中國的民族音樂有着悠久的歷史，是中華傳統文化的重要組成部分。早在新石器時代，就有陶鼓、磬、陶鐘、塤等樂器問世。到了春秋戰國時期（公元前1066年 至221年），秦國已經流行箏的演奏了。到了漢代，在相和歌（漢代的一種民間歌曲）中已普遍使用笙、笛、琵琶、箏、古琴等樂器來伴奏了。二胡形成的年代稍晚，至今也有一千多年的歷史。

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Traditional Chinese music has a long history and forms an important part of Chinese traditional culture. As early as the Neolithic period, instruments such as pottery drums, stone chimes, pottery bells, and the xun had already appeared. By the Spring and Autumn period and Warring States period (1066–221 BC), the zheng was already widely played in the State of Qin. By the Han dynasty, instruments such as the sheng, dizi, pipa, zheng, and guqin were commonly used to accompany xianghe songs, a form of folk song popular at the time. The erhu developed somewhat later, but it too has a history of more than a thousand years.