China music has a long history. Fossils of the ancient ape discovered by Yunnan Yuan-Mou show that the ancient human beings had been working, living and breeding in China's land from about 1 million years ago. When the earliest humans began to produce primitive tools and collective labor, the original music began to sprout in the rhythm of their labor calls. In ancient literature about the legends of ancient Chinese songs, can be roughly divided into two categories: a class of accompanied in somebody’s name, such as the joy of Yin Kang, the joy of the Jain's, etc; The other is the ancient music of the emperors, such as Huang Di, Zhuan Xu, Emperor shun and Xia Yu.

We share some Chinese Hit Songs  last time if you like it you can visit it and enjoy it.

The Ingenious Song：High Mountains And Running Water

The High Mountains And Running Water is one of the top ten ancient Chinese songs. It is just an allusion which was first seen in "Lie Zi Tang Wen". The story gradually developed more than seventy typical music and swells in the practice.

Depending on the legend, Boya is a famous violinist of warring state period, and his skill is wonderful, Zhong Ziqi is good at appreciating music. When Boya played the piano, he was thinking about climbing the mountain. When Zhong heard his song,  Zhong said happily:” Good play! I seem to have seen a mighty mountain!" Boya thought of water again, Zhong said again: “Wonderful! I seem to see the sea!" Every time Boya thinks of something, Zhong Ziqi can learn from the sound.

On one occasion, they two people go to visit the north of Mount Tai, suddenly, the rain began to fall from the sky, and they came into a shelter under a large rock. Boya just grieve at that time, and then he began to assume the sound of the drizzle, and the sound of the mountains falling apart.

Each time he was played, Zhong Ziqi can hear the meaning expressed in the sound of the harp. Boya put down his harp and said," Well, well, you can imagine my mood when I played, and I can't escape you in any way!" It is a pity that Boya broke the string of his harp and never played again after the death of Zhong Ziqi. Boya lost his bosom friend so he decided not to play music.

This song is Chinese zither music, which is divided into "high mountains" and "running water" two parts of the Tang Dynasty. The “running water” part fully utilizes the skill of overtone, roll, brush… To describe the various dynamics of the water, it expressed the intention of the water. It is the idea of the wise water. In the introduction, the melody is constantly chopping and changing in the wide range of the vocal range, the subtle shift of the finger changes to the real sound from the falsetto voice, the melody is flickering like the top of the mist-shrouded mountain.

In the middle section, first it is the ups and downs of the melody, and then the large upper and lower glide sound. And then continuous "fierce rolling, slow breeze" to make the sound of water, and in its upper part, it played an ascending degradation of tone, as the view of the extremely high boiling and the roaring of Jiao-loong. Listen to the song quietly, it is like sitting on a boat across Wuxia Gorge, it is dazzled, thrilling and a little suspicious that this body is already in the mountains. At the end, the melodic melody is caused by subtle uplifting which is full of passionate. Overtones of the epilogue cause people to immerse themselves in the thought of their own.

Learn Chinese Time From This Song Lyrics：

PinYin:    huī xián yì qǔ  jǐ céng zhōng

Chinese: 挥    弦   一 曲 几  曾     终

English:  swing a tune like it will never end.

The “挥” means “wave”. The “弦” means “the string”, The “一曲” means “a song”. The “几曾” means“ever”，The “终” means “ending”.

The Chinese Traditional Pipa Masterpieces: Ambush On All Sides

After hearing the song of the harp, let us hear another one of the top ten ancient Chinese songs which played by the pipa.

This song “ambush on all sides” is a huge historical theme of the pipa and the age of creation has not been discovered. The information can be traced back to the famous long poem "The Lute line" which wrote by Bai Juyi in the Tang Dynasty. We can know the author Bai Juyi has heard the pipa music of the fierce combat scene.

As for the creation, the music depicts the battle of Gaixia between the state of Chu and Han in 202 BC. The army of Han defeated Chu in an ambush, and then the King of Chu. Xiang Yu, killed himself on Wujiang, Liu Bang, the king of Han, won this war.

From the melody and rhythm, the entire song can be divided into three parts. In the first part, it is about the performance of the drumbeat and the public outcry before the battle. The music is fading fast from the dispersion, and the compound character made the music add instability. After that, with a succession of lengthy rounds and a combination of "buckle, wipe and play", it shows the force of the soldiers. In Chapter 1 of the second part, we called ambush. It describes the scene of the ambush of the Han army in Gaixia on the night before the decisive battle.

