The ancients believed that all music originates from the human heart, and since humanity and heaven are intimately connected, music is not only a divine revelation but also has the power to alter one's surroundings and destiny.
During the Spring and Autumn period, Duke Ling of Wei once traveled to the state of Jin and lodged overnight along the upper reaches of the Pu River. At midnight, he heard a mysterious zither melody that no one else could perceive, as if played by spirits. He ordered his court musician Shi Juan to transcribe it and later performed it for Duke Ping of Jin. The Jin court musician Shi Kuang immediately stopped him, declaring, "This is the music of a fallen state." Yet Duke Ping, a passionate lover of music, insisted on hearing the piece to its end.
Duke Ping of Jin, still unsatisfied, twice asked his court musician Shi Kuang if there was even more powerful music. Shi Kuang replied both times that such music existed but warned that the Duke lacked the moral cultivation to hear it. Insisting, the Duke forced two performances. The first brought an eerie sight: sixteen black cranes gathered at the porch gate, calling and dancing. The second performance unleashed catastrophe on Jin: as the first movement played, white clouds surged from the northwest horizon; during the second, a great wind and torrential rain tore off roof tiles, sending ministers fleeing in terror while the Duke himself cowered in a side chamber. Afterward, a devastating drought struck Jin, leaving the land barren for a thousand li—a wasteland with no grass for three years, known as "a thousand li of scorched earth."
Master musician Shi Kuang's performance coinciding with the great drought in the State of Jin was, of course, merely a coincidence. Yet the ancient belief that music reflects the human heart, virtue, and the success or failure of governance offers a profound insight.
Later, the idiom "A Thousand Li of Barren Land" came to describe vast stretches of land left desolate and lifeless after a disaster.
Source: *Records of the Grand Historian*, Chapter "Book of Music"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "赤地千里" came to describe vast stretches of land left desolate and lifeless after a disaster.