Source: CCTV.com
According to ancient Chinese literature, the name "Dehe" implies "listen to a fine melody and the mind will be calm." Today, just as the name suggests, we'll take you on a tour of ancient Chinese music and hear sounds of heaven the way they were heard in ancient times.
This performance is called Yayue, which means "elegant music" in English.

It is a unique form of Eastern music and dance performed only in imperial courts.

Combining ritual, music, song and dance into one, it constitutes a dialogue with the sky in music and a diversion for the Gods in dance. A mystical and wonderful ambience is created in which man and heaven correspond. This represents the idea that man is an integral part of nature.

Chinese people in ancient times collected the wonderful sounds of nature and created "the eight categories of Ancient Musical instruments," namely "metal, stone, string, bamboo, leather, clay, wood and Gourd." These categories are represented well by the musical instruments used here.

Of all these musical instruments, Bianqing and Bianzhong played the most important part in the performances.

It can be easily imagined that this Bianqing, or Chime Stone, was one of the earliest musical instruments in China. Chinese forefathers discovered that, when knocked around, rocks of different sizes produced musical sounds. Thus, chime stones of various dimensions were hung together to give off different notes.

Often accompanying the Bianqing, are the Bianzhong or Chime Bells. A bronze instrument, it heads the metal section under the eight categories of musical instruments.

Bianzhong is cast according to the 7-tone scale with 5 semitones in between, completing a well-integrated system of 12 tones. The full scale agrees with the western 7-tone scale in C major, and its range covers 5 octaves, just two fewer than the modern piano.

The director of the performance maintains that, despite this similarity, Chinese and Western music are two worlds apart in nature.

Zhang Zhaoyu, director of Summer Palace Bianzhong Art Troupe, said, "Compared with Western music, ancient Chinese music emphasizes gentility and its function to steer inner feelings in order to achieve emotional balance. Biangzhong represents the Yang, or positive, and Bianqing represents the Yin, or negative. Just as the name of "Dehe Garden" suggests, when these instruments are played, it's hoped that the audience can achieve inner peace."

And this unique nature of Chinese music has seemingly attracted much attention from foreign tourists.

Just as a foreign visitor said, "It's very good. It's different from our music."

The presentation, which lasts 30 minutes, is held every hour at Dehe Garden to give visitors a vivid experience in how ancient Chinese music was performed.

Yet, that is not the only thing worth seeing inside this Garden.

Sitting here, we can imagine Empress Dowager Cixi watching opera in this garden more than a century ago. During performances, the Empress often sat here in the Hall of Nurtured Joy, enjoying the show. Emperor Guangxu would sit outside.

Dehe Garden, constructed in 1892 at a cost of 1.6 million taels of silver, housed the largest stage in China at the time. It was built in honor of the Empress Dowager Cixi's sixtieth birthday. The grand theatre has three stories. From top to bottom, they represent heaven, Earth and the sky in between. The floors of each stage contain trapdoors, and under the last stage are a deep well and five ponds which amplify the sound effects through acoustic resonance and make water appear to spout from a dragon's mouth. Special effects could be performed from underneath the three stages. It was this "high-tech" that gave the theatre a unique position in ancient China.

Well, we'll leave you here with the song "Chun Jiang Hua Yue Ye," or "A Moonlit Night On The Spring River." Bye for now.