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6 CHINESE MUSIC. of much time being devoted to music.. Moreover, the authors who then wrote on the subject of music do not agree in their theories, and their successors have confused the different systems. During the present dynasty the Emperors K'ANG Hsi and CH'IEN LUNG have done much to bring music back to its old splendour, but thefr efforts cannot be said to have been very successful. A total change has taken place in. the ideas of that people which has been every– where represented as tmchangeable; they have changed, and so radically that the musical art, which formerly always occupied the place of honour, is now deemed the lowest calling a man can profess. There is still in Peking a Board of Music connected with the Board of Rites (just as the Romans had a college of flute-players), but the officers seem little anxious to distinguish themselves. Serious music, which according to the classics is considered a necessary complem~~t of education, is totally abandoned. Very few Chinese are able to play on the ch'in, the sheng, or the yun-lo, and still fewer are acquainted with the theory of the lus. Chinese music must be divided into two different kinds: ritual or sacred mu'Sic, which is passably sweet, and generally of a minor character; and the theatrical or popular music. The populace, as every foreigner in China has experienced, delights in the deafening noise of the gong, accompanied by the shrieking tones of the clarionet; and such music_ requires 110 scientific study. Who has not met a funeral or a wedding procession where four or :five clarionet-players blow their souls out with fmious accompaniment of drums and gongs? Let it not be thought that the present Chinese do not like music. They do everything in music: they are born, they worship, they marry, and they die in music. Only they do not find it dignified to perform it themselves, not even as "amateurs." The str~ets are continually paraded by bands of two, three, or four musicians, mostly blind men, who go from gate to gate offering their services. W estem music is not at all appreciated in China. The Chinaman seems to pity us for being still so far back in this particular line when we have shown our supenonty in all other branches of science. It may be veq patriotic for the Chinese to have the best opinion possible of their own music, but it will not prevent foreigners :finding it monotonous, noisy, tmd disagreeable. ON THE LUS. The lus (-U! g) are a series of bamboo tubes, the longest of which measures 9 inches, and which are supposed to render the 12 chromatic semitones of the octave. The discovery of the lus is somewhat fabulous. HUANG ·TI is reputed to be the inventor; he arranged them according to the pa-lcua, 1 or mysterious symbols of Fu Hsr. 2 HUANG TI sent one of his ministers, LING LuN, to a place called Tahsia (which has been identified with Bactria, the mother of cities, from its unrivalled antiquity and splendour), situated west of , The j\ !f- (pci-lma) are eight diagrams drawn by the Emperor Fu Hsr, and which are used by the Chinese (who believe that they represent the manifold changes which take place in Naturn and in the atfa,irs of the world) fo 1, purposes of divination. Chaos, or primitive existence, is unity: - . One divided becomes two: - -. From t,hese figtu·es, one whole line and one divided, placed above each other (--- =-= =-= ===, etc.) the eight cliegram.s were formed. (See MORRISON'S book, "A View of China," etc., p, 118.) ' •=ft* JJ -U! g ft ~ ~ !f-,