Complied by Lim SK Illustrated by Fu Chunjiang Translated by Wong Huey Khey

Complied by Lim SK Illustrated by Fu Chunjiang Translated by Wong Huey Khey

Contents Chapter One: Origins and History 1 1. Ancient Ages 2 2. Pre-Qin Era 9 3. Qin Dynasty (221 207 BCE) and Han Dynasty (206 BCE AD 220) 16 4. Three Kingdoms Period (AD 220 280) to Southern and Northern Dynasties (386 589) 18 5. Sui Dynasty (581 618) and Tang Dynasty (618 907) 21 6. Song Dynasty (960 1279) and Yuan Dynasty (1271 1368) 28 7. Ming Dynasty (1368 1644) and Qing Dynasty (1644 1911) 31 8. Modern Times 33 Chapter Two: Chinese Musical Instruments 35 1. Wind Instruments 36 Xiao (vertical bamboo flute); Dizi (transverse bamboo flute); Suona (Han Chinese shawm or oboe); Xun (eggshaped, one-holed wind instrument); Sheng (Chinese bamboo mouth organ); Yu (ancient mouth organ); Hujia (nomad reed flute), Jiao (horn) 2. Percussion Instruments 53 Zhong (bells); Luo (gong); Gu (drum); qing (chime stone); Yangqin (dulcimer); Zhu (ancient zither) 3. Plucked String Instruments 69 Guqin (ancient zither); Gu Se (ancient plucked zither); Guzheng (ancient plucked string zither); Pipa (Chinese lute); Ruan (lute with fretted neck); Liuqin (Chinese lute) and Yueqin (moon-shaped lute); Konghou (ancient Chinese harp); Sanxian (Chinese lute)

4. Bowed String Instruments 95 Huqin; Xiqin (two-stringed lute) Chapter Three: Classical Masterpieces 103 1. High Mountain and Flowing Water 104 2. Guangling Verse 106 3. Wild Geese Descending on the Sandbank 108 4. Ambush From All Sides 109 5. Dialogue Between Fisherman and Woodcutter 112 6. Flute and Drum at Sunset 115 7. The Autumn Moon over the Han Palace 117 8. Three Movements of the Plum Blossom 119 9. White Snow in Sunny Spring 121 10. Eight Stanzas on a Nomad Flute 123 Chapter Four: Musicians of Ancient China 127 1. Yu Boya 128 2. Shi Kuang, the Master of Music 130 3. Li Yannian 134 4. Cai Yong 136 5. Cai Wenji 138 6. Xi Kang 140 7. Su Zhipo 142 Appendices Glossary 144 A Brief Chronology of Chinese History 146

Chapter One: Origins and History 1

1. Ancient Ages Xiao Long, what are you doing? It s deafening! I am creating music! The Chinese of ancient ages first created music using common everyday tools and objects. During their physical labour, they discovered that some tools could produce sounds. These became the simpliest form of musical instruments. Hence, the earliest musical instruments were remodelled from production tools. String instrument: People were inspired by the plucking sounds made by hunting tools such as the bow and arrow. Percussion instrument: People could have been inspired by the knocking sounds created when they made tools out of stones. Wind instrument: the horns that hunters used to scare animals during hunts became a musical instrument. 2

The earliest musical instrument could be the percussion. For instance, during their labour, the people discovered that knocking on withered stems and solid trunks produced different sounds. Objects with a hollow centre seem to produce louder sounds. Let s make the trunk hollow and wrap it with animal skin. Try beating it. Sounds good! In the primeval ages, music and dance were closely interlinked. Such a combination was known as yue. Later, yue came to specifically mean only music, and the combination of music (yue) and dance (wu) was thus known as yue wu. A scene of yue wu: The ancients rapped and struck their hunting tools to produce sounds as music accompaniment to dancers masquerading as different types of animals. 3

