When Jean-Jacques Rousseau had still been a "nobody," he had once made a living copying sheet music.
Without that means of survival, he might have starved to death, or perhaps found some other job unrelated to literature. If so, the world might have turned out very differently.
Compared with the Dutch and the British, people from Italy and France had a more comfortable time in the Qing Dynasty. It was not only because they took the initiative to learn the difficult Chinese language, but also because they were good at "blending in." Their clothing was hardly any different from that of the locals.
By comparison, British merchants retained the way they dressed in Europe, and they could not appreciate "elegant music."
While she was speaking with Mr Brown and the other British guests, an official from France joined in. He explained to her that so-called "elegant music" was yayue, an ancient East Asian form of court music that had been passed down alongside the ritual system since the Western Zhou.
Mr Brown felt that such court music was not as pleasing to the ear as European court music. Perhaps it ought to keep up with the times and improve.
The conversation had nearly come to a halt, but the official from France tactfully said that not everyone could accept "exotic customs."
The reach of yayue was limited to East Asia and parts of Southeast Asia, while the tributary system also included some countries in Central Asia. Those countries did not use yayue. The former region of Khorasan, for example, had been influenced by Persian civilization, and its music possessed a distinct "Persian style." To people of the Central Plains, it was also full of "Western Regions flavor."
It seemed that when a country grew powerful, its civilization would also spread