Mémoire sur la musique des Chinois, tant anciens que modernes

by Jean-Joseph Marie Amiot

The multivolume report, Memoire concernant l'histoire des chinois (1776-1814), was based on Amiot's own observations at the Chinese court. While Amiot sought to rectify some European misconceptions about Chinese music, his text still contained numerous errors. This edition is the later version edited by Pierre-Joseph Roussier.

Additional plates, taken from Amiot's original edition, show percussion and string instruments, including the qin, the multi-stringed zither zheng 箏, a set of bronze bells bianzhong 編鐘, and stone chimes bianqing 編磬.

In the West, the hand was depicted since at least the 12th century as a mnemonic device for locating semitones and hexachords in a scale. Here, Amiot uses a hand to show seven Chinese “modes” and their characteristic lü 律, or scale degrees. Contrast Amiot's use of the hand with the instructional representation in the Chinese treatise "Reminiscent Sounds of Utmost Antiquity."

254 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1779