Music in China began with a legend of a man named Ling-lun who blew through the bamboo, creating music. Using the sounds of two other birds near him, Ling-lun created a chromatic scale. By the Zhou dynasty, music had become much more important, thanks in no small part to Confucius considering music to promote harmony and be needed for a stable rule. Music was even considered one of the Six Arts that people needed to be educated in.
However, although music was something that everyone needed to learn, it was especially valued in the aristocracy. The Book of Odes contains many songs that were standard during religious rituals to talk to ancestors. In one ode, performers call for blessings from Zhou ancestors using “bells, drums, stone-chimes, and pipes” (Brindley 26). Music was also used to praise their ancestors, such as in the Book of Changes. “The ‘Commentary of Images’ states: … The former kings thereby composed their music to honor virtue, presenting it grandly to Shangdi, the high God of the Shang and Zhou people, and matching it up with that for their oldest ancestor” (Brindley 26).
Music was also used to promote cultural unity. Given how music can also influence people’s emotions easily, that was used by rulers to control and influence the public to conform. Xunzi, a philosopher from the Warring States period, understood music as a way to “[direct] mass psychology” (Brindley 47). Music could be carefully constructed by rulers to influence the morality and intellect of the public in any way they wanted. This was used to push the people of Zhou away from the Zheng, calling out the Zheng’s music negatively compared to the good Zhou music. They had a view that only their music was correct. This view was only natural in the Warring States period. It’s another way to promote one culture over another and it led to instruments being rewarded to heroes who conquered those who were seen as uncivilized.
All in all, music was used very similarly in ancient China compared to now. Music is still used in religious ceremonies, music is still used to create cultural unity, and while it’s not considered as fundamentally important in education, it’s also not exclusive to the upper class anymore. Music has evolved over the years, but it can be interesting to look back at the beginnings.
Work Cited:
Brindley, Erica. Music, Cosmology, and the Politics of Harmony in Early China. State University of New York Press, 2011. INSERT-MISSING-DATABASE-NAME, INSERT-MISSING-URL. Accessed 26 Sept. 2022.
Zhao, Meibo, and Shu-hsien Hsiao. The Yellow Bell : A Brief Sketch of the History of Chinese Music. Barberry Hill, 1934.
