Among all art categories, the most mysterious thing is music. It is composed of invisible, shadowless, and intangible sounds that weave into ever-changing and interesting tunes, sometimes soft, sometimes majestic, sometimes joyful, and sometimes sad. Or in the West, whether contemporary or ancient, I don’t know how many people are intoxicated, sad, and excited about it... In China, it is said that Confucius (551-479 BC), an educator and thinker in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, heard it in the State of Qi. After playing "Shao", I was so excited that I couldn't taste the delicious meat in March, so I sighed: "It is unexpected that moving music can make people reach such a state of intoxication!" Art is highly respected.The special artistic quality of music makes it a well-deserved "common language" for all human beings to communicate and understand each other.

China is one of the birthplaces of early humans in the world. It has a history of 1.7 to 1.8 million years since the discovery of Xihoudu Culture and Yuanmou Man in the early Paleolithic Age.Located in this vast and rich ancient land in the east of the world, music and art have occurred and developed along with the origin and evolution of human beings, and have gone through a long prehistoric period and a 4,000-year civilization journey with written records. In the period of primitive society, the ancient ancestors of our country created the early music art in the hard communal life and collective labor in the initial stage.Although these original forms of music have been lost in the long river of historical development, there are still some precious historical clues and objects in the ancient music legends and ancient cultural relics recorded in historical documents, so that people can learn about the origin of ancient music. generally.The ancient music mentioned in historical documents is named after tribal titles, such as "Getian's music", "Zhuxiang's music", "Yiqi's music", etc.; one is named after the entrepreneurial deeds of ancient emperors, Such as "Cloud Gate", "Xianchi", "Shao" and so on.These musics reflect the primitive living customs and working methods of the ancestors, as well as the fear and admiration of the power of nature, and also show the enterprising spirit of tribal groups fighting against the harsh natural environment.The ancestors in the frontier areas also left a concrete image of their rich musical life for the younger generations in the form of cliff paintings.Ancient ancestors used a variety of musical instruments in their music life. In addition to the wind instruments mentioned in historical documents Chi [chi pool], 籥 [yue month] and percussion instruments Mingqiu and soil drums, the real objects have been seen so far. There are also Neolithic wind instruments bone whistle, pottery xun (xun xun), bone flute and percussion instruments pottery bell, pottery bell, stone chime (qingqing), etc.These are some of the most important archaeological discoveries in the history of human music, showing that the Chinese nation is one of the earliest nations in the world to use stone and pottery percussion instruments and play six-tone or seven-tone scales with bone flutes.

During the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, the slavery system was perfected and developed.The music and dance serving the slave-owning class was further strengthened in terms of etiquette and sacrificial functions, so the scale was large and the performances were frequent."Great Xia" in the Xia Dynasty, "大濩 [huhu]" and "Mulberry Forest" in the Shang Dynasty, "Da Wu" and "Xiang" in the Zhou Dynasty are all used by the slave-owner class for important ceremonies and praises for them. Large-scale music and dance works.The level of instrument making has also improved greatly due to increasing productivity and the use of metal tools and weapons.Musical instruments in this period were divided into eight categories according to the materials they were made of, and the literature of the Zhou Dynasty was called "eight tones".The gold and stone musical instruments in the octave, as the "heavy instrument" showing the status and rank of the slave owner, often occupy an important position in music performance and band organization, and have achieved amazing development in terms of artistic modeling and musical performance.A set of 64 bronze chime bells and a set of 32 stone chimes were unearthed from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng during the Warring States Period in Suixian County, Hubei Province. They shocked the world with their unparalleled exquisite shape, beautiful pronunciation and scientific rhythm.In the late Zhou Dynasty, the Confucian music theory founded by Confucius was inherited and carried forward by later studies. As the music thought dominated by the feudal society, it has been exerting a wide and far-reaching influence.

During the Han, Wei, Jin, Sui and Tang dynasties, traditional music evolved frequently with the continuous changes in the feudal social system.The music of the Central Plains, known as "China Zhengsheng", and the music of frontier ethnic minorities, known as "The Music of the Four Barbarians", have their own independent inheritance and development, as well as new and strange changes that blend with each other.In the Han Dynasty, Wei and Jin Dynasties, the upper class advocated the comprehensive performing arts "Hundreds of Operas"; the vigorous and tragic music "Advocacy" emerged in the army; One type of qin music expresses impassioned and cynical feelings; the widespread use of bronze drums of the southern ethnic groups reflects the multiple social functions of frontier ethnic music and dance.During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the music of various ethnic groups gathered in Chang'an via the "Silk Road" and blended with each other; Yan Yue, which integrates vocal music, instrumental music, dance, and Sanyue, pushed the art of singing and dancing since the Han Dynasty to a more mature stage of development. The government of the Tang Dynasty set up music institutions Jiaofang and Liyuan, which produced a group of famous music performers with superb skills; musical instruments such as pipa, flute, 筚篥, Jie (jiejie) drum, and stick drum and their performance techniques developed rapidly; The tradition of Tang poetry into music has accumulated rich experience for the development of Song and Yuan songs and songs.During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the rise of lyrics, rap music and opera music announced the end of the history centered on song and dance music from ancient times to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and the national vocal singing art with rap and opera performances as the mainstream began to shine in the music world. unique light.During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, court music declined rapidly and was dying, while folk music was widely spread in the secular life of various ethnic groups. Various folk songs, rap genres, opera tunes, instrumental music and ethnic minority music, which are in various forms and complement each other, have become modern new styles. The artistic matrix on which the development of music depends indicates that a more brilliant new era of Chinese music is coming.