Introduction to the everchanging Chinese music

The everchanging Chinese music has experienced different periods and has various forms, which are Primitive Music,Shang Dynasty Music,Rites & Music of Zhou Dynasty,Music Conservatory ,Sui & Tang Dynasty Music,Daqu of Tang Dynasty,Quzi, Zaju & Southern Opera and Recital & Singing.

Primitive Music & Dancing
Primitive music was inseparably connected with dancing. This is probably a phenomenon which has occurred in the histories of all the peoples of the world, and China is no exception. In primitive times, music and dancing were not objects of division of labor, and there was no specialized class of musicians. Music and dancing were activities involving the whole of tribal society. As a consequence, there were no were no special features or identity for artistic forms, independent of society.

Shang Dynasty Music & Dancing
The people of Shang used to communicate with the gods by mean of music, and sing fervently to make the gods hear them. Music and dancing were important means of offering tribute, serving and entertaining the gods, as well as a channel linking the gods and men.

Rites & Music of Zhou Dynasty
The Zhou Dynasty was the first dynasty to lay down rules of "rites" (sacrificial ceremonies, court protocol, etc.) and "music" (music and dancing which accompanied ceremony). Tradition has it that these rules were promulgated by the first great ruler of the dynasty, the Duke of Zhou. The system of rites and music endured for the following 2,000 years and more, until it was abolished with the end of the Qing Dynasty, China's last feudal dynasty.

Music Conservatory
In the reign of Emperor Wu of Han (140-87 BC) , the Music Conservatory was given a great deal of attention, and its work flourished. It collected folk songs from a wide area of China, including Zhao, Dai, Qin and Chu (corresponding to the modern Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces).

Sui & Tang Dynasty Music
The ones which had a fairly great influence on later generations were the crooked-necked pipa and the bili, and the percussion instruments clappers, gongs and cymbals. As far as musical influences are concerned, the music of Koryo in the east, of the kingdoms of Qiuci, Shule and An in the west and of India in the south first flowed into northern China.

Daqu of Tang Dynasty
The form of Daqu which developed during the Tang Dynasty, combining instrumental music, singing and dancing, was a comparatively sophisticated artistic achievement which was clearly inseparably linked to musical exchanges with other nationalities, and was certainly not a result of the natural development of Han and Wei Daqu.

Quzi
A new type of folksong which flourished in Sui and Tang times is called "quzi". It included songs from other nationalities as well as the Han. Later musicians created works based on this genre. Over 500 such songs have been excavated from Dunhuang alone, and the titles of 70 or 80 others have been found there.

Zaju & Southern Opera
Zaju first appeared in the Tang Dynasty. The term is similar in meaning to the Baixi of the Han Dynasty, and both refer to all types of performances apart from singing and dancing. "Za" means a variety, and bai means a lot. Xi and ju mean something like vaudeville different from their modern meaning of the theater.

Recital & Singing
The Ming and Qing dynasties saw an increasingly rich crop of dramatic recital and singing, and music, these being the two main forms of theatrical technique. The recital and singing part mainly consisted of southern tanci (storytelling to the accompaniment of stringed instruments) and northern guci (later called dagu), together with Paizi tunes fashionable in both the north and the south.

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