Chapter 16: Lichun and Musical Pitch: The Pitch-Pipe Taicu and the Sound of Heaven and Earth

I. The Twelve Pitch-Pipes and the Twelve Months: The Temporal Correspondence of Heaven and Earth's Sound

Within the pre-Qin system of cosmology, musical pitch bore a profound and precise correspondence to the calendar and to the solar terms—this is the tradition of "correlating the Twelve Pitch-Pipes with the twelve months." The ancients believed that each month, each season, possessed its own particular "sound," resonating with the qi of Heaven and Earth, and that this sound was the corresponding "pitch-pipe" (律).

The Twelve Pitch-Pipes were twelve standard pitches established by the ancients, in sequence: Huangzhong, Dalü, Taicu, Jiazhong, Guxian, Zhonglü, Ruibin, Linzhong, Yize, Nanlü, Wuyi, and Yingzhong. These twelve pitch-pipes correspond one to one with the twelve months: the eleventh month (in which the Winter Solstice falls) is correlated with Huangzhong; the twelfth month with Dalü; the first month (in which Lichun falls) with Taicu; the second month with Jiazhong; the third month with Guxian; the fourth month with Zhonglü; the fifth month (in which the Summer Solstice falls) with Ruibin; the sixth month with Linzhong; the seventh month with Yize; the eighth month with Nanlü; the ninth month with Wuyi; and the tenth month with Yingzhong.

The first month, in which Lichun falls, corresponds precisely to the pitch-pipe "Taicu." To understand the musical significance of Lichun, we must delve into these two characters, "Taicu."

II. The Meaning of "Taicu": The Myriad Things Clustering into Life, Bursting Forth from the Earth

The name "Taicu" itself embodies the core meaning of Lichun. The Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji), in "Treatise on the Pitch-Pipes," and the Book of Han (Hanshu), in "Treatise on Pitch-Pipes and the Calendar," offer extensive elucidations of the names of the Twelve Pitch-Pipes; their gloss of "Taicu" states: "Taicu means that yang qi greatly clusters and reaches through to the surface above" (太簇者，言阳气大簇达于上也)—Taicu signifies that yang qi, in great abundance, clusters together, bursts forth, and reaches up to the earth's surface. Another gloss states: "This is the first month; its pitch-pipe is Taicu. Taicu means that the myriad things cluster into life" (正月也，律中太簇。太簇者，言万物簇生也)—the first month corresponds to the pitch-pipe Taicu; Taicu signifies that the myriad things cluster together, sprouting into life in great numbers.

Observe: what the two characters "Taicu" depict is precisely the most central picture of Lichun—"yang qi greatly clustering and reaching up to the surface" corresponds to Lichun's fundamental theme of "yang qi ascending from beneath the earth to its surface" (that is, the image of the Tai hexagram's "three yang lines rising"); "the myriad things clustering into life" corresponds to Lichun's phenological signs of "vegetation sprouting, hibernating insects beginning to stir." The character "cu" (簇) originally means to gather, to cluster, to crowd together—"Taicu" is precisely yang qi and vitality, on a great scale, clustering together and vigorously sprouting upward, breaking through. This may be said to be the very same spirit—expressed in the domain of musical pitch—as the "tun" within the character "chun" (萅, breaking through the soil), as "the east wind melts the ice" (yang qi first stirring in the earth), and as the Tai hexagram's "three yang lines opening into Tai." Through this pitch-pipe name "Taicu," the ancients set the tone of "bursting forth," "clustering into life," and "reaching up" for the "sound of Heaven and Earth" in the month of Lichun.

III. Why Can Musical Pitch Correspond to the Solar Terms$5 The Unity of "Qi," "Number," and "Sound"

Here lies an extremely profound question: why should musical pitch—the height or depth of a sound—be able to correspond to the solar terms, to the qi of Heaven and Earth$6 On what basis did the ancients believe that the qi of Heaven and Earth in the first month resonated with the pitch "Taicu"$7

To understand this, we must grasp the unity of "qi" (气), "number" (数), and "sound" (声) within pre-Qin cosmology. The ancients held that "qi" filled the space between Heaven and Earth, and that the movement of qi had its own rhythm, its own "number" (quantity, measure); at the same time, the production of sound likewise originated from the vibration of qi, and sounds of different pitch corresponded to different frequencies of vibration (that is, different "numbers"). Thus "qi," "number," and "sound" were unified—the qi of Heaven and Earth had different states of operation in different months (different "numbers"), and these different "numbers" could precisely be correlated with, and represented by, different "sounds" (pitch-pipes). The qi of Heaven and Earth in the first month exists in the state of "yang qi clustering and reaching through, the myriad things clustering into life," and the "number" corresponding to this state resonates precisely with the vibrational "number" of the pitch-pipe "Taicu."

More than this, the ancients believed there existed a "verifiable" resonance between musical pitch and the solar terms—this is the theory of "watching for the qi" (候气). According to record, the ancients would bury the twelve pitch-pipe tubes in a sealed chamber according to a fixed arrangement, filling the tubes with ashes made from the inner membrane of reeds; upon the arrival of a given solar term, the reed ashes within the pitch-pipe tube corresponding to that month's pitch would be blown out by the "qi of the earth." Thus, at Lichun in the first month, the ashes within the "Taicu" pitch-pipe tube would stir and fly out on schedule. Although the precise empirical validity of this method of "watching for the qi" has been much disputed by later generations, the conviction it expresses is clear and profound: there exists, between the operation of the qi of Heaven and Earth (the solar terms) and musical pitch, a real, substantive relationship of mutual resonance and mutual verification. In the ancients' view, at the time of Lichun, not only would the east wind melt the ice, hibernating insects begin to stir, and swimming fish rise—that pitch-pipe "Taicu" would also, of itself, sound and stir as the earth's qi ascended. The succession of Heaven and Earth's solar terms was itself a grand, audible "cosmic music."

