In ancient China, Ji Kang wrote a famous book Discourse on the Absence of Sadness and Happiness in Sound. He argued in this book
that that music itself couldn't arouse any emotion According to his theory, when people felt happy or sad while listening to music, it was because they were projecting emotions they brought as listeners onto the music.
Ji Kang was a great Chinese artist, scientist, philosopher and thinker. He was very influential in several fields that make up societies such as politics, ethics, music, religion, alchemy and literature.
He was known to break several social norms and concepts that he believed to be inconsistent with reality. Among these concepts, he argued that music does not and should not carry any kind of emotion and should be a neutral vehicle for each listener to associate with a particular emotion and then can transform the music into something personal and deeply artistic.
