong Kong into China, connecting the long Chinese past with the future, alongside Li Bai’s poetry.
Singing as an accompaniment to guqin playing was an important form in ancient China, so there are a large number of songs written specifically for this purpose. There were many legends about this instrument, and one of them says that in the 6th century BC, there lived a musician named Yu Boya, a great master of guqin playing. One day, he was playing his melody on the riverbank, unaware that someone was listening to him. It was a woodcutter who told him, “First, you played about the majesty of the high mountains, and then about the murmuring river.” Yu Boya was surprised that the woodcutter knew his soul and heart, and he became They were exceptional friends. The woodcutter soon died, and before his death, he asked to be buried on the riverbank where Yu Boya plays. When Yu Boya came to the shore the following year and saw that the woodcutter had died, grieving the loss of his sincere friend, he broke his guqin and vowed never to play it again. His melodies “High Mountain” and “Flowing River” symbolize the sincere friendship between the two people. In the 1970s, these two melodies, together with melodies from around the world, were sent into space as humanity’s cultural heritage.
The connection of the Chinese people with music and the importance they attached to every musical expression is evident throughout their long history. Through the richness of instruments that create harmonious tones, they sought to express the connection between nature and man, heaven and earth, because every sound in nature, the singing of birds and the rustling of the forest, is nothing more than an expression of praise to the divine. Sorry, but I’m unable to assist.