Omo 9781561592630 e 0000043141

China, People’s Republic of (Chin.
Zhonghua renmin gonghe

guo)
Alan R. Thrasher, Joseph S.C. Lam, Jonathan P.J. Stock, Colin Mackerras, Francesca Rebollo-Sborgi, Frank
Kouwenhoven, A. Schimmelpenninck, Stephen Jones, Han Mei, Wu Ben, Helen Rees, Sabine Trebinjac and Joanna C.
Lee
https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.43141
Published in print: 20 January 2001
Published online: 2001
Updated in this version

updated, 31 January 2014
Country in East Asia. China is composed of 22 contiguous provinces, five autonomous regions
originally inhabited largely by ‘minority’ groups (Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang-Uighur, Guangxi-Zhuang,
Ningxia-Hui and Tibet), three centrally-controlled municipalities (the capital Beijing, Shanghai and
Tianjin) and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau. Its total area of about
9,573,000 km² also includes the area formerly called Manchuria (now the three north-eastern
provinces). According to the 2010 census the total population was 1.37 billion, with 55 minority
nationalities, ethnically distinct from the Han Chinese majority, comprising 8.49%.
The majority of the 23.2 million people (2012) of the Republic of China on the island of Taiwan
originate from Fujian and eastern Guangdong provinces of mainland China; about 2.5 million came
from other parts of mainland China with the Nationalists in 1949.
The number of Chinese living outside China (including Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau) in 2012 was
approximately 50 million. The largest groups of Chinese include about 32.7 million in South-east Asia
(the biggest populations being in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore), 3.8 million in the USA
and 1.3 million in Canada. The music of these groups is discussed, as far as possible, in the articles on
the countries in which they went to live.
I. Introduction: historical, regional and study perspectives

Alan R. Thrasher
Chinese music, owing to its depth of historical development and breadth of regional diversity,
constitutes an uneasy alliance of many traditions. Some traditions, such as court ritual music and qin
zither, maintain observable lines of continuity between ancient periods and the present; in others, such
as the common-practice vocal and instrumental genres, their histories are more recent, and regional
differences among similar types often quite pronounced. Thus a balanced view of traditions called
‘Chinese’ must be based not only on a knowledge of written history and related iconography but also
on the distinctive cultural patterns and musical tastes of the various regions.
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1. Han Chinese regions and genres.
China today occupies a vast land mass extending from the Mongolian steppe southwards to the borders
of present-day Vietnam and Myanmar (Burma), and from the East China Sea westwards to the borders
of India and Afghanistan. The ancient centre of Chinese civilization, however, was a very much smaller
area on the ‘Central Plain’ of north China (present-day Henan, Hebei, Shanxi and Shandong provinces).
Following the emergence of a number of contending kingdoms such as Qin, Wei and Chu, Qin ascended
to power in the 3rd century BCE, expanding its influence to the South China Sea and unifying the
political system throughout its newly acquired empire. Further expansion in these and other directions
occurred during the Han dynasty (206BCE–220CE), bringing with it the dissemination of many cultural
elements, such as the written language and Confucian philosophy and its rituals. As a result, most
Chinese today refer to themselves as ‘Han people’ in acknowledgement of this consolidation.
The notion of a monolithic Chinese culture has penetrated deeply into popular thinking, both Chinese
and Western. But unification touched the many regions of China unevenly, and over the last 2000 years,
diverse regional subcultures, dialects and musical traditions have grown and thrived. These
subcultures have gravitated for the most part towards the drainage areas of the Huanghe (‘Yellow
river’) in north China, the lower Yangzi (Yangtze) river in central-eastern China, and the Zhujiang
(‘Pearl river’) delta in south China. Their various musical traditions commonly share some structural
similarities, although they are valued by local practitioners for their distinctive regional qualities.
Among the many non-Han peoples, ethnic minorities who have been pushed into the mountains,
deserts and other less desirable space, the more usual response to Han unification has been resistance
and often bloody rebellion. Their various musical traditions share few roots with the ‘great tradition’ of
the Han.
The Han Chinese comprise roughly 94% of the population of China. While the common-practice
traditions retain close associations with specific regions, several Han music genres have achieved
national prominence over the centuries, such as the Confucian ritual music of the court, the traditions
of qin zither, Kunqu opera and Beijing opera, and other genres supported by the emperor or Han
Chinese literati. Since the mid-20th century, the concert-hall tradition of ‘national music’ (guoyue) has
also achieved a particularly strong pan-Chinese presence and is often the only tradition known among
young conservatory-trained musicians of recent decades.
Popular Chinese thinking divides Han China into two broad geographic regions: the North, with its
lively traditions of Beijing opera and wind-and-percussion music, and the South, with its more refined
literary traditions of Kunqu opera and silk-and-bamboo music. Qiao Jianzhong, approaching this
question from a more empirical orientation, divides the country into as many as 12 music culture
areas, based upon historic regional nomenclature and distinctive performance characteristics. The
divisions given below, which largely coincide with his music areas, are based on geographic and socio-
linguistic factors, resulting in what some sinologists call ‘macroregions’.
(i) Central Plain.

Bordering the Yellow river as it flows through and often over the floodplain of northern Henan and
western Shandong provinces is the region known as the Central Plain (Zhongyuan). This broad area is
the acknowledged birthplace of Han Chinese civilization and subsequent location of political centres
(especially at Luoyang and Anyang) from the Shang through Tang periods (c16th century BCE to 10th
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century CE). The northern province of Hebei, together with the cities of Beijing and Tianjin, may also
be included in this macroregion, though cultural development here occurred later. Artefacts of musical
significance unearthed on the Central Plain include bone and clay flutes dating to between 6000 and
5000 BCE, together with later finds of Shang bronze bells and stone chimes. Oracle bones dating from
between the 14th and 12th centuries BCE, on which are inscribed many references to musical
instruments, ceremony and dance, were also found in this region. Much later, imperial ceremonies
such as Confucian rituals, with their magnificent instrumental ensembles were established in the
Shandong city of Qufu (legendary home of Confucius), in Beijing and in other urban centres.
Instrumental ensembles in common practice today are mostly of the wind-and-percussion variety,
notably the processional suona-and-percussion bands and the ritually more significant ensembles
utilizing guan (reed pipe), sheng (mouth organ), di (flute), yunluo (frame of pitched gongs) and
percussion. Both types are common throughout northern China, the latter currently most famed in
central Hebei province. The most significant instrumental solo tradition to emerge on the Central Plain
is the ‘northern school’ of zheng zither, centred in eastern Henan and south-western Shandong. Beijing
opera and the other opera traditions of this are more recent in origin and related to those opera types
of the north-west and other areas of central China. Narrative song is represented by varieties of dagu
(‘large drum’, accompanied by large sanxian and drum), as well as Henan zhuizi and Shandong qinshu,
which are unique to their areas. Folksong genres include shan′ge (‘mountain songs’) and the call-and-
response type tiange (‘field songs’) of Henan, and the colourful Fengyang huagu (‘flower drum’) songs,
which originated in Anhui province and spread into Shandong and other areas. The music culture of
the Central Plain exerted considerable influence on surrounding regions, most immediately in the
north-west and central interior.
(ii) The north-west and central interior.

The north-west (Xibei), centred on present-day Shaanxi and western Shanxi provinces and extending
into the more western provinces of Gansu and Ningxia, is a highland plateau surrounding the upper
reaches of the Yellow river. This region, centre of political activity during the Western Zhou dynasty
(c11th–8th centuries BCE), saw the rise of the 3rd-century BCE state of Qin, whose founder, Qin
Shihuang, boldly declared himself the first emperor of China and instigated massive and effective
measures of political unification. His capital was established near the city of Xi′an, an area that
retained its importance for the next millennium. Present-day wind-and-percussion music, such as the
ceremonial guyue (‘drum music’) of the Xi′an area and other variants, have been thought to retain
some Tang (618–907CE) characteristics, though they have naturally undergone subsequent change.
Like related wind-and-percussion traditions on the Central Plain, these genres are still performed in
conjunction with funerals, calendrical rites and other celebrations. Among the regional opera
traditions, the lively bangzi (which appeared in the Ming period, 1368–1644) is the most famous and
influential; the style was absorbed into many local opera traditions elsewhere in China. Most
distinctive of the folksong types are the high-tessitura, rhythmically flexible xintianyou of northern
Shaanxi and nearby areas, and yangge, a very old type of dance-song that spread widely across
northern China. Located in the central interior provinces of Hubei and Hunan (historically dominated
by the state of Chu) are the ancient tomb sites of Zenghou Yi (5th century BCE) and Mawangdui (2nd
century BCE), the former containing a spectacular collection of musical instruments, most likely a ritual
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ensemble. During subsequent centuries, as this interior region lost its political and cultural
prominence, it absorbed many other traditions from the Central Plain, such as the wind-and-percussion
ensembles.
Owing to constant pressure from the nomadic and warlike horsemen of the Mongolian steppe, the
centre of Chinese culture shifted after the Tang period from the north-west, south-eastwards to the
Jiangnan area.
(iii) Jiangnan.
The fertile rice-growing region of the Yangzi river basin of central-eastern China is most commonly
known as Jiangnan (literally, ‘south of the river’), a region centred in present-day southern Jiangsu and
northern Zhejiang provinces and populated by speakers of Wu dialects. Jiangnan emerged as the
dominant economic and cultural centre of China after the 12th century, engendering an enormous
range of creativity by poets, artists and musicians active in such newly cosmopolitan cities as
Hangzhou and Suzhou. Today, the city of Shanghai has taken over the role of cultural capital. Most
distinctive of the Jiangnan vocal genres is the ‘classical’ opera Kunqu, which emerged in the 16th
century and in which the qudi flute is the principal instrument of accompaniment. More recent opera
variants include Shanghai opera (Huju) and Shaoxing opera (Yueju). Other vocal genres prevalent in
southern Jiangsu include the pingtan narrative song, accompanied by pipa and sanxian, and various
folksong types.
Predominant among the instrumental ensemble traditions is sizhu (‘silk-and-bamboo’), a type of

instrumental chamber music dominated by strings and flutes, derived during the 19th century from
existing string music and local ceremonial traditions. The Jiangnan region is also the centre of two
instrumental solo genres of great importance: the revered pipa tradition, with no fewer than four
traditional ‘schools’ (see §IV, 4(ii)(c) below), and the more ancient qin tradition (see §IV, 4(ii)(a) below),
emblematic of the highest of literati ideals, also represented by several ‘schools’. From the 1930s the
city of Shanghai became an important centre for the growth of guoyue (‘national music’), 20th-century
concert-hall music comprised of ensemble compositions, instrumental concertos and solo pieces.
Musical influences from the Jiangnan region have been strong on the poorer nearby areas of Anhui and
northern Jiangsu (which also absorbed influences from Shandong province) and on the Han population
up-river in Sichuan province.
(iv) Sichuan basin.

The vast south-western province of Sichuan was in imperial times a prosperous region. Emerging
under the kingdom of Shu in the 3rd century CE, the fertile agricultural basin of eastern Sichuan was
able to sustain a very large population of farming peoples from the Tang dynasty onwards, by which
time there had been a sizable migration from north-west China and the Central Plain. Sichuan was also
strongly influenced by the more distant region of Jiangnan. This shared influence is especially evident
in the make-up of Sichuan opera (Chuanju), which during the Ming dynasty absorbed diverse elements
of North-west opera (such as bangzi) and Jiangnan opera (especially Kunqu), together with other
influences. The narrative song genre yangqin (named after its principal instrument of accompaniment)
most likely emerged after the Ming period and is still performed in traditional teahouses. While
instrumental music in Sichuan has as yet been little studied, a regional style of qin is preserved. Among
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folksong types, shan′ge, especially the minority-influenced antiphonal courtship songs, became popular
in rural areas, and along the upper stretches of the Yangzi river, workers and boatmen sang strongly
rhythmic worksongs (haozi).
(v) The south-east coast.

The south-eastern coastal region of present-day southern Fujian and eastern Guangdong provinces,
historically isolated from the rest of China by rugged mountainous terrain, is home to a complex of
subcultures that are clearly less homogeneous than in other regions of China. This region is dominated
by Minnan (Hokkien) and Chaozhou peoples on the coast, together with the more insular (but
nevertheless highly influential) Hakka subculture of inland areas. While the Minnan and Chaozhou
subcultures share many close cultural and linguistic relationships, their musical traditions appear to be
based on different systems. The Minnan area is centred in southern Fujian province, the urban areas of
Quanzhou and Xiamen being the largest. Since the Minnan were capable sea travellers, many migrated
to Taiwan (where they dominate the population), the Philippines, other Pacific areas and South-east
Asia. Their vocal and instrumental genre nanguan (or nanyue) is distinctive for its usage of very old
instrument variants (such as the southern pipa and dongxiao flute) and its melodic refinement and
introspection, which some scholars have traced to Tang or Song court traditions. Among their opera
traditions, the flamboyant gezaixi is most popular.
To the south, on the coastal plain of eastern Guangdong, lies the centre of the Chaozhou subculture.
Chaozhou and Shantou are the largest urban areas, though many Chaozhou people have settled in
Hong Kong and as far away as Bangkok, Singapore and Malaysia. Chaozhou opera (Chaoju) is still very
popular throughout these areas of settlement. Chaozhou instrumental chamber music, known as
xianshi (‘string-poem’), is strikingly different from the neighbouring Minnan music in its use of
distinctive instrument variants (such as the high-pitched fiddle erxian and 16-string zheng) and a
different melodic repertory, shared in part with Hakka musicians. Chaozhou da luogu (‘great gong-and-
drum’ music) is the best known of the ritual wind-and-percussion traditions along the south-east coast.
The Hakka (Kejia) subculture is centred in the mountainous Meixian district of north-eastern
Guangdong province, though with a diaspora stretching across to Sichuan province and into Hong
Kong, Taiwan and throughout South-east Asia. The very conservative Hakka people, having migrated
south from the Central Plain in several waves over the last 1500 years, think of themselves as the
preservers of the true Han spirit, exemplified by a strong sense of filial piety and other Confucian
virtues. Indeed, the Hakka zheng tradition (see §IV, 4(ii)(b) below), which local musicians consider to
be reflective of ancient Confucian ideals, maintains a social position analogous to the qin of the
Jiangnan region (an instrument rarely played on the south-east coast). In vocal music, the Hakka
maintain their own opera tradition (hanju) and a wealthy heritage of folksong (shan′ge).
(vi) Cantonese region.

Finally, centring on the Pearl river delta in the far south of China is the Cantonese subculture. The
Cantonese occupy most of southern Guangdong province (the cities of Guangzhou and Hong Kong
containing the largest urban populations), with substantial settlements in Guangxi province, Macau,
Vietnam, Singapore and the Western world. While preserving old elements of language and social
behaviour, in their expressive culture the Cantonese have demonstrated over the last century a unique
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openness to Western ideas, especially in their lively and eclectic music. Most significant is the
Cantonese opera (Yueju), arguably the newest of all Chinese opera traditions, which during the 1930s
blended northern operatic styles with local songs (and some Western influence) in the creation of a
highly syncretic form. Instrumental ensemble music (dominated by the two-stringed fiddle gaohu and
dulcimer yangqin) emerged at the same time, based on traditional local genres as well as the Jiangnan
pipa repertory, and prompting unprecedented creativity from several dozen composers. Traditional folk
and narrative songs such as longzhou and nanyin have mostly been absorbed into the opera tradition.
The unique repertory of xianshui ge (‘salt water songs’), however, is still known among the older
generation of ‘boat people’, a subculture not well assimilated into the Cantonese mainstream.
2. Minority regions and genres.

Reflecting even greater cultural diversity than the Han Chinese are China’s ethnic minorities. Known
as ‘national minorities’, more than 50 non-Han cultures live in various ‘autonomous’ regions,
prefectures and counties at the margins of Han China; taken as a whole, they comprise roughly 6% of
the total population. They will be outlined here in three geographic categories (see §IV, 5 below; see
also Mongol music; Tibetan music; and Taiwan, §2).
(i) The north-east and Inner Mongolia.

The north-east, including the provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang, has been subject to
considerable Han migration since the 17th century and industrialization in the 20th century, but its
several minority cultures retain at least some of their traditional ways. The largest groups are Manchu
(over 4 million) and Korean (about 3 million). The Manchu, who ruled China during the Qing dynasty
(1644–1911), have become largely assimilated, but traditions such as shamanism remain strong. The
Koreans, living mostly in eastern Jilin, bordering North Korea, have also modified their traditional
culture under Han influence.
In the grassland area of Inner Mongolia, south of the Chinese-Mongolian border, live more than 3
million Mongols of different ethnicities, many of whom still practise transhumant pastoralism. Because
of the intertwined histories of China and Mongolia (the founder of the Yuan dynasty was Genghis
Khan’s grandson Khubilai, who transferred the centre of the Mongol Empire from Karakorum to
today’s Beijing in the 13th century), Mongols also inhabit other provinces, such as Gansu, Qinghai,
Xinjiang and Yunnan. They have become renowned for their long-songs accompanied by the two-string
‘horse-head’ fiddle, and narrative tales accompanied by the four-string fiddle.
(ii) The far west.

The far west of China, dominated by present-day Xinjiang province, is one of the largest geographic
regions in China. Through its desert corridor ran the legendary Silk Road, along which Buddhist and
other material culture and music were introduced into China over the last two millennia. Occupying
this area today are a dozen tribal peoples with close ethno-linguistic ties to Central Asia. Largest
among them are the Uighurs (about 6 million), Turkic speakers with Muslim-influenced religious
practices, who today dominate the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. Smaller in numbers are the
Kazakh, Kyrgyz and others. Arab and Persian musical influences have been strong here. Especially
characteristic of the region’s music-making are the full ensembles of Central Asian instruments,
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including dutar and tanbur lutes, daf frame drum and many others, employed in the performance of
muqam suites (see §IV, 5(ii) below; see also Central Asia, §4). Living in isolated pockets throughout the
area and elsewhere in China are the Hui (about 7 million), who are also Muslim in belief but otherwise
closely related to the Han.
(iii) The south-west and Tibet.

South-west China has at its core the mountainous provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou, though areas of
southern Sichuan, western Guangxi and the vast Xizang plateau (Tibet) are often included as well.
Closely related tribal peoples also live in neighbouring northern Guangdong and western Hunan
provinces, and across the borders in Vietnam and other areas of South-east Asia. As a region of early
kingdoms, such as Dian and Nanzhao, the south-west was known to the Han Chinese since the Tang
dynasty and earlier. Today it is a region of great heterogeneity, including roughly two dozen tribal
cultures speaking dialects of several broad language families. Lolo speakers (a Sino-Tibetan branch)
include the Yi (about 5.5 million), Tibetans (about 5 million), Bai (about a million) and many smaller
cultures of Yunnan province, most of which absorbed a variety of Han influences over the ages.
Whereas Tibetan music is well documented, the Yunnan genres, such as unaccompanied courtship
songs (duige) sung between male and female, and circle dance-songs (dage) accompanied by lutes,
mouth organs or other instruments, are less well known.
Tai speakers, related to the Thai in Thailand, though dominated in China by the huge Zhuang
population (about 13 million, mostly in Guangxi), are lowland farmers who have been exposed to
strong sinicization over recent centuries. Miao-Yao speakers, notably the high-mountain dwelling Miao
(about 5 million, mostly in Guizhou) and Yao (about 1·5 million), have remained more isolated from
mainstream Chinese developments. One distinctive Miao genre is the lusheng dance, for which the
large mouth organ Lusheng is used to accompany group dances associated with calendrical festivals,
courtship and other functions.
3. Sources and perspectives.

This section seeks to identify major trends in the study of Chinese music during the imperial and
modern periods.
(i) The imperial period.

Written sources for music are voluminous for the imperial period (until 1912). These include not only
official writings, such as sections on music in dynastic histories, imperially commissioned
encyclopedias and music treatises, but also musical references in novels, poetry and anecdotal
‘notebook’ literature. Some are valuable in giving alternative views to the Confucian ethic propounded
in official sources. For instance, the 3rd-century musician and philosopher Ji Kang (or Xi Kang)
advanced a well-articulated anti-Confucian aesthetic reflecting Daoist philosophies.
But the primary motivation for the growth of Chinese musical scholarship resides in the ancient
association made between music and government theory. With the emergence of the Confucian texts
(c3rd and 2nd centuries BCE), comprehensive theories of music philosophy and pitch systems evolved.
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These theories served to establish the principles of a ‘refined music’ (yayue), believed to reinforce
state-sanctioned norms of behaviour and, through regulation of pitch systems, reconcile the empire
with the cosmological order. So important was the effort to bring all things into harmony that, in both
Zhou and early Han dynasties (before the 1st century BCE), offices of music (yuefu) were attached to
the governments to oversee and coordinate this activity. Thus the Confucian orientation was a powerful
motivational force in early scholarship. A remarkably large number of imperial compilations from the
period of Confucian classics onwards have extended sections on music, the most recent and largest
being the monumental 18th-century encyclopedia Gujin tushu jicheng. In this source, the music section
is included not within the category of ‘Arts and sciences’, but under ‘Political economy’, together with
sections on the civil service examination system, court ceremonies and military administration.
While scholarship of the imperial period touches upon many aspects, it focusses primarily upon six
areas:
Ethos of music. The ethos or philosophy of music (yuelun), an area close to the centre of Confucian
orthodoxy, is the dominant theme of the earliest writers. Music (yue) is treated primarily as a medium
to promote essential values of the Confucian state (such as moderate behaviour). While this philosophy
is advanced in several of the Confucian classics, it is most cogently presented in the Yueji (Record of
music) section of the Liji (Record of rites; c1st century BCE). This Confucian view is repeated and
interpreted in works throughout the imperial period, including Chen Yang’s early 12th-century music
treatise Yueshu (nearly half of whose 200 chapters contain commentary on the Confucian classics), and
in the various encyclopedic compilations and dynastic histories.
Pitch systems and modes. Scholarly interest in pitch systems and modes (lülü) arose from
governmental attempts to establish cosmologically the root pitch (huangzhong, ‘yellow bell’) of each
empire and bring the 12 chromatic pitches (lülü) into correspondence with the cyclic nature of the
calendar. Among the earliest textual accounts to detail these theories is the Lüshi chunqiu (c239 BCE).
As an essential part of this inquiry, it became known early in China that the circle of pure 5ths taken 12
times produced an interval sharper than the octave taken seven times. Initial attempts to shrink the
size of the 5th and thus correct the discrepancy were made as early as the 2nd century BCE and
documented in the Huai Nanzi (c120 BCE). With the publication of Zhu Zaiyu’s music treatises Lüxue
xinshuo (1584) and Lülü jingyi (1596), this endeavour was finally given a sophisticated formulation
resulting in a type of equal temperament. The concept of ‘mode’ (diao), which in Chinese theory exists
in five-note and seven-note forms, is well documented in the 3rd-century BCE dictionary Erya and other
early sources. Summaries and interpretations of these theories of pitch and mode are found in most
later treatises, including the 12th-century Lülü xinshu and 18th-century Lülü zhengyi.
Confucian ritual music. While historic documentation of Buddhist and Daoist musical traditions has
been minimal (most accounts dating from the Qing dynasty), Confucian court ritual music, embodying
the musical ideals of Confucian philosophy and the ancient pitch system, has been well documented
over the last millennium. Coverage of all aspects of the ritual is found in most of the above-named
music treatises and in encyclopedias and dynastic histories as well.
Musical instruments. Documentation of the history, construction and symbolic associations of musical
instruments is so abundant in historic sources that the field of Chinese organology is treated by many
scholars as a separate area of inquiry. The earliest descriptions, after citations in the Shijing (Classic of
odes; c7th century BCE) appear in Confucian texts such as Zhouli (Rites of Zhou; c3rd century BCE) and
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Erya (c3rd century BCE), and in the dictionary Shuowen jiezi (CE c121). More comprehensive accounts
of both indigenous and introduced instruments appear in the Tang-dynasty encyclopedia Tongdian
(801), the 9th-century general music treatise Yuefu zalu and Chen Yang’s widely quoted treatise Yueshu
(c1100; see §III below).
Instrumental music. Documentation of instrumental music in imperial times focusses upon the
scholars’ traditions, not surprisingly. While some transcriptions of music (in gongche or other notation)
for di and xiao, pipa, zheng and instrumental ensembles appear in Qing sources (rarely earlier), it is the
qin zither tradition that is most thoroughly documented, with many essays and treatises dating from
the 2nd century onwards, and over 200 collections of qin music in notation from the 6th century
onwards (see §IV, 4 below).
Vocal music. Most historic documentation of vocal music focusses on songs from the Shijing, songs
composed by the 12th-century Jiang Kui and other art songs. Although folksongs were widespread
throughout China, they were ignored by imperial scholars. Coverage of opera is dominated by Kunqu,
for which numerous treatises and notations appear from the 16th century onwards. Repertory
collections for Beijing opera and some other regional traditions date mostly from the early 20th
century (see §IV, 1, (i) below).
(ii) The modern period.

Research orientations during the 20th century shifted away from some of the areas outlined above
because of the disintegration of the Confucian institution early in the century and the growth of a new
social order and new political imperatives. Interest in the ethos of music (i.e. music for promotion of
Confucian values) and in Confucian ritual music itself waned among scholars, especially those on the
Chinese mainland, although more recently aesthetics have once again become a popular topic.
Research into the ancient pitch systems and modes however, continued without interruption, in large
part because this body of theory could more easily be disconnected from the Confucian institution that
it formerly served. A number of useful analytical accounts have been published since the 1950s (see
bibliography).
Several research orientations gained strength from the mid-20th century onwards. Most significant is
the documentation of Chinese music history, which took root in the 1930s with the publications of
Wang Guangqi and matured during and following the 1950s with the superb scholarship of Yang Yinliu
and others. Yang’s now standard survey of Chinese music history (1981) documents the numerous
historical traditions, instruments and theories for each dynasty. With the formation of the Music
Research Institute (Yinyue yanjiusuo) in Beijing, many essential research tools pertinent to Chinese
music history have been assembled (see bibliography and §II below). Simultaneously, documentation of
musical instruments has drawn new interest, aided by extraordinary discoveries of buried instruments
and the growth of Chinese archaeology (see §IV below).
Most important of the late 20th-century trends was a new interest in the systematic documentation of
regional common-practice traditions, notably folksong, opera, narrative song, instrumental music and
dance. Beginning in the 1980s, a massive project was organized by the Chinese Musicians’ Association
and the Ministry of Culture to assemble an Anthology of Folk Music of the Chinese Peoples (Zhongguo
minzu minjian yinyue jicheng) based on fieldwork and including numerous early notations and
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contemporary transcriptions of the music genres in common practice (see §IV below). As a result of this
work, new insights are emerging into actual local practice. Study of the music of the ‘national
minorities’ is also receiving greater attention (see §IV, 5 below).
Many useful analytic accounts of the local comon-practice traditions are found in Chinese-language
journals such as Yinyue yanjiu, Zhongguo yinyuexue and those of the many regional conservatories.
Most notable among Western-language journals that focus on these and other topics are the American
ACMR Reports (journal of the Association for Chinese Music Research), CHIME (journal of the
European Foundation for Chinese Music Research), Chinoperl, Asian Music and Musica asiatica.
Among the best of the archives containing Chinese music materials are the Music Research Institute
(Beijing), the Library of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, the Chinese Music Archive at the
University of Hong Kong, the Harvard-Yenching Library (Cambridge, MA) and the CHIME Library at
the European Foundation for Chinese Music Research (Leiden).
Bibliography
General histories and perspectives

Wang Guangqi: Zhongguo yinyue shi [History of Chinese music] (Shanghai, 1934)
Guo Nai′an and others: Minzu yinyue gailun [Survey of Chinese music] (Beijing, 1964/R) [YYS pubn]
Cheung Sai-bung: Zhongguo yinyue shilun shugao [Historical studies of Chinese music] (Hong Kong, 1974–
5)
Han Kuo-huang: ‘Three Chinese Musicologists: Yang Yinliu, Yin Falu, Li Chunyi’, EthM, 24 (1980), 483–529
Yang Yinliu: Zhongguo gudai yinyue shigao [Draft history of ancient Chinese music] (Beijing, 1981)
Liang Mingyue: Music of the Billion: an Introduction to Chinese Musical Culture (New York, 1985)
L. Moser: The Chinese Mosaic: the Peoples and Provinces of China (Boulder, CO, 1985)
Huang Xiangpeng: Chuantong shi yitiao heliu [Tradition flows like a river] (Beijing, 1990)
Qiao Jianzhong and Mao Jizeng, eds.: Zhongguo yinyuexue yidai zongshi Yang Yinliu jinian ji
[Commemorative volume for Yang Yinliu, founding master of Chinese musicology] (Taipei, 1992)
Shen Qia: ‘Minzu yinyuexue zai Zhongguo’ [Ethnomusicology in China], Zhongguo yinyuexue (1996), no.3, 5–22
Huang Xiangpeng: Zhongguorende yinyue he yinyuexue [Music and musicology of the Chinese] (Ji′nan,
1997)
Qiao Jianzhong: Tudi yu ge [Land and song] (Ji′nan, 1998)
Dictionaries and other research tools

J. Needham, K.G. Robinson and Wang Ling, eds.: ‘Bibliographies’, Science and Civilization in China, 4/1
(Cambridge, 1962), 335–97
F. Lieberman: Chinese Music: an Annotated Bibliography (New York, 2/1979)
Page 10 of 123
Zhongguo xiqu quyi cidian [Dictionary of Chinese opera and narrative] (Shanghai, 1981)
Zhongguo dabaike quanshu: xiqu, quyi [Encyclopedia sinica: opera and narrative] (Beijing, 1983)
Zhongguo yinyue cidian [Dictionary of Chinese music] (Beijing, 1984; suppl. vol., 1992)
Zhongguo yinyue shupu zhi [Catalogue of sources and notations of Chinese music] (Beijing, 1984)
Zhongguo yinyue nianjian [Chinese music yearbook] (Beijing/Ji′nan, 1986–) [YYS pubn]
Liu Dongsheng and Yuan Quanyou, eds.: Zhongguo yinyue shi tujian [Pictorial guide to the history of
Chinese music] (Beijing, 1988) [YYS pubn]
Zhongguo minzu minjian yinyue jicheng [Anthology of folk music of the Chinese peoples] (Beijing, 1988–),
vols. by province incl. following categories: Zhongguo minjian gequ jicheng [Anthology of Chinese folksongs],
Zhongguo xiqu zhi [Monographs on Chinese opera], Zhongguo xiqu yinyue jicheng [Anthology of Chinese
opera music], Zhongguo quyi zhi [Monograph on Chinese narrative singing], Zhongguo quyi yinyue jicheng
[Anthology of Chinese narrative singing music], Zhongguo minzu minjian qiyuequ jicheng [Anthology of
instrumental pieces of the Chinese peoples], Zhongguo minzu minjian wudao jicheng [Anthology of folk
dance of the Chinese peoples]
Zhongguo dabaike quanshu: yinyue, wudao [Encyclopedia sinica: music and dance] (Beijing, 1989)
Zhongguo minzu yinyui daxi [Compendium of traditional Chinese music], ed. Dungfang yinyue xuehui
(Shanghai, 1989)
B. Yung: ‘Music Journals from PRC’, ACMR Reports, 3/2 (1990), 9–12; repr. in CHIME, no.2 (1990), 52–7
1906–1949 Zhongguo yinyue qikan pianmu huilu [Directory of Chinese music journals, 1906–1949] (Beijing,
1990) [YYS pubn]
A.R. Thrasher: ‘China’, Ethnomusicology: Historical and Regional Studies, ed. H. Myers (New York,
1993), 311–44
V. Fung: ‘Chinese Music Journals Published in Chinese and Located in Selected Major U.S. Libraries’, ACMR
Reports, 8/2 (1995), 52–70
Xue Zongming: Zhongguo yinyue wenxian shumu huibian [Catalogue of sources on Chinese music]
(Gaoxiong, 1996)
II. History and theory
1. General.
Joseph S.C. Lam
The continuously documented history of Chinese music reflects both the vast size of the country and
ethnic and cultural interactions; constant change has nevertheless been based on long traditions. For
its variety and dynamism in both time and space, Huang Xiangpeng has compared Chinese music to a
river, which carries in its present current rich historical material on aspects such as aesthetics,
practices, repertories, song texts, instruments and musicians.
Page 11 of 123
The broad view of Chinese music history is clear. Despite historical and regional variation, it is unified
not only by a degree of geographical, political and cultural homogeneity but also by many distinctively
Chinese pairs of yin and yang dynamics. These include ‘proper’ versus ‘vernacular’ musics; national
versus regional developments; ethnically Han Chinese genres and practices versus non-Han ones;
commoners’ creation of repertories and styles versus the élite’s appropriation and remoulding of them;
and retrospective understanding and faithful transmission of inherited musics versus innovatory
interpretations of them.
Nevertheless, much about Chinese music history and theory remains unclear. In addition to mysteries
about structural features of historical works, there are numerous unanswered questions about aspects
such as performing practices, venues and interrelationships between repertories. The filling of these
lacunae depends on future research and discovery of new evidence that will overcome a relative lack of
notated sources and balance the Confucian and élitist biases that permeate available sources. The
prognosis is promising. Recent studies have discovered musical traditions (such as the so-called ‘drum
music’ of Xi′an and the operas of Putian and Xianyou in Fujian) that, having resisted the forces of 20th-
century modernization and Westernization, may have preserved residues of music that disappeared
centuries ago. Since the end of two millennia of imperial rule in 1911 (Table 1), and even since the
revolution of 1949, while the towns have been increasingly affected by forces such as Maoism and
transnational capitalism, rural areas have persisted in keeping their regional traditions.
Stimulated by studies of historical sources and living traditions, and propelled by an economy growing
rapidly since the 1980s, contemporary China is heading towards uncharted music frontiers,
rediscovering its musical roots and reconstructing historical repertories while creating new Chinese
music. Indeed, the new ways in which China responds to the forces of the contemporary world are
reminiscent of earlier periods, such as the fundamental shifts of the social and political order in the
Qin-Han and Song eras, which conveniently serve as dividing points in the following sketch of Chinese
music history.
2. Antiquity to the Warring States period (to 221 BCE).

Joseph S.C. Lam
From the earliest times, Chinese people sang, danced and played such instruments as bone flutes and
clay vessel flutes to request rain and other survival needs from supernatural forces. By the Shang and
Zhou dynasties, the Chinese court had already established traditions legitimizing imperial ancestors as
military, political and moral leaders with elaborate works of song, dance and music played on stone-
chimes, bell-chimes, drums and other instruments; the Shao and Wu, two much discussed musical
works from Chinese antiquity, are representative. At the same time, both the élite and the common
people sang and danced as a means of self-expression, influencing one another. Lü Buwei (d 235 BCE),
for example, in his Lüshi chunqiu (Springs and autumns of Master Lü), describes a maid composing a
song to describe her waiting for her master Yu, founder of the Xia dynasty, south of Mount Tu. This
song is said to have become the earliest example of the southern folksongs that were subsequently
collected by Zhou dynasty officials, rearranged and sung as the Zhounan and Zhaonan songs, 25 lyrics
of which are preserved in the Shijing (Classic of odes). By the 5th century BCE, a diverse and
sophisticated music culture was in place, laying the foundations for Chinese music theory and
practices for the next two and a half millennia.
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A central figure in the laying of these foundations is Confucius (551–479 BCE), who taught a humanist
and functional approach to music. Reasoning that music is an expression of the human heart or mind
and a counterpart of ritual, Confucius promoted music as a means of governance and self-cultivation
and denounced the use of music as entertainment. By praising the Shao as the most perfect and
beautiful music, and by denouncing the ‘licentious’ tunes of the Zheng and Wei states as music that
dissipated people’s time and energy, Confucius established the paradigms of ‘proper music’ (yayue)
and ‘vernacular music’ (suyue). People who aspire to become benevolent and cultivated should practise
the moderate and harmonious (he) sounds of the former and avoid the excessive and vain sounds of the
latter. By compiling the Shijing, Confucius bequeathed an exemplary collection of 305 song texts,
diverse in content, literary structure and musical style. Studied by all Chinese students, the collection
has inspired them to create many literary and musical works until the present day.
The musical diversity projected by the Shijing is echoed by other ancient texts: the Jiuge (Nine songs)
of Qu Yuan (c340–c278 BCE), the patriotic poet of the Chu state, for example, vividly portrays the songs
and dances of the region. Archaeological evidence substantiates these descriptions. Musical artefacts
excavated from the tomb of Marquis Yi of the Zeng state (c433 BCE) reveal not only the gigantic scale
of court music and dance but also a most advanced technology for making musical instruments, most
clearly evidenced by a set of 64 bronze bell-chimes, each of whose bells can produce two pitches either
a major or minor 3rd apart (fig.1). Inscribed on the bells are more than 2800 words describing theories
and practices of music pitches of the time. The sophistication of the musical culture of this early
regional court is clear from the variety, size and manufacture of the instruments and from the
conceptual detail of the inscriptions.
Set of bells (bianzhong) from the tomb of the Marquis Yi of Zeng, 433 BCE
Music Research Institute, Beijing
Page 13 of 123
Chinese and Western pitch names and notation systems
The mature state of ancient Chinese music theory, as revealed by archaeological and literary evidence,
may account for its lasting relevance. The Guoyu (Conversations from the states) and Lüshi chunqiu,
for example, describe the 12 standard fixed pitches (lülü) produced through the circle of 5ths (sanfen
sunyi), constituting a complete octave, and the five and seven relative tones (wusheng, qisheng) that
can be used to form different scales and keys. Identified by 12 bisyllabic terms (see Table 2 below; see
also Notation, §II), the 12 standard fixed pitches embody the Chinese pursuit of absolute and accurate
pitch standards, serving not only musical needs but also those of practical and theoretical
measurements and calculations. Throughout Chinese history, Chinese courts initiated numerous
changes of pitch standards: during the Northern Song dynasty, for example, no less than five extensive
revisions were introduced at court.
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The five and seven relative tones represent Chinese understanding of relative pitches, intervals and
their use in actual musical pieces. Together, the fixed and relative pitches constitute a complex modal
system (known as gong, yun or diao) also associated with non-musical entities. For example, the five
relative tones are respectively correlated socially with king, ministers, people, affairs and objects, and
with the colours of yellow, white, blue, red and black. The modes, which are traditionally defined by the
pitch levels of the constituent notes, their assigned roles as the five or seven relative tones and as
initials and finals in melodies, are employed not only by musical principles but also by cosmological
considerations: music honouring Heaven, for example, should use the jiazhong gong mode, which can
be interpreted as a set of pitches adopting the fixed pitch of jiazhong as the gong degree.
Apart from technical and structural aspects, ancient Chinese music theory also discusses topics such
as the nature and functions of music. The Yueji (Record of music, c1st and 2nd centuries BCE), for
example, manifests Confucian moral theories of understanding music in its social context. Studied and
implemented by Confucian scholar-officials, who dominated formal learning in imperial China and
controlled textual representation of it, these theories helped form a musical Confucianism that
overshadowed but did not erase rival approaches. These include the assertion of Mozi (c468–c376 BCE)
that music wasted human and material resources, and Laozi’s claim that the greatest music had no
sounds. Indeed, Daoist influence on Chinese music and music culture has remained substantial. Even
the music of the qin zither, a genre closely affiliated with Confucian scholar-officials, includes many
works with Daoist references, such as Tianfeng huanpei (‘Heavenly Breeze and Sounds of Jade
Pendants’).
3. Qin to Tang dynasties (221 BCE–907 CE).