The music here is calm and nervous and it is ready for the next two paragraphs. In the Chapter 2 “The minor war”, with the sword shooting, Chu and Han armies met each other and the breath was quick, the war began. In Chapter 3 “the nine mile mountain war”, it described the life and death fight of the two armies. The sound of hooves, swords and the roar is undulating and convulsing.

It used the row and bomb skill of alternation, then use binary string, push-pull and other techniques, to push music to climax. In the last part, the sound of hooves and the rhythm alternated, showing the runaway from the Chu army and the unhurried pushing of the Han army. Then a solemn and stirring melody shows the performance of Xiang Yu’s suicide. After the last four strings one "row" and then "down" (aka "stop"), the music came to a screeching halt.

In the high tone of this song, it was not just the happy horns of the victors, but the unremarkable virility of the underdog.

Learn Chinese Time From This Song Lyrics：

PinYin:    lì bá shān xī  qì  gài shì

Chinese: 力 拔   山   兮 气  盖 世

English:  Strength to move mountains spirit unexcelled.

The “力” means “strength”. The “拔” means “seize”, The “山” means “mountain”. The “兮” means“ah”，The “盖世” means “matchless”.

The Song Original Played By Bamboo Flute: The Plum Blossom Melody Tri-lane

After the harp and the pipa, we get bamboo flute in this paragraph.

Firstly, there are just so many flowers, why the plum blossom? Actually, Chinese people have special respect and affection for the plum blossom, which has become the embodiment of some personality of Chinese people.

Therefore, the plum blossom naturally becomes the principal theme of ancient and modern art creation. People are in love with the plum blossom, we can see it in poetry, painting and music, they wrote about the white, fragrant, hardy characteristics of the plum blossom, and the high purity and elegance of the noble character all the time.

Lu You from the Song Dynasty, Gao Qi from the Ming Dynasty and other people also used the plum blossom in their poetry.  In the Ming Dynasty, "plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum" as the independent drawing material, called "four gentlemen's paintings" led by the plum blossom. By comparison, the music of the plum blossom can be said to be very slight.

Back to the song itself, the plum blossom melody tri-lane originally played by a flute or a bamboo, and then it is adapted for piano nowadays. "Tri-lane" means to play the same tune three times over and over again. This kind of repeated treatment is intended to show the plum blossom in the cold wind of its first blooming, unbending personality and the rising spirit.

The song consists of two parts, including 10 paragraphs and the end. In the first part, the rhythm is smooth, graceful and rhythmic. Among them, the pan-tone theme cycle appears three times, making the melody fresh and lively, thus highlighting the temperament and the virtuous quality of plum blossom. And it is a multi – stage musical form of circulation, which is characterized by the recurrent reproduction of the same theme and the insertion part, resulting in a continuous rotation movement. The theme uses the general overtone, to show the pure, refined and elegant spirits of the plum blossom.

With the light rhythm and simple melody, the music is soft and outlined the scene of " the wind swings the plum flower, gently dance the jade to turn silver". The three repetitions of the melody were not varied, mainly use the contrast in the Sound area, will reduce the second degree to achieve the repeated changes. The third and fifth section is the insertion part, as a foil, symbolizing the intoxicated people's appreciation of the plum blossom. This whole part is plum blossom's static sight, composed it in the light, quiet environment laughs in the branches.

The seventh paragraph begins with the second part. This section appeared new musical material, and its plum blossom image is dramatic, the melody is ups and downs. The music adopts the rhythm of the division, the high mass region frequent jumps, alternating sonata, this rise and fall, emotional agitation, the great competition is in full bloom, the character of plum blossom has been further deepened. In a word, the second part is a dynamic image of the plum blossom, using the contrast between tone and rhythm, in contrast to the first part of music, depict the image of the plum blossoms against the wind, fighting the icy wind.

Finally, the end of the entire song is approximately like the ragtime. It is replicated out by the fixed end of each segment. In the end of the place tone, it leads the music of a profound and elegant state.

Learn Chinese Time From This Song Lyrics：

PinYin: shuí néng lín shuǐ yòu zhī yuè

Chinese: 谁   能   临   水  又    知  月

English:  who can see the moon when they are in the water.

The “谁” means “who”. The “能means “can” ,the “临水” means “in the water”. The “又” means“and as well”，The “知月” means “see the moon”.

After reading this article, I hope to arouse your interest in ancient Chinese songs. This is the inheritance of Chinese culture for thousands of years, and it can help you understand the Chinese culture better. If you want to know more Chinese songs or learn more Chinese, please follow us, and we will keep on bring you new things about Chinese.