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2000-Year
Old Musical Instruments to
Be Played Live
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????China Central
Television (CCTV) will telecast live a concert played with a group
of ancient musical instruments dating back to more than 2100 years.
????The concert will last for three consecutive
days starting from February 7, the Festival of Lanterns which
marks the end of the half-month Spring Festival periods.
????The musical instruments are serial bells,
chime stones, drums of various sizes and for different purposes,
seven ses, twenty- five-stringed plucked instruments, and others.
????They were unearthed last July in a pit around
the Luozhuang Mausoleum, the earliest Western Han Dynasty (BC206--24AD)
royal mausoleum ever unearthed in China.
????Since excavation started in June last year,
archaeologists have found numerous valuable funerary objects in
Luozhuang Mausoleum, 40 kilometers east of Jinan, capital of east
China's Shandong province.
????The chime stones found in the mausoleum
outnumbered the total pieces in the previous excavations of tombs
of the West and East Han dynasties (BC206--220AD), according to
archeologists.
????For their fine craftwork and good preservation,
the serial bells are considered the best from the Western Han
Dynasty, Yu Weichao, archeologist and former curator of China
Historical Museum, noted.
????In the Dynasty, it is rare for all the instruments
to be made for actual use, rather than solely for funeral purposes,
Yu said, adding that the numerous, well-preserved instruments
are enough to equip a court orchestra.
????The experts found that the all instruments
have been attuned when they were buried and could be played today.
CCTV will telecast live the concert played by musicians using
the instruments during the three days at noon, with pieces yet
to be decided.
????Judging from the earth seal already found,
archaeologists believed that the mausoleum dates back to BC186.
????Though the coffin chamber has not yet been
opened, archaeologists inferred from the plentiful relics in the
pits that the owner of this mausoleum could be of such a royal
standing as a king.
????(Xinhua 02/05/2001)
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