Bells have been in China from the earliest ages the most esteemed of instruments. At first their duty was to be a sort of tuning fork; one bell being made for chief or fundamental tone, and eleven others giving the various semitones. These bells were much different from our church and tower bells; they rather resemble large hand bells, but were of somewhat greater weight. The smallest bells were used in an instrument called _Pien-tchoung_, which consisted of sixteen of them, tuned in unison with the sixteen stones of the king. We have already spoken of the efforts made to suppress the bells, and through them, the authentic pitch of Chinese music, by one of the conquering emperors. OF THE SOUND OF BAKED CLAY. Of this the Chinese made a deep-toned whistle, with five to seven apertures called _Hiuen_. This was probably the primitive instrument in China, as it is mentioned as already existing before the reign of Hoang-ty, about 2637 B. C. An ancient Chinese Dictionary speaks of the two varieties of these, saying, “the larger hiuen should be of the size of a goose egg, the smaller, of that of a hen.” OF THE SOUND OF SILK. Under this head come all Chinese stringed instruments, for where we use catgut, the celestials use silken cords. Even in the semi-mythical age of Fo-hi, they made a simple instrument by extending threads of silk upon a board of light wood. Little by little the board was shaped to its purpose better; gradually also, the strings were laid with more precision and exactness, and the cords gave out tones deep or high, according to the tension to which they were subjected, or the number of threads of which they were composed; thus by insensible degrees came into existence the _kin_, the leading stringed instrument of the Chinese empire. In size, it is larger than all Eastern stringed instruments except the harp, its length being five feet, six inches. It has seven cords which are tuned as follows:— DO, RE, FA, SOL, LA, DO, RE, giving it only five tones. The pentatonic character of this instrument is observable in all Chinese music, and causes a slight resemblance between that music and the Scotch. There are several varieties of the _kin_. The large, medium, and small, only differ in their size, and have each seven cords, but there is a much larger instrument of the same species, which is called the _che_, which has twenty-five strings, and is nine feet long; it is said that in ancient days there were _ches_ made which had fifty strings.