Five tones and 12 pitches

The five tones and 12 pitches are terms in traditional Chinese music, which refer to the ancient Chinese method of tuning. The five tones – gong, shang, jue, zhi and yu – form the basic scales of ancient Chinese music. The term "five tones" first appeared in ancient Chinese literature during the Spring and Autumn period (770-476 B.C.), in works such as Zuo Zhuan (Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals), Rites of Zhou, and Guanzi. The ancient Chinese connected the five tones of Chinese scales with the five elements, or wuxing (as shown in the chart), resulting in a unique system of music theory.

The ancient Chinese proposed the 12 pitches tonal system, which used the "Method of dividing into three parts and taking away one part" to divide an octave into 12 different semitone pitches. In 1584, Zhu Zaiyu used a new mathematical method to calculate square roots using an extra-large abacus to derive a critical ratio equal to the 12th root of 2, which was instrumental in the development of the "12-tone equal temperament." Based on these findings, he designed and developed two types of tuning instruments. Zhu's ingenious method of arithmetic calculation of equal temperament was the first in the history of world temperament, which solved a long-standing problem in the field of music.

五音十二律

五音十二律是中國(guó)傳統(tǒng)樂律學(xué)名詞，是中國(guó)古代的定音方法。五音，即宮、商、角、徵、羽，是中國(guó)古代音樂的基本音階?！拔逡簟弊钤绯鲎源呵飼r(shí)期的典籍，如《左傳》《周禮》《管子》之中。中國(guó)古人把“五音”同“五行”相對(duì)應(yīng)（見圖表），形成了獨(dú)特的音樂理論體系。

中國(guó)古人提出了“十二律”的定音方法，即用三分損益法將一個(gè)八度分為十二個(gè)不完全相同的半音的一種律制。1584年，朱載堉利用新的數(shù)學(xué)方法，用特大算盤進(jìn)行開方計(jì)算，研究出十二平均律的關(guān)鍵數(shù)據(jù)——，并以此為據(jù)，設(shè)計(jì)并制造出兩種定音樂器。朱載堉發(fā)現(xiàn)的“十二平均律”在世界律學(xué)史上屬首創(chuàng)，解決了音樂領(lǐng)域的千古學(xué)術(shù)難題。