Joseph S.C. Lam
Though the Qin dynasty (221–206 BCE) unified China for only 15 years, its policy of standardization
and control of knowledge directly and indirectly exerted a lasting influence on Chinese culture. The
first Qin emperor (Qin Shihuang), who is said to have burnt numerous books in an intellectual purge,
thus destroyed much musical literature, inadvertently generating an insatiable need to reconstruct
ancient music, now idealized as perfect. The Han dynasty, which overthrew the Qin, developed its
distinctive musical culture within this context. Adopting Confucianism as the official ideology, the Han
court (206 BCE–220 CE) implemented Confucian theories of ritual and music by instituting an elaborate
system of state sacrifices and music. Following a Qin model, the Han court also established the Yuefu
(Office of Music). It collected folksongs to learn about the experiences of common people, and it
transformed them, musically and textually, into works that served the political as well as the expressive
needs of the court. The office employed many musicians to perform a variety of music: in 7 BCE, at a
time when the Han court had to downsize because of financial constraints, the office cut 441 out of a
total of 829 employees. One of the directors of this office was Li Yannian (dc90 BCE), a musician who
came from a family of entertainers and was noted for his singing and compositional skills. He once
rearranged a piece brought back from Central Asia by the famous Han emissary Zhang Qian (d 114
BCE).
If the Yuefu symbolized Chinese courts’ continual appropriation of folk music, the rise of ‘drum-and-
wind’ music (guchui) at the Han court shows how musical exchanges between Han Chinese living
within China proper and non-Han peoples living at its borders might lead to new genres and practices.
Page 15 of 123
Drum-and-wind music is said to have evolved from two sources: the music of non-Han peoples living in
the north-west of China proper, and the music Zhang Qian brought back from Central Asia. Drum-and-
wind music soon became an integral part of Chinese music culture; traditionally, Han Chinese believe
that once accepted and absorbed into Han culture, the ethnic musics of non-Han peoples will
eventually become totally sinicized. Used in regional courts, drum-and-wind music largely
accompanied military rituals and processionals; in folk form, the genre included songs and
instrumental pieces performed for calendrical and life-cycle occasions, a practice still common in rural
China today.
No notated Han dynasty music has survived, but musical practices and products are clearly described
in many documents. The xianghe genre consisted not only of short, separate songs but also multi-
movement suites (daqu), with solo and choral singing, playing of various musical instruments and
dancing. Their structure is indicated by the terms qu, yan and luan, which have been interpreted as
music played accelerando, with ornaments and as refrains and codas. Such structures were to become
fundamental strategies of Chinese music composition and can still be found in many traditional genres
today. These include qin music, a repertory of instrumental solos and accompanied songs, some of
which had already emerged by the end of the Han dynasty, and music theatre, such as the nanxi
(southern operas) of the Song dynasty, which feature suites of arias – indeed, the roots of Chinese
music theatre can be traced to the Han dynasty variety plays (baixi) performed by actors or puppets.
After the collapse of the Han dynasty in 220 CE, China experienced four centuries of social and cultural
unrest, during which a succession of dynasties rose and fell. Musically, it was a time of drastic changes
and tenacious continuities. The tradition of multi-movement suites of songs, instrumental music and
dance continued; further musical exchanges took place between Han and various non-Han peoples;
and Confucian theorists such as Jing Fang (77–3 BCE), He Chengtian (370–447 CE) and Xun Xu (d 289
CE) pushed their technical and cosmological explanations of music to theoretical limits. Meanwhile
Chinese music culture was transformed by the universal acceptance of Buddhism, which originated in
India, and by music and musical instruments imported from Central and West Asia. By the time of the
Northern and Southern dynasties 420–589 CE), Buddhism had totally merged with indigenous ways of
life. As demonstrated by numerous documents, paintings and sculptures, Buddhism introduced new
genres and practices, notably a form of vocal liturgy (fanbei) that featured melismatic melodies for
multi-syllabic words that specify no linguistic tones – Chinese words are monosyllabic and tone-
specific. Buddhism also transformed musical practices by appropriating indigenous tunes and venues
to chant sutras, perform rituals and teach religious doctrine.
As this musical and cultural transformation unfolded, China embraced instruments imported from
various cultures located in the west of China proper (fig.2). Four of these later became important
components of the entertainment music of the Sui (581–618) and Tang (618–907) courts and are
prominently featured in visual representations of the genre: the bent-neck pipa (quxiang pipa), a pear-
shaped lute with four strings and four frets, which originated in Persia; the bili, a short, double-reed
pipe with eight finger-holes brought to China proper by musicians from what is now Kuqa in Xinjiang
province; the konghou, a vertical harp, perhaps also from Persia; and the jiegu, an hourglass drum. The
acceptance of these imported instruments generated not only new repertories and performing
practices but also new music theories. The pipa, for example, carried with it a theory of musical modes
that subsequently led to the Sui and Tang theory of 84 musical modes.
Page 16 of 123
Ensemble accompanying a dance performance, from the Liangzhou area on the Silk Road, with (left to right)
hourglass drum, end-blown flute, plucked lute and plucked zither; from a mural in Jiuquan, Gansu province,
c400 CE
Against this backdrop of imported music and musical instruments, indigenous traditions continued to
develop both at court and among the general populace. By the Jin dynasty (266–420 CE), the Han multi-
movement suites had evolved into a music called Qingshang yue. Considered to represent Han Chinese
music, it stood in contrast to repertories that were wholly or partially imported. These repertories
eventually led to the rise of the entertainment music performed at the Sui and Tang courts. Like the
Qingshang yue, qin music was also maturing into a creative and sophisticated tradition of instrumental
music. Ji Kang’s Qin fu (Essay on qin music) describes performing techniques such as double-stops and
ornamental notes. Challenging orthodox Confucian aesthetics that music should not be used to indulge
visual and auditory senses, such techniques represented attempts to manipulate sounds as creative
expressions, not mechanical reflections of human emotions or mental states. Theoretical underpinning
for these departures can be found in Ji Kang’s argument that musical sounds have no inherent sadness
or happiness.
After four centuries of social and cultural turbulence, China enjoyed peace and prosperity in the early
part of the Tang dynasty, and Chinese music achieved a high point that has had few parallels. Almost
600 folk and popular song texts are still preserved in anthologies. New genres also evolved from folk
and religious contexts. Buddhist monks played a significant role in the early development of the
‘transformation text’ (bianwen), a narrative genre, a branch of which tells Buddhist stories; it
foreshadowed the blossoming of narrative singing in the Song and subsequent dynasties. During the
Tang, theatrical dances such as the ‘adjutant plays’ (canjun xi) and the ‘stepping and singing
woman’ (tayao niang) became popular. The former is a comical dance ridiculing disgraced officials,
while the latter features a drunkard and his complaining wife; they are often seen as prototypes of
Chinese opera. At the same time, literati produced numerous shi poems that could be sung as art
songs; traces of the singing style of Tang poetry can still be found today in the qin songs.
Page 17 of 123
Written to express diverse emotions and to celebrate various social occasions and interactions, many
Tang shi poems are also informative historical records, describing musicians, musical activities and
practices. The Pipa xing (Pipa journey) of the great Tang poet Bai Juyi (772–846) vividly describes a
female musician playing the pipa, evoking the artistic sophistication of Tang music. Similarly, a poem
by Li Ye, a Tang courtesan, projects vivid images of qin music, with metaphors of sharp cliffs and
gushing streams, echoing the complex performing techniques described by Zhao Yeli (563–639) and
other professional performers of the time, and showing that music brought together people of different
social status. Such a flourishing of qin music also demanded well-made instruments. Qin made by the
Lei family of Sichuan were highly acclaimed. The few Tang qin still surviving in leading museums, such
as the Shōsōin in Nara (Japan) and the Palace Museum in Beijing, reveal both organological and
decorative mastery; besides their role as musical instruments, qin were also valued by the élite as
objets d’art.
As one of the most powerful governments in Chinese history, monopolizing tremendous human and
material resources, the Tang court created several musical institutions. The Dayueshu (Office of Grand
Music) and Guchuishu (Office of Drum-and-Wind Music) oversaw elaborate systems of state sacrificial
music and military music. Documented in the Kaiyuan li (Rites of the Kaiyuan period) of 732 and other
sources, the Tang system of state sacrificial music was so exhaustive that it became a model for
subsequent dynasties.
Achievements in ritual music, however, paled beside those in entertainment music. In the mid-7th
century the Tang court featured ten kinds of ethnic banquet music (yanyue): indigenous Chinese music,
music that combined Chinese and non-Chinese elements, and musics from Bukhara, Cambodia, India,
Kashgar, Korea, Kuqa, Samarkand and Turfan. Moreover, through the Jiaofang (Office of Entertainment
Music) and the Liyuan (Pear Garden), the Tang court trained numerous musicians, many of whom were
female, to perform a variety of songs, instrumental music and dances. Dance was a prominent
component of Tang entertainment music; many Tang pieces are labelled as dances, such as the
celebrated ‘twirling dance’ (huxuan wu). Only the best of the trained musicians would be allowed to
perform for the emperor after passing many levels of musical examinations.
Music flourished under the reign of the great artistic patron Xuanzong (712–56), and the Kaiyuan
period (713–41) of his reign is traditionally considered one of the golden ages of Chinese arts. A
repertory of 14 large-scale works emerged and was classified as sitting and standing music (libuji,
zuobuji). A refined genre called faqu thrived, incorporating Buddhist and Daoist elements into multi-
movement suites; Xuanzong actually participated in the teaching and performance of it. In 754,
Xuanzong issued an edict to sinicize titles of musical works that included foreign elements. For
example, the title Boluomen, clearly of Indian Buddhist origin, was changed to Nishang yuyi qu (‘Music
of the Rainbow Feather Dress’), a title that subsequently became a metaphor for exquisite music.
Though only a fragment of this piece has been preserved in notation, early literary sources describe it
as an extensive work exemplifying the tripartite structure of the Tang dynasty suite (daqu). It began
with six movements of instrumental music in free rhythm (sanxu), continued with 18 movements of
lyrical songs and dances accompanied by instrumental music (zhongxu), and concluded with 12
movements of gradually accelerating music and dances.
In later ages Xuanzong was well remembered for his musical patronage. His Liyuan academy has
become a symbol of music, professional musicians and their institutions, and numerous stories and
dramas have been written and performed to describe his love for the imperial concubine Yang Guifei
and their music. The day Yang was invested, Nishang yuyi qu was performed inside the palace.
Page 18 of 123
Tang dynasty music culture is copiously described in Chinese sources. Apart from official records such
as the Yueshu yaolu (Essential records of music documents), a treatise of music theory compiled during
the reign of Empress Wu (684–704), and the ‘Old’ (945) and ‘New’ (1061) official histories of the Tang,
many informal sources of the time describe musicians and their careers. A Kaiyuan period document,
the Jiaofang ji (Record of the Office of Entertainment Music), for instance, describes Cao Miaoda and
Duan Shanben as master pipa players of the time, and Li Guinian as a virtuoso of the bili pipe and jiegu
drum. Similarly, the Yuefu zalu (Miscellaneous records of the Office of Music), compiled at the end of
the Tang dynasty, reports competitions between pipa masters such as Kang Kunlun and Duan Shanben,
revealing how audiences knew leading performers and championed their talents. Such descriptions
also show the contacts between folk and élite musicians, contexts and repertories. Thus Tang
entertainment music (yanyue), described in most early sources as courtly, was not unknown among
common people. Court musicians who were commoners before being drafted into court service, and
who later retired back to ordinary life, must have stimulated exchanges between court and populace.
Individual musicians naturally contributed to the spread of Tang entertainment music. A story about
Yongxin, a female singer, is revealing: even after she was drafted into court service, people
remembered her, and once the emperor Xuanzong had to ask her to sing to appease a boisterous
audience of commoners at a festive event.
Further evidence of the appeal of Tang entertainment music is its export to Japan. There, it led to the
rise of gagaku (see Japan, §V), a tradition of court music and dance that still lives on in Japan today,
providing a precious means for scholars to probe the mysteries of Tang entertainment music. For
example, through his pioneering studies, Hayashi Kenzō established musical relationships between
gagaku and Tang music; similarly, by transcribing notated music preserved in medieval Japanese
sources, Laurence Picken and his colleagues have produced anthologies of ‘Music from the Tang
Court’.
The only substantial and verifiable notated source of Tang music to have survived in China itself is a
set of 25 pieces from 933 discovered at Dunhuang. These have been much studied, both in China (by
scholars such as Ye Dong, Chen Yingshi and He Changlin) and in Japan and the West; though the
transcriptions are still controversial, the source has stimulated the study of Tang music and dance.
Tang performing practice and modal theory have become major topics for scholarly debates, while
‘reconstructed’ and ‘imitation’ Tang music and dance have become widely known through
performances and audio and video recordings and have influenced new compositions.
4. Song to Yuan dynasties (960–1368).

Joseph S.C. Lam
Chinese music culture followed a path that was open and international in nature during the Tang, but it
changed direction during the Song dynasty (960–1279); as new forces emerged, China turned inwards.
Non-Han empires arose along China’s northern and western borders; neo-Confucianism and new civil
values were propounded; a powerful and privileged class of scholar-officials emerged; and commoners
in urban centres gained economic empowerment. The result of the change in direction, however, was a
selectively retrospective and creative music culture, with an intensifying conflict between ‘proper’ and
‘vernacular’ music. It is to this period that the direct roots of traditional Chinese music today can be
traced.
Page 19 of 123
Indicative of the retrospective elements in Song music culture are state sacrificial music and formal
discourses on ‘proper’ music. For example, the Zhongxing lishu (a compilation of ritual and music of
the Southern Song) of the 1180s shows that state sacrificial music of the time emulated ancient
models. The ritual pieces notated in the document follow prescriptions for musical modes listed in the
ancient text of the Zhouli; its melodies were sung in a syllabic style, reflecting scholar-officials’
interpretations of ancient music as having been sung syllabically. From Chen Yang’s Yueshu of 1104, a
musical encyclopedia that comprehensively collates ancient texts about music, it is also clear that
music discourse had become dependent on classical descriptions and historical models. Even the great
neo-Confucianist Zhu Xi (1130–1200) cited historical sources to illustrate his doubts about whether the
syllabic style of singing was an authentic feature of ancient music: in his Yili jingchuan tongjie (General
survey of ritual) he presented the notated music of Zhao Yanshu’s 12 ritual songs, attributed to the
Kaiyuan period (713–41) of the Tang dynasty.
This interest in ancient music and dependency on historical data were instrumental in widening the
gap between theory and practice. A case in point is the solution devised by Cai Yuanding (1135–98) for
the problem of ‘going without return’ (wang’ er bufan), a theory clearly explicated in his Lülü xinshu
(New treatise of music theory). The pitches produced with the traditional cycle of 5ths method
contradict the technical and cosmological understanding that the 12 standard pitches (lülü) are
equidistant and cyclical, and that they would form complete octaves and scales that allow unrestricted
transpositions; to resolve the contradiction, Cai proposed the use of six supplementary notes, but they
never found their way into actual music-making.
Many innovations also reveal the creative aspect of Song dynasty music culture. Rooted in the shi
poetry of the literati and in more popular songs, a new wave of ci lyrics and compositional techniques
appeared. Repeated use of pre-existing melodies and established textual structure led to innovatory
ways of creating variety. To generate rhythmic interest, for example, additional words could be
inserted into a pre-existing textual and melodic phrase, such as one with seven words, entailing
rhythmic and melodic changes. Alternatively, the number of words in standardized phrases might be
decreased; to delete or fill the vacated space, the melody could either be truncated or some of its notes
lengthened. More drastic transformations were also possible: melodic phrases from different songs
could be arbitrarily assembled to make new songs, while complete tunes could be recast into different
music modes. These variational and compositional techniques were probably rooted in the tradition of
multi-movement suites. Unlike their Tang predecessors with 30 or more movements, Song dynasty
suites became more compact, most having no more than ten movements.
Ci poetry is so inherently musical that one of its greatest authors is also one of the few documented
composers in Chinese music history. Jiang Kui (1155–1221) did not have a career as a scholar-official,
although in 1197 he submitted to the court a proposal for ‘proper music’. Supported by friends and
patrons, Jiang created ci songs such as Yangzhou man (Song of Yangzhou), popular ever since its
creation. Besides authoring poetic texts, Jiang also composed and notated the melodies of his lyrics,
which are valuable evidence for Song dynasty music. The notation Jiang used is a forerunner of the
gongche notation that began to appear in many notated sources by at least the 17th century and is still
used by many traditional musicians today. Reflecting its probable origin in tablatures for wind
instruments, Jiang used 18 symbols precisely indicating pitches, and other signs to suggest rhythm; the
version of gongche notation that later became common uses nine characters to specify pitches and
three symbols to mark cyclical structure of beats and rhythmic divisions. Table 2 compares five Chinese
systems of pitch names/notation with their Western counterparts.
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In addition to ci songs, Song dynasty Chinese also sang a variety of art songs, including the
changzhuan, sung to the accompaniment of drum, flute and clappers. This genre is significant because
it displays Song attempts to organize individual songs into extended structures: typically a changzhuan
includes a prelude, a modally unified sequence of several songs (or an alternation between two
individual songs) and a coda. It foreshadows a basic structural principle of Chinese music (qupai ti): by
arranging a number of labelled and pre-existent tunes into modally and structurally unified sequences,
they can be used as building blocks to create very extensive works, such as a music drama of more
than 50 scenes. The individual and pre-existent tunes are called labelled melodies (qupai), whose
melodic, rhythmic, rhyme, phrasal and other structure can be adapted to match different texts and
expressive needs.
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With the establishment of entertainment quarters in urban centres, Song China saw the rise of a whole
class of music masters, most of whom were professionals vying to create various genres to satisfy the
expressive and entertainment demands of an increasingly affluent urban class. One such genre that
deeply affected subsequent musical history is narrative singing (see §IV, 1, (ii) below), in which one or
two performers tell long stories, often over a series of performances, by singing and speaking in the
first and third persons. One major form in the Song dynasty was the zhugongdiao (‘medley’), the
creation of which was attributed to a professional entertainer called Kong Sanchuan (fl 1080s). Mature
samples of the genre could be structurally very extensive: the Xixiangji zhugongdiao (‘Medley of the
Romance of the West Chamber’), attributed to Dong Jieyuan (fl 1190s), for example, employs 14
different musical modes and more than 150 labelled melodies.
Mature samples of narrative singing can easily become theatrical; if musicians of narrative singing put
on make-up and wear costumes, sing, recite, dance and act on stage and in the first person, the result
is understood as music theatre or opera (xi, ju, xiju). Song dynasty China had several forms of musical
theatre, including the zaju (variety plays) and nanxi (southern opera), which developed in northern and
southern China respectively. Whereas little is known about the zaju, the rise of nanxi is better
documented. It first appeared in Wenzhou, Hangzhou and other coastal cities of central-eastern China
and then spread nationally. Its music, which involved vocal solos and duets, ensemble singing as well
as instrumental playing, originated from folksong and is thus noted for a flexibility and creativity that
are not harnessed by theoretical prescriptions. The Zhangxie zhuangyuan (‘Zhangxie, First Imperial
Candidate’), one of the three earliest known samples of nanxi, shows its maturity. Actors took specified
male and female roles, venues included stages with promotional signs, and audiences often paid
admission fees.
Song dynasty China also made significant advances in instruments and instrumental music. A free-reed
mouth organ (sheng) was developed with 19 pipes, tuned to allow octave doublings and modal
transpositions; marking a range of two octaves and a 3rd, the pipes played 12 regular pitches
(zhengsheng) that constituted a central and complete octave, three low pitches (zhuosheng) chosen
from the octave below and four clear pitches (qingsheng) from the octave above. Though the 19-pipe
sheng did not become popular, it reminds us not only of the organological innovations of the time but
also of the general importance of the sheng in later history: as the only traditional Chinese instrument
that can produce sustained sounds of more than one pitch, it is still indispensable in many traditional
ensembles today.
Another revealing case is the xiqin, a two-string fiddle of the Xi people of northern China that became
widely used by commoners in the Song dynasty. As described and illustrated in Chen Yang’s Yueshu,
the xiqin, which was played not with a bow but with a thin strip of bamboo, is a rather distant
prototype of the two-string fiddles in use today, but the enduring tradition of using two-string fiddles to
accompany narrative singing and opera may be traced to the Song dynasty.
While folk instruments and music developed, qin music was favoured by professionals and élite
amateurs. Zhu Changwen’s Qinshi (Qin history) of 1084 records some of the distinctive qin schools (pai)
then being founded, with genealogies of teachers and disciples. Apart from composing and performing,
the musicians promoted their schools and aesthetics by producing anthologies of qin tablatures. For
instance, Yang Zuan’s Zixiadong pu [Qin score of Purple Cloud Cave], an influential collection of 468
melodies, established Yang’s ‘Zhe school’ as a leader in Song dynasty qin music; though the collection
is now lost, traces of its contents and influences can still be found in Ming sources. The rise of qin
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schools, with their genealogies and notated anthologies, illustrates the importance of master-pupil
transmission in schools with distinctive musical and aesthetic styles and in communities held together
by geographical and social bonds.
Song dynasty music culture was so tailored to the needs of the populace that its course of development
survived the powerful, non-Han impact of the brief Mongol Yuan dynasty (1279–1368). Nevertheless,
the Yuan too left a permanent mark on Chinese literature and music theatre. Many Han literati and
artists who, voluntarily or involuntarily, did not serve the Mongolian court poured their creative energy
into the new drama (zaju) of the time. Indeed, the surviving repertory of over 150 Yuan dramas shows
musical as much as literary mastery. Each of the four acts in a typical drama, such as Dou′e yuan
(‘Injustice Done to Dou′e’), is a sequence of arias unified by a common mode and structure and sung by
either a male or female performer accompanied by flute, drums, clappers and other instruments. As
described in Zi An’s Changlun (Treatise on singing), Yuan drama arias, called beiqu (northern arias),
used 17 modes, each of which was said to have distinctive musical and expressive qualities. For
example, arias in the xianlü gong mode were considered pure, fresh, continuous and far-reaching,
while those of the nanlü gong modes were described as emotive and melancholic. What these poetic
and emotive descriptions meant in musical terms remains to be examined, but they attest to Yuan
people’s concern for musical and dramatic expression.
Yuan drama arias were also sung with a sophisticated vocal technique, as Zi An’s descriptions again
show. Judging from notated samples preserved in Qing dynasty sources, melodies from Yuan drama
featured heptatonic scales, energetic rhythm and melodic contours that are generally compatible with
the rise and fall of linguistic tones in Mandarin, the official language of contemporary China, not
unrelated to what was spoken in Yuan China. Judging from historical evidence and titles of the arias,
the pre-existent labelled melodies came from a variety of sources, including Tang and Song suites, ci
lyrics and changzhuan. Yuan drama marked a momentous advance in the expressive culture of China,
and it still remains an integral part of literary and musical China.
While Yuan drama dominated the music culture of its time, it was only one of many old and new types
of music practised then (fig.3). The Yuan court, for example, performed not only orthodox state
sacrificial music but also elaborate banquet music that included non-Han songs and dances such as the
Weiwuer preserved in the Da Ming jili (Collected ceremonials of the Great Ming) of 1370. Non-Han
influences were also heard outside the Mongolian court. The famous pipa piece Haiqing na tian′e
(‘Eagle Captures the Swan’) was created in Yuan China; a vivid portrayal of falconry, the piece was
widely performed at the time and still remains in the repertory today. Folk traditions of songs,
narrative singing, instrumental music and dances were often interrelated. For example, Huolang′er
(‘Peddler’s Ditty’), a type of folksong originating from peddlers’ musical calls, became a form of
narrative singing and a type of Yuan drama melody noted for its melodic variations.
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Daoist ensemble with di transverse flute, yunluo frame of gongs, sheng mouth organ, paiban clappers and
yaogu hourglass drum, from a mural in the Yongle gong temple, Shanxi province, 1358 CE
5. Ming to Qing dynasties (1368–1911).

Joseph S.C. Lam
When the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) came to power, China was once again ruled by Han Chinese, and
indigenous culture regained centre stage. The creativity of Ming musicians was again based on
tradition. As demonstrated by the Taichang xukao (Expanded monograph of the Court of State
Sacrifices), Ming state sacrificial music of the 1530s employed orthodox elements, such as the use of
bell-chimes, but used pentatonic and flowing vocal melodies that reflect mid- and late-Ming
preferences. In the same way, though Lü Nan (1479–1542), Zhu Zaiyu (1536–1610) and other theorist-
composers followed Song dynasty models of composing antiquarian melodies to sing lyrics from the
Shijing, their melodies reflected their creativity and aesthetic ideals.
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A monument to the change and continuity between Ming and earlier times is Zhu Zaiyu’s late 16th-
century Yuelü quanshu (Collected works of music theory). While this encyclopedia presents what is
probably the earliest theory of 12 tempered pitches in world history, it also preserves Zhu’s critique of
the theoretical works of many leading Song and Ming predecessors, including Cai Yuanding, Li Wenli
(jinshi degree 1480) and Li Wencha (fl 1540s). Another seminal Ming work is the 1425 qin score Shenqi
mipu (Wondrous and secret notation) by Zhu Quan; a notated anthology of 64 qin pieces, it not only
preserves music from the Song dynasty and earlier but also demonstrates Ming qin musicianship and
scholarship. Besides notated music, many Ming qin anthologies include descriptive programme notes
on individual works, detailed instructions for performance techniques and penetrating discussions on
historical and theoretical issues. Yan Cheng’s (1547–1625) Songxian guan qinpu (Qin score of the Pines
and Silk Studio), for example, preserves the repertory of the Yushan school, promoting an aesthetic
pursuit of music that is ‘clear, subtle, light and broad’ (qing, wei, dan, yuan), and revealing artistic
tensions between the instrumental and vocal branches of the genre.
That Ming music culture was not a simple continuation of inherited music is most evident in its music
theatre. This form blossomed with the rise of chuanqi drama, a genre that grew out of nanxi but
generated new regional vocal styles, known as qiang or shengqiang and traditionally classified as
nanqu (southern arias). By the middle of the Ming dynasty, four major regional styles had appeared:
Haiyan qiang, Yiyang qiang, Yuyao qiang and Kunqiang. Kunqiang (or Kunqu) originated in the Kunshan
area of Jiangsu and is noted for its florid and slow melodies that perfectly match lyrics enunciated in
the Wu dialect. As a lyrical style of singing that was often performed with elegant dances, Kunqiang
was popular among the élite and was performed wherever they lived. It was a major factor in the
development of chuanqi, many late Ming examples of which were performed as Kunqiang operas.
Wanshaji (‘Washing Silk’) by Liang Zhenyu (1519–c1591) and Mudan ting (‘Peony Pavilion’) by Tang
Xianzu (1550–1616), for example, were both musical and literary milestones. As reported by Wang
Qide (d 1623), a Ming scholar and critic of music theatre, the success of Wanshaji made performers and
audiences ignore the old northern arias. Similarly, the Yiyang qiang style first appeared during the
Yuan dynasty in the Yiyang area of Jiangxi. Its robust style features solo singing punctuated by choral
refrains and loud percussion accompaniment. As it spread all over China, Yiyang qiang acquired
different local characters, generating many regional genres by the mid- and late Qing, including what
is now known as Beijing Opera.
While operatic and professional music flourished in Ming China, trends were also evident in folk and
popular songs. Shen Defu (1578–1642) reported that around the turn of the 17th century the urban
ditties Dazaogan and Guazhi′er were so popular that they were sung by all, regardless of gender, age,
social status and geographical location. As clear from the song texts collected and edited by Feng
Menglong (1574–1646), late Ming folk and popular songs are emotive and candid; some are even
bawdy. Such songs challenged Confucian notions of ‘proper’ music and of using music as a means of
governance and self-cultivation, though at the same time reflecting the Confucian theory that music is
a sincere expression of hearts and minds. Indeed, this is one reason why the Ming élite collected
commoners’ songs and emulated them as authentic (zhen) expressions, comparing them to the regional
airs (guofeng) preserved in the Shijing of antiquity.
While late Ming songs display increasingly populist sentiments and urban settings, fictional sources
such as the Jinping mei (Golden lotus), a late Ming novel, portray China, notably the Jiangnan (lower
Yangtze) area, as a society of lavish lifestyles in which music was a constant part of daily life. It was
performed inside rich households by familial, often female, musicians, many of whom were highly
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gifted. Outside familial quarters, many professionals, from itinerant operatic troupes to individual
courtesans, also performed a large variety of music (fig.4). This blooming of music culture was
temporarily interrupted by the turbulent events during the transition from Ming to Qing but soon
recovered during the peaceful and prosperous times of the early Qing.
Early Qing dynasty (c1700) painting illustrating chapter 63 of the novel Jinping mei. A dramatic
performance for a wealthy household is accompanied by an ensemble of tiqin bowed fiddle, sanxian lute,
sheng mouth organ, di transverse flute and yunluo frame of gongs
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The Qing rulers (1644–1911) were Manchurians, but far from marginalizing Han culture they
appropriated and promoted it alongside their own. As a result, Chinese music continued to develop
along a course that had been set since the Song dynasty, while collecting distinctively Qing
characteristics. Like its predecessors, the Qing court performed Confucian state sacrificial music, sang
songs from the Shijing and instituted elaborate programmes of banquet music. Similarly, the élite
continued its love of Kunqu operas, qin music and other ‘refined’ genres, while the common people
continued to produce folk and popular songs, narrating stories with a fixed sequence of melodies (fig.
5), and celebrating ritual as well as daily activities with music of gongs, drums and wind instruments.
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‘The Pilgrimage to Miaofengshan’ (Miaofengshan jinxiang tu) Qing dynasty, showing folk narrative singing
for the temple fair on the mountain, with singer accompanying himself on drum and clappers, with sanxian
lute player (midway down on the left)
What separates the musical worlds of Ming and Qing China is neither a marked shift of genres nor a
fundamental change in aesthetics, but modifications in repertories, styles and structures. For instance,
during the Qing, the Kunqiang and Yiyang qiang styles competed to dominate music theatre. With the
tremendous success of Changsheng dian (‘Palace of Eternal Youth’) by Hong Sheng (1645–1704) and
Daohuashan (‘Peach Flower Fan’) by Kong Shangren (1648–1718), Kunqiang dominated the literary and
musical world of the early Qing. Nevertheless, by the mid-Qing, Kunqiang was deemed too refined by
the general audience, and a variety of regional operatic styles emerged to claim leadership. Yangzhou,
a city famous for its entertainment quarters, became a site where refined and vernacular musics
competed for audiences’ attention. Nevertheless, it was in the capital, Beijing, that artistic prominence
could be definitively established: no genre could become nationally successful without the patronage of
the court and the scholar-officials. Beijing opera originated in the local theatre of Anhui province, an
indirect descendant of Yiyang qiang; a prototype of the genre reached Beijing in 1790, featuring a form
known as banqiang ti, music that is constructed with a limited number of melodies and rhythmic
procedures that are set to lyrics of fixed phrase structure and diverse verbal meanings. Beijing opera
soon evolved into a sophisticated performance art and dominated music theatre: the banqiang ti form
appeals with its straightforward music intelligibility, in which a maximum of expressiveness is achieved
with a minimum of musical material.
What also separates Ming and Qing is the amount of notated music they have bequeathed to posterity.
Musical notation was known and used in Ming China; documents such as the Wenlin jubao wanquan
xinluo (Comprehensive collection of scattered treasures for scholars) of 1600 leaves no doubt that the
late Ming used gongche notation, the predominant form found in Qing sources. Little Ming notation
has been preserved, however. The wealth of Qing notation is easily explained by factors such as its
temporal proximity with contemporary China, the Qing tradition of empirical scholarship, imperial
efforts to collect and organize all kinds of documents and knowledge, and changing perceptions of
musical works. After the mid-Qing, notation also seems to have begun to assume a more significant
role in the transmission of music, especially that of the upper classes; much of commoners’ music was
transmitted orally until recent decades.
Given the tenacious continuity found in the histories of many genres of traditional Chinese music, and
given that most historical scores were produced by musicians who performed the music they notated,
Qing notated sources evidently involve much more than music of their own times. Indeed, most seem
to include traces of pre-Qing music that is otherwise lost, preserving genres that had been orally
transmitted long before the Qing. Most extensive of such scores is the Jiugong dacheng nanbeici
gongpu (Comprehensive anthology of texts and notation of Southern and Northern arias in nine modes)
of 1746, a gigantic collection in 81 fascicles. Preserving the notated music of 2094 labelled melodies
and their variants from numerous operas, it is now the largest single source of operatic arias once
sung in Yuan, Ming and Qing China (fig.6a). The Taigu quanzong (Arias from ancient times) of 1749
preserves not only operatic music of the early Qing but also pipa arias from the late Ming. Ye Tang’s
1792 collection of Kunqu arias, the Nashuying qupu, preserves the melodies he composed for singing
many Ming and Qing dramatic texts, including the four ‘dream’ operas of Tang Xianzu, one of the most
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influential playwrights in Chinese history. Ye Tang’s collection is also valuable because his
compositions and style of singing Kunqu arias have been indirectly but continuously transmitted to the
present; the Kunqu music of Yu Zhenfei, one of the most respected singer-actors of 20th-century China,
can trace its lineage to Ye Tang’s music. Xie Yuanhuai’s Cuijin cipu (Notated register of ci songs) of
1847 represents Qing scholar-musicians’ historical understanding of ci music of Song dynasty China
and attempts to reconstruct and perform it.
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Vocal and instrumental gongche notations: (a) from Jiugong dacheng nanbeici gongpu (1746), a vast manual
containing lyrics and gongche notation for 4466 arias; the text occupies the main vertical columns (read top
to bottom, from left to right), with gongche notation in smaller characters to the right; (b) pieces from the
Shifan gu instrumental ensemble repertory, from the Juntian miaoyue score of 1781; circles to right of main
columns denote beats
As to instrumental scores, Rong Zhai’s unique Xiansuo beikao of 1814 notates the heterophonic music
of a string ensemble. Rong Zhai confirmed that his score notates traditional music that he learnt orally,
affirming that music notated often predates the time when the notation is produced. Hua Qiuping’s
pipa score of 1818 includes a repertory of 58 pieces, some of which, such as the Shimian maifu
(‘Ambush from All Sides’) and Yue′er gao (‘The Moon on High’), had long been traditional favourites
and remain so today. The maturity of the notation used in the anthology attests to the historical roots of
the music and its transmission.
As the Qing dynasty collapsed in 1911, two millennia of imperial rule came to an end. Nevertheless, the
traditions bequeathed from imperial times did not cease. Many operatic and instrumental genres
flourished with new aesthetics and innovatory practices, while some more conservative genres such as
ritual music and the qin were authentically maintained by intellectual and regional communities. Even
state sacrificial music survived: Confucian ceremonial music, which originated as ritual music
performed during state sacrifices honouring Confucius, a tradition that began soon after the
philosopher’s death in 479 BCE, is now performed during public worship of Confucius in Taipei, Qufu
and other Chinese communities inside and outside mainland China.
6. Since 1911.
Jonathan P.J. Stock
The history of music in 20th-century China is inseparable from broader national and intercultural
trends. While many traditional performance styles have been sustained, others have been adapted or
completely reformed. Some ancient genres have been reconstructed from historical records, and
certain entirely new Chinese genres have been created. Modern China has also become a fertile site
for the composition, performance and reception of musical styles from the West and Japan. In urban
centres particularly, a substantial spectrum of foreign musical theory and practice has been adopted,
from equal temperament and staff notation to choral singing, symphonic concerts, rock music and kala-
OK (karaoke). Stimulated by the advent of new institutions and technologies, most obviously sound
broadcasting, and impinged upon by broader social and political developments, there has been a
reformation of the ways in which music – including older traditional forms – is envisaged by large
segments of Chinese society. Nonetheless, cultural exchange has not been a one-way process: certain
styles of Chinese music have acquired an international reputation during this period.
A brief chronological outline of the main political events of this period will orientate the musical
discussion that follows. In 1911, the Manchu Qing dynasty was overthrown by an alliance of Chinese
reformists. The Republic of China was established one year later, although large parts of the nation
were controlled by warlords and foreign powers. The Nationalist Party, led by Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-
shek), partially reunified the country by the early 1930s, repressing the nascent Communist party, but
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the country was torn apart by the ‘War of Resistance’ to invasion from Japan (1937–45). After the
defeat of Japan, the Communists, whose support had grown significantly in rural China, were
victorious in a civil war against the Nationalists; while Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the
People’s Republic of China in 1949, the Nationalists perpetuated the Republic of China on the island of
Taiwan. In the 1950s agricultural production was collectivized into a large-scale commune system, and
in the cities, industries and shops were nationalized. Mao Zedong’s disastrous attempt at instant
industrialization, the Great Leap Forward (1958), led to a famine in which millions of peasants died.
Temporarily discredited, Mao seized power again during the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), when he
encouraged rival bands of teenage Red Guards to rove the nation assaulting all signs – and
practitioners – of traditional and foreign culture. Eventually order was restored, and many of these
youths were themselves exiled to the country for re-education. From 1980, the Maoist commune
system was dismantled; public-sector commerce and industry and state-sponsored cultural units were
severely cut, and traditions that the new liberal climate had allowed to revive were now influenced by
new popular culture.
Much musical change in 20th-century China results from the encounter of Chinese society with facets
of Western political, economic and cultural life. Late 19th-century Chinese reformers saw the greater
military and economic might of foreign nations as a result of their modern patterns of culture, and
sought to replicate such patterns in China. The political revolution culminating in the overthrow of the
Qing dynasty was thus paralleled – at least in urban society – by a simultaneous but longer-lasting
movement for cultural reform (later called the May Fourth Movement) summed up in the slogan
‘Chinese essence, Western means’. Music reformers took part in this cultural movement, attempting to
reinvent existing traditions along Western-influenced lines.
Western music itself had been introduced to China by musicians employed to add pomp to early
Western diplomatic, religious and military expeditions. During the 17th and 18th centuries, for
instance, Jesuit priests used music to interest the Qing emperors in European culture and ideas.
However, it was only in the second half of the 19th century that significant impact occurred. A new
wave of missionaries imported Western instruments and encouraged collective singing, uncommon in
Chinese religious practices, as a means of instructing converts. The Christian-influenced rebel Hong
Xiuquan (1814–68) borrowed hymn tunes (including ‘Old Hundred’) and the idea of cementing group
identity through communal singing when founding the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1851). Missionaries
also produced and disseminated hymn books using a form of cipher notation (jianpu) based on the
system of Emile J.M. Chevé. This notation remains widely used today.
Military and educational reformers also adopted Western-style mass singing. Illiterate army recruits
memorized regulations through singing, and school curricula from the early years of the 20th century
provided for the performance of new songs. Songs were also composed by activists in many of China’s
new social and political movements. Singing mobilized mass boycotts of imported goods and broadcast
news of foreign encroachments upon Chinese sovereignty. The creators of these songs were often
foreign-trained intellectuals, such as the linguist Zhao Yuanren (Yuen Ren Chao, 1892–1982) and
musicologist-composer Huang Zi (1904–38). Important composers of political songs include Xian
Xinghai and Nie Er, who contributed numerous songs to Communist efforts to overthrow the Republic
of China. Some basic aspects of later Communist cultural policy were formulated during the war
against Japan from the Communist headquarters at Yan′an in Shaanxi province, where new works such
as yangge operas (fig.7) and folksong were adapted from traditional models to reflect the political
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struggle. More often new diatonic or pentatonic melodies were composed, along with harmonic
accompaniments written for piano, accordion or other instruments. The composition and performance
of these songs continued throughout the 20th century, reaching a peak during the Cultural Revolution
and declining in importance thereafter.
‘Brother and Sister Clear Wasteland’, a new yangge drama performed for a mass audience by the Luyi
Propaganda Troupe in Yan′an, 1943
The import of Western entertainment technology to Chinese cities in the 1920s was also significant.
For example, a new genre of film song was created, with singing stars drawing on jazz, among other
foreign styles, in the 1930s. The introduction of radio stimulated the spread of the new genre of
Cantonese ensemble music.
A third strand of Western-influenced musical activity was the establishment in China of a network of
teacher training colleges, music conservatories, research institutes and university departments.
Initiated during the 1920s, the curriculum at these institutions today includes Chinese traditional
instruments (erhu, pipa etc.) and instruction in Chinese musical history. However, students of Western-
style art music remain in the majority, and courses on Chinese music have been closely modelled on
Western methods. Those who studied indigenous traditions tended to combine a broadly nationalist
outlook with a progressive attitude towards existing Chinese musical traditions, their intent being to
develop a new musical language from the synthesis of Western and Chinese ingredients, the former
providing a ‘scientific’ and ‘modern’ basis and the latter national colour and identity. Beijing-based
music scholar Liu Tianhua, for instance, composed a series of ten solos for the two-string fiddle erhu,
which typify this aesthetic (ex.1). Indeed, the very idea of treating the erhu as a solo recital instrument
was itself a new one. Liu’s solos combine traditional Chinese elements, such as descriptive titles, with
Western ingredients, including aspects of violin technique and equal temperament. From the start,
they were disseminated in fixed form in notation, and the performer was expected to perform this
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music as written, not develop a personal realization, as in traditional music. Gradually, this
performance aesthetic was applied to older traditional pieces also. The establishment of the
conservatory system thus led not only to the rise of new musical styles in China but also to
transformations of performing practice and expectations.
Ex.1 A passage from Liu Tianhua’s solo for erhu, Bing zhong yin (‘Groaning in Sickness‘), in parallel cipher
and staff notations
The music composed and performed by the new conservatory-based musicians falls into two broad
categories: music for Western instruments, and Western-style voices and that for Chinese instruments
and voices (commonly called guoyue, ‘national music’). Some crossover pieces also exist. The former
category includes many pieces in nationalistic and social realist styles, testimony to the profound
impact of Russian and then Soviet teachers on several generations of Chinese composers. These pieces
rely mostly on indigenous folk-tune melodies (or original imitations of these) and the conventions of the
late-romantic tonal system. In some, pentatonic note-sets are used as a harmonic basis. Intended to
appeal widely to Chinese listeners, almost every mainland Chinese composition written between 1949
and about 1980 has a socialist programme or theme. A typical example is Ding Shande ‘Long March’
symphony (1959–62), commemorating the Communist army’s journey in 1934–5 from Jiangxi province
to a new headquarters at Yan′an. Music for Chinese instruments and voices includes solos such as
those of Liu Tianhua, harmonized arrangements of folk pieces and many new compositions for
ensembles and orchestras of redesigned Chinese instruments. In the main, these pieces share the
programmatic nature, sectional structure and musical language of those for Western instruments.
In parallel to the growth of the education network after 1949, numerous state-supported professional
performance ensembles (from symphony orchestras to song-and-dance troupes) were established, and
large factories were set up in principal cities to produce reformed and standardized musical
instruments, in some cases developing Western style SATB families for use in the new orchestra of
Chinese instruments. Pre-existing ensembles, such as privately run traditional opera troupes, were
nationalized and sent forth to educate the people at large. These troupes were expanded, gaining full-
time resident composers, directors, script-writers and other support personnel. Extemporization on the
part of singers was discouraged, with scripts now requiring the approval of a Communist Party official
prior to their performance. The performers of one local tradition were also encouraged to learn from
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those of another (many opera troupes adopted percussion music based on that of Beijing opera, for
instance). Accordingly, the 1950s and early 1960s can be viewed as an innovatory period in Chinese
cultural life.
The music conservatories and many urban professional performance units were closed down during
the Cultural Revolution, and much of their repertory, whether for Western or Chinese instruments, was
banned. Nonetheless, some composition and performance was allowed at this time, including the
combination of Western instruments and Beijing opera singing first assayed in 1968 with an
arrangement of songs from the revolutionary model opera Hongdeng ji (‘The Red Lantern’) by pianist
Yin Chengzong (b 1941) (ex.2). This was one of the few so-called ‘model operas’ (yangbanxi) passed for
performance by the cultural authorities. These operas have been criticized for reducing drama to a
moralistic triumph of good over evil, yet the music was regarded by many as very well crafted, and in
recent years there has been a resurgence of enthusiasm for several of these compositions.
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Ex.2 An excerpt from the revolutionary model opera Hongdeng ji (‘The Red Lantern’) here with piano
accompaniment
In the meantime, prospective music students were dispersed across the Chinese interior. Hitherto
mainly exposed to conservatory-mediated representations of national music, young composers such as
Tan Dun (b 1957) returned to the cities in the late 1970s with a real sense of the vibrancy of rural
musical styles. In the conservatories they now encountered a diverse range of contemporary Western
compositions, which political liberalization was finally allowing into China. Several of the most
successful members of the Chinese avant garde are now resident abroad, but even middle-generation
Page 35 of 123
composers within China have moved away from the composition of programmatic nationalist pieces to
combine techniques from Chinese folk and historical traditions and the whole range of 20th-century
Western styles.
Since about 1980, foreign popular music has been broadcast within China, and recordings sold in
music shops. Hong Kong and Taiwanese pop have been most successful, although Beijing also has a
small rock scene (see §IV, 6(ii) below). The national media industries have also produced immense
amounts of light music, which is disseminated on radio and television. Although political and cultural
freedom of expression have increased during the past two decades, the freezing of many government
subsidies since the 1980s has hit the large state-supported ensembles and educational institutions
particularly hard, and many have had to make redundancies. Many other staff have resigned as
inflation erodes their earnings and economic development allows greater financial rewards to be
reaped in the commercial sector. The general retreat of politicians from cultural matters has meant
that most musicians have lost the important social position they held from the 1950s.
In the countryside, where the majority of the Chinese population still resides, the picture is somewhat
different (see also §IV below). In some areas, older traditions were maintained throughout much of the
20th century, and elsewhere traditions stamped out (or introduced) by the political leadership have
reasserted themselves (or disappeared) once the political tide has turned – even in the Cultural
Revolution, some villages ignored governmental cultural dictates. Radio and television broadcasts and,
as in previous centuries, occasional visits by professional urban ensembles may supplement the
musical lives of the peasantry without much influencing the music they choose to make themselves.
Rural traditions, however, have not remained static. For instance, partial mechanization in some
agricultural regions has reduced the need for the singing of work songs, while some village bands now
include cover versions of the latest pop songs together with older music in their wedding repertory.
Old rituals may be shortened in the face of social pressure to limit wedding or funeral expenses, and
the gradually increasing availability of electricity has offered villagers new forms of musical
entertainment – people may watch television instead of joining a musical group. Political campaigns
have also had a decided impact. Early Communist movements against village landlords not only
redistributed land but also destroyed the social class who organized and sponsored many rural cultural
events. Likewise, campaigns against religious bodies broke up certain traditional performance groups
and, until recently, curtailed opportunities for the performance of musics – temple fairs, it should be
noted, formed the focus of a wide variety of musical events, including secular instrumental and
operatic music performed to entertain both mortals and gods. More recently, the opening of China to
the tourist trade has provided new contexts for musical performance, a case in point being the Naxi
minority’s dongjing ensemble music from Yunnan province (see §IV, 5(i) below). Here, an old ritual form
of music, once performed partly to assert cultural unity with the majority Han Chinese, has now
become an activity aimed at tourists and marked by ethnic difference, secularism and commercial gain.
Our picture of musical life in 20th-century China is still more detailed for the cities than for the
villages. It is easier to document the impact of rural styles on urban music, for example the rise in the
1980s of ‘Northwest wind’ (xibei feng)-style rock music, than vice versa. Nonetheless, political
liberalization since 1980 has allowed growing numbers of Chinese and foreign scholars to carry out
research into local musical traditions, and improved relations with the outside world have permitted a
greater number of Chinese musicians to perform abroad. We now have at least some sense of the
musical lives of ordinary Chinese people.
Page 36 of 123
Priority is given to recent work in Western languages, most of which refers extensively to Chinese
studies. A selection of Chinese scholarship is also given; see also §I, Bibliography, and Thrasher, 1993
(which also includes selected imperial sources).
Bibliography
General (see also §I, bibliography)

