The Relationship Between Music And Dance In Ancient China

It is universally accepted that the music and dance have the closest relationships in the family of art. They born together and cooperate with each other in the long development process, creating a series of extraordinary music culture and dance culture.

The relationship between music and dance can trace back to the primitive society. Even though the human beings at that time have language as the most important communication tool, students who come to learn Chinese in China should know that they would sing to express their feelings when they failed to express with language. However, when they failed to express the strong feelings with songs, they would dance to realize it.

Unfortunately, the music and dance in the ancient times have disappeared. We can just find some trace in the unearthed cultural relics and ancient books. Some foreign learners who come to study Chinese in China may have heard about the pottery basin with dancing patterns unearthed in Sunjiazhai Village of Qinghai in the year of 1973. It is famous for the recording of the dancing in ancient times.

In 1944, another one was also unearthed in Qinghai. The patterns on them are all the people who are dancing hand in hand. It is very familiar with the singing and dancing scene of the ethnic people lives in the bordering areas. They all become the important materials to study the music and dance in ancient times.

Another important relic about the music and dance in ancient times is found in Cangyuan in Yunnan in 1965. There is a fighting scene that is made up of 21 people. Some of them are holding the shields and some holding the weapons. When you come to study Mandarin in China, teachers may tell you that it reflects that the weapons were used in ancient dancing to show the fighting spirit.

The ancient books are also an important resource for us to know the music and dance in ancient times like “lv shi chun qiu”. It is recorded that there was large scale of dancing with music in ancient China. From the historical relics, those who learn Chinese in China can see that music and dance appeared jointly at the very beginning. Therefore, even though they formed different artistic forms in development process, they still closely related, forming rich music and dance forms.

In brief, the relationship between music and dance is very close. Even they have formed different artistic forms, they still closely related. That is to say, it is hard for us to separate them.