Ling Lun
Ling Lun (Chinese: 伶倫 or 泠倫, Linglun) is the legendary founder of music in ancient China.[1] In Chinese mythology, as described in the Lüshi Chunqiu (in Chinese: 吕氏春秋), Ling Lun is said to have created bamboo flutes which made the sounds of many birds, including the mythical phoenix. "In this way, Ling Lun invented the five notes of the ancient Chinese five-tone scale (gong, shang, jiao, zhi, and yu, which is equivalent to 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 in numbered musical notation or do, re, mi, sol, and la in western solfeggio) and the eight sounds made by eight musical instruments.[2] The "Yellow Emperor" (Huangdi) is said to have ordered the casting of bells in tune with those flutes.
| Ling Lun | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 伶倫 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 伶伦 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
An alternative text, the Lushi Chunqiu (English: Annals of Master Lu), from the third century BC credits another culture hero, Kui, (who is often confused with a one-legged mythical monster bearing the same name, Kui) with the invention of music. In one version of the story, Kui makes a drum by stretching animal skin over an earthen jar that defeats another monster.[3][4]
In the computer games Civilization IV and Civilization V, Ling Lun appears as a great artist. The 2020 film Bill & Ted Face the Music features Ling Lun as one of musicans in the titular characters' band, portrayed by Sharon Gee, with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart being a great fan of her work.[5]
References
- Lihui Yang and Deming An, with Jessica Anderson Turner, Handbook of Chinese Mythology. Santa Barbara, California: ABC CLIO, 2005, p. 73 and pp. 169-170
- Lihui Yang and Deming An, with Jessica Anderson Turner, Handbook of Chinese Mythology. Santa Barbara, California: ABC CLIO, 2005, p. 73.
- Lihui Yang and Deming An, with Jessica Anderson Turner, Handbook of Chinese Mythology. Santa Barbara, California: ABC CLIO, 2005, p. 159.
- In another version, Yellow Emperor fashions a drum from the skin of a kui monster. For a discussion of the hui/kui confusion, see Richard von Glahn, The Sinister Way: The Divine and the Demonic in Chinese Religious Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004, pp. 90 ff.
- Rottenberg, Josh (August 29, 2020). "How the team behind 'Bill & Ted Face the Music' assembled a band that could save the universe". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 29, 2020.