The great artist disliked such vulgar business, so Liu Cheng could only do it himself.
Quarrying stone. Making stone chimes.
The so-called stone chime was actually a percussion instrument: polished slabs of stone were hung up, their frequencies when struck were made to match the basic musical scale, and then, naturally, they could be used to perform music.
It made sense that Xie Shang had lost interest in the things after encountering a large choir. Stone was brittle, and its internal composition was inconsistent, so their musical expressiveness was actually quite limited.
The reality was that bronze chimes had replaced stone chimes long ago.
Then why bother making stone chimes?
Naturally, because they conformed to ritual propriety. They were the so-called stone sound among the Eight Sounds... the Son of Heaven ought to listen to people banging stones for amusement. That was what made it high-class!
Returning to the Ritual Music Project Liu Cheng was currently working on, it simply had to include stone chimes to qualify as a Ritual Music Project. Without them, even if the Empress Dowager and the Young Emperor listened with tears in their eyes, it would still be vulgar music, and he would still be impeached for it.
So what else was there to say? Quarry stone.
When Sima Yu sent Liu Jili to summon him, Liu Cheng specifically sent back a reply saying that he was still quarrying stone. He would come over himself in three days, and asked the Prince of Kuaiji to be patient.
Sure enough, Liu Acheng insisted on finishing the stone gathering at Caishi and getting the craftsmen and musicians working together before he hurried to Jiankang, heading straight to the Prince of Kuaiji's residence for their meeting.
By this point, the effort to shape public opinion in Jiankang had