Ci began in the Liang Dynasty, formed in the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Song Dynasty. Due to the widespread spread of music, there were many gifted musicians who made a living by singing in the city at that time. According to the needs of the coordination of lyrics and music beats, they created or adapted some lyrics with long and short sentences to facilitate singing. This is the earliest word.

Ci is a kind of music literature, and its emergence, development, creation and spread are directly related to music. The music associated with Ci is the so-called Yan Music, also called Banquet Music. Its main component is a new type of music which is composed of Hu Music in the Western Regions and the songs of Han people's alleys since the Northern Zhou and Sui Dynasties. It is mainly used for entertainment and banquet performances, and it has become popular in the Sui Dynasty.

Around the middle Tang Dynasty, poets such as Zhang Zhihe, Wei Yingwu, Bai Juyi and Liu Yuxi began to write ci, and introduced this style into the literary world. By the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, literati ci had developed greatly. Wen Tingyun, a poet in the late Tang Dynasty, and the creation of southern Tang poets, represented by Li Yu and Feng Yansi, the "Huajian School" poets, all made important contributions to the maturity of ci style and the establishment of basic lyric style. Ci-poetry has finally become one of the most prominent literary genres in ancient China.