CHINESE MUSIC.

The question has been

11

raised as to whether the

iiis

Those acquainted with the theory of the vibration of tubes

were open at both ends or not.

will readily

admit that they were

stopped at one end, for the following reasons.

Sound

open or not,

in a tube,

produced by the vibrating movement of the

is

the sound will vary in pitch accordmg to the degi-ee of pressure of the

The longer and narrower the

notes so produced are called harmonics.

it

The

air.

tube, the

air,

and

different

more harmonics

will give.

A
I, 2, 3,

long tube open at both ends will give the following harmonics, which are marked

etc, according to their place in the succession of sounds.

"^

-Z

456789

-.i

etc.

A tube closed at one end \vill give only the harmonics marked with odd numbers, with
important peculiarity, that to produce the same note this tube requires only half the length
of an open tube.
this

m
e-

^
1

etc.

The

Inumg-chang tube measured only

Hrst

scarcely give any sound, whereas a corked tube

tube 2 feet long.

made on

foot.

An open

tube of that size would

foot long gives the

same note

as

an open

Moreover, the tubes of the Pandean pipe, which was a collection of bamboos

the principle of the lus, were closed at the lower end.

To

The

lils

music.

their series of 12 lils the Chinese added two new series, one lower and one higher.
were used merely to regulate the instruments and give a uniform pitch to the
The diameter of all the las must be the same.' Meng K'ang (^ ^) says that the

<;-ircumfGrence of all tubes diminislies according to their length, but this

dicted by Ts'Ai

is

explicitly contra-

Tzu (^ ^), who quotes Cheng Ivang-ch'eng (%

)^ ^) and Ts'ai
wine-bibbers and famous writers on music), and he flatly declares that

(two

gi-eat

and

his adherents

know nothing about

The tubes were

music.'^

all

of

tlie

circumference, and diameter; only the length varied according to the sounds.
or the

first

tube,

inches, because 9

was
is

^''^

by

W)^J^n^li.^

3,

same

thickness,

HaarKj-chv/ny,

but that foot was considered as being only 9

whereas 10 is not.'*

foot 'in length in reality,

perfectly divisible

Yung (^ g,)
Meng K'ang

^'"ch vys

A ft 1

:ft-

^.

11