Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-11-23
THE CHINESE MUSICAL SYSTEM.
How it Was Devised by Lyng-Lun
Several hOusa Years Ago.

In the reign of the Emperor HOang-ti,
Who ruled over China in the twenty
seventh century before Christ, the scholar
Lyng-lun was commissioned to complete
the musical system which had been dis
covered $50 years earlier, aud particularly
to lay down IKE rules for making must
cal instruments. Naturally he had to
commence with the bamboo, which had
already been long usedItO give the note for
other instruments. he therefore betook
himself to the province of Siyung, in
northwestern China, where, on the north
eTn slope Of a range of high mountains, a
species of bamboo grew which. on ac-
count Of its uniformity and its structure,
being neither too hard nor too soft, was
exceedingly suitable for q wind instru-
ment. He cut one down and tried it.
Tradition says that it gave the same note
as his own voice when he was excited by
no emotion; and the ripping of the
sources of the great Hoang-ho, or Yellow
river, which were in the vicinity, followed
in the saTe tone. At the same time the
fabulous bird Fung-Hiang, accompanied
by his nate, flew to the place. Both
perched themselves upea a n6ighbOring
ranch and commenced a song, in the
ourse of which each of the birds gave
six separate notes. These are the notes
which are called six male and six female
tones in the scale discovered bv Lyng-lun,
anu hAlCA GO11CSIg4EkA ~ LLG GnClGnI
doctrine Of the male and female princi-
pies in nature. AS a matter of course,
the deepest Of the male notes was the one
already discovered by the philosopher
himself. He now e~ndeavOred to reproduce
the other notes with the help of bamboo
pipes, and succeeded. His task was now
to lay down fixed rules as to the length of
the pipes, 50 that thenceforth they could
be easily constructed everywhere. For
this reason, and also because such a Scale
of notes depends upon slight differences
of length, u there were scarcely at this
time instruments to divide great lengths,
he necessarily arrived at the notion of
passing from the less to the greater, and
of laying down an adequately small
natural unit for his measurements. That
could be nothing else but a grain of seed;
and now the point was to get seeds of the
greatest possible uniformity. He chose
a sort of millet, the sorghum rubrum, the
seed of which is of a dark-brOwn color,
and which is said to possess the advan-
tages of greater hardness and uniformity
than that of gray and other kinds. The
seed is pointed at the ends, and from one
point to the other the length is somewhat
greater than in the direction at right
angles. Lyng-lun now fixed the length of
the pipe, which gave the keynote at
81 grains of the seed placed length
wise in a row. But when the grains were
placed breadthwise it took 100 grains to
give the same length. Thus the double
division of 9x9 and 10x10 was naturally
arrived at. According to the dimensions
in question, it was called a musical or an
ordinary foot, the latter being introduced
with the decimal subdivision as a measure
of length. The breadth OF a grain of seed
was l fen Ga line, 10 fen equal 1 tsun
IAN inch, 10 tsu equal 1 che a FOOT,
16 che equal 1 chang 10 chang, equal 1
ny. In subsequent times the line was
divided into tenths, hundreds, etc. Lying
lun also laid down rules for the breadth,
as well as for the length, of the pipe, be-
cause, although the note is essentially
dependent on the length, it is nevertheless
necessary for its purity that the pipe
should be neither too broad nor too
narrow