Every time when I examine an ancient painting with people playing musical instruments, I wish it could have the magic of Harry Porter’s pictures and paintings where characters jump out to talk to him.

At a time when recording machines were yet to be invented, melodious tunes were temporal and could not be heard beyond a certain physical space. Fortunately, people can turn to another art form to find the verve of music: paintings with live musical performances as the prime theme.

"Emperor Yongzheng Paying Ritual Visit to Temple of Agriculture"

The painting “Emperor Yongzheng Paying Ritual Visit to Temple of Agriculture” depicts Emperor Yongzheng (reign 1722-1735) visiting the Temple of Agriculture in spring to pray for a bumper harvest year for his people. The worshipping ritual was ceremonious, and the road leading to the main hall was lined with top officials and court musicians holding a variety of musical instruments. They were playing Zhonghe Shaoyue, the music used when the emperors made sacrifices to the Earth, the Heaven, and in other spectacular occasions. It’s a slow, grand, forbiddingly austere procession of sonorities. Confucius, in the Analects, calls it yayue—“elegant music”—and laments that the people of his time are discarding it in favor of vernacular tunes.

Today, the same music is available at the Zhonghe Shaoyue Performance Hall, Temple of Heaven, Beijing. It’s not recorded music but the real thing.

The grand wedding of Emperor Guangxu

Zhonghe Shaoyue was also a must-have at the emperor’s wedding ceremony. This painting depicts the grand wedding of Emperor Guangxu (reign 1875-1908) in 1889. The team of Zhonghe Shaoyue players, armed with a multiple traditional Chinese musical instruments, was standing in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City, ready to usher in the elaborate pageantry of a wedding ceremony.