Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c11.s1.t4.3

v2.c11.s1.t4.3

Chinese “melody” means not only the pitch, but also the musical mode, known as “Gong melody”. According to *Wei Book ⋅ Music Collections*, “Cui Jiulong said to Taichangqing Mr. Zuying: the voice has seven tones and the melody has seven tunes. Those seven tunes were combined into seven modes from Huangzhong to Zhonglv,” which meant that starting with Huangzhong, 12 modes were generated by tri-section loss & gains and ended at Zhonglv, namely Linzhong generated by Huangzhong, Taicu by Linzhong, Nanlv by Taicu, Guxian by Nanlv, Yingzhong by Guxian, Ruibin by Yingzhong, Dalv by Ruibin, Yize by Dalv, Jiazhong by Yize, Wushe by Jiazhong and Zhonglv by Wuyi.