Not only readership of this blog is very poor in general, the last 2 posts about music are particularly pathetic according to the stats. Perhaps I didn't make myself clear, or the subject was just too boring. I shouldn't have left out something that made me laugh so hard that I nearly dropped the laptop.
From 史記, the 11th semitone (in the order of the Circle of Fifths) B flat is called 無射, although it is not pronounced as written (e.g., it's pronounced "wu yi" in Mandarin), the literal meaning is simply "no shoot", not quite sure what it means, but the 2 ancient words always conjure up feelings of Chinese antiquity for me.
Turns out the 12 notes are mapped into the 12 months, and 史記 goes on to explain there are rules in music just as there are rhythms in nature like the seasons and the 12 months, since B flat is the 11th note (the 11th month in lunar calendar is normally the winter solstice month):
律中無射。無射者，陰氣盛用事，陽氣無餘也，故曰無射。
(There's a musical note called No Shoot. No Shoot -- femininity is at its peak, masculinity is exhausted, therefore it is called No Shoot.)
Okay, it's clear that the Grand Historian 太史公 minced no words -- 無射 literally is no ejaculation. It's especially ironic (or admirable) because the Grand Historian himself was castrated, he chose the castration punishment (his other 2 "options" were death or a 500,000 fine which he couldn't afford) for defending a brave general 李陵 . Man, you don't even have to have a penis to be ballsy!
