Ling Lun

Ling Lun (Chinese: 伶 倫 or 泠 倫, Linglun) is the legendary founder of music in ancient China.^[1]

In Chinese mythology, Ling Lun is said to have created bamboo flutes which made the sounds of many birds, including the mythical phoenix. "In this way, Ling Lun invented the five notes of the ancient Chinese five-tone scale (gong, shang, jiao, zhi, and yu, which is equivalent to 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 in numbered musical notation or do, re, mi, sol, and la in western solfeggio) and the eight sounds made by eight musical instruments.^[2] The Yellow Emperor (Huangdi) is said to have ordered the casting of bells in tune with those flutes.

An alternative text, the Lushi Chunqiu (Chinese: 吕氏春秋; lit. 'Annals of Master Lu'), from the third century BCE credits another culture hero, Kui—who is often confused with a one-legged mythical monster bearing the same name—with the invention of music. In one version of the story, Kui makes a drum by stretching animal skin over an earthen jar that defeats another monster.^[3] In another version, Yellow Emperor fashions a drum from the skin of a kui monster.^[4]

In the computer games Civilization IV and Civilization V, Ling Lun appears as a great artist. The 2020 film Bill & Ted Face the Music features Ling Lun as one of the musicians in the titular characters' band, portrayed by Sharon Gee.^[5]

• Rottenberg, Josh (29 August 2020). "How the team behind 'Bill & Ted Face the Music' assembled a band that could save the universe". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
• von Glahn, Richard (2004). The Sinister Way: The Divine and the Demonic in Chinese Religious Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-92877-0.
• Yang, Lihui; An, Deming; Turner, Jessica Anderson (2005). Handbook of Chinese Mythology. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-57607-806-8.

• Dewoskin, Kenneth J. (1982). A Song for One or Two: Music and the Concept of Art in Early China. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan. pp. 59–60. ISBN 978-0-89264-042-3.
• Kárpáti, János (1980). "Myth and Reality in the Theory of Chinese Tonal System". Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. T. 22 (Facsimile 1/4). Akadémiai Kiadó: 5–14. doi:10.2307/901989. JSTOR 901989.
• Malm, William P. (19 November 2019). "Chinese music | Characeristics, History, Instruments, Genres & Facts | Britannica". Encyclopædia Britannica. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Archived from the original on 2 June 2021.
• Mingyue, Liang (1985). Music of the Billion: An Introduction to Chinese Musical Culture. New York: Heinrichshofen. pp. 37–38. ISBN 978-3-7959-0474-6.