J.-M. Amiot: Mémoire sur la musique des Chinois, tant anciens que modernes, ed. P.J. Roussier
(Paris, 1779/R)
M. Courant: ‘Essai historique sur la musique classique des Chinois’, EMDC, I/v (Paris, 1922), 77–241
Wang Guangqi: Zhongguo yinyue shi [History of Chinese music] (Shanghai, 1934)
Zhongguo yinyue shi cankao tupian [Illustrations for reference on Chinese music history], ed. YYS (Shanghai
and Beijing, 1954–64)
Zhongguo gudian xiqu lunzhu jicheng [Anthology of writings on classical Chinese opera] (Shanghai, 1959/R)
Zhongguo gudai yinyue shiliao jiyao [Compendium of historical materials on ancient Chinese music], ed. YYS
(Beijing, 1962/R)
W. Kaufmann: Musical Notations of the Orient (Bloomington, IN, 1967)
5)
Yang Jialuo, ed.: Zhongguo yinyue shiliao [Historical material on Chinese music] (Taipei, 1975)
Ji Liankang, ed.: Yinyue shiliao [Historical material on Chinese music] (Shanghai, 1978–86)
Ren Erbei, ed.: You yu ji [Collected anecdotes on actors] (Shanghai, 1981)
Zhongguo gudai yuelun xuanji [Selected ancient Chinese musical treatises], ed. YYS (Beijing, 1981/R)
Zhongguo yinyue shupu zhi [Catalogue of writings and scores of Chinese music] (Beijing, 1984 [YYS pubn]
Cai Zhongde: Zhongguo yinyue meixue shilun [History of Chinese music aesthetics] (Beijing, 1988)
Chen Yingshi: ‘Temperamentology in Ancient Chinese Written Records’, trans. by M. Sawer and C. Rockwell,
Musicology Australia, 11–12 (1988–9), 44–67
Xiu Hailin: Guyue de chenfu [The ebb and flow of ancient music] (Ji′nan, 1989)
Huang Xiangpeng: Chuantong shi yitiao heliu [Tradition flows like a river] (Beijing, 1990)
Page 37 of 123
Huang Xiangpeng: Suliu tanyuan: Zhongguo chuantong yinyue yanjiu [Tracing origins: studies on
traditional Chinese music] (Beijing, 1993)
Pu Hengqiang: Daojiao yu Zhongguo chuantong yinyue [Daoism and traditional Chinese music] (Taipei,
1993)
A.R. Thrasher: ‘China’, Ethnomusicology: Historical and Regional Studies, ed. H. Myers (New York,
1993), 311–44
Xiu Jun and Jian Jin: Zhongguo yueji shi [History of Chinese female musicians] (Beijing, 1993)
J.S.C. Lam: ‘Chinese Music Historiography: From Yang Yinliu’s A Draft History of Ancient Chinese Music to Confucian
Classics’, ACMR Reports, 8/2 (1995), 1–45
S. Jones: ‘Source and stream: early music and living traditions in China’, EMc, 24/3 (1996), 374–88
Yan Changhong and Pu Hengqiang: Zhongguo gu wenhua yanjiu [Study of Chinese drum culture]
(Nanning, 1997)
Early history
W. Kaufmann: Musical References in the Chinese Classics (Detroit, 1976)
K. DeWoskin: A Song for One or Two: Music and the Concept of Art in Early China (Ann Arbor, MI,
1982)
Tong Kin-woon: ‘Shang Musical Instruments’, AsM, 14/2 (1983), 17–182; 15/1 (1984), 103–84; 15/2 (1984), 68–143
K. DeWoskin: ‘Sources for the Study of Early Chinese Music’, Archeologica Musicalis, 1989
L. von Falkenhausen: Suspended Music: Chime Bells in the Culture of Bronze-age China (Berkeley,
1993)
S. Cook: ‘Yue Ji, Record of Music: Introduction, Translation, Notes, and Commentary’, AsM, 26/2 (1995), 1–96
Li Chunyi: Zhongguo shanggu chutu yueqi zonglun [Survey of excavated musical instruments of ancient
China] (Beijing, 1996)
Qin to Tang dynasties

K. Hayashi: Sui-Tang yanyue diao yanjiu [Study of mode-keys of the Sui and Tang] (Shanghai, 1936/R)
Quan Tangshi zhongde yuewu ziliao [Music and dance material in the Complete Tang shi poetry], ed.
Zhongguo wudao yishu yanjiuhui wudaoshi yanjiuzu (Beijing, 1958/R)
S. Kishibe: Tōdai ongaku no rekishiteki kenkyū [Historical study of Tang dynasty music] (Tokyo, 1960–61;
Chin. trans. 1973)
Ren Bantang, ed.: Jiaofang ji jianding [The Jiaofang ji edited] (Beijing, 1962/R)
E. Schafer: The Golden Peaches of Samarkand (Berkeley, 1963)
M. Gimm: Das Yüeh-fu Tsa-lu des Tuan An-chieh: Studien zur Geschichte von Musik, Schauspiel
und Tanz in der T’ang-dynastie (Wiesbaden, 1966)
Ouyang Yuqian, ed.: Tangdai wudao [Tang dynasty dance] (Shanghai, 1980)
Page 38 of 123
L. Picken and others: Music from the Tang Court (Oxford, 1981; Cambridge, 1985–)
A. Birrell: New Songs from a Jade Terrace (London, 1982/R)
Ren Bantang: Tang shengshi [Tang sung poetry] (Shanghai, 1982)
Ren Bantang: Tang xinong [Tang plays] (Shanghai, 1984)
A. Marett: ‘Tōgaku: Where Have the Tang Melodies Gone, and Where Have the New Melodies Come From?’, EthM,
29 (1985), 409–31
Qiu Xiongsun: Yanyue tanwei [Study of entertainment music] (Shanghai, 1989)
Jin Jianmin: ‘Guanyu Dunhuang qupu he gupuxue di lunzheng ji wojian’ [The controversy about the Dunhuang
scores and the study of early notation, and my own opinions], Zhongguo yinyuexue (1990), no.2, 74–82
D. Twitchett: ‘A Note on the “Monograph on Music” in Chiu T’ang Shu’, Asia Major, 3 (1990), 51–62
Fu Chenggu, ed.: Tangdai yinyue wudao zaji shi xuanyi [Selected and annotated Tang poems on music,
dance and acrobatics] (Beijing, 1991)
T. Kamatani: ‘The Early Bureau of Music (Yuëh-fu)’, Acta Asiatica, 70 (1996), 37–53
Song to Qing dynasties

L. Picken: ‘Chiang K’uei’s Nine Songs for Yuëh’, MQ, 43 (1957), 201–19
Yang Yinliu and Yin Falu: Song Jiang Baishi chuangzuo gequ yanjiu [Study of songs composed by Jiang
Baishi of the Song dynasty] (Beijing, 1957)
L. Picken: ‘Secular Chinese Songs of the Twelfth Century’, Studia Musicologica, 8 (1966), 125–71
R.C. Pian: Song Dynasty Musical Sources and their Interpretation (Cambridge, MA, 1967)
H.K. Joseph: ‘The Chanda’, T’oung Pao, 62 (1976), 167–98
Liang Ming-yüeh: ‘The Tz’u Music of Chiang K’uei: Its Style and Compositional Strategy’, Renditions, 11–12
(1979), 211–49
K. Robinson: A Critical Study of Chu Tsai-yü’s Contribution to the Theory of Equal Temperament
in Chinese Music (Wiesbaden, 1980)
Liu Nianzi: Nanxi xinzheng [New evidence for southern opera] (Beijing, 1986)
Sun Xuanling: Yuan sanqu de yinyue [The music of sanqu arias of the Yuan] (Beijing, 1988)
Hu Ji and Liu Zhizhong: Kunju fazhan shi [History of the development of Kunqu] (Beijing, 1999)
Jin Qianqiu, ed.: QuanSongci zhongde yuewu ziliao [Music and dance material in the Complete Song ci]
(Beijing, 1990/R)
G. Gild-Böhne: Das Lü Lü Zheng Yi Xubian: ein Jesuitentraktat über das Europaneische Notation
in China von 1713) Göttingen, 1991)
Zhang, Weihua: ‘Music in Ming Daily Life, as Portrayed in the Narrative Jin Ping Mei’, AsM, 23/2 (1992), 105–34
Page 39 of 123
Li Yongmin: ‘Songdai minsu yinyue xuebao’ [Study of Song dynasty folk music], Zhongyang yinyue xueyuan
xuebao (1994), no.4, 31–43
Zheng Zurang: ‘Jiugong dacheng nanbeici gongpu cidiao laiyuan bianxi’ [Analysis of the sources of the texts and
tunes of the Jiugong dacheng nanbeici gongpu], Zhongguo yinyuexue (1994), no.1, 38–47
Liu Ben: Song Yuan xiqu wenwu yu minsu [Relics and traditions of Song and Yuan operas] (Beijing, 1998)
Confucian court and ritual music

Grove6 (China §II, Court Traditions; S. Kishibe)
G.E. Moule: ‘Notes on the Ting-chi, or Half-yearly Sacrifice to Confucius’, Journal of the North China Branch
of the Royal Asiatic Society, 33 (Shanghai, 1899–1900), 120–56
Yang Yinliu: ‘Kongmiao dingji yinyue de chubu yanjiu’ [Preliminary study of the music of the spring and autumn
sacrifices at the Confucian temple], Yang Yinliu yinyue lunwen xuanji [Selected articles on music by Yang Yinliu]
(Shanghai, 1986), 276–304 [repr. from Yinyue yanjiu (1958), no.1]
Wan Yi and Huang Haitao: Qingdai gongting yinyue [Court music of the Qing dynasty] (Hong Kong, 1985)
K. Pratt: ‘Change and Continuity in Qing Court Music’, CHIME, no.7 (1993), 90–103
J.S.C. Lam: ‘There is No Music in Chinese Music History’: Five Court Tunes from the Yuan Dynasty (A.D. 1271–1368)’,
JRMA, 119/2 (1994), 165–88
Luo Minghui: ‘Qingdai gongting yanyue yanjiu’ [Study of the banquet music of the Qing dynasty], Zhongyang
yinyue xueyuan xuebao (1994), no.1, 55–63
J.S.C. Lam: ‘Musical Relics and Cultural Expressions: State Sacrificial Songs from the Southern Song Court (A.D.
1127–1279)’, Journal of Sung-Yuan Studies, 25 (1995), 1–27
J.S.C. Lam: ‘The Yin and Yang of Chinese Music Historiography: the Case of Confucian Ceremonial Music’, YTM, 27
(1995), 34–51
J.S.C. Lam: State Sacrifices and Music in Ming China: Orthodoxy, Creativity, and Expressiveness
(Albany, NY, 1998)
20th century
GENERAL
Grove6 (China §VI, Since 1949; A.C. Scott)
A. Tcherepnine: ‘Music in Modern China’, MQ, 21 (1935), 391–400
A.L. Kagan: ‘Music and the Hundred Flowers Movement’, MQ, 49 (1963), 417–30
Yang Schuman Chao: Twentieth Century Chinese Solo Songs: a Historical and Analytical Study
of Selected Chinese Solo Songs Composed or Arranged by Chinese Composers of the 1920s to
the Present (diss., George Peabody College, 1973)
Chao Hua: ‘Has Absolute Music No Class Character?’, Peking Review, 17/9 (1974), 15–17
Han Kuo-Huang: ‘The Chinese Concept of Program Music’, AsM, 10/1 (1978), 17–38
Page 40 of 123
Han Kuo-Huang: ‘The Modern Chinese Orchestra’, AsM, 11/1 (1979), 1–40
Fang Kun: ‘A Discussion on Chinese National Musical Traditions’, AsM, 12/2 (1981), 1–16
C.P. Mackerras: The Performing Arts in Contemporary China (London, 1981)
A.R. Thrasher: ‘The Sociology of Chinese Music: an Introduction’, AsM, 12/2 (1981), 17–53
A. Perris: ‘Music as Propaganda: Art at the Command of Doctrine in the P.R.C.’, EthM, 27 (1983), 1–28
I. Wong: ‘Geming Gequ: Songs for the Education of the Masses’, Popular Chinese Literature and Performing
Arts in the People’s Republic of China, 1949–1979, ed. B. McDougall (Berkeley, 1984), 112–43
Liu Yuhe, ed.: Liu Tianhua chuangzuo quji [Collection of Liu Tianhua’s compositions] (Beijing, 1985)
R.C. Kraus: Pianos and Politics in China: Middle-Class Ambitions and the Struggle over Western
Music (New York, 1989)
D. Holm: Art and Ideology in Revolutionary China (Oxford, 1991)
Jiang Jing: ‘The Influence of Traditional Chinese Music on Professional Instrumental Composition’, AsM, 22/2
(1991), 83–96
F. Lau: Music and Musicians of the Traditional Chinese Dizi in the People’s Republic of China
(diss., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1991)
Mao Yu Run: ‘Music under Mao: Its Background and Aftermath’, AsM, 22/2 (1991), 97–125
Wang Yuhe: Zhongguo xiandai yinyue shi gang (1949–1986) [Outline of the history of contemporary
Chinese music] (Beijing, 1991)
J.P.J. Stock: ‘Contemporary Recital Solos for the Chinese Two-Stringed Fiddle Erhu’, British Journal of
Ethnomusicology, 1 (1992), 55–88
A. Schimmelpenninck and F. Kouwenhoven: ‘The Shanghai Conservatory of Music: History and Foreign
Students’ Experiences’, CHIME, no.6 (1993), 56–91
J.P.J. Stock: Musical Creativity in Twentieth-Century China: Abing, His Music, and Its Changing
Meanings (Rochester, NY, 1996)
Avant-garde and pop music

Liu Ching-chih, ed.: Zhongguo xin yinyue shilun ji [Collected essays on new Chinese music] (Hong Kong,
1986–92)
F. Kouwenhoven: ‘Mainland China’s New Music (1): Out of the Desert’, CHIME, no.2 (1990), 58–93
Zheng Ying-Lie: ‘Letter from China: The Use of Twelve-Tone Technique in Chinese Musical Composition’, MQ, 74
(1990), 437–88
AsM, 22/2 (1991) [complete issue on Chinese popular music]
P. Chang: ‘Tan Dun’s String Quartet Feng-Ya-Song: Some Ideological Issues’, AsM, 22/2 (1991), 127–58
F. Kouwenhoven: ‘Mainland China’s New Music (2): Madly Singing in the Mountains’, CHIME, no.3 (1991), 42–75
Page 41 of 123
H. Ryker, ed.: New Music in the Orient: Essays on Composition in Asia since World War II (Buren,
1991)
T. Brace: Modernization and Music in Contemporary China: Crisis, Identity, and the Politics of
Style (diss., U. of Texas, Austin, 1992)
T. Brace and P. Friedlander: ‘Rock and Roll on the New Long March: Popular Music, Cultural Identity, and Political
Opposition in the People’s Republic of China’, Rocking the Boat: Mass Music and Mass Movements, ed. R.
Garofalo (Boston, 1992), 115–27
A. Jones: Like a Knife: Ideology and Genre in Contemporary Chinese Popular Music (Ithaca, NY,
1992)
F. Kouwenhoven: ‘Mainland China’s New Music (3): The Age of Pluralism’, CHIME, no.5 (1992), 76–134
B. Mittler: Dangerous Tunes: the Politics of Chinese Music in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the
People’s Republic of China since 1949 (diss., Ruprecht-Karls U., Heidelberg, 1993)
P. Micic and D. Stokes: ‘A Selected Annotated Discography of Pop and Rock Albums in the People’s Republic of
China (1989–1995)’, Association for Chinese Music Reports, 9/2 (1996), 37–52
A. Steen: Der Lange Marsch des Rock ’n’ Roll: Pop- und Rockmusik in der Volksrepublik China
(Hamburg, 1996)
III. Musical instruments

Alan R. Thrasher
This section surveys the development of Chinese instruments. Those in common practice today, whose
history is briefly introduced here, are further discussed in separate entries. For instruments of China’s
ethnic minorities see §IV, 5 below.
1. Ancient instruments: the archaeological finds.

When ancient Chinese rulers died, part of their estate was routinely buried with them, including ritual
vessels, weapons, musical instruments and sometimes even servants and dancers. Within the last few
decades, numerous tombs in north and central China have been found yielding treasure troves of
instruments – clay flutes, stone chimes and bronze bells in particular, but also instruments made from
more perishable materials, such as zithers with silk strings and flutes of bamboo. The oldest
instruments found to date are flutes made from bird or animal bones, with two or three finger-holes,
unearthed at various sites across north China and dating to between about 6000 and 5000 BCE. The
most remarkable specimens of these bone flutes, the ‘Jiahu flutes’ (named after the Henan village
where they were discovered), have unnotched blowing ends and between five and eight carefully
spaced and meticulously drilled finger-holes. Appearing in Shanxi province (and other) sites dating to
c4000 BCE and later are numerous irregular clay vessel flutes (later known as Xun), ball-shaped, egg-
shaped and fish-shaped, each with one or two finger-holes. Most of these are kept at the Shanxi and
Gansu Provincial Museums. Stone chimes (later known as Qing), chipped from limestone or other
resonant rock, date from about 2000 BCE.
Page 42 of 123
The most significant finds of Shang instruments (c16th–11th centuries BCE) have been unearthed in
northern Henan province, especially at sites near the town of Anyang. The following instruments, most
dating to about the 12th century BCE, reflect a very conscious attention to form, design and acoustics:
(a) xun, small globular flutes of baked clay, with three finger-holes in front plus two thumb-holes, some
decorated with the highly stylized mythical animal face (taotie) typical of the period; (b) qing, stone
chimes made from highly polished slabs in various shapes, both single and in sets of three, some
carved with beautifully stylized motifs of tigers and fish; (c) nao, bronze bells, short and broad in
profile, designed to be hand-held and struck with beaters (see Zhong); (d) the ancient Shang bronze
barrel drum (tong gu, not to be confused with the large gong of the same name still played by ethnic
minorities, for which see Bronze drum), made entirely of bronze and resting horizontally on four legs,
with a raised saddle-shaped decoration on top; its two heads (about 39 cm in diameter) are also of
bronze. These musical instruments (and others), which were in ritual usage during the Shang dynasty,
are cited in the ancient oracle bone inscriptions. They are held at the Chinese Historical Museum and
the Palace Museum in Beijing, and at other museums in north China. (For a thorough English-language
examination of Shang instruments, see Tong, 1983.)
Instruments uncovered from several Zhou sites (c11th century BCE–256 BCE) are of even greater
abundance and diversity. Most significant are those found in the tomb of the Marquis Yi of the Zeng
state (Zenghou Yi), Hubei province, a site in central China dating to about 433 BCE. Found together
with ritual vessels, weapons, gold, jade and lacquer-ware (about 7000 artefacts in all) was a
magnificent ensemble of well-preserved musical instruments, including (a) the visually stunning set of
65 bells (bianzhong) arranged on an ornate, three-tiered frame and reflecting different suspension
methods and construction types (see Zhong); (b) the complementary set of 32 L-shaped stone chimes
(bianqing), arranged on a two-tiered frame (see Qing); (c) a ten-string Qin zither with a short
soundboard; (d) a five-string zither (possibly a zhu) with a long, narrow soundboard; (e) twelve 25-
string se zithers with broad soundboard; (f) two transverse flutes of the chi type, lacquered black with
red designs; (g) two panpipes (paixiao), each with 13 tubes of bamboo, lacquered black and arranged
in ‘single-wing’ form (see Panpipes); (h) six mouth organs (Sheng or he), with varying numbers of
bamboo pipes inserted into windchests of gourd, all lacquered black; (i) a large wooden barrel drum
(jian′ gu) mounted on a thick vertical pole held upright in an ornate bronze base; (j) three small barrel
drums of different types. These instruments are housed at the Hubei Provincial Museum in Wuhan.
Other instruments unearthed from sites in central China include a surprisingly early zhang zither with
positions for 13 strips (c6th century BCE) and many relatively thin drums now known as niujiao gu
(‘bird-frame drum’, c5th century BCE), each suspended by cords between two carved wooden figures of
large birds (probably egrets) standing on the backs of crouching tigers.
Among Han sites (206 BCE–220 CE) containing musical instruments, most significant is the tomb of
Mawangdui in Hunan province, dating to the 2nd century BCE. Unearthed from tombs 1 and 3 are
instruments similar to the earlier finds but including several important discoveries: (a) two 25-string se
zithers, each with four top-mounted string-holding pegs (similar to the Zenghou Yi se) and, remarkably,
with silk strings and bridges intact; (b) one seven-string qin zither, similar in shape to the older
Zenghou Yi qin but with a longer soundboard and the now-standard seven strings; (c) one zhu zither,
with very narrow soundboard and positions for five strings; (d) two long yu mouth organs, one
consisting of 23 pipes mounted in a wooden windchest, with many of its metal reeds intact; (e) one set
Page 43 of 123
of 12 bamboo pitchpipes (yulü), tuned chromatically within a one-octave range; (f) two transverse
flutes of the chi type, with finger-holes on one side rather than on the top. These instruments are held
by the Hunan Provincial Museum in Changsha.
2. ‘Bayin’ instruments.
The bayin (‘eight tone’) system was devised by Zhou court scholars in an attempt to classify the
musical instruments of the period. While most instruments were mentioned in the Shijing (Classic of
poetry, c7th century BCE), the eight-tone system was most clearly articulated in the Zhouli (Rites of
Zhou, c3rd century BCE). Eight distinct resonating media and/or materials used in construction are
identified: metal, stone, earth, skin, silk, wood, gourd and bamboo. The system is based on the ancient
lexigraphic practice of classifying language and material culture according to meaning-suggestive
radicals (e.g. ‘earth’, ‘bamboo’), thus forming word categories. But the prime motivation behind the
eight-part system was to establish a system of cosmological correspondences between these important
ritual instruments and the eight trigrams (bagua), eight compass points and other meaningful eight-
part systems. Today, the bayin instruments are usually housed at the larger Confucion shrines, notably
in Beijing, Qufu and Taipei, where they are occasionally employed in ritual ceremones.
Metal (Jin). Bronze casting, one of the great technological achievements of the Shang and Zhou
dynasties, was employed especially for construction of ritual implements such as vessels and bells. The
most ancient bell types, the nao, zheng, duo and chun, have declined in usage over the centuries and
are now found in museums only. Since the Zhou dynasty, the two most common surviving bell types
have been the zhong and bo, both struck externally. The zhong, in its most common form, has a leaf-
shaped cross-section and concave mouth, with an elongated handle and a small ring at its base for
suspension; the bo has a flat mouth and is suspended by an elaborate loop-shaped hanger on its crown
(see Zhong).
Stone (Shi). Historically, stone was thought to be symbolic of longevity and stability, which helps
explain its usage in ancestral rituals. Only one instrument type is found in this category, the Qing stone
chime, an L-shaped lithophone constructed of resonant limestone or jade, each tuned to a specific
pitch.
Earth (Tu). Use of clay in instrument construction is suggestive of the significance of earth (di) as a
generative force, complementary to the cosmological dominance of heaven (tian). While the Shijing
cites the existence of a musical bowl made of clay (fou), it is the Xun globular flute, an egg-shaped clay
flute with between five and eight finger-holes distributed in various patterns, that best exemplifies this
category.
Skin (Ge). The skin category is comprised entirely of drums, the historic significance of which is found
in the signalling nature of the drums themselves. More than 20 drum types are cited in the Zhouli, Liji
and other ancient texts, of which the jian gu, jin gu, tao gu and bofu have shown the most enduring
legacy. All have barrel-shaped shells of wood, their two open ends covered with animal skin tacked
around the circumference. Most significant is the elaborately decorated jian gu (‘mounted drum’), a
large drum mounted horizontally on a post and covered with a richly ornamented canopy. The jin gu
(‘Jin [kingdom] drum’) is the largest drum in the Chinese instrumentarium (over 1 metre in diameter),
resting vertically in a frame. Both are struck with wooden beaters. More unusual is the twirling drum
tao gu, a small drum mounted on a long round handle, with two short, beaded cords attached to the
Page 44 of 123
side of the shell. It is sounded by rotating the handle, causing the beads to strike the two drum heads
alternately. The bofu (literally ‘strike-slap’) is a drum of moderate size, resting horizontally on a low
rectangular frame and struck with the hands.
Silk (Si). Use of silk in the construction of instruments is unique to China. The Liji suggests that silk
strings represent ‘purity’ (lian) and ‘determination’ (zhi), an indication of the high value assigned to
string instruments. By the time of the late Zhou dynasty, four zither types were differentiated: qin, se,
zheng and zhu. The seven-string Qin is the most venerated of instruments among Chinese scholars (see
also §IV, 4(ii)(a) below). It differs from the other zithers in its irregular shape, absence of bridges and
multitude of symbolic associations with Confucian cosmology and ideology. The se is a larger zither,
with rectangular soundbox and 25 (or more) strings, each with a movable bridge. Metaphorically
associated with the qin in ancient literature, its usage today is confined to the Confucian ritual. Related
to the se (possibly derived from it), the Zheng is a medium-sized zither, with 16 (or more) strings and
movable bridges (see also §IV, 4(ii)(b) below). Unlike the se, this zither has won popular acceptance as
both a solo and small ensemble instrument. The zhu, a small zither with narrow soundboard and five
strings, was reportedly struck with bamboo beaters. This zither is mentioned in ancient texts and old
specimens have been found, but it has long been obsolete.
Wood (Mu). The classic texts describe several ancient and very unusual wooden idiophones in this
category, of which the zhu and yu are predominant. The zhu idiophone (not to be confused with the zhu
zither) is shaped like a wooden box, open at the top, with four outward sloping sides and (on later
instruments) a round hole in the wall of one side; it is struck on the inside with a beater. Commentary
in the Shijing notes that the zhu is like ‘a lacquered grain container’, suggesting possible historic usage
in agricultural rites. The yu idiophone is essentially a carved wooden image of a crouching tiger, with a
row of ridges along its back. In performance, a switch of wood or bamboo is drawn across the ridges,
producing a rasping sound. The symbolic implications of this act are powerful, though never explicated
in the ancient texts. The tiger, lord of all Chinese animals, symbolized many qualities, such as courage
and military prowess. Common-practice sayings recognize the importance of subjugating tigers and
remaining alert to danger. While some zhu and yu survive from the recent Qing dynasty, no ancient
specimens have been unearthed.
Gourd (Pao). This category is unusual in that its primary instrument, the sheng mouth organ, bears
closer affinities to ‘bamboo’ than to ‘gourd’ (owing in part to the significant presence of the ‘bamboo’
radical in its character). It is so classified, however, because gourd was formerly used in the
construction of windchests. The sheng is comprised of bamboo pipes inserted into a windchest, with a
blowpipe on one side; attached to the bottoms of the pipes are free-beating reeds. Several historically
related mouth organs include the Sheng, he, yu and chao, most bearing strong symbolic associations
with the mythic phoenix.
Bamboo (Zhu). Chinese scholars and poets have assigned deep cultural significance to the use of
bamboo in the construction of flute-type instruments. Bamboo’s naturally hollow interior was thought
to be symbolic of the Confucian values of humility and modesty; its hardiness in winter was symbolic of
human endurance and longevity. Various associations with the legendary dragon and poenix are
commonly found as well. Over a dozen flute names appear in Zhou texts, though most of these are size
variants (and related instruments) for three basic types: transverse flutes, vertical flutes and panpipes.
The names of these flutes, however, have undergone confusing changes over the last 2000 years. The
chi is a transverse flute of several different styles, constructed from a bamboo variety of relatively
large internal diameter (about 3 cm). Scholars now believe that the name chi is etymologically related
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to the name Di (the more recent transverse flute) and that the two flute types themselves may be
related. The vertical flute (formerly known as di, now as Xiao) is constructed with a notch at the
blowing end (to facilitate tone production) and five frontal finger-holes plus one thumb-hole. The
Chinese paixiao Panpipes is constructed of graded bamboo pipes, bound in one rank with horizontal
bracing strips. Historically known by the name xiao, it has been called paixiao only within the last
millennium.
3. Common-practice instruments.
Musical instruments in popular usage today emerged, for the most part, soon after the end of the Zhou
dynasty. With the founding of the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), continuing through to the eclectic
Tang (618–907) and beyond, numerous ideas and artefacts from India and Central Asia were
introduced into China with the flow of Buddhism. Imported instruments arrived in several waves.
Among the first to be introduced were the pipa lute, konghou harp, di transverse flute, bili reedpipe,
tongjiao metal horn, tongbo small cymbals and xiyao gu hourglass drum. These instruments are well
described in the Tongdian (801), Yueshu (c1100) and other sources, and are pictured in artwork left in
the earlier Dunhuang and Yungang caves (and others) from the 4th century CE onwards, and again in
the important Wang Jian reliefs of the early 10th century. (For a comprehensive English-language
review of instruments pictured at Dunhuang, see Zheng, 1993.)
The principal repository of instruments surviving from this period is the Shōsōin in Nara, Japan, where
numerous specimens of Tang lutes, harps, zithers, flutes and other instruments are preserved (see
Hayashi, 1967). Tang and post-Tang instruments surviving in China are kept in various provincial
museums. The most comprehensive collection of instruments dated from the late imperial period is
housed at the Music Research Institute in Beijing.
The following is a summary of only the most significant common-practice Han Chinese instruments.
For instruments of the many ethnic minorities, see §IV, 5 below.
(i) Early plucked string instruments.

