Historical records indicate that there used to be 1,000 or so musical instruments in use in ancient times. Today, some 500 of them are extant. The earliest of them date back to more than 8,000 years ago.

Traditional Chinese musical instruments were closely associated with the rise of music in China. They are symbols of Chinese culture. In old times, they were also indicators of the level of productivity.

Our ancients divided Chinese musical instruments into eight categories or "eight sounds": metal, stone, string, bamboo, gourd, clay, leather, and wood.

Metal: referring to instruments fashioned out of metals, such as gongs, and bronze drums.

Stone: stone instruments such as chimes and carillons.

String: instruments having strings played with the fingers or with a plectrum or a bow, such as Chinese violin, 25-stringed horizontal harp and zither-like instruments with many strings.

Bamboo: instruments made from bamboo stalk, including vertical bamboo flutes and 8-holed bamboo flutes.

Gourd: wind instruments using a gourd as the resonator, such as sheng and yu.

Clay: earthen instruments, including xun, an egg-shaped wind instrument with one to six holes in it, and fou, a clay percussion instrument.

Leather: instruments using animal skins as vibration membranes, such as drums and waist drums.

Wood: instruments made mainly from wood. Common ones include wooden fish(hollow wooden block used to beat rhythm) and xylophone.