Archaeological Finds of Ancient Musical Instruments 1. Excavations at the early Neolithic site of Jiahu in Wuyang County, in the Henan Province of China, produced 18 seven-holed and eight-holed bone flutes with a history of some 8,000 years. That was the earliest age to which the culture of Chinese music could be traced. Musicians selected an intact bone flute for analysis, and found that it could produce sounds similar to the traditional Chinese tone scale. Moreover, besides the normal music holes, there was also a small hole created at the side for pitch adjustment. It is thus apparent that as early as 8,000 years ago, Chinese music had developed to a rather high standard and the people at that time had a good appreciation of music. 2. One hundred and sixty bone whistles were excavated from the Hemudu ruins in Yuyao County, in the Zhejiang Province of China. These bone whistles were made from the limb bones of birds, and were about 7,000 years old. 3. At the Neolithic site of Banpo Village, in the Xi an Province of China, a 6,700-year-old one-holed pottery xun (egg-shaped, one-holed wind instrument) has been unearthed. Ancient documents dated the beginning of Chinese music back to the times of Emperor Huangdi (the Yellow Emperor). Many stories of the Emperor and music have been handed down. Yet, the discovery of ancient musical instruments such as the 8,000-year-old bone flute shows that the history of Chinese music is even more ancient than the time of Emperor Huangdi! 4

Ling Lun Creates Music Temperaments The Yellow Emperor had a minister named Ling Lun who was given the order to design music temperaments. Ling Lun had made a flute out of bamboo, but it produced weird and unpleasant sounds. Even animals will be scared off by these sounds. Ling Lun continued his experiments. Once, while he was playing the bamboo flute, the Yellow Emperor passed by on his horse. Terrified by the sound, the horse threw the Emperor to the ground. Ouch! I deserve to die. I have caused you to suffer a shock! Your flute can produce sounds. That s an achievement. Continue your efforts. You will be successful one day. 5

Ling Lun regained his confidence upon the encouragement from the Yellow Emperor, and continued his efforts. One day, he came to Mount Phoenix. Suddenly, beautiful sounds of the birds rang in his ears. That s the cries of the phoenix! It s lovely! The cries of the male phoenix was passionate and high-spirited, while those of the female was gentle and long-drawn. The phoenixes each called six times and then let out one final cry together before flying off. Inspired by what he heard, Ling Lun finally created the 12 frequencies. He played it for the Yellow Emperor on the bamboo flute. That s wonderful! The 12 Frequences (lü) refer to the standard temperaments used in ancient China to measure musical tones. Lü originally referred to the bamboo flute used to determine musical tones. The ancients used a set of 12 bamboo flutes of different lengths to produce 12 standard tones. Musical tones could then be measured against it. These 12 standard tones were thus known as the 12 Frequencies. From low to high note, the sequence is as follows: Huang Zhong Da Lü Tai Cu Jia Zhong Gu Xian Zhong Lü Rui Bin Lin Zhong Yi Ze Nan Lü Wu Yi Ying Zhong. 6

The Yellow Emperor Creates the Drum The Yellow Emperor and Chiyou were engaged in the Zhuolu battle. Chiyou used magical powers to cover the battlefield in thick fog, and summoned strong winds and heavy rain. Chiyou is a tough man to beat! Then, the Fairy of Ninth Heaven appeared. On the shores of the Eastern Seas lives a demonic creature called the kui. Wrap the surface of the battle drum with its skin. Strike the drum with a bone taken from the Thunder Beast. Do this and Chiyou will be defeated. The Yellow Emperor sent his men to the Eastern Seas to capture the kui. Its skin was then used to wrap the battle drum. He also sent men to capture the Thunder Beast. The largest bone from its body was made into a drumstick to strike the battle drum. When the battle drum was struck, its sound travelled 500 li. The sound was earth-shaking, causing the Chiyou s army to be terror-shakened. They were finally wiped out by the Yellow Emperor s army. 7

Fuxi Creates the Qin Legend has it that Fuxi was the earliest ancestor of the Chinese. He devised the Eight Trigrams and taught the people to weave nets for fishing, bringing benefits to the lives of the people. He went in search of materials to make musical instruments, and found phoenixes perched on a parasol (wutong) tree. Why don t I create musical instruments to add pleasure to the lives of the people? Phoenixes are the king of all birds. Since they choose to perch on parasol trees, this implies that these trees yield the best timbers. Fuxi looked around and found a 33-foot parasol tree. He cut it into three parts. The upper part makes sounds that are too lucid, while those from the bottom are too thick. The sounds from the middle is a balance of both. Fuxi thus used the middle portion of the parasol tree to make a qin (sevenstring plucked zither) and taught the people to play it. Since then, beautiful qin music has resounded on earth. 8