Ancient Musical Instruments and Music Cultures

Sound of Stones: The Music Archaeology of Chime Stones in Ancient China
Ancient Musical Instruments and Music Cultures, Vol. 1
Fang Xueyang
284 pages with 104 figures and 52 tables
© Ekho VERLAG | Berlin | 2022

This book focuses on the chime stone named qing, a percussion instrument from ancient China. Chapter 1 of the book provides a comprehensive view of existing studies, sets out the aims of the research alongside material sources and methodology, elaborates the theoretical framework, and clarifies terminology in both English and Chinese. A summary of the main chime stone finds of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River valley areas, together with geographical features of these distributions, is provided in Chapter 2.
Chapters 3 to 9 contain an in-depth discussion of the chime stones unearthed from those regions, including classification and typology, shape, manufacture, assemblage and performance, detailed tone measurement and analysis of the acoustic properties. Chapter 10 looks at the use and function of the chime stones, including their cultural context, their role in ensemble playing, their use in ritual music, and their symbolic meaning in ancient China.