〈聲無哀樂論〉專注於一個問題：聲音是否具備哀樂的性質？秦客認為，聲音有哀樂，唯「善聽察者」能聽出。嵇康所化身的東野主人反對這項看法，主張聲音是中性的存在，其中沒有
哀樂。秦客與東野主人的「聽」，意味著兩種不同的體驗模型。

本文指出，「善聽」可以不必建立在「聲有哀樂」的前提，此即表現為東野主人的觀點：聲無哀樂，主體當有另外一種聆聽。簡要地說，秦客之聽，意味著聲音與情感具備連續性；東野主人的觀點，則是讓聽者超克音樂所帶來的「躁靜」等身體反應。嵇康–東野主人推薦「心感於和」的傾聽模式，開啟中國音樂美學的新進路，迥異於巴夫洛夫式古典制約，成為一種屬智的「絕對聆聽」。

"The Treatise on the Sound without Sorrow and Joy" focuses on the point: does sound has emotion like sorrow and joy? Qin-Ke believes that sound has sorrow and joy, and experts can sense it. Dong-Ye-Zhu-Ren, who is acted by Ji-Kang, opposes this assertion and advocates that sound is neutral existence, and there is no emotion in it. The “listening” of Qin-Ke and Dong-Ye-Zhu-Ren means two different experience modes.

This article points out that "expert at listening" does not require the premise of "sound has sorrow and joy". Just like Dong-Ye-Zhu-Ren’s opinion: sound is without sorrow and joy, so that subject has another listening mode. In a simple word, Qin-Ke's opinion implies that there is relevance between sound and emotion. On the other hand, Dong-Ye-Zhu-Ren suggests listener transcend
physical reaction from sound and music. Ji-Kang recommends the listening mode of "mind senses harmony", this is a new phase of Chinese music aesthetics. It gets rid of Pavlov's classical conditioning, and becomes a wisdom mode of "absolute listening".