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4 CHINESE MUSIC. ON CHINESE MUSIC. Musrc in China has nndoubtedly been lmo·wn since the remotest antiquity. It is said to have been invented by the Emperor Fu Hsr (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. I t 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 ADA\\1 and, subsequently from NoAH, we may reasonably infer that the chiefs of each of the great families carried with them the principles of the then existing music ; these principles, differently infl.u~nced by the more or less artistic skill of the different nations, have formed the various systems, which at first seem diametrically opposed, but which, when compared and deprived of their special and characteristic individuality, show such coincidence, such striking similarities, as to render their common origin indubitable. The first invaders of China 1 certainly brought with them certain notions of music. The aborigines themselves 2 had also some kind of musical system, which their conquerors admired and probably mixed ,vith their own. We read in the iffi. ~ (T'ung-tien ) that the music of the Emperor Fu Hsr was called Mc * (ju-lai) or 1L * (li -pen); that of the Emperor SHEN NUNG, Mc~ (ju -t'e") OI' r ~ (hsia-nwu) ; and that of the Emperor HUANG Tr, ~ fil! (hsien-chih), or the "al!-pervading infl.uence." 3 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. 4 Beginning with HUANG Tr, "the Yellow Emperor" (B.C. 2697), Chinese music assumes its characteristic form. A certain note is taken as the base ; sounds are fixed, and receive names ; comparisons are drawn between the note , and the celestial bodies ; music becomes a necessity in the State-a key to good government. HUANG Tr hears it. 6 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 witb 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 Tr, and composed hymns ; the gi·eat SHUN (B.C. 2255) composed the piece called Ta Shew, the very same which, 1,600 years later, so deeply impressed CONFUCIUS that for three months "he did not know the taste of meat,"6-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 iJrunigrants fighting their way amongst the aborigines, and supposed to have come from the south of the Caspian Sea. 2 The Li, the Kuei, and the F6rl{J tribes, remnants of which are said to be still ill existence ill South China. J The ~ ~ (T'ung-tien), or "Complete Dictionary," by ;ft ff; (Tu Yu), says: ,(x ,. ~ ~ ~ * w; El -Jr. *' ijljl Jl ~ ~ fk !M= w; El r ~. Jf. 'i ft ~ ffl!. ~ See Preface to the ~ ~ fl ~ ' which says : Ji Wf ~ ffl ft ~ llt * fpj ~- 5 See ~ 4l£ f4i ~ ~' chapter r 3 : -8' ~ Z Ja A, fl Z t( X, fr Z t( ~ fi, ~ Z t( :k. Wf. 6 Hee m: :r,, which say~: =[- .(£ ifi- Im Ml= J) ~ ~a 00 ~-