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CHINESE MUSIC. 5 it was eminently sweet and harmonious, and produced inexpressible sensations of pleasure in the hearers. Therefore they lament and regret that it has been lost. 1 It is most probable that the merits of ancient music consisted chiefly, like that of the Greeks, in . regulating the movements of dances. and poetry. Indeed, the Chinese idea is that music without poetry is no music at all. 2 Music, says the Musical Recorder, proceeds from the heart of man. 3 The harmony of the heart produces the harmony of the breath, the harmony of the breath produces that of the voice, and the voice is the emblem of the harmony existing between he~ven and earth. 4 According to Chinese ideas, music rests on two fundamental principles _:._ the jJ\1 ~ (shen -li), or spiritual, immaterial principle, and the ~ tt (ch'i -shu), or substantial form. All natural productions are represented by unity ; all that requires perfecting at the hands of man is classed under the generic term ~ (wan), plurality. Unity is above, it is heaven ; plurality is below, it is earth. The immaterial principle is above, that -is, it is inherent in material bodies, and is considered their ~ (pen), basis, origin. The material principle is below; it is the ~ (hsing), form or figme of the shen -li. The form is limited to its proper shape by #iit (shu ), number, and it is subjected to the rule of the she"n -li . Therefore when the material principle of music (that is, the instruments) is clearly and rightly illustrated, the corresponding spiritual prin_?iple (that is, the essence, the sounds of music) becomes perfectly manifest, and the State's affairs are successfully conducted. If all this seems obscure, the fault lies with the Chinese. Of all the ancient music nothing remains except the above abstruse theories. The Emperor SHE HUANG-TI (B.C. 246), the destroyer of books, came; he ordered the annihilation of all books, with the exception of works on medicine, agriculture, and divination. The decre~ was obeyed as faithfully as possible by an uneducated soldiery, who mada it the pretext of domiciliary visits, exactions, and pitiless destruction. Music-books and instruments shared the same fate as every obj ect which could give rise to any remembrance of past times, 5 and a long night of ignorance rested on the country, to such an extent that "at the rise of the Han dynasty the great music-master, Cm, whose ancestors had for generations held the same dignity, scarcely remembered anything about music but the noise of tinkling bells and dancers' drums. 6 Under the subsequent dynasties great efforts were made to revive music. Ancient books and instruments were discovered in the places where they had been concealed at the time of the destruction of books, new books were wr itten, instruments made, but the frequent political changes to which this country has been subj ect since the .beginning of our era has not allowed ' Pft it ffi fit (;. • Yiv 1I!E ~ :Hz ,~ ,J, 5tS 4'0'1 pg- ='t'"' 5f;; 'tW. 3 See~ ~. chapter 17 of Li-chi: }t if' Z ~ dJ .A I~ ~ ,m.. • ~ fa ftlj ~ fa ~ fu fftj ?I fn !I fu ~ ~ itlt z ffl. 5 ~ ~ ti ~ ~ {$ . ... ' 6 m•~•~-~~~~•••~a*~ffm~rea~•~•w~ it 1r a~-