As early as the primitive society, our ancestors began to make and use musical instruments. They beat the rhythm with production tools such as stones, clods and wood blocks in their hands, as well as bamboo tubes, skins and bones as the initial musical instruments. According to archaeological and Oracle Bone Inscriptions records, the musical instruments used at that time were drums, bells, bells, chimes, pipes and cymbals, mainly percussion instruments. With the continuous emergence of production tools, musical instruments have been greatly developed. The general trend is from amorphous to stereotyped, from indefinite pitch to fixed pitch, from monophonic instruments to melodic instruments, from percussion instruments to wind instruments, to silk stringed instruments, from single to diverse.

During the slave society, the production of musical instruments became more exquisite and luxurious, and the scale became larger and larger. The structure of percussion instruments has become more complicated, with bells and bells in groups of three, and complicated wind instruments such as Sheng and Lu have appeared. By the Zhou Dynasty, plucked instruments had appeared. In the pre-Qin period, people can divide musical instruments into eight categories: gold, stone, earth, leather, silk, wood and bamboo, which is the earliest "eight tones" classification in China.

During the Qin, Han, Sui and Tang Dynasties, the formation and continuous consolidation of centralization promoted the development of musical instruments. After the Han Dynasty, China established contacts with countries in Central Asia and West Asia, and absorbed many foreign musical instruments. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, the stringed instrument Xiqin (the predecessor of Erhu) appeared, and the stringed instruments in the Song Dynasty developed greatly. Therefore, national musical instruments are more abundant and complete.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were various instrumental music performances all over the country, and there were many kinds. With the development of rap music and traditional Chinese opera music, a number of new stringed instruments, such as Banhu and Jinghu, have been produced, and the stringed instruments have been further developed.

During the May 4th New Culture Movement, the national stringed instruments gradually embarked on the road of specialization through the development of innovators represented by Liu Tianhua. After the founding of New China, more musical instruments were reformed, the range was enlarged, the volume was increased, the quality of national musical instruments was improved to a new level, and many national musical instruments took to the stage.

At present, there are more than 200 kinds of national musical instruments used in China. According to their shapes, properties and colors, they can be divided into four categories: percussion instruments, wind instruments, plucked instruments and stringed instruments.