ABSTRACT
The history of Chinese music is a long and obscure one and the earliest records of it are very scanty or have been lost altogether. There have been many developments due either to the various alien races who invaded China during her long history or her own conquests of foreign territory and relations with other Asian people. Music in China has at all times been associated with ritual and ceremonial observances besides being regarded a necessary factor in the education of the community. The I li, or Book of Etiquette, describes music as one of the six arts necessary in the accomplishments of the scholar. It is not the purpose of this chapter to deal with musical history in any detail, but only with the practical aspect of it in its relation to the ching hsi stage. An important thing to bear in mind is that verse and declamation have always been closely related with Chinese music, whose instruments have in general been conceived to accompany the spoken word rather than to perform solo functions.
