英语论文 中国传统乐器.doc

The Traditional Chinese Culturethe traditional Chinese musical instrumentsAbstract: With several thousands years of development and transmission of Chinese culture, the traditional Chinese musical instruments have formed its own characteristic and style. And every stage has its special instruments; every musical instrument has its own difference. Since ancient times Chinese emphasized music, and regarded it as a way to rule people. It was always connected with feudal ethical code. So this made music an important part in Chinas history. China has been a developed country in instrumental art since ancient times. Chinas musical instrument history consists of four stages of development. The first stage is ancient times (B.C6000B.C1711). According to unearthed objects presented, wind instruments appearance is the earliest such as the bone flutes which were excavated from Neolithic ruins in Wuyang County, Henan Province and Xun. The bone flute which was regarded as the originator of flute was made from animal bones on which regular round holes were drilled. And Xun is an egg-shaped wind instrument, in the beginning it was made from stone or bone, afterward turned clay. Xun was used to begin music in the Confucian shrine ceremony and after Qin and Han Dynasty mainly used in the ancient court music. Its tone color is deep and resonant. Allegedly its originated from the labor and activities of the Han Chinese ancestors, at first maybe in order to hunt birds and animals the ancestors imitated their sounds, along with the social progress it evolved into simple musical instrument, gradually added the number of holes, and developed into a musical instrument.The second stage is pre-qin period (B.C711B.C256). This is the first peak of the development of Chinas musical instrument history, in this period eight categories which were used to classify musical instruments by materials were settled, eight categories include silk, bamboo, wood, metal, clay, gourd, hide, and stone. And percussion instruments started to flourish, now the most influential percussion instrument is the chimes of marquis yi of zeng. These chimes showed our achievement in casting technique of bronze, and more showed the level of ancient China temperament. In the meantime Guqin arose, soon it became an important solo instrument. In the ancient Guqin is the special items of literati, before play it, literati often took a bath to show their respect, and during the time they must keep solemn and peaceful on the purpose of molding their nature and even feeling the lives. Guqin is one of the oldest plucked instruments, its shape is simple but tone color is tactful and has strong penetrating power, its embowed surface symbolizes heavens, and flat bottom symbolizes earth, it means hemispherical dome.The third stage is Qin Dynasty to Tang Dynasty(B.C221A.D960), this is the heyday of the development of Chinas musical instruments, as Chinese and foreign culture exchanged frequently, lots of foreign musical instruments were introduced into China, plucked instruments reached its unprecedented development and prosperity. Tang Dynasty is the highest peak in the development of Chinas musical instruments, tablature appeared, and it made Guqin music preserved. Bowed instruments turned up among common people, and the lute is the most important instrument in Tang Dynasty, this could be judged from poems written by poets in Tang Dynasty, like “Only after our repeated calls did she appear, her face was still half hidden behind a pipa lute(千呼万唤始出来，犹抱琵琶半遮面)”and so on. It played an important role in the development of Tangs sing and dance art, later Chinese pipa was introduced into Japan, North korea and Vietnam. Guqin could express a placid and fine taste and a bold and unconstrained spirit.The forth stage is Song Dynasty to Qing Dynasty (A.D960A.D1840), bowed instruments widespread use and propagation promoted the progress of drama and rap music. Guqin was divided into many schools, suona and gongs appeared in Yuan Dynasty, and court music was gradually depressed, folk music started to be popular. In this period bowed instruments developed very speedy and well, over a hundred years it formed a huge system including erhu, banhu(板胡), jinghu（京胡）, gaohu（高胡）and lots of bowed instruments, they constituted “huqin family” of Chinese traditional music. Erhu is the most popular and representative bowed instrument, its tone color is hard and soft, it plays not only soft and smooth songs but also strong and leaping songs as a solo or accompaniment instrument. Jinghu is played only in the accompaniment for Peking opera; its tone color is clear and loud. It is said that bowed instruments evolved from plucked instruments, as an important symbol, the characteristic that Chinese bowed instruments placed bow between two strings is different from other countries bowed instruments. Nowadays more and more people start to learn piano, guitar or other western musical