Ancient Chinese objects

Illustration of ancient Chinese plow, vase, and musical instruments from the book "History of Costumes of Peoples Throughout the Centuries" by Paolo Lorenzini, Nerbini Publishing House, Florence, 1934. The ancient Chinese knew eight different sound tones, classified according to the instruments that produced them: the sound of drumskin (oval-shaped, made of animal skin stretched first over terracotta, then over wood), the sound of stone (the "yu" stone, the most precious, beautiful, and harmonious), the sound of metal from bells (made of copper and tin, in various shapes), the sound of terracotta (the "kiuene," shaped like a terracotta egg with six holes for tones and one for the mouthpiece), the sound of wood (instruments made of dry and resonant wood: a tambourine played with a mallet, and an instrument shaped like a tiger or dragon with a rough back to be played by rubbing a wooden stick), the sound of bamboo and various flutes (from single-cane to sixteen-cane flutes), the sound of the "chen" (a gourd with various reeds inserted), and the sound of silk (thin wooden lacquered boxes with silk strings stretched across them, producing a sweet sound).