Bianqing

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The bianqing ( Chinese  編 磬  /  编 磬 , Pinyin biānqìng , English Chinese stone chimes ), which is also known as shibianqing ( 石 编 磬 , shíbiānqìng ), is an ancient Chinese sound stone game that consists of a set of mostly L-shaped sound stones ( lithophones , 磬  /  磬 , qìng ) that are made to sound with a wooden hammer. The sound stones hang on a wooden frame.

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Concert on replicas of ancient musical instruments in the Hubei Provincial Museum ( Wuhan ). The carillon ( bianzhong ) from the tomb of Margrave Yi von Zeng is in the background, the sound stone chime ( bianqing ) on the right

Together with the bronze carillon ( bianzhong ) it was an important instrument in Chinese ritual and court music. It mostly consisted of 16 sound stones. A sound stone game made of 32 sound stones was discovered in the grave of Margrave Yi von Zeng. A sound stone game was also discovered in the tomb of the King of Nanyue (Nányuè wáng mù) in Canton , the tomb of the Nan-Yue ruler Zhao Mo ( 趙 眜 ) from the Western Han period .

Sound stones were already known in the Erlitou culture at the time of the Xia , as evidenced by the find in the Bronze Age site Dōngxiàféng (东 下 冯) (approx. 1900–1500 BC) in the Shanxi province .

In addition to stones made, there are also sound stone games made of jade and - according to the Zhongguo yinyue cidian - also made of bronze.

A similar instrument that goes back to Chinese origins can be found in Korea , where it is called p'yǒn'gyǒng / pyeongyeong 편경 and is still used today in Korean court and ritual music.

literature

  • Yang Yinliu (Ed.): Zhongguo yinyue cidian (Dictionary of Chinese Music). Beijing 1984.

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