Music in Ancient China provides a novel introduction to ancient Chinese music instruments and musical practice. In this monograph Ingrid Furniss, an art historian, interprets the instruments’ use and the surrounding musical culture of wooden instruments individually and in ensembles. In order to do so she utilizes archaeological evidence of tombs ranging from the Eastern Zhou period (770–221 BCE) to the Han period (206 BCE–220 CE), in particular the analysis of instrument construction, the organization of tombs, decorations on instruments, and in the Han period, “funerary sculptures, inlaid bronze vessels, ceramic tomb tiles, stone engravings, and paintings on lacquer vessels, textiles, and on the walls of Han tombs” (13–14). For each period Furniss analyzes the structure, location, and surroundings of the physical remains of instruments in the tombs and then provides theories about the use and importance of the instruments. In pictorial and sculptural representations, she employs a second method through describing the number and placement of the musicians in the representations, their actions, and the surrounding environment, to make extrapolations on the functions of the instruments and where they were played. Even though Furniss provides much detail and evidence on how different instruments were used, the conclusion does not mention a summary of the probable function and use of these ancient instruments. In any case, this book goes beyond the study of ancient Chinese musical culture to address the broad area of material culture in folklore, both in content and methodology.

In the first chapter, Furniss introduces the time periods and methodologies for studying instruments of the times in the southeastern part of China: Anhui, Guangdong, southern Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang provinces (2, 10). She makes a convincing argument that previous researchers have focused primarily on bronze bells, with less focus on the wooden instruments (1). Then she states her purpose: “By analyzing [non-bronze bell] instruments from small and large, modest and wealthy tombs, as well as their archaeological contexts (i.e., where they were placed in the tomb and what objects accompanied them), I will seek to place these instruments in a much broader social and cultural context” (16). However, the main purpose of this chapter is to determine the advantages and disadvantages of various source materials describing music-making of the time: musical compositions, texts, and finally archaeological sources (instruments and art) found in tombs of the time (4, 5–9).

The body of the book covers the chronological construction, decoration, placement in the tomb, surrounding objects, and possible uses of the instruments from Eastern Zhou to Han, Eastern Zhou including the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. The chapters are divided up by wooden-instrument type in the Eastern Zhou and Han dynasties, followed by ensembles in the above-mentioned times. Furniss begins with an overview of Neolithic instruments, basically winds and drums. She shows how the trend for wooden drums and winds continued to Eastern Zhou tombs. In chapter 3 she makes the argument that drums in Eastern Zhou were used in settings such as entertainment, war, and ritual, and by poor and wealthy alike (54–61). Chapter 4 discusses the construction of string instruments such as the se and the tendency to use the instruments in a solo fashion (97). Chapter 5 describes winds as ensemble instruments played in entertainment functions as well as funeral and military processions (118). Chapters 6 and 7 describe wooden instruments in Eastern Zhou and Han periods, discussing the ensembles by the selection of instruments found in each ensemble (with the assumption that the instruments found within are in fact from ensembles) (120). Again, the relationship to war and wealth is addressed, highlighting the importance Furniss places on these elements (155). The gradual shift to instrumental use for entertainment in the Han period is also heavily emphasized (188). Ensembles including wooden instruments, chimes, and bells are covered in chapters 8 and 9. Here Furniss asserts, as in the introduction: “As they [wooden instruments] are frequently ignored in favor of bronze bells, my goal is to show that they had an important role not only as solo instruments, as seen in previous chapters, but also in conjunction with bells and chime stones.” Here she displays her insistence on the importance of wooden instruments in ancient Chinese music (191). With the replacement of chime stones for bells in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE, Furniss states that there is more interest in ensembles with a wide variety of instruments (256). She mentions wealth again, noting that wealth does not equal status (258).

The conclusion of the book is disappointing, mentioning such “broad conclusions” as “wooden instruments and ensembles played a major role in funerary practices of southeastern China during the Warring States” and the location of instruments in the tombs, and only providing statistical information on instrument location and excavation (285). Even taking into account the inclusion of five appendices with information on tombs by category, these conclusions and this statistical evidence have already been covered in the book and do not include the musical culture surrounding the instruments. Thus, the book becomes merely a source of statistical evidence on location of tombs and the instruments within rather than a resource describing the relationship between the instruments and musicians and their culture during this ancient period.

Music in Ancient China is a valuable source of data on ancient Chinese music. It is difficult to determine the nature of music over two thousand years old; the remains of the instruments themselves appear to be the best option. Furniss does just that in her book, focusing on the instruments themselves and drawing interpretations from their location in the tomb and from related textual sources and artistic evidence on the instruments, tomb objects, and tomb walls; she explains all this in simple language. The chapters are organized in an easy-to-read fashion and numerous tomb maps and black-and-white pictures of the instruments are included. As noted, the one major shortcoming is her caution in describing trends in musical use of the instruments, leaving the reader to make judgments and inferences on his/her own. Overall, though, I believe that this book is a valuable source on ancient Chinese music as well as a manual on how to research material objects, a necessity for folklore, art history, ethnomusicology, and other related disciplines.

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[Review length: 1041 words • Review posted on November 17, 2009]