Ancient Chinese Musical Notation Discovered in the Old Library of St John’s College, Cambridge

<jats:p>This article outlines the significance of a Chinese printed musical text entitled <jats:italic>Xian di pipa pu</jats:italic>, ‘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.</jats:p>