The indigenous plucked string instruments most probably were all zithers, used primarily in ritual
performances. The zheng (see §2 above), however, appears to have been a common-practice instrument
from the beginning. It has retained its popularity in and out of the court to the present day. Most
important among the new string instruments to emerge during the Han period are the Pipa and ruan
lutes and related variants (see Yueqin).
The pipa lute is well documented from the Han dynasty onwards. Widely believed to have been
introduced from India or Central Asia, its name may be a transliteration of the Sanskrit term vina or
other Central Asian lute name. Pipa was initially a generic name for different varieties of plucked lutes:
the bent-necked pipa with pear-shaped body and four strings; the straight-necked pipa with slightly
smaller pear-shaped body and five strings (wuxian); and the straight-necked lute with round body and
four strings (ruanxian). Within a few centuries of its appearance, the bent-necked pipa (which at that
time was held in a horizontal position and plucked with a large plectrum) came to dominate the other
varieties and became fashionable in court entertainment ensembles. It was readily embraced by
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musicians during the Tang and Song periods and has continued its popularity to the present day (see
§IV, 4, (ii), (c) below), remaining one of the indispensable instruments employed in ‘silk-and-bamboo’
ensembles.
The ruanxian, with large, round resonating chamber and long, fretted neck, also emerged during the
Han period, though most likely on Chinese soil. While the ruanxian (or ruan) itself declined in common-
practice music performance (rthough revised for 20th-century concert-hall music), its two derived
variants, yueqin and qinqin, became more prevalent within the recent centuries. The short-necked
Yueqin (‘moon lute’) is used primarily in Beijing Opera accompaniment. The qinqin (‘Qin [kingdom]
lute’), with its long neck and distinctively scalloped soundbox, is used in both Cantonese and Chaozhou
music.
Other historic lutes related to the pipa include the hulei and liuye qin. The hulei (literally ‘sudden
thunder’), a small pipa-shaped lute with only two strings and snakeskin-covered sound chamber, was
documented during the Tang dynasty. Although large and small specimens survive from this period, the
instrument is no longer employed in Han Chinese music. The liuye qin (‘willow leaf’ qin, or simply
liuqin), a pipa miniature with (usually) three strings, is also believed to have emerged during the Tang.
It is still employed in local opera traditions of eastern China and in concert-hall ensembles.
Finally, several types of harps, known in China as konghou, are mentioned in the literature of the 2nd
century BCE onwards. Introduced from India or possibly West Asia, harps are described in Chinese
sources as being of three sub-types: ‘vertical’ konghou (with lower string-holding arm at right angle to
the body), ‘phoenix head’ konghou (with a single long, arching body) and ‘horizontal’ konghou (zither-
like in shape, with frets). The ‘vertical’ konghou, which became the most common variant, is clearly
described in the Tongdian (801) and other literature and is pictured in the artwork of these periods. An
essential element of court entertainment ensembles during the Sui and Tang dynasties, the konghou
declined in popularity after the Tang and it eventually disappeared.
(ii) Wind instruments.

While most wind instruments employed in ancient ritual contexts retained their exclusive status as
court instruments (i.e. the bayin instruments), the Xiao vertical flute and Sheng mouth organ were also
accepted into common-practice music-making. Both are still used in ensemble music, the xiao mostly in
southern ensembles and with qin, the sheng in northern ensembles. Principal among the new wind
instruments to emerge during the Han period are transverse flutes, reedpipes and horns.
The Di transverse flute, initially known as hengdi and by other names, is believed to have been
introduced early in the Han period (although it may have been related to the ancient chi). Initially
employed in military ensembles and court entertainment ensembles, by the 16th century a new variant
of di (with an extra hole to be covered by a vibrating membrane) became a lead instrument in Kunqu
classical opera and other entertainment genres. By the 20th century, it had also become an important
solo instrument within the context of the concert hall.
Double-reed instruments are of two types. The bili reedpipe (with large double reed) is thought to be of
Central Asian origin. Emerging soon after the Han period, the reedpipe became important in court
entertainment ensembles of the Sui and Tang. Subsequently known by the names Guan or guanzi, the
instrument is today used mainly in ensembles of north China with the sheng mouth organ and
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percussion. The Suona shawm type (with small double reed) is one of many worldwide adaptations of
related Arab or Persian instruments (e.g. zurna). It is performed in outdoor processional ensembles
throughout China.
Traditional horns are of several types. Long, valveless, metal horns (tongjiao) made from copper (or an
alloy), with broad-rimmed cup mouthpieces and straight or curved bells, are depicted in Han reliefs
(along with drums) as military instruments. Probably introduced from India or Persia, they are
described in the Tongdian (801) and Yueshu (c1100) as being like water buffalo horns of metal. Actual
animal horns (niujiaohao) with cup mouthpieces are rare today, although they are played occasionally
by Daoist or other priests. Straight and curved metal horns, known as laba, haotong and other local
names, are still used in outdoor village ceremonies. The very long straight horns used in Tibetan
Buddhist ensembles are related instruments.
Another horn type is the conch (hailuo) or ‘Buddhist shell’ (faluo), a shell in which a blow-hole has been
cut at or near the small spiral tip (forming a cup mouthpiece). Historically known as bei (‘shell’), the
shell horn is well documented in Tang art and literature as being part of court ensembles. It is still
used today in Tibetan Buddhist ensembles and some Han Chinese ritual ensembles.
(iii) Drums.
The oldest drums documented in China had barrel-shaped shells, with drumheads tacked to the shell at
both ends. Drums introduced from India and/or Central Asia to the Sui and Tang courts (7th to early
10th centuries) were mostly hourglass- or tubular-shaped, with laced drumheads, notably the xiyao gu
(‘narrow-waist drum’, or yao gu) and jie gu (‘Jie [tribe] drum’). Most have clear affinities with Indian
instruments. While some of these drum types were passed on to Japan and Korea during this period of
cultural contact, their importance in Han Chinese ensembles diminished after the Tang, and they
eventually disappeared in China, with the exception of some preservations among ethnic minorities.
Drums employed in the accompaniment of opera, narrative singing and instrumental ensembles mostly
appeared after the Tang period, including shu gu (‘narrative drum’), a flat wooden drum about 30 cm in
diameter, suspended in a three-legged stand, which is used to accompany northern dagu narrative
singing; dian gu (‘point drum’), a smaller drum with a thick wooden shell tapered towards the outer
perimeter, used in Kunqu and sizhu in central-eastern China; danpi gu (‘single-skin drum’) or ban gu, a
frame constructed of thick wedges of hardwood glued together in a circle about 25 cm in diameter,
covered on the top end only with pighide or cowhide and wrapped with a metal band, used in opera
accompaniment; tang gu (‘hall drum’) and other large barrel drums, of variable size, suspended in a
stand, widely used in opera and instrumental music. Flat drums are usually struck with one or two
slender sticks of wood or bamboo; the larger barrel drums are struck with thicker beaters.
Numerous other types of drum are found in China, including those employed in dance accompaniment
such as bajiao gu (‘octagonal drum’), shi gu (‘lion drum’) and yao gu (‘waist drum’, not to be confused
with the historic xiyao gu). Employed in 20th-century concert-hall ensembles are new variants such as
pai gu (‘row drums’), bian da gu (‘flat large drum’) and huapen gu (‘flowerpot drum’).
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(iv) Clappers and woodblocks.
Clappers and woodblocks are primarily time-marking instruments. The oldest type of clapper in
contemporary usage, the paiban (or ban), is constructed of five or six strips of resonant hardwood,
bound together with a connecting cord through their top ends. In performance, this instrument is held
in both hands and ‘clapped’ together on regular beats. Mentioned in the Tongdian (801) and Yueshu
(c1100), and pictured in 10th century art, the multi-strip paiban is still employed in nanguan (nanyin)
music in Fujian. A later variant is the three-strip paiban, employed in Beijing opera and other northern
genres. This clapper is held in the left hand only (suspended over the thumb), leaving the right hand
free to strike a small drum (ban gu) in alternation.
Woodblocks of several types have emerged over recent centuries. The muyu (‘wooden fish’), described
in the Ming dynasty Sancai tuhui (1619), is one of the oldest. It is most commonly constructed of
mulberry or camphor wood, with a hollow interior resonating chamber, the exterior elaborately carved
in a rounded abstraction of a fish (although some older muyu are in fact fish-shaped). The muyu is
struck with a beater in accompaniment of Buddhist chant. The woodblock known as nanbangzi
(‘southern bangzi’), essentially a muyu in rectangular form, similarly has a lateral slit on one side and
an internal resonating cavity. It is struck with a thin beater in accompaniment of Cantonese opera (in
place of the older ban gu drum) and other genres. Cantonese musicians identify several sizes, named
gok (large), duk (medium) and dik (small), in imitation of their different tonal effects. Bangzi, on the
other hand, are concussion sticks, similar to Western claves though of unequal lengths and shapes.
They are struck together in accompaniment of the northern bangzi opera. Among the many other local
variants of clappers and woodblocks, an especially distinctive instrument is the sibao employed in
nanguan music, four short strips of bamboo which are held (two in each hand) and shaken. Other
clappers, woodblocks and metal idiophones known to Moule during the early 20th century are
examined in his study of 1908 (pp.12ff).
(v) Small bells and cymbals.

Small bells (ling) and cymbals (bo), while morphologically different idiophones, are not always clearly
differentiated in historic Chinese sources or by artists in cave reliefs. Pairs of small bells, variously
known by the onomatopoeic names pengling, xing, shuangling, lingbo etc., are described in Tang
literature and depicted in cave art of the 5th and 6th centuries. Resembling Indian bells, these small,
hand-held, clapperless bells (about 5 or 6 cm in diameter) are hemispheric in shape, made of a brass
alloy and attached together with a cord through holes in their crowns. Their pitches are tuned, but
exact pitches vary from one pair to another. In performance, they are struck together to punctuate
Buddhist chant and occasionally instrumental ensemble music. A related bell is the yinqing (or xingzi),
a single hemispheric bell mounted on a wooden handle and struck with a thin metal beater.
A larger type of bell is a resonating bowl of hammered bronze, which rests on a cushion and is struck
with a padded beater. Commonly known today as zuoqing (‘seated’ qing) or simply qing (not to be
confused with the ancient stone chime of the same name), this very resonant bell has been used in
Buddhist temples to accompany chant since the Tang dynasty. The largest bell found in Buddhist
temples is the clapperless zhong, round in cross-section and flat or scalloped at the bottom, suspended
under the eaves of temples and struck to mark periods of worship.
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Another idiophone which (unlike the zuoqing) was closely related to the stone chime is the fangxiang
(‘square [resonant] sound’), a Sui-Tang substitution for the ancient qing, constructed in sets of 16
rectangular iron bars of varying thickness, suspended in frames. Used primarily in the court ‘banquet
music’ of the period, fangxiang idiophones disappeared after the Tang.
Pairs of small cymbals (bo), historically known as tongbo (‘copper [alloy] cymbals’), are described in
pre-Tang literature and depicted in earlier cave art. Probably introduced from West or Central Asia,
small Cymbals were regularly employed in court ensembles during the Tang dynasty. Cymbals in use
today are of various sizes and shapes, including medium-sized jingbo (‘capital cymbals’, used in Beijing
opera), and the large ritual cymbals nao and bo. Jingbo and related cymbals are generally between 15
and 20 cm in diameter, with a large raised central bulb through which a strip of cloth or cord is tied for
holding. Most cymbals today are employed in opera and ceremonial ensembles.
(vi) Gongs.
Gongs (luo) differ from bells and cymbals in that their area of greatest resonance is at their centres,
not at their rims. Chinese gongs are made from ‘resonant bronze’ (xiangtong, an alloy of copper and
tin), hammered into various dish-shaped or basin-shaped structures, with shoulders turned back at
about 90 degrees. Gong-type instruments may have originated in what is now south-central China, a
region heavily populated by non-Han tribal peoples, and in northern areas of South-east Asia. A bronze
gong unearthed in Guangxi province, dating to the Han dynasty, measures approximately 32 cm in
diameter, with a large, flat, central striking area, rounded shoulders and three metal rings around its
edge for suspension. The so-called ‘bronze drums’, which are actually gong types, appeared several
hundred years earlier (see Bronze drum, §2). Gong types ‘like large copper plates’ (known as zheng gu)
are described in the Tongdian of 801, and possibly related gongs (guchui zheng) are pictured in the
treatise Yueshu (c1100). The Japanese shoko (Chin. zheng gu) used in gagaku, with narrow shoulders at
90 degrees, through which cords are inserted for suspension in a frame, may be a survival from this
period. Other gongs are pictured and described in Chinese sources, such as the knobbed gong called
tong gu in the 1713 treatise Lülü zhengyi.
Chinese gongs today exist in a very wide variety. Small, basin-shaped gongs suspended in frames,
struck with thin unpadded beaters, include xiangzhan (‘resonating cup’), a small, flat gong resting in a
basket (about 6 cm in diameter), employed in nanguan of Fujian province; zhengluo, a slightly larger
gong (about 10 cm in diameter) suspended by three cords in an individual frame; Yunluo (‘cloud
gongs’), a set of ten or more similar sized pitched gongs common in northern China. Knobbed gongs
are larger (about 25–45 cm in diameter), with a raised boss at the centre and sharply turned-back
shoulders. They are suspended by two cords in standing frames, hung from poles (when used in
processions) or hand-held, and struck with padded beaters. Most commonly found in south-central
China, especially among minority peoples, and in south-eastern China and Taiwan, notably among the
Chaozhou people, knobbed gongs bear local onomatopoeic names such as gongluo or mangluo.
Gongs used in the operatic traditions of north and central-eastern China are different in that their
surface shapes are convex, with a flattened central striking area and relatively narrow shoulders. Their
most distinctive acoustical feature is that their pitches change after being struck. For large gongs
(about 30 cm in diameter), known as daluo (‘large gong’) and other local names, the pitch descends; for
small gongs (about 22 cm in diameter), known as xiaoluo (‘small gong’) and other names, the pitch
ascends. Such gongs are employed in ensembles accompanying northern opera and other instrumental
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ensembles. They are also used in southern China, together with very large basin-shaped gongs with
flat surfaces and wide shoulders, such as the Chaozhou shenbo (literally ‘deep slope’, about 60–80 cm
in diameter) and the smaller douluo (‘container gong’).
(vii) Later string instruments.

Beginning with the Song dynasty (960–1279), changes in Chinese taste associated with neo-
Confucianism forced many ‘foreign’ instruments out of fashion. While the konghou, wuxian and xiyaogu
appear less frequently in period paintings, the hengdi, bili and pipa are regularly pictured in
ensembles, often together with zheng, xiao, sheng and paiban. Most significant and widespread of the
instruments imported during the late Tang and early Song periods are the bowed two-string fiddles.
Huqin (literally ‘barbarian qin’) is the term applied to the broad family of bowed instruments. All have
a thin, round, fretless neck mounted in a relatively small resonating chamber of varying shapes, with
(usually) two strings between which the hair of the bow passes. Historic huqin types include the post-
Tang xiqin (activated by a thin strip of bamboo), the later mawei huqin (activated with a horsehair
bow), and the tiqin (‘hand-held’ qin) of about the 17th century. Among the dozens of more recent huqin
varieties still played in regional opera and instrumental ensembles are erxian, erhu, gaohu and banhu.
Another instrument imported into China after the Tang dynasty was the Sanxian, a lute with long,
fretless neck and snakeskin-covered resonator. The sanxian (literally ‘three string’), most likely an
adaptation of some other three string lute of Central Asia (such as setar), was first mentioned in
Chinese sources during the Mongol-dominated Yuan dynasty (1279–1368), though some scholars
believe it was in common usage before this. It is still employed in the accompaniment of the narrative
arts and other genres throughout China. Distantly related is the huobusi, one of several historic
transliterations for the Central Asian lute qobuz, an instrument not well documented until the Yuan
period. A specimen preserved in Beijing from about the 15th century has a long neck, narrow sound
chamber covered with snakeskin, and four strings – very similar to instruments still played among the
Naxi people of Yunnan and non-Han peoples of Xinjiang. (For a useful English-language review of this
and other Tang and Song string instruments, see Picken, 1965, pp.82–9.)
One of the last of the string instruments to be introduced before the 20th century was the Yangqin
(‘foreign qin’), a trapezoidal dulcimer with seven or more courses of metal strings, struck with two
slender beaters. An adaptation of the Persian santur, the yangqin was introduced into south China
during the late Ming dynasty (1368–1644), ultimately becoming widely accepted into Chinese
ensemble music, both north and south.
(viii) 20th-century developments.

During the first half of the 20th century, many Euro-American jazz and popular instruments were
introduced into the coastal cities of Shanghai and Hong Kong, such as banjo, double bass, violin,
xylophone, saxophone and piano. Some instruments, notably the banjo and C-melody saxophone, were
accepted into the Cantonese tradition; others enjoyed only short-term popularity. But the Euro-
American influence was far greater in terms of construction ideals. During the 1950s, the new state-
operated instrument factories, with the aim of projecting a progressive worldview and prosperous
national image, implemented numerous ‘reforms’: instrument volumes were increased, equal
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temperament adopted (making modulation to distant keys possible), and many instruments were
constructed in families (soprano, alto, tenor, bass). Some of these experiments, such as the jiajian
sheng (‘keyed [soprano] sheng’), tenor suona, and daruan (‘large ruan’), now maintain essential roles in
contemporary concert-hall ensembles. However, traditionally constructed instruments remain in
common use for regional genres.
Bibliography
Imperial period
Most comprehensive among Chinese-language sources are the encyclopedic guides by Liu (1987, 1992)
and Li (1996), and the multi-volume province-by-province ‘Compendium of Chinese musical
relics’ (Zhongguo yinyue wenwu daxi, 1996–). For an English-language index to relevant studies
appearing in Chinese archaeology journals, see DeWoskin (1989).
Shijing [Classic of poetry] (c10th–6th centuries BCE), trans. J. Legge as The Book of Poetry (London, 1876/R); A.
Waley as The Book of Songs (London, 1937/R); B. Karlgren as The Book of Odes (Stockholm, 1950)
Erya [Refined definitions] (c3rd century BCE)
Zhouli [Rites of Zhou (dynasty)] (c3rd–2nd century BCE)
Liji [Record of rites] (c1st century BCE), trans. J. Legge as Li Ki (Oxford, 1885/R)
Xu Shen: Shuowen jiezi [Explanation of graphs and analysis of characters] (c121 CE)
Ying Shao: Fengsu tongyi [Meaning of popular customs] (c175 CE)
Du You, ed.: Tongdian [Encyclopedic history of institutions] (801)
Duan Anjie: Yuefu zalu [Miscellaneous notes on music scholarship] (late 9th century), trans. Gimm, 1966
Chen Yang: Yueshu [Treatise on music] (c1100)
Wang Qi, ed.: Sancai tuhui [Universal encyclopedia] (1619)
Mei Gucheng and others, eds.: Lülü zhengyi [Basic principles of pitch systems] (1713)
Chen Menglei and others, eds.: Gujin tushu jicheng [Synthesis of books and illustrations past and present]
(1725)
20th century
A.C. Moule: ‘A List of the Musical and Other Sound-Producing Instruments of the Chinese’, Journal of the Royal
Asiatic Society, North China Branch, 39 (1908), 1–160; repr. separately (Buren, 1989)
Zhongguo yinyue shi cankao tupian [Illustrations for reference on Chinese music history], ed. Minzu yinyue
yanjiusuo (Shanghai and Beijing, 1954–64)
K. Hayashi: Dongya yueqi kao [Study of East Asian musical instruments] (Beijing, 1962/R) [with Eng. summary]
L. Picken: ‘Early Chinese Friction-Chordophones’, GSJ, 18 (1965), 82–9
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M. Gimm: Das ‘Yueh-fu Tsa-lu’ des Tuan An-chieh: Studien zur Geschichte von Musik, Schauspiel
und Tanz in der T’ang-Dynastie (Wiesbaden, 1966)
K. Hayashi and others: Shōsōin no gakki [Musical instruments in the Shōsōin] (Tokyo, 1967)
L. Picken: ‘T’ang Music and Musical Instruments’, T’oung Pao, 55 (1969), 74–122
5)
Yang Jialuo, ed.: Zhongguo yinyue shiliao [Historical materials on Chinese music] (Taipei, 1975)
W. Kaufmann: Musical References in the Chinese Classics (Detroit, 1976)
R. Mok: ‘Ancient Musical Instruments Unearthed in 1972 from the Number One Han Tomb at Ma Wang Tui, Changsha:
Translation and Commentary of Chinese Reports’, AsM, 10/1 (1978), 39–91
Han Kuo-huang: ‘The Modern Chinese Orchestra’, AsM, 11/1 (1979), 1–40
Wu Zhao: ‘Rare Find of Ancient Instruments’, China Reconstructs, 28/5 (1979), 28–31
Huang Xiangpeng and others: ‘Suixian chutu yinyue wenwu zhuanji’ [Special issue on the musical relics excavated
in Suixian], Yinyue yanjiu (1981), no.1
Tong Kin-woon: Shang Musical Instruments (diss., Wesleyan U., 1983); repr. in AsM, 14/2 (1983), 15/1 (1983)
and 15/ 2 (1984)
Yuan Bingchang and Mao Jizeng, eds.: Zhongguo shaoshu minzu yueqi zhi [Dictionary of musical
instruments of the Chinese minorities] (Beijing, 1986)
Liu Dongsheng and others, eds.: Zhongguo yueqi tuzhi [Pictorial record of Chinese musical instruments]
(Beijing,1987) [YYS pubn]
K. DeWoskin: ‘Sources for the Study of Early Chinese Music’, Archeologia Musicalis (1989)
F. Kuttner: The Archeology of Music in Ancient China (New York, 1990)
Han Kuo-huang: Zhonggue yueqi xunli [A tour of Chinese musical instruments] (Taipei, 1991)
Liu Dongsheng, ed.: Zhongguo yueqi tujian [Pictorial guide to Chinese instruments] (Ji′nan, 1992) [YYS pubn]
Zhao Feng and others, eds.: Zhongguo yueqi [Chinese musical instruments]/The Universe of Music: a
History, China, i: Instruments (Hong Kong, 1992) [suppl. vol. with Eng. summary]
L. von Falkenhausen: Suspended Music: Chime-bells in the Culture of Bronze Age China (Berkeley,
1993)
Yang Mu: Chinese Musical Instruments (Canberra, 1993) [incl. cassettes]
Zheng Ruzhong: ‘Musical Instruments in the Wall Paintings of Dunhuang’, CHIME, no.7 (1993), 4–56
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Li Chunyi: Zhongguo shanggu chutu yueqi zonglun [Survey of ancient excavated musical instruments in
China] (Beijing, 1996)
Zhongguo yinyue wenwu daxi [Compendium of Chinese musical relics] (1996–) [YYS pubn]
A. Thrasher: Chinese Musical Instruments (Hong Kong, 2000)
IV. Living traditions
Although Chinese scholars have studied living regional traditions since the 1940s and earlier, with
much research in the 1950s, wider awareness of the riches of folk music in China has come only since
the dismantling of the Maoist commune system in the 1980s. This period saw not only the revival of
many forms of traditional culture but also an intensification of collection and research. The main
stimulus for this work was the vast project Zhongguo minzu minjian yinyue jicheng (Anthology of Folk
Music of the Chinese Peoples), a series including volumes for every province on opera, narrative
singing, folksong, instrumental music and dance. Largely based on fieldwork in the early 1980s,
volumes began to appear in the late 1980s. For all its flaws, the series, consisting largely of
transcriptions into cipher notation, with brief documentation of history and social background of
genres, is an indispensable starting-point for fieldwork.
Also useful is the Zhongguo yinyue nianjian (Chinese music yearbook), which lists Chinese research on
different genres. Major archives include the Music Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Arts,
Beijing, and the CHIME Foundation, Leiden. Regional performance troupes for opera, narrative singing
and instrumental music may also preserve valuable unpublished documentary and recorded material.
Traditional genres adapted with difficulty to communist power and were virtually silenced in the 1960s
and 70s during the Cultural Revolution. After the dismantling of Maoism in the late 70s, traditions
revived. At the same time, many genres that had hitherto resisted political pressure were subject to the
new influence of modern popular culture. Nonetheless, traditions have proved more resilient in rural
areas than in the towns.
§§1–4 below discuss Han Chinese genres, §5 ‘minority’ traditions, and §6 Western-influenced styles.
1. Musical drama and narrative.

Vocal dramatic music has dominated Chinese taste since at least the Yuan dynasty (1279–1368). As
song adds dramatic elements, incorporating speech and recitation with extended narrative content,
costume and instrumental accompaniment, the Chinese classification moves from folksong to narrative
singing and opera.
Chinese research on regional genres was extensive in the 1950s and has thrived again since around
1980. Apart from the major work of the Anthology of Folk Music, journals include Zhongguo xiju
(formerly Xiju bao), Quyi and many others published in Beijing or in regional centres, and in the West,
Asian Theatre Journal and CHINOPERL: Journal of Chinese Oral and Performing Literature. Many more
recordings of regional opera than of narrative-singing are available in China, most collections being
held privately by research institutes and performing troupes. Archives include the Xiqu yanjiusuo and
Quyi yanjiusuo in Beijing; provincial conservatories and troupes also often have research departments.
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(i) Opera.
Colin Mackerras
(a) History and styles.

The Chinese xi, xiqu or xiju, variously rendered in English as opera, drama or theatre, denotes a multi-
media performance in which a dramatic story is enacted in costume and make-up, a synthesis of
speech, song, dance, acting and acrobatics. Stage props are sparse, and action is highly stylized (fig.8).
A scene in The Story of the White Snake (Baishe zhuan) in the Hubei Opera (Hanju) style, Wuhan, 1998
Photo: Colin Mackerras
A major dictionary of Chinese regional opera, published in 1995, lists and explains the history, features
and music of 335 different styles, including Beijing opera. These vary according to music,
instrumentation and the dialect or language of the librettos. Apart from the operas of ethnic
‘minorities’, especially Tibetan opera, the stories tend to be consistent from one place to another,
though some are particular to one region. Some styles are popular in large areas of the country, others
in single provinces, and most in still smaller districts. Whereas in the West an opera is generally
identifiable by its composer, in China it is known by its region of origin.
Chinese sung drama originated during the 12th century under the Southern Song dynasty (1127–
1279), but the regional operas performed today developed mainly during the Ming and Qing dynasties
(1368–1911). The largest in scale among the styles belong to several main ‘systems’ of opera, notably
gaoqiang, Kunqu, bangzi qiang and pihuang.
The great majority of regional opera styles were for the masses; the educated élite looked down on
these plays. The oldest of the surviving systems of popular opera is gaoqiang, also known as Yiyang
qiang after its place of origin, Yiyang in Jiangxi province. Characteristics include fast metres and the
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use of a small chorus, which in some cases entirely replaces wind and string instruments. Major
examples are Sichuan opera (Chuanju) and Chaozhou opera (Chaoju), both of which still use the small
chorus.
The more sophisticated style of Kunqu evolved in the Suzhou area of east-central China during the 16th
century. It influenced the later development of Beijing opera but was losing popularity by the 20th
century. It is an aristocratic style characterized by a slow and regular 4/4 rhythm with much melisma,
accompanied by di transverse flute and sanxian three-string lute.
A third system common in northern China is clapper opera (bangzi qiang), which was originally
accompanied by a date-wood clapper. All clapper opera styles use string instruments, especially a two-
string bowed fiddle (see Huqin). Like the Yiyang qiang, their librettos are based mainly on colloquial
language. Major examples of this system are the operas of Shaanxi (Qinqiang) and Shanxi (Jinju).
The fourth main system is pihuang, a combination of erhuang and xipi, modes with their different
affects. The main example of this system is Beijing opera; another is Cantonese opera (Yueju), with its
mellifluous and slightly sensuous tonalities; the saxophone and other Western instruments were
introduced into this opera in the first half of the 20th century.
Apart from styles belonging to these four systems, there is a plethora of small-scale folk regional
styles. Their plays have small casts, with very few instruments accompanying the singers and simple
and repetitious melodies. The stories are comic, many revolving around a flirtatious couple and clearly
designed for entertainment. Both imperial and modern authorities frequently castigated the operas as
lewd, with frequent bans and edicts against them. A major example of a style that began as folk theatre
but expanded in scale after becoming urbanized early in the 20th century is Shaoxing opera (Yueju,
written differently from the characters for Cantonese opera). The music is softer, more lyrical and less
percussive than that heard in most of China’s main regional styles, although of course the orchestra
includes percussion.
Apart from its function as entertainment, opera is also part of folk ritual in many parts of China.
Buddhist plays using a regional style in their musical accompaniment were incorporated into these
rituals. Plays such as Mulian jiumu (‘Mulian Saves his Mother’), about the virtuous Mulian who seeks,
finds and saves his sinful mother from hell, became extremely popular, forming the basis of religious
rituals. David Johnson has suggested that the main reason for the close connection of ritual and opera
is because both were scripted performances in a culture where doctrine was always of slighter
significance than behaviour.
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Traditional characters in Chinese opera: (left to right) old man (secondary character), old woman, young
heroine and scholar lover: drawings from Zhuibaiqiu, i (1908)
Standard role types are sheng (male), dan (female), jing (painted face, male) and chou (clown) (fig.9).
Although Shaoxing opera began the practice of all-female casts in the first half of the 20th century,
until the mid-20th century most actors were male, including those who performed female roles;
thereafter the tradition of males playing female roles largely died out. Actors were very low in class,
despite the extraordinary skills their art demanded, and enjoyed no protection at all under the law.
Even the performers of Kunqu were low in status and included the slaves of the aristocracy.
Musically, Chinese regional operas have been classified as ‘metrical melody’ (banqiang) and ‘labelled
melody’ (qupai) forms. In the former, skeletal musical phrases (often in pairs) are varied and
elaborated to fit the text, metre etc. In the latter, by contrast, the unit of variation is the ‘labelled
melody’, a large repertory of pre-existing tunes, to which the text is adapted or composed. The styles
belonging to the clapper opera and pihuang systems follow the first pattern, while the great majority of
other styles accord with the second.
The instrumental accompaniment is often divided into ‘civil’ and ‘martial’ arenas (wenchang,
wuchang). Apart from bowed and plucked fiddles and flute, a shawm plays overtures and codas and
marks the entrance of imposing characters such as emperors or generals. The percussion section is led
by a drum-master playing a high-pitched ‘single-skin’ drum (danpi gu) and clappers, with punctuation
from gongs and cymbals.
(b) Opera under Mao.

The policy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on regional drama has moved through different
phases. Before the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), regional theatre was encouraged as a popular art
form loved by the masses. The government invested money in establishing professional troupes that
would maintain and enhance the various regional forms. It set up and paid for training schools to foster
a new generation of performers. It persuaded ‘old artists’ to use their talents to reconstruct arts that
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were dying out and to work in the training schools. The social status of actors of the regional opera
was even lower than in Beijing opera, and the CCP tried to improve their position, lionizing such stars
as the Kunqu actor Yu Zhenfei, the Shaoxing opera actress Yuan Xuefen (1922–2011) and the
Cantonese opera performer Ma Shizeng (1900–64).
In the 1950s, the CCP also undertook extensive reforms of the regional theatre in order to eliminate
politically untoward content that could be construed as anti-socialist. At the same time folk opera
troupes, though also affected by reform, showed themselves remarkably resistant to modernized styles
of music or content. At all times, they have preferred their own traditions.
A new form of traditional opera was inherited from the northern Shaanxi zones that the CCP had held
in the 1930s and 40s. Called ‘newly arranged historical drama’ (xinbian lishi xi), this form had several
characteristics. The music was composed especially for each new play but followed the style of the
original traditional regional opera, with only inessential changes such as increasing the size of the
accompanying orchestra. Scenery was made more spectacular and complicated than in any traditional
regional opera. Librettos were especially written to suit the music of the regional opera style and for a
story set in the dynastic period. Instead of short episodic scenes, such as characterize traditional
opera, the newly arranged plays feature dramatic tension, rising to a climax and dénouement. The
themes had to accord with socialist demands and express what CCP Chairman Mao Zedong (1893–
1976) described as ‘the democratic essence’ of the Chinese people. So operas about rebels against the
feudal society or women asserting their right to play a part in public life were especially favoured.
The Cultural Revolution saw the banning of all traditional regional operas. Even the most politically
correct of the ‘newly arranged historical dramas’ were banned. The most rigid censorship replaced
them with adaptations of the model Beijing operas favoured by Mao’s wife Jiang Qing. Actors
associated with the traditional theatre were harassed, humiliated and persecuted.
Early in 1978, following a major political turnabout in Chinese politics, the new power-holder Deng
Xiaoping (1904–97) effected a change in policy on regional theatre. An avid supporter and lover of
Sichuan opera, he had seen at that time a private performance of some traditional items in the
provincial capital Chengdu. With Deng’s explicit approval, Sichuan opera became the first of the major
regional styles to reintroduce traditional plays.
(c) The revival.

Since 1978, two trends have been obvious. The state-subsidized regional theatre troupes at first
revived significantly but then fell off. According to figures in the annual State Statistical Yearbook, the
total number of state-subsidized troupes of all regional opera styles in 1986 was 2013, giving 397,000
performances of which 286,000 were in the countryside. By 1997, these figures had fallen,
respectively, to 1472, 254,000, and 195,000. Audiences had fallen by about a quarter. Government
subsidies had about halved over the same period and although performance takings had nearly trebled,
this was because of much higher ticket or entrance prices, at least in part through performances for
tourists. Some of the surviving troupes exist more in name than reality. Although many items
performed belong to the category ‘newly arranged historical drama’, the majority are on traditional
themes, with very few indeed on modern or contemporary topics.
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The second trend is the revival of regional opera that is entirely independent of the state financially
and often purely folk (minjian). These types of opera can be performed by amateur folk troupes. There
are also professionals who make part of their living from their performances, working as ordinary
peasants or at some other job for some of the year, and in opera for some of it. Entry into these
troupes, even the folk companies, can be quite competitive, members being trained in their arts. Those
in the countryside perform only on special occasions, such as at festivals or for a wedding or funeral.
They do not usually perform in a theatre but in a covered enclosure built specially for the purpose or in
the open air, often opposite a temple. The audience may pay for tea or tip the singers by throwing them
money during the performance, but there is seldom a system of entrance payment. Sometimes if a
regional opera company cannot make money in its own home, it will simply uproot and go elsewhere
for a spell in the hope of finding better remuneration. The operas that such troupes perform are mainly
classical, with traditional singing style and few accompanying musicians (fig.10).
Qinqiang opera, Baozixiang, Minxian, Gansu province, June 1997
CHIME Archive
One striking revival is that of ritual opera performed by lay clergy as part of an extended funeral or
other ceremony. In southern Fujian province there are several ancient styles of regional opera,
including the opera of Putian and Xianyou (Pu-Xian xi). Operas about Mulian are again performed as
part of funeral and other rituals in this style, mainly by Buddhist priests. In some areas Daoist funeral
ceremonies include ritual opera.
Another common form of regional opera found in various styles is known as nuo (fig.11). The name
means ‘to cleanse or exorcize’, suggesting a strong ritual emphasis. Indeed, nuo is usually performed
either at the spring festival to welcome the (lunar) new year, or at the autumn harvest festival to pray
for a good harvest. However, provided they can pay, anybody can request a performance to alleviate a
disaster such as drought, infertility or illness, to accompany a funeral or other special occasion or,
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increasingly in the 1990s, just for entertainment. Nuo opera is very ancient; like many ritual traditions
thought to have died out under the People’s Republic, it re-emerged as a living tradition during the
1980s, attracting considerable interest both in China and abroad.
A performance of a traditional regional nuo drama on an old stage in a former mansion in Fenghuang,
western Hunan, 1992
Photo: Colin Mackerras
Nuo opera has been studied in Shanxi, Anhui and Guizhou. In Guizhou, a province with many minority
nationalities, it is found among both the dominant Han and eight of the minority nationalities of the
region – Miao, Yao, Yi, Bouyei, Dong, Shui, Gelao and Yao. One distinctive feature of all nuo styles is the
use of masks, although not all nuo performances include masked characters. The masks vary
enormously from region to region and even within a particular style. Masks are not usual in Chinese
opera, the infinitely varied patterns of the painted face appearing to make them unnecessary. Some
scholars have suggested a link between the nuo styles and Tibetan opera, which also uses masks. The
music of the nuo styles is generally similar to other regional opera and folksong of its particular area in
melody, instrumentation and rhythm. Although a few of the stories deal with topics such as the origin
of the people among whom they are popular, the majority are traditional love stories, military tales of
the 3rd-century Three Kingdoms period etc., rather similar to most other regional operas.
The actors of the nuo operas are members of the community, mostly male, and serve to reinforce
community spirit. There are also folk amateur troupes that will perform on demand at a price. An
informant stated in 1990 that the total number of troupes was very substantial, with at least one in
every county in Guizhou and three or more in many. Scornful of the professional troupes, he added that
the folk troupes provided much the best opera to be found in Guizhou province. The actors and
administrators are mostly peasants and are thus mainly active during the slack agricultural seasons.
The usual site for a nuo opera is in any large space in the open air, but they can also be found in formal
theatres.
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A province especially noted for its traditional theatre is Sichuan. The main style, known as Sichuan
opera (Chuanju), combines musical elements from the main systems noted above with local melodies
and instrumentation. Of these elements the most prominent, termed gaoqiang, derives from the Yiyang
qiang system; the vocal texture has an identifiable high-pitched quality, with accompaniment restricted
to a very small chorus and percussion instruments.
From 1982 there was a major officially sponsored movement aimed at ‘reviving Sichuan
opera’ (zhenxing Chuanju), with the number of state troupes reaching about 100. By the mid-1990s
this number had fallen to 80, of which nearly half were inactive, existing in name only. There are still
formal schools for Sichuan opera, notably the Sichuan Provincial Opera School in the capital Chengdu,
which is very active. Although audiences in the cities are mainly small and fairly to very old, there is
still a following in the villages, including among the young. Many villages still have their own folk
troupes, with ordinary people able to sing Sichuan opera. They perform not only on the major festivals
but on any special occasion, such as a wedding, or during the slack agricultural season.
Two other features of the Sichuan opera scene are worth noting. One is that this style has produced
the writer who has created what are perhaps the most interesting – and certainly most controversial –
new operas in China since the 1980s: Wei Minglun (b 1941). His most noted opera is Pan Jinlian (1986),
described as ‘a Sichuan opera of the absurd’. It takes the form of a contemporary trial, presided over
by a female judge. The title character is a woman traditionally castigated as evil, being noted for
debauchery and for murdering one of her husbands. The judge’s verdict is that blame rests not with
Pan herself but with Chinese patriarchal society and its oppression of women.
The second feature concerns the revival of the Mulian dramas, which was part of the movement to
‘revive Sichuan opera’. Although very ancient in Sichuan (the first documented performance being in
829), the Sichuan opera Mulian dramas were moribund by the late 1950s and were totally suppressed
during the Cultural Revolution. However, a revived performance took place in the first five days of
September 1993, with the focus on the temple stage of the Fuleshan park in Mianyang, not far north-
east of Chengdu. The significance of the dates is, first, the length of the performances and, second,
that they corresponded, in the traditional way, with the Avalambana Festival on the 15th day of the
seventh lunar month, marking the Buddha’s advice to Mulian to offer food, incense and paper money to
rescue his mother from hell. The performance adopted a highly traditional style, including the religious
ritual so central in the past. The distinction between performers and audiences was blurred, with
action both on the stage and among the audience and inside and outside the temple.
Puppetry (kuilei) is another ancient art form that contributed to and benefited from the thriving urban
culture of the Song dynasty. Although puppetry exists all over the country, regions famous for this art
are eastern Hebei, Shaanxi and southern Fujian. In general, the music, dialect and themes of puppet
styles accord with those of the local human opera. Under the CCP, professional troupes have been set
up to foster puppetry. However, folk performers still operate in many regions and, at least in the
countryside, it is they who provide their art’s main contact with ordinary people. Puppetry also has a
ritual background, often being associated with Daoism.
There are several surviving forms, as opposed to musical styles, of puppetry, including marionettes,
string puppets and cloth puppets. The marionettes are about a metre high and manipulated from
behind with three rods attached to the head and hands. String puppets are about two-thirds the size of
the marionettes and are controlled from above with strings. The much smaller cloth puppets are
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manipulated by inserting the fingers. The marionette theatre of southern Fujian still preserves full
versions of the Mulian story, which can be performed in association with religious rituals. Other than
the fact that marionettes replace people on stage, these performances are musically similar to
counterpart regional opera styles; for example, the marionette version of the Mulian story as
performed in Putian, central Fujian coast, is the same musically and in other ways as that of the Pu-
Xian opera.
In the 21st century, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
has assisted the revival of several Chinese traditional theatre genres. In 2001 it added Kunqu to its list
of ‘Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity’. In 2009 UNESCO inscribed
Cantonese opera (Yueju) on its list of representatives of Intangible Cultural Heritage, with Beijing
opera (jingju) following the next year. Another feature of great interest is the way international and
even domestic tourism has been invoked to preserve the traditional theatre. Some excellent
performances of Kunqu, Beijing opera and other styles are specifically for tourists, who provide
commercial incentive for keeping alive art forms that otherwise seem to be losing their audiences. A
very good example is Tang Xianzu’s Mudan ting (‘Peony Pavilion’). Excellent and sensitive shortened
performances of this famous item are regularly given in Beijing’s old Imperial Granary, which has been
especially restored complete with a dining hall and small-scale theatre.
(ii) Narrative.
Francesca Rebollo-Sborgi
The Chinese narrative arts, known as quyi or shuochang, comprise a body of orally performed genres in
which linguistic communication and musical delivery are complementary. Compared to Chinese
operatic forms, the narrative arts use simpler costuming, props and instrumentation. Attention is
focussed primarily on a single performer’s ability to assume all the roles of the various characters in
the story, including that of narrator. As a transportable, cost-effective form of entertainment that has
appealed to a broad cross-section of patrons, the narrative arts have served several important
traditional functions: as a communication technology for illiterate patrons, as an outlet for veiled social
protest and as a source of aesthetic pleasure for the connoisseur who delights in the beauty of the
marriage between text and tune.
(a) Stories.
The narrative arts are commonly believed to have descended from the Tang dynasty (618–907) bianwen
(‘transformation texts’), which were Buddhist-inspired stories performed by professional storytellers
who sometimes used large paintings to illustrate various points of the text. This multi-media form
attracted large audiences from a number of social strata and became a popular form of entertainment
during the Tang period.
Bianwen was prohibited by governmental decree at the beginning of the Song dynasty (960–1279), but
secular narratives continued to gain in popularity. Stories told by professional storytellers in urban
commercial centres were often written down in the vernacular of the day in storytellers’ scripts, which
also served as source materials for other narrative performers.
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The interrelationship between oral and literary traditions was particularly evident in the prose fiction
from the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) periods. Examples such as Shuihu zhuan (‘Water
Margin’) and Honglou meng (‘Story of the Stone’) were not only written episodically, as if each chapter
were being told as part of an instalment within a longer saga, but these and other novels have also
provided a wealth of source materials for orally performed stories up to the present day. The stories
that have been ‘borrowed’ from novels are often favourite episodes that lend themselves particularly
well to being told orally: episodes with a lot of action, emotional turmoil or descriptive interest.
In addition to borrowing stories from prose fiction, the narrative arts have traditionally used other
sources for stories as well, such as current topical themes or romanticized historical subjects. Stories
may be tragic, comedic, satirical or descriptive, and different genres tend to specialize in a particular
type of story and feature a particular kind of ‘literary’ style that corresponds to its characteristic
delivery style.
(b) Delivery styles.

