Treatise on the Absence of Emotions in Music 聲無哀樂論
Ji Kang 嵇康 1573 manuscript by Ge Yinliang 葛寅亮 Harvard-Yenching Library, T 5235.2 3147 (12)
This 3rd-century treatise by the poet, philosopher, and musician Ji Kang, is an argument against the dominant Confucian thesis that music has intrinsic moral and emotional values. The author instead proposes that the beauty of music resides primarily in its form.
(Click image for full-sized reproduction)
Related objects:
