Mei Qingtan
Music is the movement of the heart; sound is the image of music. Literary talent and rhythm are the decoration of sound. A gentleman moves his roots, enjoys his image, and then manages his decoration. Therefore, first beat the drum to warn, three steps to see the direction, start again to go forward, and return to order after chaos. Be vigorous but not withdrawn, and be extremely obscure but not hidden. Enjoy your aspirations alone, and do not tire of your way; fully promote your way, and do not be selfish. Therefore, when feelings are revealed, righteousness is established, and when music ends, virtue is respected. Gentlemen love goodness, while villains listen to faults. Therefore, it is said that music is the greatest way to lead the people. Music is giving; ritual is repaying. Music is to enjoy what it was born from; and ritual is to return to what it started from. Music is to show virtue, and ritual is to repay emotion and return to the beginning. The so-called great carriage is the emperor's carriage. The dragon flag with nine tassels is the emperor's banner. The blue-black border is the emperor's precious tortoise. Following it are the cattle and sheep, which are used to give gifts to the princes. Music is the emotion that cannot be changed. Rituals are the principles that cannot be changed. Music is unified, and rituals distinguish differences. The theory of rituals and music governs human emotions. To understand the origin and know the changes is the emotion of music; to be sincere and to get rid of falsehood is the principle of rituals. Rituals and music can understand the emotions of heaven and earth, reach the virtue of the gods, and inspire the spirits of the upper and lower, and condense the essence and the coarse, and lead the rules of father and son, monarch and minister. Therefore, when the great man promotes rituals and music, heaven and earth will be bright. When heaven and earth are in harmony, yin and yang are in harmony, and the warmth of the old woman nurtures all things, then the grass and trees grow, the buds grow, the wings flutter, the horns grow, the hibernating insects wake up, the feathered ones lie down, the hairy ones conceive, the viviparous ones are not killed, and the egg-laying ones are not killed, then the way of music returns to it. Music does not refer to the Huangzhong, Dalu, string music, and singing, which are the last part of music, so children dance to them. Spreading the banquet, setting up the sacrificial vessels, arranging the trays and bowls, and using the rise and fall as rituals are the last part of rituals, so there are officials in charge of them. The musicians distinguish between sounds and poems, so they face north and play the strings; the ancestral priests distinguish between the rituals of the ancestral temple, so they play after the corpse; the business priests distinguish between the funeral rituals, so they play after the host. Therefore, virtue is the upper, and art is the lower; behavior is the first, and things are the last. Therefore, the ancient kings had upper and lower, first and last, and then they could have control over the world.
