How did national musical instruments first come into being? What are the legends?

China national musical instruments have a long history. Only unearthed cultural relics can prove that there were various musical instruments as early as the pre-Qin period. For example, the bone whistle unearthed in Hemudu, Zhejiang, the tomb unearthed in Xi 'an banpo village, Yangshao cultural site, the stone chime and wooden python drum unearthed in Yinxu, Anyang, Henan; Chimes, bells, hanging drums, drums, flutes, sheng, Zuo and harp unearthed from the tomb of Zeng Houyi in Sui County, Hubei Province (buried in 433 BC). These ancient musical instruments show people the wisdom and creativity of the Chinese nation.

Ancient musical instruments generally have dual functions-expressiveness and practicality. In other words, these musical instruments are not only tools to express music, but also tools for labor production or daily necessities. For example, in Lu Chunqiu's Ancient Music, it is recorded: "Emperor Yao Li takes life as his pleasure. The essence is to play the voice of the valley to make songs, but to beat drums with elk skin and hit stones like the sound of jade, so that all animals can dance together. " In this paper, the drum is made of the skin of elk, which is a living container. "Stone-beating" is a primitive dance in which ancestors beat hunting stone tools into sounds and accompanied hundreds of animals. "Biography of Yang Hanyun": "After drinking, my ears are hot, my face is swollen, and I can't cry." This record describes people's great interest after drinking, knocking on wine containers and singing to the sky at the same time. The ancient stone chimes may have originated from some kind of flaky stone tools. It is conceivable that in the long-term labor process, the ancestors gradually discovered that some stone tools can make sounds and can be used as musical instruments, so they invented Qing.

The practicality of musical instruments lies not only in the fact that some musical instruments are tools of production or life, but also in the fact that people use them to convey some specific life information. For example, beating drums to go out, ringing gold to close the array, beating drums in the morning and evening, ringing bells at night, beating gongs to clear the way, beating drums to enter the hall and so on. In China, some ethnic minorities still retain the message of love by playing the string, and the string has become a tool and token to express love.

The development of musical instruments is closely related to the development and improvement of social productive forces. It is impossible for stone chimes to evolve into metal chimes and metal bells to appear in the Stone Age, and it was only when human beings mastered high smelting technology that they appeared. Only the invention and development of sericulture and silk reeling industry can produce "silk attached to wood" Qin, Qin and Zheng.

There are nearly 70 kinds of pre-Qin musical instruments recorded in the literature. There are 29 kinds of percussion instruments mentioned in the Book of Songs alone, including drums, bells, cymbals, chimes and chimes. 6 kinds of wind instruments such as Xiao, Guan and Sheng and 2 kinds of stringed instruments such as Qin and Qin. Due to the large increase of musical instruments, in the Zhou Dynasty, according to the different materials used to make musical instruments, they were divided into eight categories: gold, stone, earth, leather, silk, wood and bamboo, which is the so-called "eight-tone" classification.

In the underground music hall of Zeng Houyi's tomb in Suixian County, Hubei Province, 124 ancient musical instruments were preserved. Whether it's a musical instrument giant weighing more than 5,000 kilograms-64 chimes, or beautifully shaped, produced and painted drums, flutes, sheng and harp, it reveals to us the highly developed musical culture in China during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and it is a witness to the brilliant creation of ancient musical instruments in China.

Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, new musical instruments have appeared constantly. For example, a new type of stringed instrument appeared in the Qin dynasty-"people play the strings while playing drums." Fairy is a round speaker, a pipa with a straight handle. Later, it developed into the "Han Pipa" with four strings and twelve columns in the Han Dynasty, also known as "Ruan Xian".

The Chinese nation is a nation that is good at absorbing. Since the Han Dynasty, it has absorbed a large number of foreign musical instruments. For example, when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (KLOC-0/40-87 BC) introduced Zhang Qian to the Western Regions, it was called the flute. During the reign of Emperor Ling of Han Dynasty, a vertical basket was introduced (once called Hu basket; In the Eastern Jin Dynasty around 350 AD, Quxiang Pipa was introduced from Xinjiang and Gansu, and dulcimer and suona were introduced in the Ming Dynasty. These foreign musical instruments, after continuous improvement, have gradually become an important member of the national musical instrument family in China.

In the development history of Chinese musical instruments, it is worth noting that stringed instruments appeared much later than percussion instruments, wind instruments and stringed instruments. According to the literature, it was only in the Tang Dynasty (AD 6 18-907) that "winding Zheng" and "Xiqin" (Qin Qin in Song Dynasty) made of bamboo sheets appeared. In the Song Dynasty, the name "Huqin" appeared when playing the piano with a ponytail bow. For example, Song Shen Kuo said in "Talk about Meng Xi": "Ponytails and cars with the Han Dynasty are like complaints." Since the Yuan Dynasty, various types of stringed instruments have been developed on the basis of Xi Qin and Hu Qin.