The article traces the role and image of the wood and the tree in the culture of Ancient China as emerging from the transmitted literature of the Warring States period. Although this topic has already been touched upon in some previous studies, such as Mark Elvin's The Retreat of the Elephants, no comprehensive description based on at least nearly exhaustive systematization of respective data available to us in primary sources has been presented yet, especially for trees. In this paper, virtually all recorded modes of approaching the phenomena by the learned men of the Warring States are summarized and supplied with extensive reference to ancient texts. Apart from other issues, it clearly demonstrates that the skeptical stance to ancient Chinese love for nature and to the ecological ethos of traditional Chinese culture is highly justified., Lukáš Zádrapa., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The Chinese zither 古琴 guqin (Old zither 琴 qin zither), with strings stretched lengthwise on a flat wooden belly, is a pentatonic heptachord which can be played in three different ways: transversely on open strings, longitudinally by stopping, and also in harmonics (touched lightly on various marked points). Such an instrument, age-old in China, might be a theoretical archetype, which is able to make a contribution to the debate on issues concerning Greek music, something which has remained obscure in relation to the classical Western approach. Indeed, the assimilation “heptachord-heptatonic-diatonic” has ineluctably led most Western theorists to occasional misunderstandings of texts related to tuning, modulation, and the names of the modes. The demonstration is carried out in three steps: 1) a consideration of the seven tunings of the pentatonic guqin zither and their permutation through modulation on the diatonic scale; 2) an examination of the correspondence between musical systems and the Greater Perfect System; 3) a conclusion leading to the question as to whether the specific characteristics of the Chinese guqin were known or unknown by the Greeks. In order to maintain an effective methodological approach, we need to remember that Chinese writing gives different names to the notes, according to the system to which they belong. In conclusion, the hypotheses concerning the supposed exchanges and influences from Asia to Greece are strengthened anew.