Eight tones: the general name of ancient musical instruments in China. It refers to gold, stone, earth, leather, silk, wood, bamboo and bamboo.

Eight tones are traditional instrumental music and percussion music in China. This is the earliest scientific classification of musical instruments in the history of China. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, the musical instruments at that time were divided into gold (bell, hairpin), stone (chime), silk (harp, harp), bamboo (flute, reed), reed (sheng, reed) and earth.

Eight tones also refer to folk musical instruments. For example, the musical instruments used in the Eight Music Clubhouse in Wutai Mountain, Shanxi Province, include pipes, suona, sea flute, sheng, Xiao, Tang drum, small drum, large cymbals, big gongs and cloud gongs. Guangxi Zhuang Longlin Bayin Band uses eight musical instruments: a pair of flutes (flutes), a Gao Hu and an erhu, a small sanxian, a gong, a drum and a cymbal. Nanning Yongning Zhuang Eight Tones are mainly composed of big suona, small suona, five-hole flute, gong, drum, cymbal and Zhuang music drum. Hainan Eight Tones, which is popular in Hainan, originated from Chaozhou music and got its name because of using eight musical instruments, namely: stringed instruments (erhu, coconut palm), harp (Qin Yue, dulcimer and sanxian), flute (suona), pipe (long and short throat), flute (horizontal flute, straight flute and cave flute), gong, drum and flute. The musical instruments used in Yi people's eight tones are erhu, flute (without membrane), horn whiskers, five cymbals (small gongs), drums and cymbals. The eight tones of the Gelao nationality, also known as the Eight Immortals, are played by erhu, a pair of flutes and five cymbals, gongs, drums and cymbals.