Historical Background of Ancient Music

In ancient China, "poetry" was indistinguishable from literature and music. The poems in the earliest surviving collection of Chinese poetry, the Shijing (Classic of Poetry), were all set to tunes and sung orally by the people. This tradition has continued, for example, the official poetry collection of the Han Dynasty was called Han Lefu, and Tang poems and Song lyrics could be sung at that time. Even today, there are popular musicians who compose and sing ancient poems, such as Su Shi's "Song of Water" and Li Bai's "Silent Night Thoughts," which describe the mid-autumn festival.

Musicians were treated with contempt in ancient China, unlike painters, who belonged to the literati class and could even be "examined by their paintings" during the Song dynasty (in fact, because of Emperor Huizong's personal love of painting), because of the close connection between Chinese painting and calligraphy. The status of musicians is lower, only for the entertainment of the nobility "actor". Li Guinian, a famous singer in the Tang Dynasty, had no political status, and is now known because he is often praised in Tang poetry.

The "scholarly" class in ancient China believed that a cultivated person should be proficient in "qin, chess, calligraphy and painting", and the so-called "qin" was the ancient zither, which has been handed down to the present day. However, the guqin was only enjoyed by the scholarly class and could not be performed to the public. The guqin was the only instrument of high status with a low volume.

The development of music theory in ancient China was slow, and its status in the "official history" was not high enough to leave more written information. But music, like literature, was a compulsory subject for the ancient intellectual class, and undoubtedly played an important role in the daily life of ancient Chinese; folk music was full of colorful melodies.