Lithophone employed in Han Chinese Confucian rituals. The name (pronounced ‘ching’) is onomatopoeic of its sound when struck; its written character is a pictograph of a stone suspended in a frame. Constructed of resonant limestone or marble, the instrument is suspended in a frame by a cord (through a hole near its apex) and struck at one end with a wooden beater. Single stones are generally known as teqing (‘special’ qing); sets of different-pitched stones are known as bianqing (‘arranged’ qing).
More than half a dozen ancient pvoto-qing have been unearthed in north China, dating to c2000 bce or later. These are roughly chipped instruments of irregular shapes and between 40 and 100cm in length. Both single stones and sets of three (and five) have been found in late Shang sites (c1200 bce), notably at Anyang in northern Henan province. Unlike the earlier crudely chipped instruments, these Shang stones are carefully crafted of polished marble slabs, rectangular or triangular in shape, some with beautifully stylized abstractions of tigers and fish inscribed on their surfaces (Liu, 1988, pp.14–15).
During the mid-Zhou dynasty (c5th century bce) qing sets (bianqing) were enlarged and their shape became standardized, but their surfaces were not so commonly decorated. Largest among the Zhou sets unearthed is from the tomb of the Marquis Yi of the Zeng state (Zenghou Yi, Hubei province, c433 bce), a set of 32 stones suspended in a two-tiered frame. These stones are L-shaped, five-sided, with the bottom edge concave in shape. Precise geometric proportions for this design were given in the Zhouli (c3rd century bce) and in subsequent texts (Chuang, 1966, p.131). Zhou instruments (such as the Zenghou Yi set) were tuned chromatically by varying the size while maintaining uniform thickness (smaller stones resonating at a higher pitch). The bianqing employed within the ritual ensemble at the Taipei Confucian shrine are of this earlier design. By about 12th century ce, bianqing sets were usually comprised of 16 stones of a uniform size but varying in thickness (thicker stones resonating at a higher pitch), with the standard of 16 chromatically-tuned stones in a set. The set sent to Korea during this period and sets employed in the Qing dynasty imperial court in Beijing (1644–1911) are of this design (Moule, 1908, p.31).
Related instruments are the Korean P'yŏn'gyŏng and Vietnamese biên khánh. A more recent application of the name qing is to the resonating bowl-bell of bronze used in Buddhist temples; see China, §III.
A.C. Moule: ‘A List of the Musical and Other Sound-Producing Instruments of the Chinese’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, North China Branch, xxxix (1908), 1–160; repr. separately (Buren, 1989), 30–33
Chuang Pen-li: ‘Chime Stones of Ancient China (Part I)’, Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, xxii (1966), 97–137 [with Eng. summary]
Huang Xiangpeng and others: ‘Suixian chutu yinyue wenwu zhuanji’ [Special issue on the musical relics excavated in Suixian], Yinyue yanjiu, 1981 (no.1)
Tong Kin-woon: Shang Musical Instruments (diss., Wesleyan U., 1983); repr. in AsM, xiv/2 (1983), 69–114
Liu Dongsheng and others, eds.: Zhongguo yueqi tuzhi [Pictorial record of Chinese musical instruments] (Beijing, 1987), 32ff
Liu Dongsheng and Yuan Quanyou, eds.: Zhongguo yinyue shi tujian [Pictorial guide to the history of Chinese music] (Beijing, 1988), 13–16
Liu Dongsheng, ed.: Zhongguo yueqi tujian [Pictorial guide to Chinese instruments] (Ji'nan, 1992), 94–7
Li Chunyi: Zhongguo shanggu chutu yueqi zonglun [Survey of ancient excavated musical instruments from China] (Beijing, 1996), 30–64
Zhongguo yinyve wenwu daxi [Compendium of Chinese musical artefacts] (Zhengzhou, 1996–) [YYS pubn]
ALAN R. THRASHER