What did China call music in ancient times?

During the Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty set up a music management organization-Yuefu, which was engaged in the collection and collation of folk songs. Songs that enter music are called "Yuefu Poems" or "Yuefu". These Yuefu folk songs mainly describe people's sufferings, directly express people's love and hate, and expose various contradictions in feudal society.

Folk songs in this period have developed into long and short sentences, five-character and seven-character styles in form, and they have been accompanied by musical instruments. The appearance of long narrative songs such as Peacock Flying Southeast indicates the continuous development and maturity of folk songs in this period.

Extended data

Religious music period

Classical music in Europe developed in the Elizabethan period in the Middle Ages, and the music in this period was mainly Gregory religious music.

At that time, people's worship and belief in Christianity were completely different. In medieval Europe, the power of the church was higher than that of the state and all social conditions, and religion directly influenced politics and music. So the music at that time was purely for religious purposes, and it was sung in the church without instrumental accompaniment, but the music of this period played a very important role in the later music development.

China Net-Folk Songs