Chinese idiom · 成语
丝竹之乐
Meaning
Music of string and wind instruments; traditional instrumental music.
Character by character
Origin and story
Classical musical expressionSilk and bamboo name materials traditionally used for strings and wind instruments. By association, sizhu means instrumental music. The phrase belongs to this musical vocabulary rather than a single origin story. In Xu Gan's Zhong Lun, a discussion of speaking to a suitable audience includes a longer expression referring to music of metal, stone, silk, and bamboo.
That passage shows the imagery in prose well before the Tang, though it is not a claim that Xu Gan invented the shorter phrase. In this musical sense, le is read yuè. The words describe music made by such instruments, not merely the pleasure of looking at silk or bamboo.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
茶馆里传来丝竹之乐，我们放慢脚步，听了一会儿。
Traditional instrumental music drifted out of the teahouse, and we slowed down to listen for a while.
Literary wording for instrumental music; 乐 is yuè in this sense.