Edumadze Johnson

Ancient Chinese games – music

INTRODUCTION

 The founder of music in Chinese mythology was Ling Lun

 Archaeological evidence indicates that music culture

developed in China around 800 years ago

 The thought of Confucius, a correct form of music is

important for the cultivation and refinement of the
individual, and the Confucian system considers the
formal music yayue to be morally uplifting and the
symbol of a good ruler and stable government

 Mozi on the other hand condemned making music, and

argued in Against Music (非樂) that music is an
extravagance and indulgence that serves no useful
purpose and may be harmful.
Ling Lun
Types of Traditional Musical Instruments

They can be divided into four categories:

 stringed instruments,

 percussion instruments,

 plucked instruments,

 and wind instruments. The following are just a few of them:

Music is presented as a means to turn the wilds into the civilised

and transform the commoner into a gentleman, the gentleman

into a ruler, the ruler into a sage.

Several texts associate human sagacity with the ability to

penetrate (tong ) the masses through the medium of sound, an

idea also reflected in the occurrence of the term sheng ("sound,"

"reputation" or"aura") as a paronomastic gloss for sheng

"human sage".
 The possession of an acute sense of hearing as well as the

ability to listen to the winds and understand musical pitch

and harmony likewise constitute a standard attribute of the

human sage.

 Sacrificial music sought to enhance the spirits'

responsiveness to sacrifices and induce a fortuitous

resonance by the spirits on behalf of the supplicant.

Further, music was a medium through which foreign or barbarian "winds" and

"customs" could be transformed (yi feng yi su ). Through the moral influence of

music unruly and unknown people or strange lands could be brought under the

instructive command of a central ruler.

To summarize with a statement in the Huainanzi if: " ...With music, if one listens to

its sounds, one gets to know the (local) customs (su SW); if one observes the

customs, one knows how (its people) were transformed." Underlying these

characterizations of music as a means of moral transformation is the notion that

music foremost constitutes a principle linked with the creation of order ranging from

the emancipation of humankind from a state of primordial bestiality to the

establishment of socio-political and ritual order brought under the instructive

command of a central ruler.

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Article by:
Roel Sterckx