This English version was translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The Chinese text is authoritative.
The Wondrous Uses of Chinese Pronunciation
Li Xutong
In traditional Chinese medicine there is a method of treatment called “Sanskrit sound vibration” (梵音震荡): for certain ailments, one can press particular acupoints with the fingers while chanting particular sounds, and this has a healing effect. Here is an example: for people with excessive liver fire or a weak liver, press repeatedly with the thumb at the base of the ring finger and you will find a tendon. Hold it, then repeatedly chant “gē——, hē——”, drawing the sounds out somewhat, and this can nourish the liver and release fire.
Ancient Chinese texts contain many records of healing through music. The Record of Music (Yueji) says that “when music prevails, human relations become clear, the ears sharp and the eyes bright, and the blood and qi balanced and harmonious.” The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic (Huangdi Neijing) explicitly put forward the theory of “healing illness with the five tones,” and classified people’s constitutions by the tones they belong to into “the twenty-five types of yin and yang people.” The Zuo Zhuan goes further, saying that music has flavor like medicine and can keep people free of all illness, healthy and long-lived. The famous Yuan-dynasty physician Zhu Zhenheng stated plainly: “Music, too, is medicine.”
Many classical texts also mention that when people chant certain character sounds, these can vibrate and stimulate the internal organs, and that particular sounds can regulate the body and drive out disease. When Cangjie created the characters, he already left people this hint. Among Chinese characters, the 樂 (yuè, “music”) of music (traditional character), with the grass component 艹 added on top, becomes 藥 (yào, “medicine”) (traditional character), which shows that 樂 and 藥 share the same origin. Certain sounds can indeed set the five viscera and six bowels vibrating, and in ancient times could even communicate with heaven and earth.
According to ancient historical records, Cangjie was born in an age when humans and gods coexisted: the gods of heaven often walked the world, and people could also communicate with the heavenly realm. Legend says Cangjie had “double pupils and four eyes”: two eyes observed heaven and two observed earth, and drawing on the writing and pronunciation of the heavenly realm, he created the writing of the human world. Therefore, compositions written and recited in this script could communicate with heaven and earth. Thus the “Benjing” chapter of the Huainanzi records: “In ancient times, when Cangjie created writing, heaven rained down millet and ghosts wailed at night.” Because the writing Cangjie created had this power to commune with gods and drive away ghosts, for a long time after its creation very high demands were placed on those who mastered it. They all had to be people of noble morals, selfless and benevolent, who held the gods in reverence.
Legend has it that every character Cangjie created corresponded to a deity in heaven. Writing or reading a character was calling upon that deity; using the character in an improper place, speaking or using it carelessly, was blaspheming that deity. Among scholars of the past, carved bamboo slips and books were treasures to be handed down, and even scraps of paper with writing on them could not be thrown away carelessly but had to be burned with a bow of thanks to the gods. That is, after using a deity’s character, one returned it to the deity with thanks.
By the time of Zhuanxu, more people understood these characters, their pronunciation began to change, and at the same time people’s hearts were no longer as pure as in ancient times. So Emperor Zhuanxu sent the heavenly gods Chong and Li to cut off the passage between heaven and earth, thereby “severing the communication between heaven and earth,” and reciting these characters could no longer easily reach the heavenly realm. Yet in every dynasty there were still a very few people who mastered the original pronunciation of this script and had the ability to communicate with the gods; these people became what later ages called priests. The pronunciations they mastered, which could communicate with the gods, were called incantations by later generations.
By the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, the Great Dao had declined and rites and music had collapsed. Confucius therefore taught everyone without distinction and spread these characters widely. This writing then basically became a tool for recording information and communicating in the human world.
Even so, scholars of the past would first bathe and change their clothes, calm their minds and regulate their breath, and sit upright to read respectfully. By reading the books of sages and worthies over a long time, one’s mind would become clear and penetrating, and one could then cultivate oneself, regulate the family, govern the state and bring peace to the world.
As mentioned earlier, ancient Chinese poetry and prose were chanted, sung aloud. When people chant the classics with the ancient sounds and rhymes, they are not only pondering the meaning of the text but also directly driving out disease and strengthening the body.
