Music education from the pre-Qin period to the Han dynasty involved using music to cultivate one's moral character and investigate the way of the world, the natural world, and the harmony of ethical relationships. When discussing music, the terms zhong 'centrality' and he 'harmony' played a crucial role in the music education from the pre-Qin period to the Han dynasty. The zhong-sheng 'central sounds," the zhong-yin 'central melodies,' the he-yin 'harmonious sounds,' and the he-yue 'harmonious music' touched on the core issues that music connects with natural harmony, cultivation of body and mind, and enlightenment. In pre- Qin discussions, centrality and harmony were generally related to the feelings engendered by music. They covered the dimensions of nature, qi, body, emotions, and ethics. The "Record of Music," Book of Rites inherited the pre-Qin thought that music is [the result of] the harmony between heaven and earth. This followed the music education tradition where changes and birth were emphasized in the concepts of "centrality" and "harmony." In the meanwhile, through the negative sentences with the "passive and active" concept. The "Record of Music" further supplemented the yi-yin 'remaining melodies' and yi-wei 'remaining flavor' with the notions of dan 'lightness' and wu 'nothingness .' Central harmony and remaining melody open the human nature and self-cultivation of aesthetics of music after Han dynasty. This study delves into the meanings of "remaining melodies" and "remaining flavor" in da-yue 'highest music' and zhi-yue 'ultimate music' in the "Record of Music," Book of Rites as wells as related explanations of scholars in the Qin and the Han dynasties. It also elucidates the importance of "nothingness" in pre-Qin Confucian discussions of harmony and cultivation. Three examples of "nothingness" are wu-yu 'inactive participation' and wu-neng-ming "indescribable name" in the discussions on education in The Analects and wu-sheng-zhi-yue 'music having no sound' mentioned in the Chu bamboo slips Parents of the People and the "Confucius Leisurely at Home," Book of Rites. There is a dialectical logic and paradoxical between "nothingness," "remaining" and jin 'advance,' wen 'language.' It embodies centrality and harmony and displays the important characteristics of Confucian understandings of music and rites