© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���4 | doi 10.1163/22106286-12341261 East Asian Publishing and Society 4 (�0 �4) �75-�80 brill.com/eaps East asian Publishing and sociEty Ancient Chinese Musical Notation Discovered in the Old Library of St John’s College, Cambridge Jian Yang Nanjing University of the Arts, China 21978586@qq.com Abstract This article outlines the significance of a Chinese printed musical text entitled Xian di pipa pu, ‘Music score for Chinese flute and pipa’, which was recently discovered in the Library of St John’s College, Cambridge, by the author. It is one volume out of the six sets of books donated to the Library by the mathematician James Inman (1776–1859), who chanced to visit China in 1804. Keywords Chinese Music – Musical Notation A small volume of ancient Chinese musical notation signed by James Inman in February 1804, was recently rediscovered after sleeping silently in the Old Library of St John’s College, Cambridge, for nearly 210 years. When I was an Overseas Visiting Scholar at St John’s,1 Dr Joseph McDermott (周绍明), a histo- rian of China and a Fellow at St John’s, suggested that I examine ‘that odd little Chinese book’ in the Old Library whenever possible, and with great curiosity I did so the next day. When Ms. Kathryn McKee, the special collections librar- ian, carefully brought it to me, I realized almost immediately that it might be a very rare volume of Gongche notation printed in China around 1770. According to some specialists in Chinese music, including Professor Yingshi Chen and 1 I was also a visiting scholar at the University’s Faculty of Music; this visit was funded by the ‘Jiangsu Overseas Research & Training Program for University Prominent Young & Middle- aged Teachers and Presidents’. EAPS_004_02_175-180-Yang.indd 175 5/28/2014 4:03:45 PM