Literati music mainly includes literati’s own music and Guqin music.

Literati music, together with court music, religious music, and folk music, constitutes the overall body of traditional Chinese music. It refers to traditional music created or participated in the creation by intellectuals with certain cultural accomplishments in the past dynasties. . It mainly includes Qin music and Ci tune music.

Overview of the development of ancient Chinese literati music:

In the history of Chinese music development, literati music, court music, religious music, and folk music together constitute the whole of ancient Chinese music. architecture. Literary music mainly refers to traditional music created or disseminated by the scholar-bureaucrat class with considerable cultural level and literacy. It is mainly divided into qin music and Ci tune music. Qin music, that is, lyre music, includes qin songs, qin music, qin theory, and qin scores; cidiao music is a singing form containing words. Literati both composed music and lyrics, and its types are extremely rich.

Compared with court music, religious music, and folk music, literati music incorporates more literary factors and is the crystallization of literary art and musical art, so it is more humanistic and social.

Characteristics of ancient Chinese literati music in different periods:

1. Pre-Qin period: The pre-Qin period was the period when ancient Chinese literati music formed. During this period, literati had already participated in the creation of music, and music and literature were initially integrated. However, literati music has not yet formed its own distinctive characteristics, and its social influence is low. This can be confirmed from the "Book of Songs".

The content of "The Book of Songs" is divided into three parts: "wind", "elegance" and "song". Among them, "wind" mainly refers to folk songs from various places. It is possible that this part of the content was entirely created by literati It's not big, but it contains 160 poems, accounting for half of all the poems in the Book of Songs. It can be seen that folk music had a wider spread influence than literati music at that time.

2. Han Dynasty, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties: The Qin Dynasty established an institution specifically responsible for music management - "Yuefu". During the period of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty, the functions of the Yuefu became more comprehensive. It was not only responsible for creating and performing court music, but also collecting and sorting out folk music for the court to "review music to inform government affairs." Compared with the exquisite and even obscure court music, folk music is straightforward and simple, requiring literati to modify and polish it. From this, literati began to create music with a purpose.

Due to the rich emotions and delicate thoughts of literati, the literati music of this period has shown obvious literary and humanistic qualities. Especially in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, social turmoil caused many literati to escape reality and devote themselves to art. The quantity and quality of music created by literati increased significantly, and ancient Chinese music culture reached an unprecedented height. At the same time, the skills and theories of literati music have also begun to mature.

3. Tang and Song Dynasties: The Tang and Song Dynasties were the heyday of China’s feudal society, and literati music also entered its peak period. Both Tang poetry and Song lyrics combine music and literature more closely. For example, "Yangguan Three Pieces" written by Wang Wei, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, is both a rhythmic poem and a Qin song; Liu Yong, a poet of the Song Dynasty, is even known as "Anyone who can sing Liu Ci wherever there is well water". During the Tang and Song Dynasties, literati music also became closer to folk music.

Folk music provides extremely rich materials for the creation of literati music. Some high-level literati such as Ouyang Xiu and Su Dongpo are good at writing lyrics and composing music. Even many literati from the folk directly participated in the creation of literati music, which made literati music break the limitations of class and spread more widely in society. It can be said that the literati music of the Tang and Song Dynasties made highly artistic innovations in its inheritance and had a profound impact on the development of Chinese music culture.

4. Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties: On the one hand, during the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, comprehensive artistic expressions such as dramas appeared. Literature and music were deeply integrated, and the forms of music became more diverse. Music creation and performance The division of labor is also more detailed and clear.

On the other hand, the national oppression in the Yuan Dynasty caused many Han literati to suffer discrimination and low social status. They could only turn to folk creation.

Therefore, although literati music during this period could not reproduce the glory of the Tang and Song Dynasties, the literati's penetration into the folk objectively promoted the development of folk culture. It can also be said that literati music has continued to maintain its vitality and profound influence among the people.