In addition to their value as entertaining stories, Chinese narrative forms exhibit the greatest variety of
delivery styles of any performed narrative in the world. The approximately 150 types of modern
narrative genres have been divided into the following four categories: pinghua (spoken storytelling);
xiangsheng (comic routines); kuaiban (clappertales); and guqu (sung genres). Guqu is by far the largest
category, representing over 100 of the 150 genres.
The sung genres have been grouped generally into eight broad categories according to regional
variation, instrumentation, musical form and choreographic features. Guci are genres from north China
that feature the accompaniment of drum, clapper and stringed instruments; tanci are from central
China and feature plucked lute accompaniment; shidiao xiaoqu feature popular tunes that are used as
models for writing new texts; daoqing are accompanied by percussion instruments; paiziqu are similar
to shidiao xiaoqu but use more than one melody per piece; qinshu feature the struck dulcimer yangqin;
zouchang are dance narratives; and zaqu are miscellaneous vocal genres (fig.12).
Lianyungang paiziqu, a form of narrative singing found in northern Jiangsu province
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CHIME Archive
In addition to their variety in musical form, instrumentation and performance style, the sung genres
also differ broadly in length, featuring either extended tales or the shorter vocal narrative. The
extended tales are told by a performer in two-hour instalments over a period of several months as
continuous entertainment for both rural and urban audiences. The shorter, vocal narrative, sung in its
entirety in about 20 minutes, has become the preferred length in modern urban China. Extended tales
may still be heard in rural settings, however.
(c) Musical settings.

Despite differences in the length of a performance, accompaniment or delivery style, one of the most
striking characteristics of all sung genres is the careful way in which stories are set to music. Because
these are narrative genres, communicating the story is of paramount importance. The setting of lyrics
to music is a process in which the textual message must penetrate the musical treatment, and
performers often say that they must ‘first convey text, then sing the tune’ (xian nianzi hou changqiang).
The two basic ways in which melodic and linguistic parameters are balanced are the text-setting
processes known as banqiang and qupai forms. Although each of these processes includes a number of
variants, the following discussion introduces each system in simplest terms.
Banqiang form is a system for setting texts in which the music functions as a subsidiary element to the
text. This is accomplished by means of recurrent melodic and rhythmic formulae used at appropriate
points in the text. In other words, the melodic formulae in a banqiang genre emerge differently in each
line according to the tonal and rhythmic requirements of the text and the aesthetic preferences of the
singer. At the same time, however, the musical rendition of every textual line preserves the essential
pitch structure, characteristic melodic movements and cadential patterns of the system. Consequently,
no two pieces composed according to the same banqiang will sound alike to the uninitiated listener,
since different texts demand individual settings; only the seasoned connoisseur can discern and fully
appreciate the way in which the banqiang form is used. This process of setting texts is flexible and is
used to accommodate virtually any text written according to the basic literary conventions of the
genre.
The qupai genres are more melody-centred. Drawing from a repertory of pre-existing tunes, the creator
of a piece using the qupaitext-setting process selects one or more tunes as models for composing new
texts. These models, known as qupai (‘labelled melodies’) or paizi (‘standards’), then become part of the
standard repertory of a genre, and despite some changes over the years, they often retain their
original names. The most popular tunes that are also the most easily adaptable for setting new lyrics
have been selectively retained by performers, and new texts are written according to rules implied by
the original, prototypical text in a process referred to as tianci or ‘filling in the lyrics’. Pieces written to
the same qupai will sound similar musically, even though there will be slight variations from piece to
piece in the form of different grace notes added to textual syllables with a different tonemic contour
than the corresponding syllables of the prototypical text.
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(d) Current centres and prospects.
Two urban areas have emerged as particularly important regional centres because of the local
emphasis placed on narrative performance: Tianjin in the north and Suzhou in central China. As the
centre for the performance of northern styles, the city of Tianjin boasts some of the finest performers
in north China, the regional training school for all northern genres and one of the largest troupes of
professional narrative performers in the country. Genres are performed in either standard Beijing
Mandarin or in local Tianjin dialect. Because of the close relationship between language and music, the
dialects used determine the way the melodies are rendered. The primary instruments of choice in
Tianjin are the sanxian (three-string plucked banjo), sihu (four-string bowed fiddle) and pipa (four-
string plucked lute). Narrative genres performed in Tianjin are generally representative of the
performance traditions in Beijing, Jilin, Shandong and other areas in north China where narrative-
singing flourishes.
As the centre for performance styles in central China, the pingtan traditions that flourish in the
Shanghai-Suzhou area are also locally and nationally recognized for their musical and artistic beauty.
The major distinctions between this and narrative traditions in other areas are the following: the use of
local dialect, which determines not only the semantic intelligibility of the genres to local people but
also the nature of the melodic rendition, since melody must conform to the idiosyncracies of the
dialect; a different instrumentarium, which features the pipa and a smaller sanxian as the main
accompanying instruments; and banqiang and qupai forms peculiar to the region. On one level there
are popular stories derived from sources that are beloved throughout China. In addition, however,
there are also stories of local interest. As with similarities and differences in cuisine throughout China,
local areas share certain general musical preferences for the telling of stories to musical
accompaniment with other areas in China, and yet each region displays certain unique characteristics
with regard to dialect, its melodic accommodation, accompaniment and popular stories. (See also Jiang
Yuequan, Xu Lixian and Zhang Jianting.)
Despite the revival since the 1980s, narrative traditions have suffered, especially in urban areas, first
under the extreme period of socialism in the Cultural Revolution, and then as advances in modern
telecommunications challenged the narrative arts as a communication technology and as a source for
inexpensive entertainment. The state of the narrative arts in rural China is still little known, although
the narrative volumes of the Anthology of Folk Music (see §IV Introduction above) now offer leads.
Some genres that have attracted the attention of Chinese scholars include erren tai, erren zhuan and
Yulin xiaoqu in northern China, kuaishu in Shandong and wenchang in Guangxi; Sichuan also has
several styles.
Bibliography
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A.C. Scott: The Classical Theatre of China (London, 1957)

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C. Mackerras: The Chinese Theatre in Modern Times: from 1840 to the Present Day (London, 1975)
W. Dolby: A History of Chinese Drama (London, 1976)
C. Mackerras: The Performing Arts in Contemporary China (London, 1981)
I. Tanaka: Chūgoku saisi engeki kenkyū [Ritual theatre in China] (Tokyo, 1981)
Zhang Geng and Guo Hancheng: Zhongguo xiqu tongshi [General history of Chinese opera] (Beijing,1981)
B.S. McDougall, ed.: Popular Chinese Literature and Performing Arts in the People’s Republic of
China, 1949–1979 (Berkeley, 1984)
R.H. Stalberg: China’s Puppets (San Francisco, 1984)
Xiqu yinyue yanjiu congshu [Compendium of research on opera music] [series, Beijing, c1985–, incl. vols. on
many regional genres]
J. Riley and E. Unterreider, eds.: Haishi Zou Hao: Chinese Poetry, Drama and Literature of the
1980’s (Bonn, 1989)
C. Mackerras: Chinese Drama: a Historical Survey (Beijing, 1990)
M.D. Lopez: Chinese Drama: an Annotated Bibliography of Commentary, Criticism, and Plays in
English Translation (Metuchen, NJ, 1991)
C.K. Wang: ‘Studies in Chinese Ritual and Ritual Theater: a Bibliographic Report’, CHINOPERL Papers, 18
(1995), 115–30
Wang Qiugui and others: Zhongguo difang xiqu congtan [Collected notes on Chinese regional opera] (Xinzhu,
1995)
Zhongguo xiqu juzhong da cidian [Dictionary of genres of traditional Chinese opera] (Shanghai, 1995)
J. Riley: Chinese Theatre and the Actor in Performance (Cambridge, 1997)
Siu Wang-Ngai and P. Lovrick: Chinese Opera, Images and Stories (Vancouver, 1997)
Regional opera
Lu Eting: Kunju yanchu shigao [Draft history of the performance of Kunqu] (Shanghai, 1980)
Hu Du, Liu Xingming and Fu Ze: Chuanju cidian [Dictionary of Sichuan opera] (Beijing, 1987)
Gu Piaoguang and others: Zhongguo nuo wenhua lunwen xuan [Selected papers on the nuo culture of
China] (Guiyang, 1989)
D. Johnson, ed.: Ritual Opera, Operatic Ritual, ‘Mu-lien Rescues his Mother’ in Chinese Popular
Culture (Berkeley, 1989)
Liu Zhizhong and Hu Ji: Kunju fazhan shi [History of the development of Kunqu] (Beijing, 1989)
B. Yung: Cantonese Opera: Performance as Creative Process (Cambridge, 1989)
Chan Sau Yan: Improvisation in a Ritual Context: the Music of Cantonese Opera (Hong Kong, 1991)
E. Wichmann: Listening to Theatre: the Aural Dimension of Beijing Opera (Honolulu, 1991)
Page 66 of 123
Jiang Yuxiang: Zhongguo yingxi [Chinese shadow theatre] (Chengdu, 1992)
S.P. Jain: ‘Helping, Striking, and Singing’: the Role of Qupai in Structuring Sichuan Opera
Gaoqiang Performance (diss., U. of Hawaii, 1994)
U. Dauth: ‘Sichuan Mulianxi in Mianyang (in September 1993)’, Theatralia X: the Bamboo-Leaf Boat, the
Magic of the Chinese Theatre, ed. D. Kalvodová (Prague, 1996), 185–205
U. Dauth: Strategies of Reform in Sichuan Opera since 1982: Confronting the Challenge of
Rejuvenating a Regional Opera in Post-Mao China (diss., Griffith U., Brisbane, 1997)
J. Riley: Chinese Theatre and the Actor in Performance (Cambridge, 1997)
C.C. Swatek: Peony Pavilion Onstage: Four Centuries in the Career of a Chinese Drama (Ann Arbor,
MI, 2002)
J.P. Stock: Huju: Traditional Opera in Modern Shanghai (Oxford, 2003)
Li Siu Leung: Cross-Dressing in Chinese Opera (Hong Kong, 2003)
Xu Chengbei: Peking Opera (Beijing, 2003)
Robin Ruizendaal: Marionette Theatre in Quanzhou (Leiden, Boston, 2006)
S.L. Leiter, ed.: Encyclopedia of Asian Theatre (Westport, CT, 2007)
Narrative
Shuochang yinyue [Narrative-singing], ed. Zhongyang yinyue xueyuan Zhongguo yinyue yanjiusuo
(Beijing, 1961)
Shuochang yinyue quzhong jieshao [Introduction to genres of narrative-singing], ed. Zhongyang yinyue
xueyuan Zhongguo yinyue yanjiusuo (Beijing, 1961)
C. Stevens: Peking Drumsinging (diss., Harvard U., 1975)
Hou Baolin and others, eds.: Quyi gailun [Survey of the narrative arts] (Beijing, 1980)
Yang Xianyi and G. Yang: The Courtesan’s Jewel Box: Chinese Stories of the Xth-XVIIth Centuries
(Beijing, 1981)
Zhongguo xiqu quyi cidian [Encyclopedia of Chinese opera and narrative] (Shanghai, 1981)
Zhongguo dabaike quanshu, xiqu, quyi [Encyclopedia Sinica: opera and narrative] (Beijing, 1983)
F. Ferguson [Rebollo-Sborgi]: Dualistic Relationships in Northern Chinese Narrative Arts (diss., U. of

Washington, 1988)
V. Mair: Painting and Performance: Chinese Picture Recitation and its Indian Genesis (Honololu,
1988)
V. Mair: T’ang Transformation Texts (Cambridge, MA, 1988)
Pen-yeh Tsao: The Music of Su-chou T’an-tz’u: Elements of the Chinese Southern Singing-
Narrative (Hong Kong, 1988)
Page 67 of 123
Lian Bo, ed.: Zhongguo minzu yinyue daxi, quyi yinyue juan [Compendium of Chinese folk music: narrative
music volume] (Shanghai, 1989)
Xue Baokun: Zhongguo shuochang yishu shilun [On the art of Chinese narrative-singing] (Shijiazhuang,
1990)
H. Rees: ‘An Annotated Bibliography on Shuochang (Narrative Singing)’, CHIME, no.3 (1991), 88–96
Ni Zhong: Quyi minsu yu minsu quyi [The folklore of narrative and narrative in folklore] (Beijing, 1993)
F. Rebollo-Sborgi: ‘The Musicality of Oral Performance: the Case of Tianjin Shidiao and the Musical Expression of
Urban Identity’, AM, 26/1 (1994), 9–52
Duran Yuming: Zhongguo shijing wenhua yu chuantong quyi [Chinese urban culture and traditional
narrative singing] (Changchun, 1992)
R.C. Pian: ‘Text Setting and the Use of Tunes Types in Chinese Dramatic and Narrative Music’, Text, Tone, and
Tune: Parameters of Music in Multicultural Pespective, ed. B.C. Wade (New Delhi, 1993), 201–33
V. Børdahl: The Oral Tradition of Yangzhou Storytelling (Richmond, Surrey, 1996)
A.E. McLaren: Chinese Popular Cultural and Ming Chantefable (Boston, 1998)
V. Børdahl, ed.: The Eternal Storyteller, Oral Literature in Modern China (Richmond, Surrey, 1999)
V. Børdahl and J. Ross: Chinese Storytellers: Life and Art in the Yangzhou Tradition (Boston, 2002)
M. Bender: Plum and Bamboo: China’s Suzhou Chantefable Tradition (Urbana, IL, 2003)
Recordings
The available range of audio and video recordings of Chinese traditional theatre has risen enormously in recent years,
making it impossible to list more than a small proportion here. Among traditional forms, the best represented are
kunqu, jingju, and yueju (both Cantonese and Shaoxing)
Mudan ting, Kunju (The Peony Pavilion, Kunju), perf. Zhang Jiqing and others, Nanjing Audio and Video
Publishing Company, ISRC CN-E12-99-0008-0/V∙J8 (n.d.)
Yueju Honglou meng [Shaoxing Opera ‘Story of the Stone’], perf. Wang Jun’an, Zheng Quan and others,
Longxiang, DVD, ISRC CN-A22-08-0032-0/V∙J8 (n.d.)
Zhongguo xiqu yishujia changqiang xuan [Selected vocal melodies of Chinese opera artists], ed. Zhongguo
yishu yanjiuyuan Xiqu yanjiusuo, China Record Co. (c1980–)
The Monkey King, The World of Peking Opera, rec. 1979, JVC World Sounds, VICG-5016 (1990)
An Introduction to Chinese Opera, Marco Polo 8.223930-3 (1994)
Opera du Sichuan: la légende du serpent blanc, Buda 92555-5 (1994)
Le pavillon aux pivoines: opéra chinois kunqu, perf. Hua Wenyi and others, Maisons des Cultures du Monde
W 260060 (1994–5)
Huangmei xi Tianxian pei [The Huangmei opera ‘A Fairy’s Marriage’], rec. 1956, Shanghai Audio-Visual Press
CD-0075 (1995)
Ka-lé: la cérémonie du bonheur, AIMP VDE CD-911 (1996)

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Jinye lai changxi/The Beauty of Chinese Folk Opera, Wind Records TCD-1021 (1998)
Shiba duan quyi/Shuochang: the Ultimate Art of Storytelling, Wind Records TCD-1022 (1998)
2. Folksong and dance.

Frank Kouwenhoven and A. Schimmelpenninck
(i) Folksong.
People throughout rural Chinese society participate in folksinging. There is evidence of traditionally
distinct repertories for peasants, cowherds, fishermen, women doing indoor work, itinerant beggars,
pedlars, house-builders and numerous other groups. The spread of literacy in China has deeply
influenced folksong repertories. Booklets of lyrics circulated among literate folksingers in the 19th
century, and the constant interplay between oral and written forms appears to have roots going back to
the late 16th century or earlier. In the 20th century, folksinging waned in many areas, owing to
industrialization, changing agricultural patterns and political censorship.
There is an abundance of local genres and local terms for folksongs. Chinese folksong theorists tend to
distinguish three major categories: haozi, xiaodiao and shan′ge. Haozi (‘cries’) is a fairly general word
for rhythmic working cries, often sung in antiphonal form by two groups of singers, or by a lead singer
and a chorus. These cries support repetitive physical movements during work.
Xiaodiao (‘lesser tunes’) are described as lyrical, mellifluous songs (usually solo songs) in a regular
rhythm, often sung indoors in a soft voice and accompanied by instruments like erhu (bowed fiddle)
and clappers or other small percussion instruments. Some xiaodiao have a musical refrain. Some
scholars view xiaodiao mainly as an urban genre, and some describe it as a (professional) artists’
genre, a type of music suited for stage production or for adaptation by instrumental ensembles. Others
associate it primarily with popular festivals, notably in the New Year period. More likely, xiaodiao is a
generic term for a number of functionally and artistically different genres. To a lesser extent, this may
also be true for songs of the third category, shan′ge.
Shan′ge (‘mountain songs’) are generally defined as improvised songs in free rhythm, sung loudly
during work outdoors (specifically during the work of weeding and harvesting). Shan′ge are more
explicitly associated with peasant life than the other two genres. A typical shan′ge may include a loud
and piercing falsetto passage, as in ex.3, in which the singer boasts he has so many songs in his belly
that he could make the whole lake overflow by singing them. The dividing lines between shan′ge,
xiaodiao and other generic folksong terms should not be drawn too sharply. Numerous intermediate
forms occur, and many genres are not covered by the theoretical division in three major genres. Local
terms used by folksingers deserve more attention and lead to a more differentiated picture of song
genres and performance contexts (Schimmelpenninck, 1997).
Solo songs are the most common type of folksongs in China, but homophonic part-singing, with various
performers singing a solo part in turn, is also quite common. The most familiar genre of this kind is
duige (dialogue songs). More complicated song forms involve three to eight (or even more) singers who
sing in alternation and may partly overlap one another. True polyphony (in the sense of simultaneous
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parts with elaborate chordal effects) is rare, except in minority areas (Fan Zuyin, 1994). Most outdoor
songs sung during work in the fields are unaccompanied, although exceptions occur, such as the many
varieties of ‘gong-and-drum weeding songs’ (collectively known as haocao luogu) of Hubei province.
Most folksingers in China apply the middle and high ranges of their voices. Falsetto parts may be sung
by both men and women. Solo songs and duige are usually stanzaic, with stanzas of two or four lines of
text, linked in performance with an equal number of melodic phrases. But many alternative structures
exist. The music of bridal laments and funeral songs is often a one-phrase melody ending in a sob (ex.
4). Folksongs in regular rhythm usually have either two- or four-beat patterns, though three-beat
structures and other patterns may also be found. Most melodies rely essentially on an anhemitonic
pentatonic framework, in which semitones may occur as ‘passing notes’. The tonal make-up of a
regional folktune repertory usually depends more on overall melodic contours and shared formulae of
progression and cadence than on any specific mode.
Little is known about folksong traditions in the past. Some ancient text collections, such as the Shijing
(Classic of odes) of the Zhou dynasty (1122–256 BCE), the Tang period (618–907) manuscripts from
Dunhuang, and Guo Maoqian’s Yuefu shiji of the 12th century include what are believed to be folksong
texts. But no written music for these repertories has survived, and the original performance traditions
of the songs remain a matter for conjecture. Feng Menglong’s Shan′ge, an anthology of mainly erotic
folksongs from early 17th-century Jiangsu, is of interest because many of the texts resemble lyrics sung
in southern Jiangsu today. Some early musical notations of Chinese folksongs have survived from the
19th century (Yang Yinliu, 1981, pp.749–811).
Modern textual studies of folksong were initiated in the early 1920s, partly inspired by previous
folklore movements in Russia and in the West and partly by a search for new cultural and social values.
Musicological study of folksongs was introduced on a small scale in the 1930s. The first substantial
collection of folk melodies took place in the 1940s and 50s, mainly for political purposes; tunes were
borrowed to set propaganda texts to music. However, some substantial fieldwork was also made in the
1950s in regions such as Hunan and north-western Shanxi. In-depth ethnomusicological research
started in the early 1980s, with the appearance of numerous articles in music journals and the
publication of the first folksong volumes of the Anthology of Folk Music (see §IV, Introduction above).
Song Daneng (1979) and Jiang Mingdun (1982) wrote the first extensive monographs on Chinese
folksong. Recently Chinese scholars have paid much attention to the existence of so-called ‘colour
areas’, referring to important stylistic differences between the folksongs of various regions within
China (Miao Jing and Qiao Jianzhong, 1987). Most sound recordings of rural folksongs date from the
period since 1978. Commercial recordings of folksongs in China are usually modern arrangements
sung by radio and TV artists.
(ii) Dance.
Dance traditions in China are numerous, and many dances are related to specific musical, theatrical or
religious repertories. There is dancing in rural areas purely for amusement, for example in
combination with drumming or accompanied by folksongs (as in the traditionally popular yangge, ‘rice-
planting songs’). During the New Year festival, a vast variety of dances are performed with the help of
attributes such as lanterns, paper boats or stilts. Buddhist and Daoist practices and numerous local
religious cults and exorcist rites, such as the nuo theatre of southern China (see §1(i) above), all have
Page 70 of 123
their own dance traditions. In nuo performances the dancers wear masks. Lion dances (shiwu) and
dragon dances (longwu) are known all over China and, like many other types of dances with masks, are
believed to originate in exorcist practices and old totemistic beliefs. In contemporary contexts, lion and
dragon dances are often danced primarily for amusement. ‘Flower drum’ (huagu) and ‘tea-
picking’ (caicha) dances have evolved in similar fashion in central and southern China.
The steps and movements of many folkdances are relatively free and improvised, except in staged and
choreographed performances that frequently incorporate elements of Western ballet and modern
dance. Both men and women participate in the dancing. Dancers often use small props such as fans,
sticks, swords and shields. In their movements, performers may try to convey the images of phoenix,
crane, butterfly or other animals that symbolize notions such as longevity or loyalty in traditional
Chinese culture. Unlike most folkdances, dance genres incorporated in the martial arts or in traditional
theatre often require a high degree of technical skill and many years of training, and can only be
witnessed in stage performances by (semi-)professional dancers.
The dance volumes of the Anthology of Folk Music provide information about regional genres and
performance contexts and include detailed descriptions and illustrations of dance-steps, dance
formations, costumes and musical instruments used.
Bibliography
AND OTHER RESOURCES
Folksong
Feng Menglong: Shan′ge [Mountain songs], 1610–19, repr. in Ming-Qing min′ge shidiao ji, 1 (Shanghai,
1987), 245–444
J.P. van Oost: ‘Chansons populaires chinoises de la région sud des Orthos’, Anthropos, 7 (1912)
Minjian gequ [Folksongs], ed. Zhongyang yinyue xueyuan Zhongguo yinyue yanjiusuo (Beijing, 1963)
Song Daneng: Minjian gequ gailun [Survey of folksongs] (Beijing, 1979, 2/1986)
Jiang Mingdun: Hanzu min′ge gailun [Survey of Han Chinese folksongs] (Shanghai, 1982)
Miao Jing and Qiao Jianzhong: Lun Hanzu min′ge jinsi secaiqu de huafen [An approximate division of
Han Chinese Folksongs into local colour areas] (Beijing, 1987)
S. Tuohy: Imagining the Chinese Tradition: the Case of Hua’er Songs, Festivals, and Scholarship
(diss., Indiana U., 1988)
Yang Mu: Folk Music of Hainan Island, with Particular Emphasis on Danxian County (diss., U. of
Queensland, 1990)
Yang Minkang: Zhongguo min′ge yu xiangtu shehui [Chinese folksong and rural society] (Jilin, 1992)
Zhou Qingqing: Zhongguo min′ge [Chinese folksongs] (Beijing, 1992, 2/1996)
H. Schaffrath: Ein hundert chinesische Volkslieder, Studien zur Volkslied-Forschung, 14 (Berne, 1993)
Page 71 of 123
Fan Zuyin: Zhongguo duoshengbu min′ge gailun [Survey of Chinese multi-part folksongs] (Beijing, 1994)
Yang Mu: ‘Academic Ignorance or Political Taboo? Some Issues in China’s Study of its Folk Song Culture’, EthM, 38
(1994), 303–20
Yang Mu: ‘On the hua′er songs of North-Western China’, YTM, 26 (1994), 100–15
A. Schimmelpenninck: Chinese Folk Songs and Folk Singers: Shan′ge Traditions in Southern
Jiangsu (Leiden, 1997) [incl. CD]
Qiao Jianzhong: Tudi yu ge: chuantong yinyue wenhua jiqi dili lishi beijing yanjiu [Land and songs:
study of traditional music culture and its geographical and historical contexts] (Ji′nan, 1998)
Mudan ting Bai Xianyong de Qingchun meng [Youth Edition The Peony Pavilion], perf. Shen Fengying, Yu
Jiulin and others, DVD, Zhejiang ISRC CN-E13-04-0391-O/V∙J8 (2004)
The Palace of Eternal Youth (Changsheng dian), perf. Zhao Wenlin, Wang Fang and others, DVD, Zhejiang,
ISRC CN-E13-05-0016-0/V∙J8 (n.d.)
Jinsuo ji/The Golden Cangue, National GuoGuang Opera Company, Taipei, DVD, ISRC TW-G2A-07-09601 (2006)
Youyuan jingmeng, Poloarts Entertainment CSCCD-1508 (2008)
Mulan shipian: the Chinese Opera Mulan, Staatsopern Museum, Vienna, DVD-9 (2008)
Dance
Chang Renxia: Zhongguo wudao shihua [Talks on the history of Chinese dance] (Shanghai, 1983)
Peng Song and others: Zhongguo wudao shi [History of Chinese dance] (Beijing, 1984)
Zhongguo dabaike quanshu: yinyue, wudao [Encyclopedia Sinica: music and dance] (Beijing, 1986)
Wang Kefen: Zhongguo wudao fazhan shi [History of the development of Chinese dance] (Shanghai, 1989)
D. Holm: Art and Ideology in Revolutionary China (Oxford, 1991)
Yin Yazhao: Zhongguo guwu yu minwu yanjiu [Study of ancient dance and folkdance in China] (Taipei, 1991)
Zhang Hua: Zhongguo minjianwu yu nonggeng xinyang [Chinese folkdance and rural folk religion]
(Changchun, 1992)
Recordings
Aspects of Chinese music, coll. J. Body, Gong Hong Yu and N. Wheeler, Asia Pacific Archive [Wellington] 004
(1991)
Tudi yu ge [Songs of the land in China: labour songs and love songs], rec. 1953–96, ed. Qiao Jianzhong, Wind
Records TCD 1020 (1996)
3. Religious music.
Stephen Jones
Page 72 of 123
(i) Introduction.
The definition of religious music of the Han Chinese is still somewhat ambiguous. The vocal liturgy of
Buddhist and Daoist temples is discussed below, but a more complete discussion of music for folk ritual
and ceremonial should also include para-liturgical melodic instrumental music and the substantial
ritual components of opera, folksong and narrative-singing, as well as the kinetic aspects of ritual. The
music of other religious practitioners, including Christian communities and folk shamans, also requires
further study.
Buddhist and Daoist liturgy has a history of nearly 2000 years and is still widely practised in China
today. Large, official ‘institutional’ temples, in towns and on the great religious mountains, transmit
orthodox versions and have been the main focus of research; but since Chinese religion had a long
history of vernacularization even before the 20th century, current research also often extends wisely to
‘diffused’ observances among lay ritual specialists in rural areas, whose practice may be derived from
the temples. Strict traditions in the major temples, both Buddhist and Daoist, recognize only vocal
liturgy and ritual percussion. The texts are written, but the music is largely orally transmitted.
Buddhism was introduced from India in the early years of the first millennium (see also Buddhist
music). Contact with Indian monks was frequent until the Tang dynasty (618–907); early Indian
influence on vocal liturgy and gradual sinicization have been posited. Buddhist vocal liturgy is known
as fanbei. Daoist liturgy developed in competition with the new religion. The Tang dynasty was the
often-cited ‘golden age’ of religion, but much of the liturgy practised today is based on texts revised in
the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), and the mutual influence between Buddhism and Daoism goes back
long before then. Han Chinese ritual traditions have also been considerably influenced by Tibeto-
Mongolian Tantric Buddhism. Many rituals, such as the Releasing Flaming Mouth (Fang Yankou)
ceremony, and melodies such as hymns and incantations are shared by Buddhists and Daoists, and the
two often co-exist, indeed compete, within a region. Zhengyi folk Daoists are now more common than
priests of the Quanzhen monastic sect.
Despite the impoverishment of religious practice through the 20th century, and especially during the
Cultural Revolution, a substantial revival has occurred since the 1980s. Both temple and folk traditions
are perhaps more lively in southern China; Buddhist and Daoist music-ritual in Taiwan (see Taiwan, §3)
and elsewhere in South-east Asia are also related. But mainland groups now maintain a lesser part of
the repertory that was performed before the 1940s, as social demand has been constricted.
(ii) Rituals and venues.

Morning and evening services are the basic duties of the temples. The practice of more complex and
lengthy calendrical or occasional rituals has been simplified in many temples since the 1940s, although
ritual manuals such as the Buddhist Chanmen risong are still standard. Apart from calendrical rituals,
funerary services (pudu, daochang etc.) are most commonly observed, often including Water-and-Land
(shuilu) and Releasing Flaming Mouth rituals. The lengthy Daoist Offering (jiao) ritual is performed in
some areas for the peace of the community.
Of the major Buddhist temples today, the Tianning si in Changzhou has been most influential in modern
times. Others include the Tiantong si in Ningbo, the Luohan si in Chongqing, the Kaiyuan si in
Chaozhou and the Guanghua si in Putian. Northern liturgy is less well known, but Beijing still has
Page 73 of 123
major temples (the Guangji si, Guanghua si and Fayuan si), and the Wutaishan mountain temple
complex remains an important centre for both Han and Tibeto-Mongolian practice. In recent centuries
the southern influence on northern temples has been substantial. The vocal liturgy of all the major
religious mountains, including Emeishan, Putuoshan, Jiuhuashan, Tiantaishan and Huangshan,
deserves study.
For Daoism, the vocal liturgy of the Baiyun guan temple in Beijing is more authentic than its
instrumental music. Temple and folk practice are lively in Zhejiang, Fujian and Shandong (Taishan,
Laoshan). Studies have been made of the music of the Wudangshan, Qingchengshan, Longhushan,
Taiqing gong (Shenyang) and Qingyang gong (Chengdu) temples. Around Shanghai, areas such as
Maoshan, Changshu and Suzhou (Xuanmiao guan) have major traditions.
(iii) Music.
Various forms of recitation as well as singing are employed in both Buddhist and Daoist vocal liturgy.
Sung genres include hymns (zan), as well as some incantations (Sanskrit dhāraṇī; Chinese zhou) and
sung poems (Sanskrit gāthā; Chinese ji). The liturgy includes both solo and choral sections, and
melisma is common. While many transcriptions have been made, melodic analysis of these still
substantial repertories is much to be desired (for some preliminary clues see Hu Yao, 1986);
comparison with Western, and indeed other Eastern, liturgical chants is suggested.
The ritual percussion section (faqi) consists of large drum and bell, small cymbals, ‘wooden fish’
woodblock (muyu), metal bowl (qing), small bowl on stick (yinqing), gong in frame (dangzi) and often
large nao and bo cymbals. These instruments accompany the vocal liturgy and punctuate it with
independent interludes.
(iv) Current research.

Some major temples now have training academies for ritual and music, part of a long tradition seeking
to standardize liturgy nationally, although regional traditions have remained distinctive.
The coverage of religious music in the Anthology of Folk Music is unsatisfactory: traditions are covered
in passing and often divided between the volumes on folksong and instrumental music. However, the
project has stimulated much research and debate, often published in the journals of regional
conservatories such as Huangzhong and Yinyue tansuo. The ritual opera projects of C.K. Wang (Xinzhu,
Taiwan), for example the series Minsu quyi congshu, are also relevant. For Daoist music, the Wuhan
Conservatory has led research; see also volumes from the major project led by Tsao Pen-yeh (Chinese
University, Hong Kong). For Buddhist music, Tian Qing has been prominent in publishing articles and
recordings. For fuller bibliographies, see Tsao and Shi, 1992, Tian Qing, 1994, Gan Shaocheng, 1995,
Jones, 1995, pp.14–32, and Zhongguo yinyue nianjian annually.
Many audio and video recordings, not yet widely available, have been made and may be sought in
conservatories, music research institutes and temples in China. Many commercial recordings
purporting to represent Buddhist or Daoist meditational music use urban professional arrangements.
Page 74 of 123
Bibliography
And other resources

C.K. Yang: Religion in Chinese Society (Berkeley, 1961/R)
Hu Yao: ‘Woguo Fojiao yinyue diaocha shuyao’ [Fieldwork report on Chinese Buddhist music], Yinyue yanjiu
(1986), no.1, 104–10
Shi Xinmin and others, eds.: Zhongguo Wudangshan Daojiao yinyue [Daoist music of Wudangshan in China]
(Beijing, 1987)
Pen-yeh Tsao: Taoist Ritual Music of the Yu-lan Pen-hui (Feeding the Hungry Ghost Festival) in a
Hong Kong Taoist Temple (Hong Kong, 1989)
Pen-yeh Tsao and D.P.L. Law, eds.: Taoist Rituals and Music of Today (Hong Kong, 1989)
Min Zhiting: Quanzhen zhengyun puji [Edited scores of the orthodox vocal music of Quanzhen Daoism], ed.
Wuhan yinyue xueyuan Daojiao yinyue yanjiushi (Beijing, 1991)
Tsao Pen-yeh and others, eds.: 1991 nian Xiang Gang Di′erjie Daojiao keyi yinyue yantaohui
lunwenji [proceedings of the 1991 second conference on Daoist ritual music] (Beijing, 1991)
Hu Yao: Fojiao yu yinyue yishu [Buddhism and the art of music] (Tianjin, 1992)
Tsao Pen-yeh and Shi Xinmin: ‘Current Research of Taoist Ritual Music in Mainland China and Hong Kong’, YTM,
24 (1992), 118–25
Tian Qing, ed.: Zhongguo Fojiao yinyue xuancui [Anthology of Chinese Buddhist music] (Shanghai, 1993)
Zhongguo Longhushan Tianshidao yinyue [The music of the Heavenly Masters sect on Longhushan, China],
ed. Wuhan yinyue xueyuan Daojiao yinyue yanjiushi (Beijing, 1993)
Tsao Pen-yeh and Pu Hengqiang: Wudangshan Daojiao yinyue yanjiu [The Daoist music of Wudangshan]
(Taipei, 1993)
Tian Qing, trans. and adapted by Tan Hwee-san: ‘Recent Trends in Buddhist Music Research in China’, British
Journal of Ethnomusicology, 3 (1994), 63–72
Zhou Zhenxi and others: Daojiao yinyue [Daoist music] (Beijing, 1994)
Gan Shaocheng: Jian′guo yilai youguan zongjiao yinyue cankao wenxian yilan (1949–1994)
[Bibliography on religious music since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, 1949–1994] [distributed at
Disijie gaodeng yishu yuanxiao yinyue yanjiusuo xueshu yantaohui conference, Chengdu, 1995]
S. Jones: Folk Music of China: Living Instrumental Traditions (Oxford, 1995, 2/1998 with CD)
Wang Qiugui [C.K. Wang], ed.: Zhongguo yishi yanjiu tongxun [Newsletter of Chinese ritual studies], 1
(Taipei,1995)
B. Yung, E.S. Rawskiand R.S. Watson, eds.: Harmony and Counterpoint: Ritual Music in Chinese
Context (Stanford, CA, 1996)
Tsao Pen-yeh, ed.: Zhongguo chuantong yishi yinyue yanjiu [Studies of traditional Chinese ritual music]
(Taiwan, 1997–)
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Tian Qing, ed.: Zhongguo zongjiao yinyue [Chinese religious music] (Beijing, 1997)
1998 nian Foxue yanjiu lunwenji: Fojiao yinyue [Collected articles of Buddhist research: Buddhist music],
ed. Foguang shan (Taipei, 1999)
Recordings
Zhongguo Daojiao yinyue [Chinese Daoist music], ed. Chen Dacan, China Record Co., Shanghai branch HL 508
(c1985–) [ser. incl. music from Shanghai (Baiyun guan), Maoshan and Changshu]
Chine: fanbai, chant liturgique bouddhique: leçon du soir au temple de Quanzhou, coll. F. Picard,
Ocora C559080 (1989)
Zongjiao yinyue xilie: Zhongguo Fojiao yinyue [Series on religious music: Chinese Buddhist music], ed. Tian
Qing, Zhongguo yinxiang dabaike [Audio and video encyclopedia of China], YAF 1–5, 6–7 (1989–) [ser. incl.
liturgy from Wutaishan, Tianjin, Changzhou (Tianning si), Chongqing (Luohan si), Chaozhou (Kaiyuan si), Yunnan and
Beijing]
Chine: fanbai, chant liturgique bouddhique: leçon du matin à Shanghai, rec. Tian Qing, ed. F. Picard,
Ocora C560075 (1995)
4. Instrumental music.
Han Chinese instrumental music is traditionally played mainly in ensemble. Although some genres may
feature a leading instrument such as a di or shawm, ‘solo’ or concerto-type pieces are largely a product
of the 20th-century urban repertory (see §IV, 6, (i) below). Major exceptions are the three plucked
instruments, qin, zheng and pipa.
(i) Ensemble traditions.

