The trinity of early poetry, music, and dance has been described in many ancient books of the Pre-Qin and Han Dynasties. Among them, the most systematic one and often quoted later is the record in "Lu's Spring and Autumn Period Ancient Music": "Xige Tian's music involves three people riding the oxtail and singing eight songs: one is "Zai Min", the second is "Xuan Niao", the third is "Sui Cao Mu", the fourth is "Fen the Five Grains", and the fifth is "Respect the Heaven" , The sixth chapter is called "Dadi Gong", the seventh chapter is called "Yidi De", and the eighth chapter is called "The Ultimate of All Things". "Here, there is music, tail-throwing dance, and eight-queen songs and poems, which reveal the three things. close relationship. There are some other records in the "Ancient Music" chapter, the authenticity of which is now impossible to distinguish, but the name of Huangdi's music is "Xianchi", the name of Yao's music is "Dazhang", the name of Yu's music is "Xia Yi", and the name of Shang Tang's "Da Zhang" "粲", the name of the music and dance of King Wu of Zhou Dynasty "Da Wu", etc., because they can be corroborated with the "Six Music" (also known as "Six Dances") recorded in "Zhou Li·Chun Guan·Da Si Yue", so most later generations believe in it. "Ancient Music" also said that "in the past, the Zhu Xiang family ruled the world" and "Shida was used as a five-stringed harp". Zhu Xiang may be said to be the nickname of Emperor Yan, or may be said to be before Emperor Yan. Although there is no way to verify it, the information revealed is that ancient music in our country originated very early and has a long history. In contemporary archaeological excavations, a pottery xun from the late Neolithic Age was discovered in Huoshaogou, Yumenguan, Gansu Province. Once the hole is blown and the hole is pressed twice, four levels of sound can be produced; a Neolithic age pottery xun was also discovered in Yaoguanzhuang, Weifang City, Shandong. It can produce two tones in the minor third interval, which is also a strong proof.

After entering the Shang and Zhou dynasties, ancient Chinese music has made great progress. "Da Jia" from the Tang Dynasty of Shang Dynasty and "Da Wu" from the early Western Zhou Dynasty are both long-form music and dance songs that praise virtues. Of course, the matching music must be of a high standard. Especially for "Da Wu", according to various historical records such as "Historical Records·Book of Music", its dance is divided into "Liucheng", that is, six major sections. It can be seen that the music used for accompaniment is also quite complicated. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, with the development of social economy and people's lives, the development of music also achieved remarkable results. "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals: Extravagant Music" records that during the Spring and Autumn Period, the Song Dynasty "made a thousand bells" for music performance, that is, they cast a thousand chimes of different sizes and scales. Coincidentally, in 1978, archaeologists unearthed a set of 65 bronze chimes in the tomb of Zeng Houyi in Leigudun, Suixian County, Hubei Province today. Tests by musicologist Huang Xiangpeng and others have proven that as long as the bell is struck according to the notation position, it can produce music that conforms to a certain scale. Each bell can produce two tones, and the tone is beautiful. The whole set of chimes has a wide range, spanning 5 octaves, with a central range of about 3 octaves and 12 semitones. Not only that, the inscriptions on the chimes on the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng also record the rhythm names, stage names, changed note names and corresponding relationships of Zeng State and Chu, Qi, Jin, Zhou, Shen and other countries, so that they can be used to play the music of other countries. music. According to legend, eight of the twelve laws set by the Zhou Dynasty were recorded on the chimes. The Zeng State was only a small country that survived in the early Warring States Period. The exquisiteness of its musical instruments was so exquisite that people today are amazed. The achievements of the music development of the entire society at that time can be imagined.

What also reflects the level of music development at that time is the establishment of twelve temperaments and five tones. The "temperature" of the Twelve Rhythms refers to the absolutely accurate height of each tone in the musical system and the criteria or rules that can be divided into several phonemes in a tone; while the five tones refer to different scales. Our country had an obvious concept of scales around the Shang Dynasty. By the Zhou Dynasty, the rhythm system had become increasingly strict, and in the Spring and Autumn Period, it was possible to summarize the theory in writing. It is said that in the chapter "Guanzi Earth Circle" written by Guan Zhong, the prime minister of Qi in the seventh century BC, there are five-tone names for Gong, Shang, Jiao, Zheng and Yu, as well as the positioning method of "three-point profit and loss". Later, "Guoyu·Zhou Yuxia" records that when the music official Lingzhoujiu answered the question of King Jing of Zhou, he not only added Bian Gong and Bian Zheng to the five tones to become seven tones, but also mentioned the complete system of twelve rhythms, that is, Huang Zhong, Dalu, Taicu, Jiazhong, Guxi, Zhonglu, Ruibin, Linzhong, Yize, Nanlu, Wushe, Yingzhong. The "Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals·Music" chapter, written at the end of the Warring States Period, not only recorded the names of the twelve rhythms, but also recorded the law of mutual development of the twelve rhythms using the method of profit and loss in three points. This all proves that the musical temperament system, which has long played a standard role in ancient Chinese music, was established before the Warring States Period at the latest. This is a remarkable achievement.

The development of music in our country since then, with the progress of social economy and culture, has its own characteristics in different periods, and will not be detailed here.

It is worth mentioning that our country has been a unified country with multi-ethnic integration since ancient times. Historically, it has had various forms of cultural exchanges with neighboring countries and many countries in Central and Western Asia. Reflected in music, China has become good at absorbing the music of other ethnic groups. Continuously improve the characteristics of our national music. This kind of absorption and transformation activity can be said to have never stopped in history. Take the Sui and Tang Dynasties as an example: In the early years of the Sui Dynasty, with the increase in musical exchanges between different ethnic groups, seven groups of Yan music were installed in the court, namely Guo Ji (Xiliang music), Qing Shang Ji (Central Plains and Southern music), Korean music, Tianzhu Opera, Anguo Opera (now Bukhara in Central Asia), Qiuci Opera (music widely popular in the Western Regions), and Wenkang Opera (music in memory of Jin Yuliang). Later, during the reign of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, Kangguo and Shule were added and designated as nine divisions. By the time of Emperor Taizong Li Shimin of the Tang Dynasty, Changle (today's Turpan, Xinjiang) was added to the list and became the famous Shibu music. Many musical instruments from the Western Regions, such as the harp and pipa, were also introduced to China, enriching the expressiveness of our country's music.