Legend has it that when Emperor Shun succeeded Yao with the virtue of Heaven, the Queen Mother of the West came to present the White Jade Flute.
Moved by Emperor Shun's virtuousness, the Queen Mother of the West ordered people to collect fine jade from Kunlun Jade Mountain to craft the exquisite White Jade Flute as a gift for him.
At that time, in the Central Plains region, the musical tones were based on the five notes of gong, shang, jue, zhi, and yu. However, the White Jade Flute invented by the Queen Mother of the West had twelve branches, capable of producing twelve different tones, as if the sun, the moon, the stars, the deities, and humans were chatting and singing joyously with birds, beasts, mountains, rivers, forests, and springs when played.
The musical score performed was named "Gods and Men in Harmony" by the Queen Mother, thus there was the anecdote, "The Queen sends an envoy to offer Emperor Shun the White Jade Flute, played to harmonize the eight winds."
