An ensemble of water sounds, woodblocks, and other unpitched percussion accurately mark the seconds, minutes, quarters, and night-watch (更籌) between 03:57:36 and 04:16:48 at the start of the solar period jingzhe (驚蟄), which in the Gregorian calendar is 6 March, the date of the world premiere in 2012.
As the seconds start ticking, an offstage voice sings verses chanted by the 'human cockcrow' (雞人) above the Song palace gates before daybreak.
A second ensemble of high voice, panpipes, ocarinas, membrane flutes, mouth organs, zithers, bells, chimes, and other percussion, play the festive odes 'Yü li' (魚麗) and 'Nan you jia yü' (南有嘉魚) from the ancient Book of Songs (詩經), using melodies, ornaments, orchestration, instrumental ranges, seating plan, accompaniment, and tuning systems documented in Song and later sources.
"The 'clocks' start in steady time, gradually accelerate as if mounting in panic, then slowly unwind, a breakdown which finally drags odes, clocks, and signature into silence with it.
[4] One review stated "Of the nearly 2,100 works to date commissioned by the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, it's safe to say that few are as ambitious as Jeffrey Ching's Horologia sinica".