Musician Wang Guangqi divided the world folk music into several major systems of oriental folk music.

As early as1920s, Wang Guangqi (189 1 ~ 1936), an outstanding musician in China, put forward the concept of music system. In his book Music of Oriental Nationalities, he creatively classified and divided the music of many nationalities in the world into three systems based on the analysis of musical forms, namely "China". On the basis of the theories of 1960s and 1980s, Du Fu, a contemporary ethnomusicologist, put forward such theories as "China Music System", "European Music System" and "Persian-Arabic Music System". In the book Traditional Music of Ethnic Minorities in China published in 200 1, ethnomusicologist Tian Liantao (editor-in-chief of the book) synthesized the research results of Wang and Du, and added new contents, and proposed to summarize the music systems of all ethnic groups in the world with the names of "East Asian Music Department", "European Music Department" and "Persian Arabic Music Department". At the same time, it is believed that "Persian Arabic Music Department" may be replaced by "West Asia North Africa Music Department". This book thinks that Professor Tian Liantao's induction and expression of the world folk music system is of great significance, and that West Asia and North Africa are the same concepts as East Asia and Europe, which coincides with the traditional Islamic world. Therefore, it tends to agree to name the three major music systems as East Asian Music System, European Music System and West Asia and North Africa Music System.

Wang Guangqi