Ancient Chinese believed music could purify people's minds. Confucius himself was a famous music enthusiast. When Confucius heard the music of Shao in today's Shandong Province, he was so captivated that for three months he didn't taste of meat, though his students paid their tuition in dried meat.

Traditional Chinese musical instruments are made of eight materials: bronze, stone, pottery, wood, bamboo, silk, dried gourd, and leather. There were generally five scales in ancient Chinese music, corresponding with the belief that the universe was composed of five elements, according to Qiao Jianzhong, director of the music department of the China Art Institute.

Sound of Gold and Jade

  

  

According to literary works, the concert of bronze chimes and chime stones are called the Sound of Gold and Jade, the most elegant and dignified music in ancient China.

"We can never hear the music from the Ancient Greek instruments. But this set of chimes in China has brought back to us the melodies more than 2,400 ago," -- American Violinist Yehudi Menuhin（1916－1999）.

"This set of chimes covers a wide range of knowledge in acoustics, metallurgy, temperament and exactitude foundry technique. It is a rare 'Living Book of Science and technology' in the world history," -- Dr. Cheng Zhenyi, physics professor, University of California, San Diego.

In 1978, the excavation of an early Warring States tomb in Hubei's Suixian County from more than 2,500 years ago uncovered a large musical instrument consisting of 65 bells arranged on a rack, which belonged to an aristocrat named Zeng Houyi.

Eight types of musical instruments totaling 128 pieces were found in the aristocrat's tomb. It was estimated that 41 people would have been needed to play them all. Among them, the bronze chimes were considered the most upper class.

A set of bronze chimes, or Bian Zhong, is a kind of percussion instrument consisting of flat bells of different sizes arranged according to pitches and hang on a huge rack. T-shaped wooden hammers and long sticks are used to strike the bells to produce different tones.