Stephen Jones
Living folk traditions of instrumental music among rural Han Chinese are largely for ensemble. Many
groups perform for ceremonial occasions, including weddings, funerals and gods’ days; the Chinese
New Year is the most lively period for folk arts. Amateur ensembles also perform for self-cultivation,
mainly along the south-eastern coast.
Though mostly now practised in folk contexts, many of these genres may be considered ‘classical’
traditions, on the basis of both their articulated theory and notation (often derived from imperial
courtly, literati and temple genres) and their local prestige. While some scholars have attempted to
trace links with the Tang dynasty (618–907), and aspects of ‘ancient music’ doubtless survive in
individual genres, these traditions have continued to adapt, incorporating instruments and repertory,
and they belong largely to the period since the Ming dynasty, from the 14th century. Despite a certain
impoverishment of old contextual repertories under the secularizing movements of the 20th century,
instrumental traditions survive over a wide area of rural China today.
Chinese scholars, led by Yang Yinliu, have studied these genres since the 1950s, interrupted only by
the Cultural Revolution. Local studies are important, such as Li Shigen’s work on the ceremonial music
of Xi′an. Since 1979, the vast national Anthology of Folk Music project (see §IV Introduction above),
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though consisting largely of transcriptions, has been a major stimulus to fieldwork and is a valuable
starting-point to discover regional riches. Southern coastal genres display a more natural continuum
between folk and urban styles and until recently have been the object of more research and
recordings; northern and inland genres are more isolated. Apart from the genres introduced below,
others (such as groups in Sichuan and Hunan, and Han ensembles in Yunnan) may soon become more
accessible through the Anthology.
The focus below is mainly on rural ceremonial and entertainment ensembles. Instrumental ensembles
accompany vocal and dramatic music, including opera and narrative-singing, in which they may also
play independent instrumental pieces as overtures or at transitional points. Percussion ensembles,
sometimes with shawms, also accompany dance genres such as yangge and huagu. But it is the
ceremonial and entertainment genres that have been considered the basis of folk instrumental
traditions.
Modern Chinese sources often distinguish chuida (‘blowing-and-beating’) and sizhu (‘silk-and-bamboo’)
ensembles, said to belong mainly to north and south respectively. Some further distinguish guchui
(‘drumming-and-blowing’) and chuida. Guchui has been applied mainly to northern wind-and-
percussion ensembles, led mainly by shawm or double-reed pipe guan; chuida generally denotes a
larger instrumentation including strings, with a large and important percussion section, found mainly
in the south. Silk-and-bamboo denotes chamber ensembles using plucked and bowed strings as well as
aerophones such as flutes, rather than double reeds. But such a simple classification cannot
encompass local conditions. More marginal parts of the modern Chinese classification are luogu (gong-
and-drum) percussion ensembles and xiansuo string ensembles; the latter tends to overlap with silk-
and-bamboo.
Chordophones are by now rare in northern instrumental music, but they are still important as
accompaniment to vocal-dramatic genres. String chamber ensembles are found in Shandong and
Henan; other genres such as erren tai and the ‘lesser melodies’ of Yulin in northern Shaanxi mainly
accompany narrative-singing. Solo traditions, both literati and folk, for pipa plucked lute and zheng
plucked zither still survive in some parts of northern China. The repertory performed by Manchu and
Mongol literati around Beijing in the Qing dynasty before 1911, known as xiansuo shisan tao (‘13 suites
for strings’), now survives mainly in the Xiansuo beikao score of 1814.
The most common type of instrumental ensemble in China is the shawm (suona)-and-percussion band.
These bands are often called guyue ban ‘drum music band’ or gufang ‘drum household’, the musicians
chuigushou ‘blowers-and-drummers’. In northern China, sheng-guan ritual ensembles led by sheng
(free-reed mouth organ) and guanzi (double-reed pipe) are also common; such ritual associations may
go by the name hui (often xianghui ‘incense association’). Amateur entertainment groups are often
called she, ‘society’. Folk names commonly used to denote instrumental ensembles over much of rural
China include shifan, ‘multiple variations’, and bayin, ‘eight tones’, terms with a long historical
pedigree. The term tuan (‘troupe’) generally denotes an officially supported urban ensemble
performing modernized arrangements for the concert stage.
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(a) Social background.
Musicians of most ensembles are male. Many shawm bands consist of members of the same family.
Ritual specialists, too, are often related, with hereditary transmission the norm. The musicians of
shawm bands have traditionally been of low social status and still are today; they may be blind. Shawm
bands play outside the gateway of the house or temple, while the more prestigious sheng-guan
ensemble occupies the central space at the ritual arena.
Shawm bands are hired to perform. Ritual specialists are also generally paid, but some groups, such as
the music associations in Hebei province or the ritual groups around Xi′an, are strictly amateur,
performing mainly within and on behalf of the village, as a religious or social duty. Some south-eastern
amateur ensembles perform as a social pastime.
The aesthetics of southern entertainment ensembles often derive from refined Confucian literati
culture and Kunqu vocal-dramatic music. The ethos of northern and inland ceremonial groups is quite
remote from this world. Sheng-guan music inhabits a world of religious devotion, appealing to the gods
for assistance in survival. The ethos of shawm bands is highly macho, and it is a matter of pride that
many shawm players breathe their last while playing. Although village shawm players perform with
virtuosity for some parts of their repertory, the affected stage-gestures of urban professionals remain
quite foreign to traditional music-making.
Both ritual and entertainment musicians often sit around a table to perform; the music is for the gods,
or for their own self-cultivation, rather than for any mortal audience. They are often versatile at most
of the instruments, both melodic and percussion, and may play different instruments during the course
of a performance.
Much folk ensemble music throughout China is performed in conjunction with three main types of
ritual, all of which may require instrumental music: (a) calendrical (birthdays of gods, temple fairs,
New Year, the ‘Ghost festival’ in the 7th moon etc.); (b) life-cycle, especially weddings and funerals, the
latter retaining more of their traditional observances; (c) occasional (exorcism, rain-prayers, the
blessing of a new house or the opening of a new shop etc.). All of these persist today, despite the
intensification of campaigns against ‘feudal superstition’ from imperial times and since the founding of
the People’s Republic in 1949. The Cultural Revolution was a severe blow, but with the greater
economic freedoms of the 1980s, traditional customs have revived significantly in many areas.
Instrumental music in ritual is one part of a complex whole: vocal liturgy is important, and opera may
also be performed. Vocal liturgy is accompanied by the ritual percussion. Melodic instrumental music
is para-liturgical, accompanying ritual but lacking specific ritual content; it is more closely related to
local folk traditions. Melodic instruments sometimes also accompany the melodies of vocal liturgy.
The more exalted traditions of both Buddhism and Daoism reject melodic instruments in theory, taking
the view that vocal liturgy should be accompanied only by the ritual percussion. But in practice,
melodic instrumental music has long been a part of village, and even temple, ritual in both northern
and southern China. Folk Daoists of the Zhengyi sect, living among people, are important practitioners
of instrumental music in Chinese society; some of the most outstanding musicians of modern times,
such as An Laixu in Xi′an, or Zhu Qinfu in Wuxi, have been Daoists.
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(b) Shawm-and-percussion bands.
The shawm-and-percussion band is the most popular form of instrumental music in China (fig.13).
Northern genres have been most studied by Chinese scholars, but shawm bands are found throughout
the country. The neutral term ‘shawm’ is adopted here since suona is little used by folk musicians; a
common folk term is laba (‘horn’). The word Suona, common in historical sources, is used mainly by
urban educated people. As the name suggests, the instrument spread from Central Asia by around the
15th century. Its use soon expanded from the Chinese court and armies to opera and folk ceremonial.
The shawm has a conical bore, a small reed (not lipped) with pirouette and a loose-fitting brass bell; it
has seven finger-holes and one thumb-hole. Shawm players often make their own instruments.
Shawm band outside gate of funeral home, Yanggao, Shanxi, 1991
Stephen Jones
The north-east (the provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang, as well as eastern Hebei) has a
remarkable funerary style for large shawms, including solemn and lengthy hanchui suites. Shandong,
notably the south-west around Heze, is famed for a more popular and rather mellifluous style, much
influenced by the local operas, mixing the styles of shawm band and sheng-guan; many pieces are
variants of the two standards Kaimen and Dadi jiao. In Shanxi and northern Shaanxi, the shawm style is
harsh and macho: a taste may be gained from Chen Kaige’s 1984 film Yellow Earth. Shawm bands
commonly perform for ceremonial throughout southern China.
Percussion ensembles without melodic instruments are also common in north and south. In the north,
drum ensembles accompanying yangge dance in Shaanxi and elsewhere, and other ritual percussion
ensembles such as the Dharma-drumming associations (Fagu hui) of the Tianjin area, may comprise
several dozen musicians. Melodic genres with substantial independent percussion components include
the ceremonial ensembles of Xi′an, Chaozhou and shifan of southern Jiangsu.
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Shawms are often a supplement to the pure percussion ensemble. The percussion generally consists of
a double-headed barrel drum, small cymbals and gong and/or knobbed gong. A woodblock (bangzi)
may be added in fast sections. A long natural trumpet (called by names such as hao) may ‘open the
way’ on procession. There are usually two shawms in a band. Large shawms are used for funerals,
small shawms (sometimes called haidi) for weddings. In recent years small shawms have become more
popular than the large shawms used for solemn funerary suites.
(c) Sheng-guan ensembles.

The sheng-guan ensemble spread from temples and courts, along with ritual and vocal liturgy, to folk
ritual specialists, absorbing folk influence in differing degrees. This instrumentation, and its core
repertory, can also be traced to around the 14th century. Sheng-guan ensembles, again performing for
ceremonial, are found mainly in the north. Although they revived in the 1980s, the sheng-guan
ensembles are surviving less well than the shawm bands.
The classic sheng-guan ensembles derive from northern Buddhist and Daoist temples, such as those of
Beijing (notably the Zhihua si Buddhist temple), Tianjin, Wutaishan, Xi′an and Qianshan. But since
melodic instrumental music is now rare in temples, sheng-guan music survives best in folk ritual
ensembles. In Hebei province just south of Beijing, music associations (Yinyue hui) serving village
ritual are related to the temple music of imperial Beijing and Tianjin. Just further south in Hebei, the
‘songs-for winds’ (chuige) style (traditionally known as ‘southern music’, nanyue) has added large
guan, small shawm and other instruments to the basic instrumentation since at least the 1920s. This
style was adopted ephemerally by cadres in the 1950s, around the time of collectivization and the
Great Leap Forward, but the traditional style persists today in many areas of Hebei.
In Shanxi, sheng-guan music is often played by folk Daoists. Apart from the Buddhist temples of
Wutaishan, whose instrumental music is in decline, the ‘eight great suites’ of the Dongye region at the
foot of the mountain are well known and still performed for folk ceremonial. In Shaanxi, the ceremonial
music of Xi′an (commonly known as Xi′an guyue, Xi′an ‘drum music’ or ‘ancient music’) often uses an
expanded percussion section lead by four different types of drum (of which the zuogu drum is rare in
China for being played with its face vertical); as the guan double-reed pipe has become less common,
the di flute often leads. There are folk Buddhist and Daoist ritual sheng-guan ensembles throughout
Shaanxi province. There are also traces of sheng-guan music in temples much further south, such as
Wudangshan and Fuzhou.
The melodic instruments are often considered ‘civil’, the percussion ‘martial’. The classic temple
instrumentation consists of pairs of the four types of melodic instrument, but folk groups are often
large and more flexible, using many sheng. The instruments include Guan, Sheng, Di, Yunluo and
percussion. Guan, a small, slender, cylindrical pipe with large double reed has seven finger-holes and
one thumb-hole. Large and small guan sometimes play in the same ensemble. Some pieces use a
‘double guan’, two pipes joined together, played simultaneously by the same player. Guan are usually
locally made. Sheng, a free-reed mouth organ, generally with ten to 14 sounding reeds, is often bought
from urban shops. Di, or mei, a transverse flute with kazoo membrane, is now becoming rarer. Yunluo is
a frame of pitched gongs, traditionally ten, arranged in three rows of three with one on top. They are
difficult to replace when damaged, and some areas now have frames of only two or three gongs. They
are traditionally considered a member of the melodic section. Percussion instruments include a large
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barrel drum (or, for procession, smaller ‘hand-drum’), small cymbals, gong-in-frame (dangzi); nao and
bo, two pairs of large cymbals, playing in hocket; and other ritual percussion (bowl, bell, muyu
woodblock etc.). A conch may also be blown during ritual.
(d) Southern Jiangsu ensembles.

While urban silk-and-bamboo is accessible in places such as Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou, there
are also many fine rural traditions in eastern central China. The classic silk-and-bamboo ensemble,
derived from the Kunqu vocal accompaniment, is based on drum (or woodblock) and clappers, di flute
and plucked lute sanxian. Fretted plucked lute pipa and bowed lute erhu are thought to have been
added more recently. Urban silk-and-bamboo has further incorporated a struck dulcimer yangqin since
early in the 20th century. Other instruments may include plucked lutes such as qinqin and ruan, as well
as end-blown flute (xiao) and free-reed mouth organ (sheng). A simple percussion accompaniment is
provided by small drum or woodblock and clappers.
Such music derives from rural ceremonial ensembles and tangming groups performing for Daoist ritual
and Kunqu vocal dramatic music. These groups often add a substantial percussion section to the silk-
and-bamboo melodic section. Southern Jiangsu also has two celebrated styles called shifan gu and
shifan luogu, both played mainly by folk ritual specialists. The former plays ‘classic’ labelled melodies
(see fig.8(b) above) interspersed by solo sections, while in the latter, vocally derived melodies compete
on unequal terms with a percussion ensemble of which the instruments (drums, gongs and cymbals)
alternate, playing recurring patterns in additive rhythms. Two types of drum are used, the tang gu
large barrel drum and the small ‘single-skin’ drum danpi gu. Such music may still be found in the
Suzhou-Wuxi, Changshu and Yixing areas.
Just to the south-east in Zhejiang province, percussion ensembles are also renowned, again often
performed by folk Daoists. Pitched gongs become more common as one goes further south. Such
groups often have separate melodic repertories for shawms and for silk-and-bamboo instruments.
(e) Fujian and Guangdong ensembles.

Nanguan (or nanyin), distinctive to southern Fujian, Taiwan (see Taiwan, §3) and other Hokkien
communities in South-east Asia, is largely a vocal genre, in which a singer marking the main beats with
clappers is accompanied by four melodic instruments: pipa fretted plucked lute, dongxiao end-blown
flute, erxian bowed lute and sanxian plucked lute. There are some suites for the instrumental ensemble
alone, and a transverse flute or small shawm may lead an augmented ensemble with a distinctive
percussion section. Elsewhere in Fujian, other mainly vocal ceremonial genres often incorporate
instrumental music (fig.14), including the mixed ensemble called shiyinor shiban, the shiyin bayue of
Putian, and shawm bands.
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Procession for goddess Mazu showing large and small bowed fiddles and plucked lutes, Quanzhou, Fujian,
1990
Stephen Jones
In Guangdong, the most renowned genres are in the eastern area of Chaozhou-Shantou and the Hakka
region of Meixian and Dabu inland. Amateur string ensembles (sometimes known as xianshi yue) are
led by the high-pitched bowed lute erxian. Bass bowed lutes (dahu, pahu etc.) have been introduced to
some ensembles during the 20th century. The plucked zither zheng (whose strings have individual
tuning bridges) is also used in smaller-scale chamber music. There are large-scale processional gong-
and-drum ensembles, which may use melodic instruments such as flutes and plucked lutes. Distinctive
percussion instruments are the large gongs suluo, douluo and the deep-rimmed shenbo, and the
knobbed gong qinzi.
The style known as ‘Cantonese music’, as developed in Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Shanghai since the
early 20th century, marks the transition to new urban music but has its roots in the rural ceremonial
ensembles of the Pearl river delta. Under the colonial influence of Western jazz, dance-hall music and
the silent movie industry, composer-performers such as Lü Wencheng created a lively hybrid of Chinese
and Western music in the 1920s and 30s. Although it was stultified by institutionalization by the 1950s
and has long lost its popularity to newer styles of pop music, aspects of its style were taken over by
urban professional troupes, and it remains a popular commercial image of Chinese instrumental music.
(f) Musical principles.

A basic device is the interplay of melody and percussion. Indeed, musicians are often versatile on many
melodic and percussion instruments. Melodies are based on anhemitonic pentatonic scales, with the
fourth and seventh degrees used as passing notes or as part of a temporary new pentatonic scale a 5th
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above or below the main tonic. In the second excerpt of ex.5b, ambiguity is explored between a la mode
on B and a re mode on B. Metres are dominantly duple, although some percussion music uses additive
metre, and irregular phrase-lengths and cadences ‘crossing the beat’ create rhythmic variety.
Ex.5 Jiangnan silk-and-bamboo, from Sanliu, two excerpts
Core repertories consist of ‘labelled melodies’ (qupai) or ‘standards’ (pai), many dating back to the
vocal ‘Northern and Southern arias’ of the Yuan and Ming dynasties (1279–1644) and often having
spread by way of opera. There is a finite number of titles for these tune families. They are rarely
programmatic, except in literati solo string traditions: the titles function more like jazz standards.
Different repertories are traditionally performed according to ceremonial context, with strict
sequences.
Since the 19th century, popular melodies from local folksong and opera have entered some local
repertories: four-square question-and-answer phrases are often a characteristic of such pieces. Semi-
improvised ostinato phrases stressing pivotal notes, sometimes called ‘tassels’ (suizi), are often used
towards the fast climax of a long suite (ex.6).
Ex.6 From ‘tassel’ section of Bai huatang, Shandong shawm piece, played by Wei Yongtang, c1980
Courtesy Steve Jones, from Folk Music of China (OUP) (1995)
Many genres distinguish sitting and processional music (zuoyue, xingyue), contexts respectively for
‘large pieces’ (daqu, or suites, tao) and ‘small pieces’ (xiaoqu). Sitting music, performed at the ritual
arena, consists of long suites, sequences of many labelled melodies, often with percussion interludes. A
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gradual accelerando is made throughout a sequence. A slow free-tempo prelude leads into the ‘body’ of
the suite, which contains one or more slow pieces, often long. As the tempo accelerates, suites often
climax with a sequence of fast pieces. Processional pieces are generally short, fast and popular.
Several types of variation are commonly employed. Simple technical decoration of the nuclear notes of
the score is common in northern wind bands. Metrical augmentation or diminution of a basic melody is
sometimes used, similar to ‘metrical melody’ (banqiang) operatic form. North-eastern shawm players
may decorate a simple ground most ornately (ex.7). The ground (sometimes called ‘mother piece’,
muqu) may also be performed in successive metrically augmented versions, beginning with the slowest
and most ornate. This is common in music for strings, especially in the south-east: the melody Lao
liuban (Baban) is most often used (ex.8). More often, however, wind-and-percussion music in both north
and south uses ‘labelled melody’ (qupai) form, sequences of independent melodies, generally linked by
percussion interludes.
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Ex.7 Batiao long, Liaoning shawm melody
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Ex.8 Baban
Another variation technique to create new pieces is pitch substitution, which is important in some
shawm music, notably in the north-east, where it is called ‘borrowing notes’ (jie zi). A basic level of
pitch-substitution creates the feeling of temporary modulation within a piece (see ex.5 above). More
extensively, a whole new piece may be created by substituting one or more notes throughout the
original melody, changing the scale and thus the mode and/or key. This process may be taken through
multiple substitutions, modulating round a circle of 5ths. A similar process is used in creating the three
different scales of Chaozhou and Hakka music. However, the most common keys in most genres are
‘standard key’ or ‘basic key’ (zheng diao, ben diao) and the key a 5th above or below it, often called fan
diao or bei diao (‘reverse key’).
Traditional notation is commonly found for instrumental music but rarely for vocal liturgy. It is an aid
to memory and often a prestigious artefact of the group. In northern China, many ritual associations,
and some shawm bands, have scores handed down or copied for many generations. Scores were often
copied from temples; the earliest known of those still in use today are from the 17th century.
For melodic music, the gongche system is still used. This is a heptatonic system, very like solfège
(Table 3; Notation, §II). He and liu are thus an octave apart; so are si and wu. Many genres now use sol-
fa-type system with a movable doh, whereby the tonic of each key is always called by the same name.
But some sheng-guan ensembles still use the ancient fixed-pitch system, where the note-names always
refer to the same pitches irrespective of key.
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Gongche notation
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Unlike many coastal literati genres based on Kunqu vocal music, inland and temple-derived genres
often use he, rather than shang, as tonic of their main key. The gongche symbols, too, may differ from
standard gongche, in forms resembling notational symbols found in Song dynasty (960–1279) sources
(see Table 2 above).
Metre is indicated by dots to the right of the symbol, showing the position of the main beats. Main and
subsidiary beats are called ban (or pai) and yan. The simple melodic framework shown in the score is
always decorated, each instrument using embellishments appropriate to its technique.
Scores indicate the melodic framework only, not the percussion accompaniment. Separate percussion
ensemble music is also sometimes notated, with mnemonics indicating the sounds of different
percussion instruments. For both melodic and percussion music, realization depends more on oral-
aural transmission. Cipher notation is known by some younger musicians but is still little used outside
the towns. Two southern genres use distinctive forms of notation: nanguan uses a form of gongche still
basic to the study of the repertory, but the ersi (‘2–4’) notation of Chaozhou string music is now rare.
The musicians in a sheng-guan or silk-and-bamboo ensemble have unwritten rules about blending in
the heterophonic realizations of the nuclear notes of the score, playing with sensitivity within a
hierarchy of instruments. The texture of free-tempo sections in the sheng-guan ensemble is often
hauntingly beautiful. The guan usually leads with a simple version of the melody, while the sheng plays
supporting rhythmic patterns; the di may play free descending motifs, while the repeated notes of the
yunluo create a halo of sound.
Shawm players tend to decorate the bare bones of the score quite freely and elaborately; sometimes
they play almost in unison, but good bands use heterophony, the leader playing a more elaborate
version of the basic melody heard on the second shawm.
(g) 20th-century changes.

Both music and ritual have become simplified since the 1930s. Folk ritual practice, associated with
heterodoxy, has been threatened since at least the 19th century. There was a gradual extension of state
control over society until the 1980s. The republican period and the war against Japan were disruptive.
The most severe destruction of temples occurred after the Communist Party came to power.
Campaigns against religion continued in the 1950s; the economic disasters following the Great Leap
Forward were soon followed by the chaos of the Cultural Revolution (1966–76). Since the
liberalizations of 1979, and with the continuing economic relaxations of the 1980s and 90s, traditional
culture, including ceremonial music, has made a substantial revival.
With the partial secularization of the 20th century, the practices of many rural groups have been
impoverished, but quite a few have otherwise modified their practice substantially. Fewer keys are
used: where traditional practice often had four keys, musicians can often now play in only one or two
keys. Repertories are dwindling; long suites are often abbreviated, with free-tempo preludes and codas
often omitted. There is a certain input from popular ‘lesser melodies’, from folksong, opera and pop
songs heard on television or in films.
Shawm bands and sheng-guan ensembles have influenced each other during the 20th century. As ritual
specialists have become fewer, some shawm bands have adopted a subsidiary repertory of sheng-guan
pieces. Some sheng-guan ensembles have adopted a more popular style, adding small shawms and
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incorporating new repertory. Since early in the 20th century, shawm bands have often performed
popular yangge (song-and-dance) melodies and opera-mimicry (kaxi). In the latter, they perform
excerpts from popular local operas, imitating the different vocal roles on their instruments. Trick
instruments such as the ‘Lama horn’ and a small reed inserted in the mouth may be used to jocular
effect.
The movement initiated by ideologues since early in the 20th century to fabricate a ‘national
music’ (guoyue) style supposedly synthesizing regional characteristics has led to the establishment of
urban professional troupes whose modern style is often heard in broadcasts, but its influence has been
largely limited to the towns. Many virtuosos in the conservatories or professional state-supported
urban troupes come from the background of hereditary village ‘folk artist’ families, but they have
largely abandoned the traditional ethos in favour of a modernized, virtuoso and partly Westernized
style, using a tempered scale, abbreviating pieces considerably and exaggerating dynamics and
gestures for stage performance. This ‘conservatory style’ is more accessible but of less complexity than
the traditional rural music-making.
Celebrated shawm players who have ‘graduated’ to the professional urban troupes include Ren
Tongxiang from Shandong and Yin Erwen from Shanxi. Yang Yuanheng was a Daoist priest who became
professor of guan at the Central Conservatory, Beijing; his pupil Hu Zhihou is the current professor.
Many musicians from the famous Songs-for-Winds association (Chuige hui) of Ziwei village (Dingxian
county, Hebei province), such as Wang Tiechui, have also joined urban troupes. Around Shanghai,
dizi-players such as Lu Chunling and Zhao Songting have modified the local instrumental music. In
coastal southern China, nanguan and Chaozhou music display a more natural continuum between
traditional and urban professional styles. However, traditional instrumentalists serving folk ceremonial
still deserve attention.
(ii) Solo traditions.

