Dunhuang: China’s traditional northwest frontier and overland conduit of exchange with the Old World. Jao Tsung-i: China’s last great traditional man of letters, polymath, and pioneer of comparative humanistic inquiry during Hong Kong’s global heyday. Jao and Dunhuang had a special relationship that this book makes accessible in English for the first time. Inside, Jao proposes an entirely…
From prehistoric bone flutes to Confucian bell-sets, from ancient divination to his beloved qin, this book presents translations of thirteen seminal essays on musical subjects by Jao Tsung-i. In language as elegant and refined as the ancient texts he so admired, his journey takes readers through Buddhist incantation, the philosophy of musical instruments, acoustical numerology, lyric poetry, hi…