IV. "Great Music Is in Harmony with Heaven and Earth": The Ritual and Musical Philosophy of Lichun's Sound

The correspondence between musical pitch and the solar terms ultimately grounds itself in the pre-Qin philosophy of "music" (乐). The "Record of Music" (乐记) in the Book of Rites states: "Great music is in harmony with Heaven and Earth; great ritual is in accord with the measure of Heaven and Earth" (大乐与天地同和，大礼与天地同节)—the highest music accords with the harmony of Heaven and Earth; the highest ritual accords with the measure of Heaven and Earth. It also states: "Music is the harmony of Heaven and Earth; ritual is the order of Heaven and Earth" (乐者，天地之和也；礼者，天地之序也)—music is the embodiment of Heaven and Earth's harmony; ritual is the embodiment of Heaven and Earth's order.

This passage reveals the ultimate basis for why musical pitch can correspond to the solar terms—because "music" itself is the embodiment of "the harmony of Heaven and Earth." The operation of the qi of Heaven and Earth across the four seasons and twelve months (the solar terms) possesses "harmony," possesses "order," possesses "measure"; and "music" (musical pitch) is precisely an emulation of, and response to, this harmony of Heaven and Earth. The pitch-pipe "Taicu," corresponding to Lichun, is precisely the sonic expression of that "harmony" of "yang qi clustering and reaching through, the myriad things clustering into life," belonging to the qi of Heaven and Earth at the season of Lichun. When a person, at the season of Lichun, sounds the note of "Taicu," this is precisely humanity, through its own "music," responding to, according with, and participating in the "harmony" of Heaven and Earth—this is precisely the true meaning of "great music is in harmony with Heaven and Earth."

From this we may see that the musical significance of Lichun is by no means merely a dry symbol of correlation, "the first month paired with Taicu," but rather a profound embodiment of the spirit of "the unity of Heaven and humanity" within China's civilization of ritual and music. Playing the music of Taicu in the month of Lichun is, just like the Son of Heaven wearing green robes, welcoming spring at the eastern suburbs, or dispensing favor and bestowing beneficence, a matter of humanity, through its own conduct (here, "music"), responding to and according with the ascendant qi of Heaven and Earth (here, spring's qi of "yang clustering and reaching through"). For the ancients, to hear a piece of "Taicu" music was as if to hear Heaven and Earth's own vibrant song, at the season of Lichun, of "the myriad things clustering into life, yang qi reaching upward"—what a poetic and profound symphony of Heaven and humanity this is!

V. The Note Jue and the Pitch-Pipe Taicu: The Dual Determination of Lichun's "Sound" by the Five Notes and the Twelve Pitch-Pipes

Attentive readers may have already noticed: in the earlier discussion of the "Monthly Ordinances" of the Book of Rites concerning the first month of spring, it was said that "its note is jue"—the first month of spring is correlated, among the Five Notes, with the note "jue"; yet here, in discussing the Twelve Pitch-Pipes, it is said that Lichun's "pitch-pipe is Taicu." So which is it, then—is Lichun's "sound" "jue," or is it "Taicu"$8 What is the relationship between the two$9

This is not a contradiction, but rather a dual determination of Lichun's "sound," made from two different levels. The "Five Notes" (gong, shang, jue, zhi, yu) and the "Twelve Pitch-Pipes" (Huangzhong, Dalü, Taicu...) are two mutually complementary systems within the Chinese system of musical pitch. The Twelve Pitch-Pipes are twelve absolute standard pitches (comparable to today's twelve semitones), used to fix the specific height of a pitch; the Five Notes, by contrast, are five relative scale degrees within music (comparable to today's "do, re, mi, sol, la"), used to determine the structure of a melody. Put simply, the Twelve Pitch-Pipes fix "the absolute position of pitch," while the Five Notes fix "the relative function of a scale degree."

Lichun's "note is jue" means that, at the level of the Five Notes, spring is correlated with the note "jue"—the note jue is clear and rising, its scale-degree function corresponding to Wood virtue's generation, growth, and upward reach. Lichun's "pitch-pipe is Taicu" means that, at the level of the Twelve Pitch-Pipes, the qi of the first month resonates with the absolute pitch "Taicu." The former speaks to its "nature as a scale degree" (jue, governing generation and growth); the latter speaks to its "position as an absolute pitch" (Taicu, governing clustering and reaching through). Together, the two provide a complete determination of Lichun's "sound"—it is the unity of the nature of the note jue (generation and growth, rising) and the pitch-pipe Taicu (yang qi clustering and reaching through). Whether viewed from the relative scale degree or from the absolute pitch, what Lichun's "sound" expresses is the very same cosmic breath: that song of spring's generation and growth, "the myriad things clustering into life, yang qi reaching upward, vitality flowing freely and unobstructed." This precision, in determining the season's "sound" through the dual system of "the Five Notes" and "the Twelve Pitch-Pipes," once again reveals how meticulous and how grand was the ancients' cosmology of musical pitch, "sound responding to qi, sound and qi seeking one another."