Among the many national musical instruments, the dulcimer is the only musical instrument with a wide range of global character. It has spread to dozens of countries and regions in Asia, Europe, America, Africa and Oceania, and has become the common wealth of world culture. It has a long history and a wide variety of varieties, and has been accepted by different peoples in the world. As we all know, a culture and art has been rooted in different cultural soils for a long time, and it is bound to permeate their different cultural characteristics. Therefore, in addition to "worldness", "nationality" has become the flashing point of the lively body of dulcimer. Today, Chinese dulcimer music occupies a very important position in the world dulcimer music culture.

China is an ancient civilization with a history of 5,000 years. It has nurtured ancient human culture and is also one of the earliest countries in the world with the development of music culture. The profound historical accumulation, the vast country and the diversification of the ethnic groups have cultivated a rich cultural soil. In the seventeenth century, the dulcimer was quickly integrated with the traditional national culture after it was introduced into China, and gradually formed a unique national style, and with its colorful cultural connotations made the Chinese dulcimer system unique on the world stage.

Ancient Chinese music has grown from the original primitive music and dance to the large-scale song and dance suites, and then to folk music. In these three important stages, instrumental music is the product of highly developed music. There are 70 or 80 kinds of musical instruments dating back to the Zhou Dynasty, and they are classified according to the "eight tones". After generations of development, there are as many as hundreds of ethnic musical instruments in ethnic minorities, among which the dulcimer is the only percussion instrument produced later. Although there are different opinions on the origin of dulcimer, we can see from historical records that the introduction of dulcimer into China was not an accident of historical development. "Warring States Policy Qi Ce" records: "Linzi is very rich and real. Its people all play yong, drum, strike building, and play zither." Another posterity described: "The builder is shaped like a fan, made of wood, with a string attached to it, and struck with a bamboo mallet to make a sound." "Zhu" is an earlier percussion stringed musical instrument known to date, which is very similar to the dulcimer in terms of shape and performance. Although "Zhu" was widely spread during the Warring States Period, when the instrument "Zheng", which was directly plucked and sounded, appeared, this ancient stringed instrument disappeared. In the "Dictionary of Foreign Music" compiled by the Institute of Shanghai Conservatory of Music, it is pointed out that "dulcimer originated from the percussion instrument in the East and was introduced to Europe in the Middle Ages". It can be seen that although we cannot directly infer that dulcimer originated from "building", dulcimer contains a certain Chinese element in its cultural foundation.

In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the capitalist economy sprouted, cities prospered, and commerce developed. Then the music culture also expanded the development space. Opera and rap art flourished unprecedentedly, and folk songs flourished. In the process of the development and derivation of national music culture, the dulcimer with foreign elements from Europe was quickly integrated into it at the beginning, and it was widely spread all over China. Although it was not included in court music, it was deeply rooted in the folk and multiplied in this fertile soil. There are many historical records on this. For example, it is recorded in "Qing Barnyard Notes": "Blind women play and sing, and Guangzhou has them, so they are called blind girls. They sing the song of touching fish, accompanied by a foreign qin, which is melodious and pleasant to listen to. When there are festive events, they often recruit them." There is another article "Jin Chiquan Listening to Yangqin", which has a detailed description of "Yangqin", which reflects people's love for "secular dulcimer".

With the popularity of opera and rap art in various places in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the dulcimer has left a trace of life as its accompaniment instrument. Many operas and tunes continue to use dulcimer to this day. Such as: Shandong Qinshu, Sichuan Qinshu, Xuzhou Qinshu, Guizhou Wenqin, etc., they all directly refer to the singing form as Yangqin. Another example: Cantonese Opera, Teochew Opera, Fujian Opera, Shanghai Opera, etc. all use dulcimer. The early dulcimer accompaniment adopted the melody-assist method. The accompaniment part was basically the accompaniment melody of the singing, and the melody was decorated and played over the door. At this time, it is hard to find the characteristics of the European dulcimer that is good at freely playing different tonal music and is easy to play harmonic texture and chromatic melodies in the incoming dulcimer. With the general development of folk music forms, dulcimer has been added to the performance forms of some folk instrumental music. Under the penetration of various regional music cultures, through the continuous practice and accumulation of senior musicians, many traditional schools and unique local styles have been formed. The playing methods and timbre of each genre are basically the same, which is a commonality formed in history, but they have their own characteristics in terms of charm, style and technique. This is the diverse and colorful personality of different music genres left over from the characteristics of different ethnic groups, different regions and different times. From the lively, bright, elegant and quiet of "Guangdong Music Yangqin" to the bright and bright of "Sichuan Yangqin"; from the delicate and timeless "Jiangnan Sizhu Yangqin" to the melodious rhythm of "Northeast Yangqin". Each genre has different styles, and each has its own unique techniques, repertoire and representative characters. In the process of continuous integration, dulcimer has fully absorbed the nourishment of traditional Chinese music culture. Until today, from the transformation of the form to the variety of performance forms, from the formation of the ten major techniques such as "chanting, kneading, sliding, and trembling" to the rich and colorful repertoire, the dulcimer has completed the transformation from "foreign" to "yang". Become a truly national musical instrument.

The stylistic characteristics of art and the formation of national characteristics are inseparable from people's aesthetic taste. "Beautiful curves" is one of the aesthetic habits sought by various ethnic arts in China. Poetry and prose pay attention to "avoid straight and expensive songs", and calligraphy pays attention to "zigzag and sinking into the garden". In terms of music, it is reflected in the development and application of curved sound chambers. In practice, new techniques with Chinese characteristics that reflect traditional aesthetics have been created and developed. For example, sliding techniques and vibrato techniques. They also changed the word "hammer" to "bamboo". The bamboo "qin bamboo" is light, elastic, crisp and bright when struck, which can make the "melody line" of the music more melodious. In addition, another aesthetic tendency, "the beauty of neutrality", "clear, subtle, light, distant" is particularly prominent in the creation of music. European music attaches great importance to the motives of melody and the sound of harmony, and the music structure emphasizes contrast, while traditional Chinese music emphasizes unity, expressing contrast in a gradual way, and it pursues natural and soft changes. For example, yangqin's wenqu is mostly "scattered, slow, medium, fast and slow" in structure, and this characteristic also exists in almost all ethnic music. It is not difficult to see that the art of dulcimer, which has been rooted in the folk for more than 400 years, has inherited and developed many characteristics of folk music.

Chinese traditional music is a broad, profound and open cultural system. From the historical evolution process to the existing musical reality, it continues the artistic life in the continuous flow, absorption, harmony and variation. From European dulcimer to Chinese traditional dulcimer and then to Chinese modern dulcimer, the art of dulcimer has penetrated into the vein of Chinese folk music culture, and shines brightly in the art garden of Chinese folk instrumental music.