Ji Kang and his "On Soundless Sadness and Music"

Ji Kang (223-262), courtesy name Shuye, was a famous thinker, poet and musician in the late Wei Dynasty.

Kang's musical thoughts are specially discussed in "Soundless Music Theory". In this treatise, he first proposed that "sound has no sorrow or joy". The basic point of view is that music is objectively existing sound, and sorrow and music are the emotions that people have after being touched. There is no causal relationship between the two. In his words, "the heart and the voice are clearly two things." Then, it further clarifies that the ontology of music is "harmony". This "harmony" is the sum of "big and small, simple and complex, high (low), good and evil (beautiful and not beautiful)", that is, the unity of music form, means of expression and beauty. Its effect on the viewer is limited to "quietness" and "distraction"; that is, it can only make people feel excited or tranquil, and concentrate or distract. The changes and beauty of the music itself have nothing to do with people's emotional sorrow and joy. That is to say, "Sounds should be based on good and evil, so it has nothing to do with sorrow and music; sorrow and music should be based on emotion, so it has nothing to do with it." "In sound."

So, where do people's emotional joy and sorrow come from? Ji Kang believes that this is the result of the influence of external objective things on the human heart, specifically the result of political influence, that is, "Sorrow and joy come from things (objective things), and first escape (encounter) in the heart, but because harmony manifests itself, "People have sorrow and joy in their hearts first, and music ("harmony") plays the role of inducement and medium to make it manifest. At the same time, he also believes that "human feelings are different, and everyone can learn their own interpretations and express their feelings." The pre-existing feelings in the heart are different, and the understanding and feelings of music will also be different from person to person, and the emotions triggered will also be different. Therefore, he believes that although music can make people enjoy listening to it, it cannot educate people to change their customs. effect. That is to say, "the essence of music is the heart," and "when the eight tones are harmonious, people always call it music. However, as customs change, this is not what it is."

On the above issues, Ji Kang boldly opposed the simplistic equation of music with politics since the Han Dynasty, and even required it to play a role in divination, completely ignoring the artistry of music, which has its progressive significance. Moreover, what he saw was the formal beauty of music, the contradiction between the actual content of music and the understanding of the listener, which had never been discussed before. It's just that he has a one-sided and exaggerated understanding of a certain aspect, which is sophistry in terms of methodology.