Music in the Han Dynasty

During the Qin dynasty (221–206 B.C.), the emperor Qin Shihuang had ordered the burning of Chinese musical instruments and writings because he considered them superfluous to Chinese culture. Emperors and musicians of the Han dynasty (206 B.C.–220 A.D.) wished to reconstruct this older music and endeavored to readapt Confucian thought, which considered music an intellectual pursuit. In addition, the Yuefu (Office of Music) was established to collect the folk music of China and its surrounding cultures. This office remained in operation until 1914, and during the Han dynasty employed as many as 829 people in three orchestras. One of the lasting achievements of this appropriation of folk music into court life is the guchui (drum) and wind music. This genre is believed to be a combination of northwestern non-Han Chinese and Central Asian music. In both court and folk settings, guchui music has a ritual context, and its influence can still be felt in China today, particularly in rural areas.

Two musical instruments that appear in Han China and are still used today are the pipa, a type of lute from Central Asia, and the sheng, a kind of mouth organ. The type of pipa that became the most prominent has a bent neck, a tear-shaped body, four strings, traditionally of silk but now often nylon, and four frets. The sheng has a bowl-shaped body with a mouthpiece and seventeen bamboo reeds. In addition to the drums, chimes, and bells used in China since Neolithic times, horns, transverse flutes, and reed instruments were also added to court, ritual, and military ensembles. The qin, a seven-stringed zither whose music was closely linked to Confucian principles, began its rise as the most prominent Chinese instrument at this time.

Although extant documents describe the musical practices of the Han dynasty, no written music has survived.