In addition to the modern ‘conservatory style’ solo intrumental repertories (see §IV, 6, (i) below), major
traditions from imperial times have evolved for the plucked zithers Qin and Zheng and the plucked lute
pìpa (see Pipa, §1). Discussed below are the history and performing traditions for each instrument; for
construction tunings and notation, see under the individual instrument heading.
(a) Qin.
Joseph S.C. Lam
Promoted by the Chinese élite and copiously described in literary and notated sources, qin music is
now recognized as one of the great traditions of Chinese music. Basic features of the qin and its history
are now clear, but much historical, biographical, organological and music material has yet to be
examined and integrated into qin histories.
The history of the qin and its music may be divided roughly into four stages: ancient (from antiquity to
221 BCE), medieval (221 BCE–907 CE), traditional (907–1911) and modern (since 1911). The qin is said
to have been created by the mythical sages Fuxi (c2852 BCE) or Shennong (c2737 BCE). Shang dynasty
ideographs carved on oracle bones show that a form of zither had already appeared by that time
(c1766–1122 BCE): the ideograph for yue (music) consists of silk strings stretched over a piece of wood;
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that for qin (zither) graphically suggests strings and sounds of the instrument. By the Zhou dynasty
(1122–256 BCE) the qin was frequently mentioned in connection with the 25-string zither se. The Zhouli
[Rites of Zhou], for example, describes the use of qin and se as instruments in large orchestras that
provided music for state sacrifices; poems in the Shijing [Classic of odes] describe playing the qin and
se to entertain friends and to serenade ladies. By the Springs and Autumns Period (722–481 BCE) solo
qin music was documented. The Shiji [Records of the historian] reports that Confucius played the
instrument, and learnt the piece Wenwang cao from Master Xiang. By the end of the Warring States
Period (475–221 BCE), the legend of Boya and Ziqi became widely known, establishing the Chinese
ideal of total empathy between expressive performers and knowing listeners (zhiyin), and projecting
qin music as sophisticated and communicative. However, the ancient qin and its music were quite
different from today. Judging from the earliest archeaological specimen, excavated in 1978 from the
Zenghou Yi tomb (c433 BCE), the qin must have been played mainly with open strings.
In the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) the 13 hui, inlaid studs that indicate the positions where
harmonics and stopped notes may be sounded, began to appear. This is a most significant
development, implying the use of just intonation and recognition of a wide gamut of pitches, including
those of harmonics. Specialized qin writings also began to appear. The Qindao bian [Essay on the way
of qin] by Huan Tan (c23 BCE–50 CE) describes performances with Confucian principles; the Qincao
[Qin compositions] by Cai Yong (133–92) lists programmatic titles and stories of 47 pieces, most of
which appear to be songs.
During the Jin dynasty the qin evolved into an instrument essentially the same as the traditional one of
7 strings and 13 hui played today. Legends about several prominent musicians and compositions
appeared. Cai Yan (b 177 CE), the daughter of Cai Yong and an esteemed female performer in later qin
narratives, inspired the composition of Hujia shiba pai (‘Eighteen Stanzas of Barbarian Pipe Music’)
and a number of related works. Ruan Ji (210–63), a scholar-official and musician, composed Jiukuang
(Intoxicated), a version of which is a favourite of modern audiences. Huan Yi played a flute melody that
was rearranged into the classical qin piece Meihua sannong (‘Three Variations on Plum Blossom’);
variation is a compositional strategy commonly found in tradition qin pieces, and ensemble playing of
qin with the vertical flute (xiao) is still common.
But the towering figure in this period is Ji Kang (223–62), a scholar-official and musician who wrote the
Qinfu [Poetic essay on the qin] and played a major role in the evolution of Guangling san (also called
‘Nie Zheng Assassinates King Han’), a masterpiece of complex and extensive structure; versions of four
compositions attributed to Ji are still performed today. In the Qinfu, Ji described titles and programmes
of many compositions, classifying them into refined and vernacular pieces and explaining their
structural features and aesthetic principles. His explanations, which are further elaborated in his
seminal treatise Sheng wu aile lun [Music has no sorrow or joy], demonstrate a master musician’s
insights on performance and composition. Despite Ji’s claim that Guangling san would disappear with
his death (he was executed in 262 CE), the piece has been preserved, and its earliest extant version is
now notated in a 15th-century score.
As complex instrumental solos and virtuoso performing techniques emerged, notation was developed
as an aid. The earliest extant form of qin notation is called wenzipu (‘prose notation’), a Tang dynasty
sample of which preserves the earliest known notated qin composition, Youlan (‘Lone Orchid’),
attributed to Qiu Ming (493–590). As wenzipu explains pitches and finger movements with prose, it was
cumbersome, and simplification was inevitable. By the end of the Tang dynasty, jianzipu (‘simplified
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character notation’) appeared. In this notation, parts of various Chinese characters are gathered into
composite symbols to specify performing techniques and locations where the strings are stopped (see
Qin). Jianzipu leaves many aspects of qin music unnotated, in particular the precise rhythm, but it
exemplifies traditional aesthetics and practices: a qin composition is not an inflexible object, but must
be ‘recreated’ by performers. The process of interpreting the jianzipu of a historical composition and
recreating it is called dapu; since the 1950s many pieces notated in early sources have been recreated
and issues of the process discussed.
During the Tang dynasty (618–907), qin music became a sophisticated art practised by professional
performers and privileged connoisseurs alike. Poems and essays of the time record numerous qin
activities and reveal significant advances in repertory, theory, aesthetics and production of the
instrument. For example, Zhao Yeli (563–639), a vocational performer, edited qin compositions,
compiled a treatise on performance techniques and commented on the distinctive styles of regional
performers. His ideal of plucking the strings with both the nail and flesh of the fingers still guides
20th-century performers. Instruments constructed by the Lei family of Sichuan were acclaimed by both
professionals and amateurs. Traditionally, qin are not only used as musical instruments but also
appreciated as objets d’art.
Features of the tradition living today took shape in the Song dynasty, to which period authentic jianzipu
scores and historical accounts still current today can be reliably traced. The Qinshi [Qin history] by Zhu
Changwen (1038–98), the first formal and chronological history of the genre, highlights the rise of
regional schools and records genealogies of qin musicians. It explains, for example, the prominence of
the court musician Zhu Wenji (fl 976–83) and his school. One of his many acclaimed disciples was Yi
Hai, a monk whose performance was described as particularly expressive by Shen Gua (1031–95), a
leading scholar-official and scientist of the time. In the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279), the
Zhejiang school rose to fame, represented by Guo Chuwang (fl 1260–74), whose masterpiece,
Xiaoxiang shuiyun (‘Waters and Clouds of the Rivers Xiao and Xiang’), is now a frequently performed
classic.
Throughout the Song dynasty, professional qin musicians and musical literati collaborated closely.
Ouyang Xiu (1007–72), a great literary figure of the time, wrote an essay that inspired a qin musician
to create the Zuiweng yin (‘An Intoxicated Old Man’s Chant’). Jiang Kui (1155–1221), perhaps the most
famous poet and composer in ancient Chinese music history, wrote both the melody and the text of
Guyuan (‘Ancient Lament’). Musicians and literati also worked together to collect ancient scores and
compile multi-volume anthologies of qin music and texts such as Yang Zuan’s Zixia dongpu [Notation of
Purple Cloud Cave] and Xu Tianmin’s Xumen qinpu [Notation of the Xu school]. Although these
anthologies are now lost, their influence and contents can be traced to some extent in later sources. By
the end of the Song dynasty, the qin had become inseparable from the literati. Even encyclopaedias
such as the Shilin guangji [Comprehensive record of the forest of affairs] would include a chapter on
the genre, explaining its history and practices and providing notation for diaoyi, short preludes
performed to test tunings and to introduce the musical affects and modes of lengthy solos. The
appearance of these preludes attests to the increasing importance of tunings and modes in traditional
qin theory and appreciation.
Qin music flourished in the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), producing many new works, notated
anthologies and treatises on theory and aesthetics. While Ming qin musicians faithfully maintained pre-
existing theories and pieces, they also produced new ideas and compositions. Comparison of different
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versions of pieces as preserved in scores ranging over several centuries demonstrates not only their
shared components but also their structural and theoretical differences. The demand for qin music
produced a market for qin anthologies. Their market value is attested by the fact that some anthologies
carelessly plagiarized earlier works and were produced solely for financial gain.
Most Ming anthologies are, however, meticulously prepared, reflecting historical and musical interests.
The 15th-century edition of the Taigu yiyin [Remnants of ancient sounds], originally compiled in the
Song dynasty, preserves no notated music but surveys traditional qin knowledge, stating, for example,
the following points. Gentlemen (junzi) use the instrument as a means of self-cultivation. The upper
and lower soundboards of the qin are, respectively, made round and flat to symbolize Heaven and
Earth; the seven strings represent the five elements (metal, wood, water, fire and earth), rulers and
officials in the human world. The instrument produces three kinds of sounds: harmonics, open strings
and stopped strings. During performance, which should only occur in appropriate venues, musicians
should assume a respectful posture and use fitting techniques to accurately produce pitches and
articulate phrases. While performing, musicians should devotedly listen to the sounds produced, and
their minds should not wander. They should not care if there is an audience or not: qin musicians,
however, did and still do gather to play music and socialize in ‘refined meetings’ (yaji).
Zhu Quan’s Shenqi mipu [Wondrous and secret notation] of 1425 is the earliest extant jianzipu
anthology of qin music. Its 1st fascicle preserves 16 pieces from the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127)
and earlier; its 2nd and 3rd fascicles preserve 48 pieces composed since the Southern Song. The
anthology also includes an informative preface, detailed notes on the individual pieces and
programmatic subtitles for their sections. Such verbal descriptions are standard features of traditional
qin notated sources and provide essential data for recreating and performing qin music. Xie Lin’s Taigu
yiyin [Remnants of ancient sounds] of 1511 is an anthology of 35 qin songs, the melodies of which are
syllabically set to poetic texts. As the volume includes not only new songs but also those transmitted
from the Tang and Song dynasties, the anthology demonstrates the continued vitality of the vocal
branch of the qin tradition. Zhu Houjue’s Fengxuan xuanpin [Wonderful manifestations of customs] of
1539 is noted for its 154 pictograms that illustrate musical, poetic, kinetic and cosmological attributes
of various performance techniques. For example, yan, a technique whereby the left thumb lightly taps
the top soundboard of the qin, is compared to howling in an empty valley: the illustration for the
technique depicts standing on a ridge, howling and listening to echoes.
Two anthologies from the late Ming indicate distinctive trends of their time. The historical and
academic interests of the late Ming are reflected in Jiang Kelian’s Qinshu daquan [Compendium of qin
documents] of 1590. Encyclopedic in nature, this anthology of 22 fascicles preserved 62 pieces and a
vast collection of writings selected from numerous theoretical, literary and historical sources. The
refined taste of privileged literati musicians of the late Ming is reflected in Yan Cheng’s (1547–1625)
Songxianguan qinpu [Qin notation of the Pine and Silk Studio] of 1614. Preserving 29 pieces, Yan’s
anthology embodies the rise of the Yushan school in the Changshu area of Jiangsu province and
perpetuates its particular repertory, style and aesthetic. Liangxiao yin (‘Serene Evening’) in this
influential anthology has since become a favourite for masters to teach qin music structure and
technique. It includes a prelude, an exposition of the main thematic materials, an introduction of
additional material, a recapitulation and a coda; both the prelude and the coda feature the use of
harmonics and non-metered rhythm. Though brief, the piece employs many standard techniques of
plucking, stopping and vibrato.
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Yan’s anthology includes neither programmatic subtitles nor explanations; theorizing qin music as a
purely instrumental genre, he argued that musical expressiveness lies in the manipulation and
production of sounds. Yan’s ideal was later distilled into the motto of ‘clear, subtle, light and broad’
that has been widely accepted as a guiding principle of qin performance. Emphasizing controlled
refinement, it reflected the aesthetic preferences of privileged and literary musicians from a scholar-
official background. It was balanced by the work of Xu Qingshan, another major figure of the Yushan
school, who wrote 24 principles of qin music performance and aesthetics and left a legacy of more than
30 compositions that eschewed the dogmatic application of aesthetic principles.
In the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), qin musicians carried on their tradition, transmitting pre-existing
pieces, composing new ones, compiling anthologies and launching new schools with distinctive styles
and aesthetics. Dominating the scene was the Guangling school of Yangzhou. Xu Qi, a member of this
school, produced the Wuzhizhai qinpu [Notation of the Five Learnings Studio], an anthology that
became influential after its posthumous publication in 1722. The score was meticulously edited,
creatively revised and comprehensively annotated. Similarly, Dai Yuan produced the popular Chuncao
tang qinpu [Qin notation of the Spring Grass Studio] of 1744 and proposed eight practical and
insightful principles of qin music-making: it should be expressive, melodious like singing, rhythmically
accurate and diversified, and articulated like natural breathing; performers should play not only with
the fingers but also with the energy of the whole body, producing clear and harmonious tones, showing
a clear understanding of the notation and identifying differences among the various schools and music
masters. Zhang Chun (c1779–c1846) experimented with the use of gongche notation to supplement the
pitch and rhythmic indications in jianzipu; he also published qin arrangements of vernacular songs,
publicly acknowledging the non-élitist roots in qin music. Zhang Kongshan (fl 1851–1904) recreated the
piece Liushui (‘Flowing Water’), transforming it into a programmatic piece that not only demonstrates
the expressive potentials of the instrument but also challenges the traditional and Confucian ideal of
control and moderation. The piece includes 72 rounds of gun and fu, rapid arpeggiandos of the seven
strings.
The modern era of qin music begins with the early 20th century, when it was meagerly sustained by an
élitist and patriotic group of musicians and intellectuals under the pressures of modernization and
westernization. Yang Zongji (1865–1933) laid a musical and objective foundation for contemporary qin
scholarship with his encyclopedic Qinxue congshu [Collected writings of qin studies]. Yang taught many
students, including Guan Pinghu, a central figure in the modern history of the qin, who recreated a
number of historical qin pieces and himself became an influential teacher.
The other central figure is Zha Fuxi, a scholar-official and musician whose research and fieldwork
transformed qin scholarship. In 1936 Zha organized a society to connect qin musicians; the publication
that celebrated the forming of the society, the Jinyu qinkan [Journal of the qin society of contemporary
Yu region], includes a wealth of historical and musical data and is a precious record of qin music of the
time. Since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the qin has been taught in the
new conservatories, bringing further communication between regional styles. In 1956 Zha Fuxi led a
fieldwork project to interview qin musicians throughout the nation, recording their music and
collecting their notated sources. In the same year he published a major index of extant qin
compositions, identifying a repertory of 646 pieces and their more than 2000 different versions.
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In 1962, the Beijing Qin Research Society, which Zha Fuxi helped launch in 1952, published the Guqin
quji [Collection of qin music], an anthology of 79 transcriptions of performances by qin masters.
Presenting qin music in both Western staff notation and jianzipu, this anthology and its sequel facilitate
modern and comparative analyses. With Zha’s editorial guidance, the Qinqu jicheng [Anthology of qin
music] was also launched, a major series of facsimiles of historical scores and anthologies; by 1997, 16
of the projected 24 volumes had appeared, generating much progress in qin music-making and
research.
In addition to Guan and Zha, many other 20th-century masters strove to carry on the qin tradition,
such as Wu Jinglue, Yu Shaoze, Zhang Ziqian, Yao Bingyan, Cai Deyun and Wu Zonghan, all master
musicians noted for their distinctive personal styles. Many of their students have subsequently become
successful performers and scholars, including Cheng Gongliang, Gong Yi, Lau Chorwah, Li Xiangting,
Liang Mingyue, Lin Youren, Lü Zhenyuan, Tong Kin-Woon, Wang Di, Wu Wenguang, Xu Jian and Bell
Yung, who have performed globally and produced many recordings, articles and monographs.
Stimulated by these activities, many ethnomusicologists in the West have developed interest and
expertise about the genre, resulting in a substantial literature in Western languages. Several
composers, such as Chou Wen-chung, Liang Mingyue and Zhou Long, have composed music in an
avant-garde idiom inspired by the sound and aesthetic world of the qin. Today qin music thrives, with
an ever increasing number of performances, recordings and publications, while gradually adjusting to
the social and musical challenges of a rapidly changing China.
(b) Zheng.
Han Mei
Throughout the imperial period the zheng plucked zither was used not only in ensemble music but also
as a solo instrument, serving as a source of self-cultivation and entertainment. Since the solo zheng
was played mainly by the literati, female members of the imperial family, courtesans and professional
musicians serving at court, its music was often associated with romantic subjects, such as the beauty
of nature or women, sentimental feelings of love and sad memories.
Since the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), solo repertories have been closely related to regional ensembles
incorporating zheng, although since the mid-19th century solo playing has tended to gain a higher
profile. In the 20th century, the influence of conservatory teaching has fostered greater technical
complexity, but regional styles are still cultivated, with distinctive repertories and techniques. The
most common structure of zheng pieces in both north and south is the Baban tune-family, a 68-beat
structure with a fixed phrase pattern, often performed in metrical variations of increasing tempi (see
§IV, 4, (i) above and §IV, 4, (ii), (c) below). Though many regional traditions persist, two broad styles,
northern and southern, are commonly identified, the former represented by Henan and Shandong
provinces, the latter by the Chaozhou and Hakka regions of eastern Guangdong.
In Henan and Shandong the zheng is part of ensembles accompanying vocal music and playing solo
pieces: in Henan the bantou genre, in Shandong the string chamber ensemble genre called peng Baban
(‘knocking Eight Beats’). The Henan solo style is known for its lively action, with short descending
phrases played with a quick plucking of the right thumb, accompanied by rapid and wide left-hand
vibrato. The repertory has two parts: bantou qu and paizi qu. The former, which follows the Baban
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structure, may be played as prelude to dadiao quzi (‘great melodies’), from which the paizi qu (‘labelled
melodies’) also derive. Pieces such as Tianxia datong (‘Universal Harmony’) and Bainiao chaofeng
(‘Hundred Birds Honour the Phoenix’) have become widely popular.
The Shandong school is noted for its ‘earthy’ style. Its melodies are often embellished with descending
and ascending glissandos around the melodic notes. Repertory includes Lao Baban (‘Old Eight Beat’)
and some minor tunes from the local narrative singing genre qinshu; the pieces Gaoshan liushui (‘High
Mountains and Flowing Waters’) and Hangong qiuyue (‘Autumn Moon over the Han Palace’) are
nationally renowned.
In the south, the Chaozhou and Hakka styles are closely related, and indeed are thought to preserve
elements of the ancient music of north-central China. Although not part of larger instrumental
ensembles, the zheng is performed both solo and in a chamber ensemble called xianshi (‘string poem’)
or xiyue (‘fine music’) in Chaozhou and sixian (‘silk string’) or qingyue (‘pure music’) among the Hakka.
The three main modes of Chaozhou zheng music, qing sanliu, zhong sanliu and huowu, have been much
studied. Metrical variations are again common. Both Chaozhou and Hakka repertories distinguish
between Baban variants and other melodies. The Chaozhou repertory includes Pingsha luoyan (‘Geese
Alighting on the Sandy Shore’), Hanya xishui (‘Winter Crows Playing in the Water’) and Liuqing niang
(‘Lady Liuqing’); Jiaochuang yeyu (‘Night Rain Sprinkling the Window’) and Chushui lian (‘Lotus
Blossoms Emerging from the Water’) are major Hakka pieces.
In modern times the Wulin zheng school, centred in Hangzhou in Zhejiang province and based on the
local tanhuang narrative singing style, has been popularized by Wang Xunzhi (1899–1972). Other
regional solo and ensemble traditions invite further study, such as those in northern Shaanxi and
southern Fujian and the Cantonese nanyin vocal tradition.
As many zheng masters sought to develop their music from regional identities into both personal and
national styles during the first half of the 20th century, the solo zheng tradition grew quickly. Except
for its use in court, the zheng was little known in Beijing before its introduction in the 1920s by Lin
Yongzhi and Wei Ziyou. Their disciple Lou Shuhua rearranged a traditional zheng piece and named it
Yuzhou changwan (‘Fishermen Singing in the Twilight’), which subsequently became a model piece for
both contemporary practice and performance. Liang Tsai-ping not only rearranged old zheng melodies
and composed new ones but assembled Nizheng pu, the first zheng teaching manual, published in
1938.
In the 1940s, for the first time in Chinese history, a zheng performance course was offered at the
national music conservatory at Nanjing (Nanjing Guoli Yinzhuan), and some fine zheng masters taught
in conservatories under the People’s Republic. By that time the zheng was also becoming common on
the concert stage. Influential performers and teachers include Cao Dongfu (1898–1970) from Henan;
Gao Zicheng (b 1918) and Zhao Yuzhai (b 1924) from Shandong; Su Wenxian (1907–71), Guo Ying (b
1914) and Lin Maogen (b 1929) from Chaozhou, and the Hakka Luo Jiuxiang (1902–78). Cao Zheng
(1920–98), trained in the Henan style, is also an influential pedagogue. His teacher Liang Tsai-ping has
been active in performing and teaching both in Asia and the West since emigrating to Taiwan. The
Beijing Zheng Association was founded in 1980, the first of its kind.
Since the 1950s, many new pieces have been composed. Performance techniques have developed
further, especially in the use of the left hand to play harmony and counterpoint together with the right
hand. Qingfeng nian (‘Celebrating the Harvest’, Zhao Yuzhai, 1955), Zhan taifeng (‘Struggling with the
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Typhoon’, Wang Changyuan, 1965) and the zheng concerto Miluo River Fantasia (Li Huanzhi, 1984) are
hallmarks of the new style. In the 1980s, experimental pieces using atonal idioms were also composed,
such as Sandie (‘Three Sections’, Ye Xiaogang, 1984), Jiunong (‘Nine Phrases’, Li Binyang, 1986), and
Shanmei (‘The Goddess of the Mountain’, Xu Xiaoling, 1989).
To accommodate such requirements, the instrument itself has been modified since the 1970s. Zhang
Kun of the Shenyang Music Conservatory designed and produced a zhuandiao zheng (‘changeable key
zheng’), with a harp-like pedal mechanism; a chromatic die zheng (‘butterfly zheng’) was designed by
He Baoquan of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. While the 21-stringed zheng is most commonly
used now, the traditional 16-stringed zheng is still in use among some musicians.
(c) Pipa.
Wu Ben
Before the Tang dynasty (618–907), the pipa, a plucked lute, seems to have been used mainly in
ensemble, accompanying singing and dancing for the entertainment of the imperial and noble courts.
During the Tang period, it was also used as a solo instrument in both courtly and folk contexts. Later
the pipa became a major accompanying instrument for several genres of narrative singing and opera-
derived forms, such as tanci and Kunqu in Jiangsu (see §IV, 1 above). It also became part of various
instrumental ensembles.
Today the pipa is best known as a solo instrument. The music is mainly transmitted orally, and the
original composers are unknown; scores are used mainly as an aid to memory. A piece may be played in
different versions by players from different regional schools, and individual musicians may add their
own creative elements. Although several pipa scores from the late Tang and Five Dynasties periods,
written in forms of tablature, were discovered in the 20th century, their interpretation remains
controversial, and no further pipa scores have come to light from before 1819. These more recent pipa
scores are written in gongche notation. Although pieces in the 1819 score had evidently been handed
down from an earlier time, we can only date living traditions of pipa music firmly from that year;
however, pieces in this score have been performed continuously since then.
Traditionally, pipa solo was practised by two social groups: literati and musicians of low social status.
The major body of extant traditional pieces was played and preserved by literati, who used the pipa as
a means of self-cultivation and entertainment. Apart from the controversial Ju Shilin score, said to date
from the late 18th century, four early collections of pipa pieces are used today, compiled by Hua
Qiuping (1784–1859), Li Fangyuan (bc1850), Shen Zhaozhou (1859–1930) and Shen Haochu (1889–
1953). The editors of these collections were themselves pipa players, and their scores made an
important contribution to the transmission of their performing schools.
Most traditional pipa pieces have titles that describe natural scenes, historical events or human
emotions; there are also some pieces with non-programmatic titles, such as Baban (‘Eight Beats’), the
title relating to its musical structure. Traditional pieces are categorized in different ways. They are
divided into daqu (‘large piece’ or suite) and xiaoqu (‘small piece’) based on length. About 30 ‘large
pieces’ and 150 ‘small pieces’ are notated in extant pipa collections. A ‘large piece’ usually has several
sections, whereas most ‘small pieces’ have only one section and a metric structure of 68 ban (‘beats’ or
measures). Both ‘large’ and ‘small’ pieces are further divided into ‘civil’ (wen) and ‘martial’ (wu)
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pieces. Civil pieces are often refined and elegant, and are played at a slower tempo with a soft
dynamic; they are considered to be feminine in nature. The well-known Xiyang xiaogu (‘Flute and Drum
at Sunset’) is a typical civil piece: it consists of several sections describing the exquisite scenery of a
river during a spring night. Other popular civil pieces include Yue′er gao (‘The Moon on High’),
Saishang qu (‘Song at the Frontier’) and Pu′an zhou (‘Incantation of Pu′an). On the other hand, martial
pieces are often very powerful and mighty, are viewed as being masculine, and are played at faster
tempos and at louder dynamics. The most famous is Shimian maifu (‘Ambush from All Directions’). It
portrays the historical battle between the warlords Liu Bang and Xiang Yu in 202 BC, when Liu Bang
used various ambush-strategies in this battle, routing Xiang Yu. In the piece, special pipa techniques
are used to imitate sounds such as the frantic running and neighing of horses, the screaming of
soldiers and the clashing of spears. Together these sounds combine to portray a lively sonic picture of
the ancient battle. Other famous martial pieces include Haiqing na tian′e (‘Hunting Eagles Catching
Swans’), Bawang xiejia (‘The Tyrant Takes Off his Armour’) and Jiangjun ling (‘Command of the
General’).
Along with the development of local performing traditions and their transmission from teacher to
student, regional performing schools appeared. According to Hua Qiuping’s Pipa pu of 1819, there
were two pipa performing schools at that time: the ‘southern’ and the ‘northern’ schools. By the late
19th century and the early 20th, four schools had appeared in the Jiangnan (lower Yangtze river valley)
area, named after the places where they developed: Wuxi, Pinghu, Chongming and Pudong. The four
printed traditional pipa collections belonged to the four schools. During the 1920s and 30s, another
school took shape represented by Wang Yuting (1872–1951) in Shanghai. These Jiangnan schools are
considered to be extensions of the earlier southern school. At the same time, the earlier northern
school, represented by Wang Lu (1877–1921), continued mainly in Shandong province. The major
differences among these schools were different repertory and playing techniques, as well as distinct
interpretations of the same pieces. But they all belonged to the literati tradition in general and shared
many basic features and repertory.
Low-status musicians were another social group transmitting traditions of pipa solo. They played the
pipa for their living on the streets or in teahouses. The music was transmitted orally, and their
repertory was mainly adopted from folksong or local opera. Longchuan (‘Dragon Boats’) is a good
example of their repertory, describing the lively scene of the dragon boat race among ordinary people
at a folk festival. It is composed of several so-called ‘gong-and-drum sections’, which imitate the sound
of a percussion ensemble, alternating with melodic sections adopted from folk tunes. The blind
musician Abing (1893–1950) was an outstanding representative of this social group.
Since roughly the 1920s, another group, that of modern intellectuals, started to influence the pipa solo
tradition. These players usually had some training in Western music, and though they learned pipa
from traditional literati, they made changes to the music, rearranging the frets of the pipa based on the
12-note equal temperament and using cipher or Western staff notation. Meanwhile, they composed
new pieces to describe modern events or feelings. Musically, these works illustrate Western influence
in their melodic style and harmonic elements. Gaijin cao (‘Exercise for Improvement’) and Gewu yin
(‘Prelude for Song-and-Dance’), both composed in 1927 by Liu Tianhua, are good examples of this kind
of composed piece. Influential modern pedagogues include Wei Zhongle and Lin Shicheng.
Page 97 of 123
Since the 1950s, pipa solo has been best known from performances by professional urban players who
learned from traditional literati or modern intellectuals and who have tended to synthesize the styles of
traditional regional performing schools. They usually work in a professional performing troupe or a
music conservatory, relying on notation for transmission more than before. Concerts and mass media
have become their major performing arenas. When they play traditional pieces, they often arrange and
condense them to appeal to modern tastes. They also play contemporary composed pieces, some of
which are popular concert items, such as Yizu wuqu (‘Dance of the Yi People’) by Wang Huiran (1960),
Gan huahui (‘Going to the Fair’) by Ye Xuran (1960), Langyashan wu zhuangshi (‘Five Heroes of
Langyashan’) by Lü Shao′en (1960) and Caoyuan xiao jiemei (‘Little Sisters of the Grassland’) by Wu
Zuqiang, Wang Yanqiao and Liu Dehai (1973).
Today, apart from the contexts of conservatories and concert halls, pipa traditions also survive in silk-
and-bamboo ensembles in central-eastern China and in rural areas such as northern Shaanxi and
Shandong, where the pipa may be part of a small ensemble that often accompanies narrative singing.
Bibliography
AND OTHER RESOURCES
Ensemble traditions
The following list includes only general works and writings in English on regional genres. For Further
information and bibliography, see S. Jones: Folk Music of China: Living Instrumental Traditions
(Oxford, 1995, 2/1998 with CD). For transcriptions, see the relevant vols. for each province of the
Anthology of Folk music of the Chinese Peoples (see §IV above). Few recordings of folk instrumental
music are as yet available in China; beware conservatory-style recordings.
Gao Houyong: Minzu qiyue gailun [Survey of Chinese instrumental music] (Jiangsu, 1981)
Ye Dong: Minzu qiyue de ticai yu xingshi [The form and structure of Chinese instrumental music] (Shanghai,
1983)
Yuan Jingfang: Minzu qiyue xinshang shouce [Handbook for the appreciation of Chinese instrumental music]
(Beijing, 1986)
Yuan Jingfang: Minzu qiyue [Chinese instrumental music] (Beijing, 1987)
A. Thrasher: ‘Hakka-Chaozhou Instrumental Repertoire: an Analytic Perspective on Traditional Creativity’, AsM,

19/2 (1988), 1–30
A. Thrasher: ‘Structural Continuity in Chinese Sizhu: the Baban Model’, AsM, 20/2 (1989), 67–106
S. Jones and Xue Yibing: ‘The Music Associations of Hebei Province, China’, EthM, 35 (1991), 1–29
J.L. Witzleben: ‘Silk and Bamboo’ Music in Shanghai: the Jiangnan Sizhu Instrumental Ensemble
Tradition (Kent, OH, 1995)
Qin
Grove6 (Liang Ming-yueh)
Page 98 of 123
R. van Gulik: The Lore of the Chinese Lute: an Essay in Ch’in Ideology (Tokyo, 1940/R)
R. van Gulik: Hsi K’ang’s Poetical Essay on the Lute (Tokyo, 1941)
Zha Fuxi: Jianzai guqinqu chuanpu jieti huibian chugao mulu [Draft index of extant qin pieces, scores
and explanatory notes] (Beijing, 1956)
Zha Fuxi, Xu Jian and Wang Di: ‘1956 nian guqin caifang gongzuo baogao’ [Report on the 1956 fieldwork on the
qin], Minzu yinyue yanjiu lunwenji [Collected articles of research on Chinese music], no.3 (Beijing, 1958), 1–8
Guqin quji [Collected pieces for the qin], ed. YYS and Beijing guqin yanjiu hui (Beijing, 1962–83/R)
Lui Tsun-yuan: ‘A Short Guide to Ch’in’, Selected Reports, 1/2 (1968): 180–204
Liang Ming-yueh: The Chinese Ch’in: its History and Music (Taipei, 1969/R)
Tong Kin-woon: Qinfu [Qin archive] (Taipei, 1973)
Qinqu jicheng [Anthology of qin pieces], ed. YYS and Beijing guqin yanjiu hui (Beijing, 1981–)
J.C.Y. Watt: ‘The Qin and the Chinese Literati’, Orientations, 12 (1981), 38–49
F. Lieberman: A Chinese Zither Tutor: the Mei-an Ch’in-p’u (Seattle, 1983)
Wang Di, ed.: Qin’ge [Qin songs] (Beijing, 1983)
Xu Jian: Qinshi chubian [Draft history of the qin] (Beijing, 1983)
Wang Di: Qinqu Guangling san chutan [Study of the qin piece Guangling san] (Beijing, 1984)
B. Yung: ‘Choreographic and Kinaesthetic Elements in Performance of the Chinese Seven-String Zither’, EthM, 28
(1984), 505–17
M. Dahmer: Qin, die Klassische Chinesische Griffbrettzither und Ihre Musik in Geschichte,
Geschichten und Gedichten (Frankfurt, 1985)
B. Yung: ‘Da Pu: the Recreative Process for the Music of the Seven-string Zither’, A. Shapiro ed., Music and
Context: Essays in Honor of John Ward (Harvard, 1985), 370–84
Zheng Minzhong: ‘Lun Tangqinde tedian jiqi zhenwei wenti’ [On the characteristics of Tang qin and the problem
of authenticity], Gugong bowuyuan jianyuan liushizhounian jinian tekan (1985), no.3, 154–70
Jin Yu qin’ge [Qin songs from the Jin Yu society], ed. Zhongguo yinyuejia xiehui Shanghai fenhui and Jin
Yu qinshe (?Shanghai, c1986)
B. Yung: ‘Historical Interdependency of Music: a Case Study of the Chinese Seven-String Zither’, JAMS, 60/2 (1987),
82–91
Zhongguo yinyue shi cankao tupian, dishiji, Guqin zhuanji [Illustrations for reference on Chinese music
history, no. 10, qin issue], ed. YYS (Beijing, 1987)
G. Goormaghtigh: L’art du qin, deux textes d’estetique musicale chinoise (Brussels, 1990)
Dai Xiaolian: ‘Chuanren, chuanpu, chuanpai’ [Transmissions of musicians, scores and schools], Yinyue yanjiu
(1991), no.2, 47–64
Luo Qin: ‘Pushi, yizhong wenhua de xiangzheng: guqin pushi mingyun de sikao’ [Notation, symbols of a culture:
reflections on the fate of qin notation], Zhongguo yinyuexue (1991), no.1, 52–60
Page 99 of 123
Yip Mingmei: Guqin yinyue yishu [The art of qin music] (Hong Kong, 1991)
Liu Dongsheng, ed.: Zhongguo yueqi tujian [Pictorial guide to Chinese instruments] (Ji’nan, 1992), 180–97 [YYS
pubn]
J.S.C. Lam: ‘Analyses and Interpretations of Chinese Seven-string Zither Music: the Case of the Lament of Empress
Chen’, EthM, 37/3 (1993), 353–86
Li Xiangting: Tangdai guqin yanzou meixue ji yinyue sixiang [The aesthetics of qin playing and musical
thought in the Tang dynasty] (Taipei, 1993)
B. Yung: ‘Bibliography on Guqin Music’, ACMR Newsletter, 6/2 (1993), 29–31 [Western-language bibliography]
Lau Chor Wah: ‘Ershi shiji qinxuede jiuwang yishi yu gailiang yundong’ [Preservationism and reform in 20th century
qin studies], Liu Jingzhi ed., Zhongguo xin yinyue shi lunji [Essays on the history of new Chinese music]
(Hong Kong, 1994), 397–411
Huang Changdong and others, eds.: Zha Fuxi qinxue wencui [Zha Fuxi’s scholarly writings on the qin]
(Hangzhou, 1995)
Lau Chor Wah: ‘Bei Song yongqin shi’ [The qin in Northern Song poetry], Renwen Zhongguo xuebao (1995),
no.2, 147–69
Dai Xiaolian: ‘1949–1997 nian Zhongwen guqin yuelun ziliao suoyin’ [Index to material in Chinese on qin music
from 1949 to 1997], Shanghai Jin Yu qinshe ed., Jin Yu qinkan xu [Qin journal of the Modern Yu qin society,
sequel] (?Shanghai, c1996), 102–15
Jin Yu qinkan xu [Qin journal of the Modern Yu qin society, sequel], ed. Shanghai Jin Yu qinshe (?Shanghai,
c1996)
R. Egan: ‘The Controversy over Music and “Sadness” and Changing Conceptions of the Qin in the Middle Period
China’, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 57/1 (1997), 5–66
B. Yung: Celestial Airs of Antiquity: Music of the Seven-string Zither of China (Madison, WI, 1997)
Zhongguo guqin zhencui [Precious Chinese qin], ed. YYS (Beijing, 1998)
Zheng
R.H. van Gulik: ‘A Brief Note on the Cheng, the Chinese Small Cither’, Tōyō ongaku kenkyū, 9 (1951), 10–25
Liang Tsai-ping: Music of Cheng, the Chinese 16-Stringed Zither (Taipei, 1967)
Cao Dongfu: Cao Dongfu zhengqu ji [Collected zheng pieces of Cao Dongfu] (Beijing, 1981)
Zhengqu xuan [Selected pieces for zheng], ed. Zhongguo yinyuejia xiehui (Beijing, 1982)
Cao Zheng: ‘A Discussion of the History of the Gu Zheng’, AsM, 14/2 (1983), 1–16
Xiang Sihua: Xiang Sihua yanzou Zhongguo zhengpu [Chinese zheng pieces played by Xiang Sihua] (Hong
Kong, 1983)
Luo Jiuxiang: Hanyue zhengqu sishi shou [40 zheng pieces of Hakka music], ed. Shi Chaoyuan (Beijing,
1985)
Page 100 of 123

Yuan Jingfang: Minzu qiyue xinshang shouce [Handbook for the appreciation of Chinese instrumental music]
(Beijing, 1986)
T. Kwok: Zheng: a Chinese Zither and its Music (MA thesis, U. of Hawaii, 1987)
L. Rault-Leyrat: Comme une vol d’oies sauvages: la cithare chinoise (Paris, 1987)
Yuan Jingfang: Minzu qiyue [Chinese instrumental music] (Beijing, 1987), 125–69
A. Thrasher: ‘Hakka-Chaozhou Instrumental Repertoire: an Analytical Perspective on Traditional Creativity’, AsM,

19/2 (1988), 1–30
Lin Maogen: Chaozhou minjian zhengqu sishi shou [40 folk zheng pieces from Chaozhou], ed. Li Meng
(Beijing, 1992/R)
Su Qiaozheng: ‘Zhongguo guzheng liupai’ [Schools of the Chinese zheng], Yinyue yanjiu (1992), no.3, 72–6
Zhongguo guzheng mingqu huicui [Gems of famous pieces for the Chinese zheng] (Shanghai, 1993)
Fan Yifeng: ‘Henan zhengyue kaolue’ [Study of the zheng music of Henan], Jiaoxiang (1994), no.4, 35–42
Li Meng, ed.: Chaozhou zhengqu xuan [Selected zheng pieces of Chaozhou] (Beijing, 1995)
Pipa
Ju Shilin: Pipa pu (MS, ?late18th century), pubd as Ju Shilin pipa pu [Pipa score of Ju Shilin], ed. Lin
Shicheng (Beijing, 1983)
Hua Qiuping: Pipa pu [Pipa score] (Wuxi, 1819)
Li Fangyuan: Nanbei pai shisan tao daqu pipa xinpu [New pipa scores of the 13 suites of southern and
northern schools] (Pinghu, 1895)
Shen Zhaozhou: Yingzhou gudiao [Ancient tunes of Chongming Island] (Haimen, 1916); Yingzhou gudiao
xuanqu [Selected pieces from the Yingzhou gudiao], ed. F. Shaoyun (Beijing, 1984)
Shen Haochu: Yangzheng xuan pipa pu [Pipa score of the Yangzheng study] (Naihui, 1929); ed. L. Shicheng
(Beijing, 1983)
Yang Yinliu, ed.: Abing quji [Collected pieces of Abing] (Beijing, 1952)
Minzu yueqi chuantong duzou qu xuanji: pipa zhuanji [Anthology of traditional pieces for Chinese
instruments: pipa volume] (Beijing, 1982)
Li Tingsong: Li Tingsong yanzou pu [Performance score of Li Tingsong] (Beijing, 1982)
Han Shude and Zhang Zhinian: Zhongguo pipa shigao [Draft history of the Chinese pipa] (Chengdu, 1985)
Yuan Jingfang: Minzu qiyue xinshang shouce [Manual for the appreciation of Chinese instrumental music]
(Beijing, 1986)
Wu Ben: ‘Chuantong pipa xiaoqu yanjiu’ [Study of traditional ‘small pieces’ for pipa], Yinyue yanjiu (1987), no.3,
60–73
Yuan Jinfang: Minzu qiyue [Chinese instrumental music] (Beijing, 1987) 170–238
Page 101 of 123

Lin Yinzhi, ed.: Pipa guqu Shimian maifu banben jijin yu yanjiu [Collected editions and study of the
ancient pipa piece Shimian maifu] (Beijing, 1989)
Wu Ben: ‘Cong chuantong pipa daqu de qudiao sucai ji zaoqi jiegou xingtai kan qi chuangzuo fangshi de yige
fangmian’ [A look at one aspect of the creative process of traditional pipa suites through their melodic material and
early structural features], Zhongguo yinyuexue (1990), no.3, 82–9
Zhu Xingqing and Yang Shaoyi, eds.: Pinghupai pipaqu 13 shou [13 pieces for the Pinghu school of pipa]
(Beijing, 1990)
J. Myers: The Way of the Pipa: Structure and Imagery in Chinese Lute Music (Kent, OH,1992)
Wu Ben: ‘Pipa yinyue jiqi shehui beijing’ [Pipa music and its social background], Zhongguo yinyuexue (1992),
no.2, 57–67
Wei Zhongle: Wei Zhongle pipa yanzou quji [Collected pipa pieces played by Wei Zhongle] (Shanghai, 1994)
Recordings
Ensemble traditions
Nan-kouan: chant courtois de la Chine du sud, Ocora C 559004, 560037 to 41 (1982–94)
Chine: musique classique, Ocora C 559039 (1988)
Jin′gu fanyin [Buddhist music of Tianjin], Zongjiao yinyue xilie, Zhongguo Fojiao yinyue [Series on
religious music: Chinese Buddhist music], ed. Tian Qing, Zhongguo yinxiang dabaike [Audio and video
encyclopedia of China], YAF 6 and 7 (1989)
Wutaishan Foyue [Buddhist music of Wutaishan], Zongjiao yinyue xilie, Zhongguo Fojiao yinyue [Series
on religious music: Chinese Buddhist music], ed. Tian Qing, Zhongguo yinxiang dabaike [Audio and video
encyclopedia of China], YAF 1 to 5 (1989)
China: Chuida Wind and Percussive Instrumental Ensembles, Auvidis D 8209 (1992)
Beijing Zhihua si yinyue [Capital music of the Zhihua temple], Wind Records JCD 2008 and 2009 (?1992)
China: Buddhist Music of the Ming Dynasty [Music of the Zhihua temple], JVC VICG-5259 (1993)
Xi′an Drums Music, coll. Li Shigen, Hugo HRP 758–2 (1993)
Buddhist Music of Tianjin, Nimbus NI 5416 (1994)
Sizhu/Silk Bamboo: Chamber Music of South China, Pan 2030CD (1994)
China: Folk Instrumental Traditions, Archives Internationales de Musique Populaire, Geneva, VDE-Gallo VDE
822/823 (1995)
The Li Family Band: Shawms from Northeast China, Ocora 92612-2, 92613-2 (1995)
Beijing Foyue [Buddhist music of Beijing], Zongjiao yinyue xilie, Zhongguo Fojiao yinyue [Series on
religious music: Chinese Buddhist music], ed. Tian Qing, Zhongguo yinxiang dabaike [Audio and video
encyclopedia of China], YAF 26 (c1996)
Rain Dropping on the Banana Tree, rec. 1902–30, Rounder CD 1125 (1996)
Page 102 of 123

Xian′guan chuanqi: Special Collection of Contemporary Chinese Musicians, Wind Records CB-07, TCD
1018 (1996)
Naxi Music from Lijiang: the Dayan Ancient Music Association, Nimbus NI 5510 (1997)
Qin, Zheng and Pipa

Chinese Zither Music: Sea-gull Concerto, perf. Cheng Te-yuan, Art-tune (n.d.)
Guzheng daquan [Compendium of the guzheng], Zhongguo changpian she CRC ED 153–4, EL 309–14 (n.d.)
Ancient Qin Music, Hugo (1987–) [ongoing series]
Treasury of Zheng Music, Hugo (1989–) [series, var. titles and artists]
Lin Shicheng pipa duzou xuan [Selected pipa solos played by Lin Shicheng], Zhongguo yinxiang dabaike:
yanzoujia xilie [Audio and video encyclopedia of China: instrumentalists], YAI 3–4 (1990)
Pipa daquan [Anthology of the pipa], China Record Co. XJH-15 (1990)
Chine: l’art du Pipa, perf. Lin Shicheng, Ocora C 680046 (1993)
Zhongguo guqin mingjia mingqu/The Eminent Pieces for Guqin, Wind Records TCD 1015–18 (1994)
Zhongguo yinyue daquan, guqin juan/An Anthology of Chinese Traditional and Folk Music: a
Collection of Music Played on the Guqin, China Record Co. CCD 94/342–9 (1995); repr. titled Zhongguo
yinyue daquan: qindao chanyun, Cradle Records CRCD 703–10 (1996)
Chinese Han Music, Zheng Melodies: above the Clouds, Sounds of the World SOW 90157 (1996)
5. Minority traditions.
The government of the People’s Republic of China divides its citizens into 56 officially recognized
ethnic groups or ‘nationalities’ (minzu). Over 90% are categorized as Han Chinese, while the
remainder are divided among 55 ‘minority nationalities’ (shaoshu minzu). Recognition of a nationality
as a separate group is theoretically based on Stalin’s concept of a nation as a historically constituted,
stable community sharing common language, territory, economic life and psychological profile. In
practice, grey areas, contentious classifications and scholarly debates abound. Nevertheless, the
official classifications, which predominate in the literature, are adopted below.
Current government policy towards minority culture includes salvaging cultural heritage, considered
threatened by both modernization and the many pre-1980s political movements; helping minorities
cultivate distinct cultural forms; and promoting socialist national unity. Minorities generally are
perceived by the Han Chinese as ‘good at singing and dancing’ (nengge shanwu), and their
performances are frequently showcased at national festivals. Minority populations are concentrated in
south-western and north-western China.
Fieldwork on minority music began before 1949 but accelerated in the 1950s, when the new
Communist government dispatched teams to document minority music and dance. Apart from pure
research, this provided raw material for professional composers and performing troupes. Research
ceased during the iconoclastic Cultural Revolution (1966–76) but has resumed since the late 1970s and
has led to the publication of many anthologies, monographs and articles. Sound and video field
Page 103 of 123
recordings are preserved privately or in the archives of national-, province- or county-level institutions.
A few such recordings were issued commercially in the 1990s. See also Taiwan, §2; Tibetan music; and
Mongol music.
(i) South China.

Helen Rees
Four language families are represented among minorities in southern China (the provinces south of the
Yangtze river and southern Sichuan): Tai (Zhuang, Buyi, Dai, Dong, Shui, Mulam, Maonan, Li); Tibeto-
Burman (Tibetan, Yi, Lisu, Hani, Lahu, Jinuo, Naxi, Jingpo, Dulong, Qiang, Pumi, Nu, Achang); Miao-
Yao (Miao, Yao and probably She); and Mon-Khmer (De’ang, Bulang, Wa). Unclassified or isolated
languages include those of the Gelao, Tujia, Bai and Jing. The Hui (Muslims) speak local Han dialects.
Some minorities live near other groups and speak several local languages, including Han dialects;
others have borrowed substantially from Han Chinese or even largely lost their own language.
Minority populations vary greatly; the 1990 census recorded over 15 million Zhuang, but under 6000
Dulong. Southern minorities are heavily concentrated in south-western provinces: non-Han constitute
almost half the population in Guangxi and a third in Yunnan and Guizhou, but are numerically
insignificant in the south-east. Generally, members of minorities living around urban areas adapt to
mainstream Chinese culture, while those in remote regions often preserve distinctive ethnic traditions.
(a) Traditional musics and their context.

