Abstract

Ji Kang's 嵇康 argument against the presence of emotions in music in “Sound Has Neither Sorrow nor Joy” (sheng wu ai le lun 聲無哀樂論) relies centrally on his claim that harmonious sounds are “without image” (wu xiang 無象). In contrast, the Ru 儒 (Confucian) view of music is that it transmits images and emotions between musicians and listeners, which provides the basis for the musical cultivation of virtue (de 德). In this paper, I provide a reading of Ji Kang's argument that elucidates key differences between music with and without images, and offer an analysis of these differences in terms of intransitive musical meaning.