XVII. Yo Kî or Record of Music

33. 'In singing, the high notes rise as if they were borne aloft; the low descend as if they were falling to the ground; the turns resemble a thing broken off; and the finale resembles the breaking) of a willow tree; emphatical notes seem made by the [1. All the other pieces of song, mentioned in the preceding paragraph are well known, as the divisions under which the odes of the Shih King are arranged. What are called the Shang and Khî are lost, but some account of them is given in this paragraph. When it is said that the people of Shang remembered the airs and poetry of the five Tîs, we must understand by Shang the duchy of Sung which was ruled by the representation of the line of the Shang kings. Why the state of Khî should have remembered the airs and songs of 'the three dynasties' more than any other state, I cannot tell.] square; quavers are like the hook (of a spear); and those prolonged on the same key are like pearls strung together. Hence, singing means the prolonged expression of the words; there is the utterance of the words, and when the simple utterance is not sufficient, the prolonged expression of them. When that prolonged expression is not sufficient, there come the sigh and exclamation. When these are insufficient, unconsciously there come the motions of the hands and the stamping of the feet[1].' (Such was the answer to) Dze-kung's question about music[2]. [1. On this passage, P. Callery says:--'Quoique, à la rigueur, on puisse comparer des airs à des objets, ou à des accidents matériels, comme nous disons de tel motif musical qu'il est "Large," "Sec," "Dur," etc., il faut avouer que les comparaisons adoptées par l'artiste Chinois sont, en général, fort mauvaises, c'est une amplification gâtée de ce qu'il a dit plus haut.'