AFlower Moon Night on Spring River puts the listener in a happy mood, asthough he were looking at a graceful Oriental landscape painting; MoonfulAutumn makes one feel the inner sorrow of a bleak autumn day; AmbushedFrom Ten Sides deposits the listener on a thunderous ancient battleground;All the World Rejoices stirs up a joy of celebration in whoever happensto get caught up in its festive rhythms. These are famous examples of traditionalChinese musical compositions, all of which can transport the listener intoa whole new sensory world.

" Chinese music is built on a totally consistentharmonic system which controls melodic  progression, orchestration,and temperament use. It is perhaps the only major musical system in the world that has such all-encompassing requirements on all aspectsof its music, and at the same time allowing the largest flexibility inthe acceptance of harmonic intervals into music."
---  Chinese Music Society of NorthAmerica

Theorigins of Chinese music can be traced back to distant antiquity. Around3,400 years ago, when European music was just experiencing its first rustlingsof life, a complete musical theory and sophisticated musical instrumentsbegan appearing in Shang Dynasty China, owing largely to the orthodox ritualmusic advocated by Confucius. By the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.), theimperial court set up a Music Bureau, which was in charge of collectingand editing ancient tunes and folk songs.

Though remarkable for its stability, themusic of China has not been stagnant and has all the variety and richnessto be expected in the art of a vast, ancient, and populous land.

Theimportance of Chinese music extends beyond China's national borders. Thepresence of Chinese musical instruments, as well as repertoire and stylecharacteristics, is conspicuous in Korea, Japan, and throughout SoutheastAsia.

At the same time, because of commercialcontacts with Central Asia, foreign music entered China in the form, forexample, of the pipa , or lute, and the huqing , a vertically-held violin.Influenced by this foreign-originating music, composers of the time modifiedand improved Chinese music.

Chinese melody is ordinarily based on a5-tone (pentatonic) scale, although additional pitches can be introduced.Expressiveness, however, is often less a function of melodic patterns thanof the individual note, which carries cosmological connotations. This emphasison the single tone raises timbre to a position of enormous importance,and Chinese musicians have employed with immense skill the range of coloristicpossibilities afforded by their instruments and voices.

Aswith the tradition of Ba Gua (as with Eight Diagram of Daoism,, traditionalChinese music instrument would be made of mainly eight materials: skin(drum), gourd (sheng), bamboo (flute), wood (clapper), silk (Gu Zheng),earth/clay (xun), metal (gong) and stone (Qing - ch'ing).

Instrument would be used at different occasionsand seasons as it is held that music shall not be for shallow enjoyment,but serving as a link between people and nature.

Musicalinstruments are first described in the great classics that document thehistory of China's kingdoms before the 2d century BC. The Book of Odes(Shi Jing) compiled song texts from periods as early as the 10th centuryBC. These describe the use of instruments in ritual entertainment. Themost frequently mentioned are drums (skin), bells (metal), flutes (bamboo),and mouth organs (earth/clay). The following instruments are those mostprominent contemporary usage or are of historical interest.

Percussion
         Qing
         The Qing (ch'ing), tuned sonorous stone chimes of the Zhou (Chou) era,has been retained today for
         use in Confucian ceremonies.

         Tong Gu
         Tong Gu is a large barrel-shaped bronze gong. Originally a ritual instrumentof southeast Asia, it was
         introduced to China during the Han dynasty's military expeditions. It isremarkable for its metal
         workmanship and ornamentation. Today, gongs (luo) and cymbals (bo) in avariety of sizes are used
         in Taoist ceremonies as well as in opera.

         Ban
         Ban is a rectangular wood clappers. In Buddhist ceremonies the Muyu ("Chinesetemple block"), a
         slit-gong of camphor wood in a symbolic carving of a fish, is used forsetting the musical pulse.

The generic term for drum is Gu, of whichdiverse types abound. Drums are used in folk music, religious functions,opera, and in a variety of ensembles for entertainment. The skins are generallynailed to the wood shell and are commonly played with sticks. Some well-knowntypes are the huagu, the flat-shaped "flower drum" used by northern balladsingers, the ubiquitous dagu, or "great drum," a barrel-shaped double-headedinstrument, and the banggu, a single-headed opera drum with a small resonantsurface producing a piercing "dry" sound.

Wind
Flute:
The flutes made of bamboo have remainedas simple in construction as they were in ancient China.

Xiao:
The end-blown xiao has a gentle qualityand is appropriate for small ensembles.

Di:
The transverse flute Di (side-blown reed-membraneflute) produces amore assertive tone and a wide range of expressive effects.A rice-paper covered hole next to the mouthpiece gives the Di a "buzzing"timbre.

         Sheng:
         Sheng is a free-reed mouth organ. It survives in very limited usage forsecular and Confucian music,
         yet provides a unique chordal sound texture.

         String Instrument
         Pipa:
         A shallow pear-shaped body. (Grand lute)
         Yueqin:
         Called the "moon guitar", with a circular body.
         San xian:
         A long neck with a small snakeskin-covered resonator.
         Huqin:
         Huqin is a representative of bowed string instrument. Also in this familythere are Banhu (high-register
         wood fiddle), Erhu (the most popular Chinese vertical fiddle), Gaohu (high-registervertical skin
         fiddle), Jinghu, Dijin, Nanhu, Erxian, Yehu and Matou Jin. They all havea string-bearing neck that
         projects through a small resonator and a bow, the hair of which passesbetween the two strings.