The Chinese term for "music" is "Yin Yueh."  Literally, "Yin" means "tone"; "Yueh" means "music.  In Yueh Jih, The Book of Music, written by annoymous students of Confucius, Sheng (sound), Yin (tone), and Yueh (music) meant three different things.  To know the Sheng but not to know the Yin is to be animal.  To know the Yin but not to know the Yueh is to be a common person.  To know the Yueh is to be a noble, superior, or highly educated human.  This hierarchical distinction suggests not only that tone is more than sound, and music is more than tone, but that Yueh (music) is, and must be, part of education process.  Withoutout Yueh, one could never become educated (Fung, 1994).

     Listen to Yin (tones), the educated or noble person did not listen for the pleasure of the Yin, but for the deeper meaning and inner substance.  The inner substance was not heard by the ears but by the heart and mind.  The portion heard by the ears but by the heart and mind is Yueh (music).  While Yin embraced all the external-physical aspects, Yueh became very much an internal activity.  This internal qualitywas the understanding of the underlying ethical ideas. 

From Confucian viewpoint, music has positive and nagative power to stimulate allied behavior and desire (Wang, 1997).  The education of Yin creation was an education of feelings, emotions, and thoughts. Yueh (music) includes an inner virtue and propriety called Lii (property, moderation, opposite to extremity).  By definition, Yueh without Lii  (property) is not Yueh.  In other words, Yueh must be done at the right time, at the right location, by the right people, with the right mind, and in the right way. 

     The aesthetics of Confucianism has three influencess to Chinese music and music education.  First, Lii (property) is the principle of musical activities.  The emotion, affection, or feelings of people should be relieved through music but in moderate ways.  Second, music performance should be in accordance with a sense of propriety (or etiquette). Therefore, music and dance with the sens of proper etiquette is important in the formal, ritual, or governmental ceremonies.  Third, It is the practical, ethical, and functional phases of music rather than amusing phases are emphasized. Often, music is applied as a political means to cultivate good citizenship. 

Taoists 
     Taoists believed that the greatest Yin were without sound, and the greatest tones originated in the natural environment rather than with human beings.  The highest status of appreciating music is to integrate the universe and the nature of the person. 
     In "Essay on sound Express Nither Sadness nor Happiness", Xi Kang (223-263) further explored the Taoistic philosophy.  His aesthetic theory claimed that timbral quality did not in itself express a descriptive image nor did sound itself express emotion.  Emotions such as sorrowand joy were individual subjective behavior. 

     This was contrary to the official stand prevailing in Confucian music ideology which recognized the social, political, moral and emotional function inherent in music.  Xi Kang strong advocated that beauty of music was in its form and that this structural logic in music, which created its artistic expression, could serve entertaining and meditative function.  He was against the use of music for political propaganda, but rather promoted music as a natural, acoustic phenomenon, futhering the Taoist attitude that music should function to enhance the non-emotive state of mind.  Althought the aesthetics were different, they both affected Chinese musical thoughts and practice.