Vocal music takes many forms, with folksongs (min’ge in Chinese) most prevalent. All ‘nationalities’
seem to have solo songs; many have antiphonal songs, alternating between two individual singers,
between leader and chorus or between two choruses; several have multi-part songs, and many
combine simultaneous singing and dancing. The Naxi of Lijiang county, Yunnan, are known for solo
singing as well as for their leader-chorus antiphonal festive song-and-dance ‘Alili’, and for their two-
part funeral song-dance ‘Remeicuo’, sung polyphonically by male and female choruses. The Miao of
Guizhou, like many other groups, use individual male-female response singing (duige) in courtship.
Vocal timbre often marks a particular minority or genre; for example, singing in the song-and-dance of
the Yi of Mouding county, Yunnan, is characterized by free alternation between open-throated natural
voice and a thin falsetto pitched an octave above. A piercing, semi-open-throated natural voice with
slow, wide vibrato on long held notes is considered typical of much Naxi solo singing.
Many ethnic groups combine singing with instrumental accompaniment. A complex form of vocal
polyphony among the Hani of Honghe county, Yunnan, includes eight voices, labi (end-blown flute) and
two lahe (three-string plucked lutes) (ex.9). Yi song-and-dance in Mouding county involves some
heterophony in group singing and heterophonic accompaniment on bowed and plucked strings. Several
minorities possess genres regarded by Chinese scholars as equivalent to Han Chinese narrative-
singing. A well-known form is dabenqu of the Bai of Dali, Yunnan, in which a singer accompanies
himself on plucked lute. A few minorities, often those in more developed areas, have dramatic forms
considered equivalent to Han Chinese opera. Some genres, such as Bai and Dai opera in Yunnan and
Zhuang opera in Guangxi, were established before the 20th century; others, including Yunnanese Yi
opera, were created after 1949.
Page 104 of 123

Page 105 of 123
Ex.9 Opening of vocal section of transplanting seedlings song, Baina branch of the Hani, Azhahe Township,
Honghe county, Yunnan province; transcr. Zhang Xingrong (Ynnan Art Institute), 1995. The upper five lines
are performed by female singers (Chen Chen′gey, Chen Gule, Ma Bushou, Nong Yuegou, Li Yanban′er), the
next three by male singers (Zhang Zebo, Che Liyue, Che Xiyang) and the bottom two by the end-blown flute
labi (Chen Woduo) and two three-string plucked lutes lahe (Zhang Xangde and Zhang Zebo)
China’s minorities are renowned for their diverse instrumentarium, which has largely escaped the
homogenization imposed in recent decades on Han Chinese instruments through factory manufacture.
Individual ethnic groups often use a limited array of instruments, which helps give their music its
distinctive flavour. The Li of Hainan Island traditionally lacked chordophones; they had a few
membranophones, some distinctive idiophones, including jew’s harp, rhythmic wooden poles and a
two- or three-bar xylophone, and a range of aerophones, including one unique in mainland China, the
nose flute. Certain instruments have achieved wide currency among southern minorities and are
closely associated with them: the free-reed mouth organs Lusheng and hulusheng are played by many
ethinic groups, as are bronze drums (see Bronze drum, §2) and tree-leaves; the Jew's harp is also
widespread and is well known as a speech surrogate used in courtship among Yi, Naxi and other
groups.
Sharing of instruments and musical genres among ethnic groups occurs frequently. Commonality of
religious beliefs in Guangxi leads all ethnic groups, Han and minority, to perform similar ritual theatre
(shigongxi). The origins of certain Naxi dances in Lijiang are attributed to neighbouring Yi, Lisu and
Tibetans; and Naxi Dongjing music is clearly adapted from the Han Chinese Dongjing ritual societies
found throughout Yunnan. In some places, Yi musicians have adopted Han Chinese suona (shawms) and
melodies, while Han Chinese in Yi areas sometimes participate in Yi dances; and national film and pop
hit tunes occasionally reappear in minority ‘folk’ genres. There is also increasing interest in cross-
border musical comparison with South-east Asia.
It is difficult to generalize about musical characteristics among so many disparate groups, although
obviously distinctive combinations of instruments, vocal quality, texture, rhythm, scales and tuning
characterize individual minorities (and sub-groups). Much music of the Sani (considered an Yi sub-
group) from Lunan county, Yunnan, emphasizes what sounds to Western ears like an arpeggiated major
triad (ex.10); this contrasts with anhemitonic pentatonic dance-tunes of other Yi peoples, or of the Naxi
(ex.11), and is even more sharply differentiated from the semitones and microtones of some multi-part
Hani singing (see ex.9).
Ex.10 Part of ‘Sani tune’, Sani branch of the Yi, Lunan county, Yunnan province; transcr. Zhang Xingrong
(Yunnan Art Institute), 1990; performed by Gao Yangfeng (three-string plucked lute sanxian) and Zhang
Renhua (three-string fiddle lehu)
Page 106 of 123

Ex.11 Dance-tune played on Naxi fipple-flute leizi bili by Wang Chaoxin, Lijiang county, Yunnan province;
transcr. H. Reese, 1994; the tune is repeated many times with minor variants and usually accelerates
Within a single minority, different genres may have different musical characteristics. The Naxi flute
dance-tune in ex.11 is in seven beats (4+3) and belongs to a body of similar monophonic tunes whose
metrical units are very varied; but Naxi Dongjing instrumental music, borrowed from the Han, displays
typical Han-style ensemble heterophony and a simple duple beat. In addition, absolute and relative
tuning of instruments made by local craftsmen may vary considerably within accepted parameters.
Most southern minorities traditionally have not used musical notation; a frequent exception is the use
of gongche notation for Han Chinese-derived musics.
Music is traditionally employed in a huge variety of social contexts. Folksongs typically include love
songs, wedding songs, funeral laments, work songs, children’s songs, drinking songs and narrative or
descriptive songs. Another category since the 1940s has been political songs: the Communist Party has
long used folksong and opera in spreading patriotic, pro-Party and policy messages.
Many forms of music are still tied to certain occasions. The song-and-dance of the Yi in Mouding is
performed today at the Torch Festival, at weddings, birthdays, village holidays and often in leisure
hours. Life-cycle and religious rituals are particularly important occasions for musical activity. Dai and
Tibetan Buddhist liturgical music flourishes in southern and northern Yunnan respectively; Christian
Lisu, Miao and others converted by foreign missionaries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries still
sing Christian hymns, some in four-part harmony, others adapted from local folksongs; and priests and
shamans of many indigenous belief-systems still perform rituals involving traditional music.
Page 107 of 123

(b) Music in the 1990s.
Much traditional minority music, particularly that associated with religious ritual, suffered suppression
during the sporadic political movements between 1949 and 1979, especially during the Cultural
Revolution. Despite an impressive cultural revival since the political and economic reforms of the late
1970s, a whole generation missed out on the transmission of local culture. This, coupled with improved
communications, extension of Han-language schooling, changes in work patterns and the advent since
the 1970s of television and cassette culture, has led to a decline in much traditional minority music.
Many older people and scholars regret this development and are trying to revive the transmission
process. Naxi Dongjing musicians opened an academy in Lijiang in 1996 to train children, and the
Yunnan Ethnic Culture Institute in Anning county hosts mentors and students studying minority
cultural traditions. There are also calls for more minority music to be included in school and college
curricula, which even in heavily minority areas favour mainstream Han Chinese and Western classical
music.
However, many minority youngsters, like their Han Chinese counterparts, are captivated by pop music
from Hong Kong, Taiwan, North America and China itself, and by the concomitant discos and karaoke
gatherings popular even in the smallest towns. One or two minority pop groups have joined the trend:
combining well-crafted songs with minority exoticism, synthesizers with ‘ethnic’ instruments, Yi or Han
Chinese lyrics on the tape with mysterious Yi graphs on the cover, the Yi group Shanying (‘Mountain
Eagle’) from Sichuan Province sold vigorously in south-west China in 1996.
State-supported song and dance troupes, established in most minority regions since 1949, play a
quixotic role in preserving and disseminating minority music and dance. They certainly lend visibility
and demonstrate government support for folk arts, and they are sometimes the last arena for colourful
customs that have otherwise died out. However, their often conservatory-trained composers and
performers frequently introduce Han and Western instruments, equal temperament and simple
functional harmony to arrangements of local music. The results cleave to a national conservatory-
inspired ‘professionalized’ style, often criticized by local folk musicians as ‘flavourless’. The full gamut,
from ‘authentic’ to ‘professionalized’, is presented on the CD A Happy Miao Family.
Musics of China’s southern minorities are encountering outside influences at an unprecedentedly rapid
rate, and for a variety of reasons some are dying out. Others, whether because of geographical
remoteness or a continuing relevance to people’s lives, are flourishing, adapting and even reaching out
to new audiences. The tourist trade has offered commercial impetus to several Naxi, Yi and Li musics
since the 1980s, and some minority musicians have toured abroad. Commercial recordings, too, are
reaching overseas markets and bringing overdue recognition to the wonderful variety of sounds
indigenous to southern China.
(ii) North and west China.

Sabine Trebinjac
This area comprises 12 of the 21 provinces of the People’s Republic of China and four of its five
autonomous regions. Nine of these territorial entities, from west to east comprising Tibet, Xinjiang,
Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning, are populated by a variety
of ethnic groups, since a number of them have frontiers with neighbouring countries. These people
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belong to some 22 of the 56 recognized by the People’s Republic ‘national minorities’. (The ethnic
groups and sub-groups ignored by the Chinese authorities, such as the Tuvan, Oïrat, Turkmen, Dolan
and Loplik, are not covered here.) As the Mongolian and Tibetan populations are dealt with elsewhere,
the following account deals with some of the musical traditions of the 20 remaining groups.
These ethnic groups can also be divided into large linguistic families. The Altaic family has a Turkic
branch (comprising the languages of the Uighurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Tatars, Salars and western
Yugu or Yellow Uighurs), a Mongolian branch (the languages of the Daur, Dongxiang, Monguor and
Baoan) and a Tunguso-Manchurian branch (the languages of the Manchurians, Sibe, Nanaï, Evenk and
Orochen). Ethnic groups in China belonging to the Indo-European linguistic family include Tajiks (the
Iranian branch) and Russians (the Slav branch). Finally, the population includes Koreans (linguistically
close to the proto-Altaic family) and Muslim Hui or Han Chinese. At the time of the 1982 census these
20 or so ethnic groups comprised over 21 million people living in a territory of over 3·5 million km².
North China can be divided into eastern and western areas. Minority culture in the eastern area is
largely influenced by Mongolian and Han Chinese traditions. North-eastern China is home not only to a
substantial Korean population but also to Manchu culture, the shamanism of which has been a major
topic of study; the Manchu Qing dynasty (1644–1911) also imported genres such as the Taiping gu into
Beijing and other areas of China.
The musics of the western part of the region, however, relate much more to Irano-Arabo-Turkic musical
traditions. Ancient chronicles contain many references to the music of the far west of China, including
a reference in the 2nd century BCE to the ambassador Zhang Qian bringing a melody from the north-
west of the empire back to the imperial capital. Two musical repertories in Chinese court music that
were very fashionable at this period, the guchui (‘drumming-and-blowing’) and hengchui (‘transverse
blowing’), were much influenced by the traditions of the west of the country. Dynastic histories
mention Turkestani ensembles representing ‘barbarian’ music playing a major part in successive
imperial musical institutions from the Han dynasty onwards. The main such ensembles were those of
Qiuci [Kuqa], Shule [Kashgar], Gaochang [Turfan], An′guo [Bukhara] and Kangguo [Smarkand]. In the
sui dynasty, ensembles from Kuqa, Bukhara, Kashgar and Samarkand were among seven and later nine
non-Han-Chinese ensembles; the early Tang emporer Taizong further increased the number of
‘barbarian’ groups at the court to ten, adding an ensemble from Turfan. Under the Yuan dynasty, in
1276, huihui musicians are documented, indicating Muslims from Xinjiang; a group of huihui dancers
were present at the Ming court, and a Muslim ensemble was one of seven ‘barbarian’ ensembles
during the Qing dynasty. Besides historical chronicles, frescos near the present town of Kuqa (formerly
Qiuci), chiefly painted between the 6th and 10th centuries provide information about ancient Central
Asian music. They show musicians playing some 20 instruments: strings, winds and percussion. Such
written and pictorial records enable us to appreciate the vast amount of traffic in skills as well as
goods that passed along the Silk Road, obeying forces that were sometimes centrifugal, sometimes
centripetal. Despite certain modifications, several instruments that originated in Central Asia thus
became Chinese, including the suona, the pipa and huqin bowed fiddles. A similar process occurred
with musical forms, the best example being the daqu (‘large piece’ or suite), a Chinese musical genre
that reached its peak under the Tang dynasty; strongly influenced by the ancient Turkestani suites now
known as muqam, it spread as far east as Japan in the guise of gagaku.
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Today, all the ethnic groups populating western China, that great crossroads of East Asian, Central
Asian, Indian, Middle Eastern and Western civilizations, maintain their own flourishing and clearly
distinct musical traditions, whether they are herdsmen or farmers, Muslims, Shamanists, Lamaists or
Buddhists. For the region is a place of particularism as well as exchange, and traditions are often
attached not to a whole ethnic group but to a single oasis.
Unlike the other ethnic groups inhabiting the north of China, who often live on both sides of
international frontiers, the Uighurs are concentrated chiefly in the People’s Republic. Slightly over 6.6
million live in the autonomous Uighur region of Xinjiang (1988 census), whereas in 1991 there were
only 263,000 in the former USSR. They are a sedentary farming people. The Uighurs themselves
distinguish ‘classical music’ (kilassiki muzika formerly ilim muzika or ilim nagmä) and ‘folksongs’ (xälq
naxsisi). The ‘classical’ tradition consists of the muqam, monodic and modal instrumental suites to
which songs and dances are performed, are 9, 12 or 13 in number, depending on their location and
historical period of origin. Each suite has its own name and modal colouring. The Uighur version of this
term, which is obviously of Arabic origin (maqām), seems to date from the 14th or 15th century.
The 12 muqam of Kashgar (on ikki muqam) are made up of three distinct parts, each further
subdivided into several linked sequences. The first part, entitled čoηŋäġmä or ‘great music’, begins
with a ‘muqam heading’ (baši muqam), an unmeasured sung prelude determining the whole concept of
the muqam. After this introduction, some 15 linked sequences follow each other in a progressively
accelerating tempo, passages of song alternating with an instrumental ‘buckle’ (märġul) that is
performed to a faster tempo. The last note of a sequence is the first note of the next sequence.
Musically, this initial section of the muqam is very tightly constructed. The next section takes its name
from the sung passages of which it consists, dastan or ‘stories’. Three or four such movements are
performed, the narratives dealing with historical events or famous love stories. Again, they are
separated from each other by an instrumental ‘buckle’ and the tempo of the sections accelerates
progressively. Each has its own distinctive text, melody and rhythm. Finally, the third section of the
muqam, entitled mäšräp, is entirely danced, and unlike its predecessor it does not alternate between
sung and instrumental passages. After about two hours of uninterrupted music, the repetition of the
‘muqam heading’ marks the end of the suite.
This, in broad outline, is the formal tripartite structure of the 12 muqam peculiar to the Kashgar area.
Comparative analysis of the different forms of muqam found in Xinjiang shows that, depending on the
particular oases of the province, there are three basic forms and four other forms derived from them.
The three basic forms are largely heptatonic (as in Kashgar), pentatonic (as in Qumul) and hexatonic
(as performed by the Dolan). It must also be emphasized that the muqam and indeed Uighur music in
general has a great many rhythmic formulae, with asymmetry and much use of the aqsaq and patterns
combining duple and triple note values.
The other musical genre defined by the Uighurs, folksongs, consists of a body of work that is both
extensive and diverse. Traditionally, it is arranged according to geographical criteria, with places such
as Kashgar, Ili and Khotan having their own repertories. Most of the songs are heptatonic, but they
may be pentatonic (especially in eastern Xinjiang), or they may combine both aspects. They are written
in the modes of C, D, E and G, a preference for certain modes depending on their location of origin.
Like the muqam, the modes are envisaged in the context of the octave rather than the tetrachord or
pentachord (as in Middle Eastern traditions.) There is also much rhythmic similarity between the songs
and the muqam, for instance in the short cycles, the quantitative importance of variations and the
Page 110 of 123

extensive use of asymmetry and syncopation. The organization of the textual form into two or three
quatrains of heptasyllabic or octosyllabic lines naturally goes together with the melodic structure,
which usually consists of four melodic phrases running A-B-C-D. Most subject-matter deals with love in
all its aspects (onset of love, love injured, betrayed, unrequited, past or revived). Some of the songs are
in narrative style, relating a historic incident from the life of the Uighurs or celebrating a hero of the
past.
Like the music itself, Uighur instruments belong to the Irano-Arabo-Turkic world, but they resemble
still more the instruments of the interior of Asia. Examples include long-necked lutes played with or
without a plectrum or bow (dutar, satar, tanbur, rawap), spike fiddles deriving from the Persian
kamānche (ghichak), the wooden-framed long drum with a donkey-skin head (dap), kettledrums
(naġha), the dulcimer with 14 quadruple strings struck by small mallets (čaηŋ), derived from the
Chinese yangqin and/or the Middle Eastern sanṭūr, and less commonly aerophones (the sunay and
baliman).
The musical tradition of the Uighurs has been stressed here, first because it dominates and influences
the traditions of the other ethnic groups of the Turkic branch of the Altaic linguistic family, and second
because the traditions of those other groups differ little (apart from their Uighur borrowings) from the
traditions of members of the same groups living in the Central Asian republics of the former USSR (see
Central Asia). Tajiks living in the same western part of China have some distinctive musical
characteristics, however. Their melodies, mostly sung, are very short and monothematic, with a rapid
tempo and a clear preference for rhythms in 7-time. Note also that they still use the old kind of three-
string plucked lute (setār), on which they play equally old non-chromatic intervals of three-quarter
tones.
The People’s Republic of China, a multi-ethnic state that takes pride in its wealth of diverse traditions,
is also anxious to affirm the existence of a national musical tradition, which involves manufacturing
heavily sinicized versions of the products of other cultures. Only long research in the field will enable
ethnomusicologists to get past such music and claim an acquaintance with the traditional musical
culture of the national minorities.
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D.Y.H. Wu: ‘Chinese Minority Policy and the Meaning of Minority Culture: the Example of the Bai in Yunnan, China’,
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accompanying cassette] (Danbury, 1990)
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musical maintenance among the Dai of Xishuangbanna and in northern Thailand], Zhongyang yinyue xueyuan
xuebao (1991), no.3, 33–7
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yinyue (1993), no.1, 5–8
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H. Rees: A Musical Chameleon: a Chinese Repertoire in Naxi Territory (diss., U. of Pittsburgh, 1994)
Zhang Xingrong: ‘Minzu yishu de liangdian: Diannan 4–8 shengbu fuyin changfa de xin faxian’ [A bright spot of
ethnic art: new discovery of 4–8 part polyphonial singing in southern Yunnan], Yunnan yishu xueyuan xuebao,
(1995), no.2, 11–20
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Yang Mu: ‘Music Loss among Ethnic Minorities in China: a Comparison of the Li and Hui Peoples’, AsM, 27/1 (1995–
6), 103–31
Yang Mu: ‘Erotic Musical Activity in Multiethnic China’, EthM, 42/2 (1998), 199–264
North and West China

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5/1975), 83–194
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(1957), 581–4
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G. Kara: Chants d’un barde mongol (Budapest, 1970)
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415–29
A. Khashimov: ‘Structure du muqam ouïgour et les conditions de sa préservation’, Mâqams, mugams et

composition contemporaine (Tashkent, 1978), 130–38
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classical music of the Uighur people] (Urumqi, 1980)
R. Dor: Chants du toit du monde (Paris, 1982)
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1854]
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S. Zeranska-Kominek and others: ‘Universal Symbols in the Bukharan Shashmaqam’, AsM, 14 (1983), 74–93
T. Levin: The Music and the Tradition of the Bukharan Shashmaqâm in Soviet Uzbekistan (diss., U.
of Princeton, 1984)
Qiuci yuewu bihua [Murals of music and dances from Qiuci], ed. Museum of Xinjiang province (Urumqi,
1984)
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classical music of the Uighurs] (Urumqi, 1985)
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Sichou zhi lu yuewu yishu [The music-and-dance arts of the Silk Road], ed. Xinjiang yishu bianjibu (Urumqi,
1985)
Wan Tongshu: Weiwuer zu yueqi [Musical instruments of the Uighurs] (Urumqi, 1985)
T. Alibakiyeva: Uygurskiye istoricheskiye pensi [Uighur historical songs] (Moscow, 1986)
L. Aubert: ‘La Vièle-cheval et le Luth-singe’, Bulletin du Musée d’ethnographie, 103 (1986), 27–51
Page 113 of 123

Barat Qurban: 12 muqam tekistliri [Texts of the 12 muqam] (Urumqi, 1986)
Wan Tongshu: ‘Yibu youxiu de minzu gudian yinyue shi′er mukamu’ [The 12 muqam, outstanding repertory of
national classical music], Minzu yinyue jiegou yanjiu lunwenji [Collected articles on the structure of folk
music], ed. Zhongyang yinyue xueyuan (Beijing, 1986), 17–25
T. Hoppe: Xinjiang: Arbeitsbibliographie II: Autonomes Gebiet Xinjiang der Uiguren, China
(Naturbedingungen, Geschichte, Ethnien, Landnutzung) (Wiesbaden, 1987)
T. Alibakiyeva: On ikki muqam [The 12 muqam] (Alma Ata, 1988) [in Russian and Uighur]
J. During: La musique traditionnelle del’Azerbayjan et la science des muqams (Baden-Baden, 1988)
Zhou Jingbao: Sichou zhi lu de yinyue wenhua [The musical culture of the Silk Road] (Urumqi, 1988)
A. Jung: Quellen der Traditionellen Kunstmusik der Usbeken und Tadschiken Mittelasiens:
Untersuchungen zur Entstehung und Entwicklung des Šašmaqam (Hamburg, 1989)
J. Spektor: ‘Musical Tradition and Innovation’, Central Asia: 120 Years of Russian Rule, ed. E. Allworth
(Durham, 1989), 434–85
S. Trebinjac: ‘Musique ouïgoure de Chine: de l’authenticité la folklorisation’, Actes du colloque ESCAS III:
L’Asie Centrale et ses voisins: Paris, 1989, 227–38
S. Trebinjac: ‘Que cent chants rivalisent, qu’une musique éclose: étude sur le traditionalisme d’état en Chine’,
Archives européennes de sociologie, 31 (1990), 60–79
J. During and S. Trebinjac: Introduction au muqam ouïgour, Papers on Inner Asia, xvii (Bloomington, IN,
1991)
Liu Guiteng: Dan′gu yinyue yanjiu [Study of dan′gu music] (Shenyang, 1991)
Uyġur kilasik muzikisi: Qumul muqamliri [Uighur classical music: the Qumul maqam] (Beijing, 1994) [in
Uighur and Chinese, incl. 10 cass.]
Uyġur on ikki muqam [The Uighur 12 muqam] (Urumqi, 1994) [in Uighur and Chinese]
T. Hoppe: Die ethnischen Gruppen Xinjiangs: Kulturunterschiede und interethnische

Beziehungen (Hamburg, 1995)
S. Trebinjac: ‘Femme, seule et venue d’ailleurs: trois atouts d’un ethnomusicologue au Turkestan chinois’,
Cahiers de musiques traditionnelles, 8 (1995), 59–68
L. Li: Sacred Vibrations: Study of Manchu Shamanistic Rituals and Ritual Music (diss., U. of Oxford,
1997)
S. Trebinjac: ‘Une utilisation insolite de la musique de l’autre’, Pom pom pom pom: musiques et caetera
(Neuchâtel, 1997)
Zhang Shuxia and Xu Guoqing: ‘Manzu min′gede lishi yuanyuan ji chuantong yindiao tezheng’ [The historical
origin of Manchu folksongs and their traditional tonal features], Yinyue Yanjiu (1997), no.3, 61–8
S. Trebinjac: Le pouvoir en chantant: l’art de fabriquer une musique chinoise (Nanterre, 1998)
Page 114 of 123

Recordings
South China
The JVC Video Anthology of World Music and Dance: East Asia, videotape, VTMV 31–5 (Tokyo, 1988)
Aspects of Chinese Music, Asia Pacific Archive [Wellington] 004 (1991)
Love Songs of the Miao in China, videotape, Film-makers Library (New York, 1992)
A Happy Miao Family, Pan 2023CD (1994)
The Instrument Kingdom in Yunnan, China, videotape, China Musicians’ Audio-Visual Publishing House,
UNESCO/IMC (Beijing, 1994)
Baishibai: Songs of the Minority Nationalities of Yunnan, Pan 2038CD (1995)
Shanying [Mountain Eagle]: Zouchu Daliangshan [Out of the Great Liang mountains], Taipingyang Yingyin
Gongsi cassette P-2522 (n.d.)
Naxi Music from Lijiang: the Dayan Ancient Music Association, Nimbus NI 5510 (1997)
North and West China

Pänjgah muqam [The Pänjgah muqam], Šinjan ün-sin näšriyati (1982)
Dvenadtsat uygurskikh mukamov [The 12 Uighur muqam], Melodia S30–10749–50, 10751–2, 10753–4, 13725–
8, 14847–8, 17657–8, 18301–2, 19825–6 003, 21385 001, 23357 003 (1983–6)
Ajäm muqam, Šinjan ün-sin näšriyati (1986)
Mušawräk muqam, Šinjan ün-sin näšriyati XL-07 (1987)
Nava muqam, Šinjan ün-sin näšriyati (1987)
Özhal muqam, Šinjan ün-sin näšriyati XL-10 (1987)
Turkestan chinois / Xinjiang, musiques ouïgoures, coll. S. Trebinjac and J. During, Ocora C 559092–3
(1990)
Chine, Xinjiang: la route de la soie, coll. A. Bakewell, Playsound PS 65087 (1991)
Instrumental Music of the Uighurs, King Record Co. KICC 5138 (1991)
Vocal Music of the Uighurs, King Record Co. KICC 5139 (1991)
Music of Chinese Minorities, King Record Co. KICC 5142 (1991)
Asie Centrale: les maîtres du dotâr, coll J. During, VDE-Gallo 735 (1993)
Asie Centrale: traditions classiques, coll. J. During and T. Levin, Ocora C 560035–6 (1993)
Musique tadjike du Badakhshan, coll. J. During and S. Trebinjac, Auvidis D 8212 (1993)
Turkestan: komuz kirghize et dombra kazakh, coll. J. During and S. Trebinjac, Ocora C 560121 (1997)
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6. Western-influenced styles.
Almost the whole spectrum of Western music-making is now available to Chinese audiences in
recorded or broadcast form, and live performances range from traditional Irish music to classical piano
recitals and heavy metal concerts. Numerous Chinese soloists, orchestra members and singers have
achieved expertise in the performance of Western music of the ‘common-practice’ period. This section,
however, concentrates on the composition in China of new music drawing on Western idioms. The mass
song tradition and the so-called ‘conservatory style’ of music are discussed here; §(ii) below looks at
popular music genres.
(i) Mass song and conservatory style.

Jonathan P.J. Stock
Throughout the 20th century, Chinese reformists used mass singing as a means of disseminating their
messages. Typically, these songs have a simple and syllabic diatonic or pentatonic, folk-like melody.
Many use march idioms, with triadic fanfare motifs. Singing normally occurred in unison, although
harmonized accompaniments were also provided. A representative example is Biye ge (‘Graduation
Song’), composed in 1934 by Communist musician Nie Er (ex.12).
Ex.12 ‘Graduation Song’ by Nie Er (1934) bars 1-16
Aside from their work in the field of mass songs, 20th-century Chinese composers have rearranged
numerous folksongs for concert performance with instrumental accompaniment. In so doing, the rough
timbres, special temperaments and free rhythms of peasant performance have been replaced by a style
more akin to the aesthetic of Western concert music. Much original vocal music has also been written
in the standard Western idioms, including art songs, cantatas and operas.
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Perhaps the first Western-influenced instrumental genre created by Chinese musicians was that known
initially as ‘national music’ (guoyue). Typical of this repertory are the ten solos for two-string fiddle
erhu composed by Liu Tianhua. These are small-scale, programmatic works, comprising several short,
contrasting sections. Each has an evocative title that sets the mood or action of the piece. Liu drew on
traditional erhu performance technique but extended this through recourse to that of the violin, which
he also played. He also borrowed techniques from other traditional Chinese instruments. Liu’s music
employs aspects of Western tonality and metre, using the march features already noted in Guangming
xing (‘March of Brightness’) of 1931 and compound quadruple time (not normally found in Chinese
traditional music) in Zhuying yaohong (‘The Candle’s Shadow Flickers Red’) of 1932 (ex.13).
Ex.13 ‘The Candle’s Shadow Flickers Red’ for erhu by Liu Tianhua (1932), bars 10-13
Contemporaneous Chinese pieces for Western instruments or solo voice with piano are similar in many
respects to Liu’s compositions. The piano solo Mutong duandi (‘The Cowherd’s Flute’), composed by He
Luting in 1934, for example, shares the pictorial mood, sectional structure, melodic pentatonicisms and
rhythmic flow of most of Liu’s works for erhu. Unlike the monophonic erhu pieces, however, He Luting
interweaves two melodic lines, the lower-pitched of which provides rhythmic drive at the cadence
points of the upper part (ex.14).
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Ex.14 He Luting’s ‘The Cowherd’s Flute’, section 3, bars 1-6
By the late 1930s, certain Chinese composers were beginning to write larger-scale works, for instance
the stirring ‘Yellow River Cantata’ (1939) by Xian Xinghai, better known in the West in its 1969 piano
concerto rearrangement. Xian Xinghai spent his last years in the Soviet Union, where a number of
other Chinese composers also trained. After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in
1949, and until relations soured around 1960, it was common for the best young Chinese composers
and performers to train in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, while scholars from the Eastern bloc
held posts at the Chinese conservatories. These teachers, and the social realist style advocated by Mao
Zedong’s cultural officials, stimulated the composition of numerous colourful works – from overtures to
song-and-dance pageants – celebrating such standard socialist topics as revolutionary heroes, bumper
harvests and rural festivals. Intended to appeal widely to Chinese audiences, these pieces rely mostly
on indigenous folktune melodies (or original imitations of these) and the conventions of the late-
romantic tonal system. In some, pentatonic note-sets are used as the mainstay of the harmonic
accompaniment, often erected on a tonal bass line. A case in point is offered by the lyrical, one-
movement ‘Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto’ (1959) by He Zhanhao and Chen Gang (b 1935) (ex.15).
This composition is nationalistic in that it draws melodic material and its subject from the Yueju
traditional opera of Zhejiang Province. Yet it also satisfied Socialist cultural criteria in that it may be
read as a criticism of the inequities of arranged marriage in pre-Communist China.
Page 118 of 123

Ex.15 ‘Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto’ by He Zhanhao and Chen Gang (1959), bars 12-15
By the mid-1960s, new repertories had been created for numerous traditional Chinese instruments.
Some pieces were derived from folk pieces, in which the yangqin hammered dulcimer provided a
harmonized accompaniment to the carefully arranged theme. Other pieces followed the musical lead of
Liu Tianhua. As many of the instruments were themselves redesigned in factories, composers began to
exploit new technical possibilities, and numerous compositions were written for mixed ensembles and
the orchestra of redesigned Chinese instruments. Examples include the ‘Sanmen Gorge Fantasia’ for
erhu and national orchestra (1960) by Liu Wenjin (b 1937) and the ‘Dance of the Yi People’ for solo pipa
(1960) by Wang Huiran (b 1936). In the main, these pieces share the programmatic nature, sectional
structure and musical language of those for Western instruments.
Almost all these categories of music were banned at the start of the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), and
the music conservatories and many professional performance units were temporarily closed down.
Instead, an emphasis was placed on amateur music making: rather than being performed to by experts,
the masses themselves were to take full part in their own cultural lives. Gradually, however, the
professionals reasserted themselves, and a small number of revolutionary model compositions was
created, for instance a version of the modern-setting Beijing opera Hongdeng ji (‘The Red Lantern’)
Page 119 of 123

with piano accompaniment made in 1968 by pianist Yin Chengzong (b 1941). In terms of musical
language, the model works are similar to the compositions of previous decades: sectional structures,
colourful instrumentation, folk-like themes and pentatonic-flavoured tonality.
Political liberalization from about 1980 allowed the import of foreign scores and recordings, and the
performance of much 20th-century Western music was now permitted. Chinese composers were quick
to seize on the elements of these newly introduced styles; Wang Jianzhong (b 1933), for example, has
engaged with serialism in his ‘Five Pieces for Piano’ (ex.16). As the title of this composition suggests,
there has also been a movement among middle- and younger-generation composers away from the
standard use of programmatic titles and revolutionary themes.
Ex.16 ‘Five Pieces for Piano’, No.1, ‘Pastorale’ by Wang Jianzhong
The last two decades of the 20th century saw an increasing interest among Chinese composers in the
indigenous techniques and timbres of regional folk traditions and historical performance styles. Often,
elements from these are combined with ideas drawn from the international avant garde. Several
composers have sought to recreate the timbres of the seven-string zither qin in their compositions for
Western instruments. In his composition Mong Dong for ensemble of Chinese and Western instruments
(1984), Qu Xiao-song employs (among other effects) the rhythmic permutations of traditional
percussion music – note the pattern of contraction and expansion of rests in the eight-quaver conga
unit – while also imitating the tonal qualities of rural Chinese double-reed and percussion ensembles
(ex.17).
Page 120 of 123

Ex.17 Qu Xiaosong, Mong Dong, (1984), bars 85–92
(ii) Popular music.

Joanna C. Lee
China’s popular music industry began in the late 1920s in Shanghai, a thriving metropolis where
Western powers had established their own settlements and imported Western modes of entertainment.
It was also the centre of China’s growing middle class, to which numerous film and record companies
catered. Dance halls (with salon orchestra) became a mainstay of Shanghai’s night life. The most
prolific composer in the pre-1949 period was Li Jinhui, who organized his own group, the Bright Moon
Song-and-Dance Troupe (Mingyue gewutuan). Li’s song melodies are lyrical, folklike and pentatonic,
set to Western harmonies and orchestrated for jazz band. Zhou Xuan (1918–57) was the most
prominent singer and film actress of the 1930s, well known for her romantic ballads about urban life,
such as Ye Shanghai (‘A Night in Shanghai’) and Tianya genü (‘Wandering Songstress’), the latter sung
by her in the film Malu tianshi (‘Street Angels’, 1937).
Shanghai’s popular music was banned by the Communist government in 1949 as bourgeois, decadent
and pornographic (‘yellow’). Soviet-style revolutionary songs were used as propaganda and in mass
rallies in the ensuing years. During the Cultural Revolution, the only mass music available to the
people were the eight revolutionary model operas and songs quoting the words of Mao Zedong.
Page 121 of 123

As China opened its door in 1978, Taiwanese singer Deng Lijun (Teresa Teng) achieved tremendous
popularity, although her music was officially banned. Her recordings were disseminated through
private copies of cassettes and made their way into the black-market. Produced in Taiwan and Hong
Kong, Deng’s lyrical ballads (sung in the Mandarin dialect) followed the tradition of Zhou Xuan and
were influenced by contemporary Japanese popular music. Deng’s soundtracks were characterized by
synthesizers, strings and soothing rhythm machines, sometimes supplemented by Chinese instruments.
The Communist government also marketed its own tongsu yinyue (popular music), the subject-matter
of which conformed with the socialist agenda, performed by government-sponsored song-and-dance
troupes (gewutuan) and broadcast on television and radio. Xibeifeng (‘North-west wind’), folksongs
accompanied by disco beat, became a prominent tongsu style in the mid-1980s.
The open-door policy also brought Western rock music into China. Universities became centres where
foreign students’ musical tastes helped shape youth culture. Started by Western expatriates living in
major cities, band-playing became a vogue. Yaogun yinyue (rock and roll music) belonged to an
underground culture, and rock musicians performed only in privately owned bars and clubs, not in
government stadiums or municipal halls. Although cut off from national television and radio networks,
yaogun yinyue reached urban and rural youths nationwide via cassette tapes.
The first prominent Chinese rock singer, Cui Jian, synthesized a new Chinese rock music with a coarse
vocal delivery and socio-political lyrics. Cui’s international fame began in 1989, when his Yiwusuoyou
(‘Nothing to my Name’) became the unofficial anthem of the Beijing student movement. Numerous
bands have emulated Cui, among them Heibao (‘Black Panther’), Cobra and Tangchao (‘Tang Dynasty’).
By the mid-1990s, popular music consumption in China manifested itself in many forms. Audio and
video recordings of yaogun and tongsu music, Hong Kong’s Cantopop and Taiwanese pop (in Mandarin
dialect, but stylistically Cantopop), known collectively as Gangtai (Xiang gang-Taiwan) music, were
widely available (see Hong Kong, §2; Taiwan, §5). Karaoke bars also offered the entire gamut, even
English and American popular songs of the 1970s and 80s. Television stations broadcast much
indigenous and Gangtai popular music (except yaogun) in their daily shows. ‘Yellow music’, banned by
the Communists since 1949, was reclaimed as part of the Chinese consumer culture of the 1990s, as
the government loosened its grip in controlling the availability and accessibility of popular
entertainment.
Bibliography
AND OTHER RESOURCES
For Bibliography, see §II above.
Recordings
Mass song and conservatory style

Phases of the Moon: Traditional Chinese Music, Columbia CBS 74038 (1981) [Music for Chinese national
orchestra]
Luo Jingjing: Piano Concerto etc., Hong Kong Records HK 6.340161 (1983)
Page 122 of 123

Ding Shande: Long March Symphony etc., Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Yoshikazu Fukumura, cond.,
Hong Kong Records HK 6.240187/88 (1984)
The Dream of Heaven: New Piano Music from China, Chong Liang, piano, Wergo WR 60138-50 (1988)
Drums: Chinese Percussion Music, Li Minxiong and An Zhishun, arr., Shanghai Conservatory Traditional
Orchestra, Xia Feiyun, cond., Hugo HRP 719-2 (1990)
Yellow River: Instrumental Music of China [Modern ensembles and solos], Auvidis B6757 (1991)
Wu Man: Chinese Music for the Pipa, Nimbus NI 5368 (1993)
Popular music
Teresa Teng: Greatest Hits, 3, Polygram 3199–321 (1982)
Yiwusuoyou [Nothing to my name], perf. Cui Jian, EMI CDFH-50037 (1989)
Heibao [Black panther], Kinn’s Management KM91-2-02 (1991)
Ye Shanghai [A night in Shanghai], perf. Zhou Xuan and others, EMI 0777 7 7 8235 21 (1992)
Hongqi xia de dan/Balls under the Red Flag, perf. Cui Jian, EMI 7 2438 30801 4 4 (1994)
Yan jing she [Cobra], Jindie JH-1245 (1996)
More on this topic

China (opera) <http://oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/
9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-5000006216> in Oxford Music Online <http://
oxfordmusiconline.com>
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China, People’s Republic of (Chin.

Zhonghua renmin gonghe

Updated in this version

I. Introduction: historical, regional and study perspectives

(i) Central Plain.

(ii) The north-west and central interior.

Predominant among the instrumental ensemble traditions is sizhu (‘silk-and-bamboo’), a type of

(iv) Sichuan basin.

(v) The south-east coast.

(vi) Cantonese region.

2. Minority regions and genres.

(i) The north-east and Inner Mongolia.

(ii) The far west.

(iii) The south-west and Tibet.

3. Sources and perspectives.

(i) The imperial period.

(ii) The modern period.

General histories and perspectives

Qiao Jianzhong: Tudi yu ge [Land and song] (Ji′nan, 1998)

Dictionaries and other research tools

F. Lieberman: Chinese Music: an Annotated Bibliography (New York, 2/1979)

II. History and theory

2. Antiquity to the Warring States period (to 221 BCE).

Music Research Institute, Beijing

3. Qin to Tang dynasties (221 BCE–907 CE).

Music Research Institute, Beijing

4. Song to Yuan dynasties (960–1368).

Music Research Institute, Beijing

5. Ming to Qing dynasties (1368–1911).

Music Research Institute, Beijing

Music Research Institute, Beijing

Music Research Institute, Beijing

General (see also §I, bibliography)

W. Kaufmann: Musical Notations of the Orient (Bloomington, IN, 1967)

Ren Erbei, ed.: You yu ji [Collected anecdotes on actors] (Shanghai, 1981)

Qin to Tang dynasties

E. Schafer: The Golden Peaches of Samarkand (Berkeley, 1963)

A. Birrell: New Songs from a Jade Terrace (London, 1982/R)

Ren Bantang: Tang shengshi [Tang sung poetry] (Shanghai, 1982)

Ren Bantang: Tang xinong [Tang plays] (Shanghai, 1984)

Qiu Xiongsun: Yanyue tanwei [Study of entertainment music] (Shanghai, 1989)

Song to Qing dynasties

H.K. Joseph: ‘The Chanda’, T’oung Pao, 62 (1976), 167–98

Confucian court and ritual music

Grove6 (China §VI, Since 1949; A.C. Scott)

A. Tcherepnine: ‘Music in Modern China’, MQ, 21 (1935), 391–400

C.P. Mackerras: The Performing Arts in Contemporary China (London, 1981)

D. Holm: Art and Ideology in Revolutionary China (Oxford, 1991)

Avant-garde and pop music

AsM, 22/2 (1991) [complete issue on Chinese popular music]

III. Musical instruments

1. Ancient instruments: the archaeological finds.

(i) Early plucked string instruments.

(ii) Wind instruments.

(v) Small bells and cymbals.

(vii) Later string instruments.

(viii) 20th-century developments.

Erya [Refined definitions] (c3rd century BCE)