Chinese music in the context of "Languages of China"

Chinese culture (simplified Chinese: 中华文化; traditional Chinese: 中華文化; pinyin: Zhōnghuá wénhuà) is one of the world's earliest cultures, said to originate five thousand years ago. The culture prevails across a large geographical region in East Asia called the Sinosphere as a whole and is extremely diverse, with customs and traditions varying greatly between regions. The terms 'China' and the geographical landmass of 'China' have shifted across the centuries, before the name 'China' became commonplace. Chinese civilization is historically considered a dominant culture of East Asia. Chinese culture exerted profound influence on the philosophy, customs, politics, and traditions of Asia. Chinese characters, ceramics, architecture, music, dance, literature, martial arts, cuisine, arts, philosophy, etiquette, religion, politics, and history have had global influence, while its traditions and festivals are celebrated, instilled, and practiced by people around the world.

The Chinese ritual music is the music used in the rituals of traditional Chinese religion. It is also described as the ritual and music system (Chinese: 礼乐制度; pinyin: Lǐ yuè zhìdù) because of its perceived importance in Chinese culture since the Zhou dynasty— particularly within Confucianism—to establishing and maintaining social order. Together with the patriarchal system, it constituted the social system of the entire ancient China and had a great influence on the politics, culture, art and thought of later generations. The feudal system and the Well-field system were two other institutions that developed at that time. According to legend it was founded by the Duke of Zhou and King Wu of Zhou.

The Ritual Music System is divided into two parts: ritual and music. The part of ritual mainly divides people's identity and social norms, and finally forms a hierarchy. The music part is mainly based on the hierarchical system of etiquette, using music to alleviate social conflicts.

Tang dynasty art (simplified Chinese: 唐朝艺术; traditional Chinese: 唐朝藝術) refers to Chinese art created during the Tang dynasty (618–907). The period saw significant advancements in arts such as painting, sculpture, calligraphy, music, dance, and literature. During the Tang dynasty, the capital city Chang'an (today's Xi'an), was the most populous city in the known world, and the era is generally regarded by historians as a high point in Chinese civilization and a golden age of Chinese literature and art.

In several areas developments during the Tang set the direction for many centuries to come. This was especially so in pottery, with glazed plain wares in celadon green and whitish porcelaineous types brought to a high level, and exported on a considerable scale. In painting, the period saw the peak level of Buddhist painting, and the emergence of the landscape painting tradition known as shanshui (mountain-water) painting.

Huqin (Chinese: 胡琴; pinyin: húqin) is a family of bowed string instruments, more specifically, a spike fiddle popularly used in Chinese music. The instruments consist of a round, hexagonal, or octagonal sound box at the bottom with a neck attached that protrudes upwards. They also usually have two strings, and their soundboxes are typically covered with either snakeskin (most often python) or thin wood. Huqin instruments usually have two tuning pegs, one peg for each string. The pegs are attached horizontally through holes drilled in the instrument's neck. Most huqin have the bow hair pass in between the strings. Exceptions to having two strings and pegs include variations of huqin with three, four, and sometimes even more than five. These include the zhuihu, a three stringed huqin, the sihu, a huqin of Mongolian origin, and the sanhu, a lesser-known three-stringed variation.

The most common huqin are the erhu, which is tuned to a middle range; zhonghu, which is tuned to a lower register, and gaohu, which is tuned to a higher pitch. The lowest pitched huqins include the dahu and gehu. The highest pitched huqin is the jinghu, used in the Beijing opera. Over eighty types of huqin instruments have been documented.