Among the Confucian classics, the Yuèjì 樂記 [Record of Music], which is currently a fascicle in the Lǐjì 禮記 [Record of Rites], is not only the oldest surviving treatise on music and aesthetics, but also the foremost text that explains the origin and characteristics of music and its relationship to nature, morals, ritual, governance, and society (Cook 1995). The principles and ideas expounded in the Yuèjì have long been accepted as the core of Confucian thought on music (DeWoskin 1982:95–98). In this and other classical texts, we can find references to Chinese …