According to historical records, before the Middle Ages, in Assyria, Persia and other ancient Middle Eastern countries, there was a popular dulcimer called santurqin. In the Ming Dynasty (1368~1644), with the increasingly close friendly exchanges between China and West Asia and East Asia, the santurqin was introduced to my country by sea from Persia.
It was only popular in Guangdong at first, and then gradually spread to all parts of China. Later, after the transformation of Chinese folk artists, the santurqin gradually evolved into a Chinese dulcimer. Since the end of the Qing Dynasty, dulcimer has been used in Guangdong music, Jiangnan Sizhu, Yangzhou Qingqu, Guangxi Wenchang, Changde Sixian, Sichuan Qinshu, Henan Qinshu, Shandong Qinshu, Yulin Xiaoqu and other types of music and music.
Dulcimer has been circulated and evolved in China for more than 400 years. During this period, Chinese musical instrument makers developed many new varieties of dulcimer, such as soprano, transposition dulcimer, zheng dulcimer and electric dulcimer. Especially worth mentioning is the electric dulcimer, which consists of a body, a pickup, an amplifier and a speaker. When the strings vibrate, the sound wave is converted into an electrical signal through the pickup, and then after the amplifier is used to beautify the sound, it is composed of loudspeaker. The electric dulcimer can be used for both accompaniment and solo, so it has been well received by dulcimer players since its inception.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, many forms of folk instrumental music emerged as an independent music genre, and the dulcimer became one of the main musical instruments of Guangdong music, Jiangnan silk bamboo and Shandong Qin music. Dulcimer has been circulated and evolved in my country for nearly 400 years. No matter in musical instrument production, performance art or music creation, it already has traditional Chinese characteristics and national style, and combined with local folk music, a number of schools with outstanding local and musical characteristics have been formed.