Page:Philosophical Review Volume 1.djvu/185

No. 2.] anciently possessed by Fa alone. While on this point Amiot is again silent, Van Aalst prints in Chinese characters (with a translation) the flute part of a Spring Hymn to Confucius, together with a heading which it seems hardly possible to doubt determines the key of the piece by naming the note of the scale of reference on which the Kong (formerly Yu) and not the Ho (formerly Koung) of the referred scale falls. The conclusion of the heading runs in Van Aalst' s translation: "When employing Chih (Tche) to intone a tune we must exclude, leave aside the notes Kung (Yu) and Yi (Kio). Forming the key of Chih (Tche), using Kong (Yu) as the note of comparison, this proves to be the case: but not so when Ho (Koung) is used for the keynote, as the following schemes show: We may accordingly interpret this heading as indicating the use of Kong instead of Koung as keynote. That Koung continues to exercise this function is expressly stated by Van Aalst, who gives an instance of its employment in the music of the Stone-chime in the same hymn to Confucius. We may therefore conclude that the dual system of major keys, or keys of Do (Koung, C) and minor keys, or keys of La (Kong, A) that is now exemplified in European music, is a fact also of present Chinese theory.

But further, the remainder of the heading of the Spring Hymn contributes evidence showing that beside using Do and La as alternative notes of comparison or keynotes, the Chinese make them the bases of alternative systems of modulation, in one of which the Koung of the scale of reference and in the other its Kong (or Yu) coincides in pitch with the primal Lu, Huang-chung. The indication is contained in the words with which the heading begins, — "Chia-chung acting as Koung." For Chia-chung, being the fourth Lu, if Koung coincide with