Pitch Pipes and the Measure of All Things
One bamboo pipe fixed the pitch, and from it came the units of length, volume and weight.
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The question
Pitch needs a ruler. In early China the bamboo pipe that fixed a note also fixed the chi and the jin: the Huangzhong pipe was nine inches long, its bore held one yue of millet, and the weight of that millet set the standard for weight. Tuning was as much a matter of taxation and casting as of the ear.
Historical arc
The Lüshi Chunqiu tells of Ling Lun cutting twelve pipes and naming the twelve lü after birdsong. The Han treatise tied pitch, calendar and measures into one system, with millet grains defining the ruler. Later theorists kept dividing the chain of fifths: Jing Fang reached sixty lü, Qian Lezhi three hundred and sixty. In 1584 Zhu Zaiyu took the twelfth root of two, making the twelve lü equal earlier than the European publication.
The turning point
The turn came when the pipe became a standard instrument of the state. Once it carried length and weight, changing the tuning meant changing the system. Zhu's solution was not adopted in his lifetime, yet it proved that equal temperament could be calculated, not merely heard.
What to listen for
Begin with a qin song, where pentatonic landing points and the fourths and fifths follow string ratios. Then hear Molihua, the same skeleton in a regional accent. Finally a Bach fugue moves through all twelve keys with the ease that equal division allows.
Related
This line runs through Renaissance and Baroque; pitch itself is in Pitch, and the standard vessel in Bianzhong.
Listen in the library
All tracks from midicn-lib — inline badge is the license tier (C1 commercial / C2 non-commercial / C3 study only).
Sources
- 《中国音乐词典》编辑部编，中国音乐词典（人民音乐出版社）— 律名与年代核对，未引用
- Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 4 part 1 (Cambridge University Press) — metrology chapter checked, not quoted
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.