Page 250 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A-Z 243

Confucius playing on the cosmic guitar

Good music expresses the harmony between heaven and earth. ‘When the drums
thunder, the cymbals and musical stones clash, when flutes and violins, dancing and
singing fill the air with their noise, this is bound to jar the nerves, stimulate the senses
and make life effervesce. But music made by such means does not induce pleasure.
We may say: the noisier the music, the more depressed people become, the more the state
is in jeopardy and the more the prince declines. Thus is the very essence of music
destroyed’ (from the ‘Spring and Autumn of Lü Bu-wei’, tr. Richard Wilhelm).
From the 6th century AD onwards, classical Chinese music was gradually ousted
by Central Asian music and musicians. (See also Mouth Organ, Drum, Flute,
Number Mysticism.)

Musical Stone

qing

The musical stone is one of the oldest Chinese and Vietnamese musical instruments.
It seems to have developed from the xylophone. It is often represented in stylised form as
a kind of set-square. Its phonetic identity with qing = blessings, good luck, has led to its
being used to symbolise ‘good luck’.