Mural guide
Chime bells, a guqin and a bamboo flute accompany flowing-sleeve dancers on a terrace overlooking blue-green hills.
Chime bells, stone chimes, zithers and dancing figures: the music of ritual still echoing in objects
Musical harmonies attuned to ancient scales and theatrical dramas: the sonic and dramatic beauty of Chinese opera and performing arts.
Performance
Tuning string and wind instruments, infusing melodies into marketplace culture: channeling the unique acoustic aesthetics of the Orient through ancient musical laws.
Ritual and Puppet Theatre7 branchesMasked exorcist drama and the theatre of strings, rods and shadows.
Ritual Music and Dance9 branchesMusic and dance of sacrifice and ceremony, built on bells and stone chimes.
Record of MusicWestern Han to presentA Confucian essay on music and its link to ritual, government and the mind, included in the Book of Rites.
Songs and Folk Tunes13 branchesPoetry made to be sung, from the Airs of the States to today's folk songs.
Chinese Dance16 branchesFrom dancers painted on Neolithic pottery to today's dance drama.
Chinese Instrumental Music21 branchesFrom Neolithic bone flutes to the modern orchestra: music blown, bowed, plucked and struck.
TheatersNorthern Song to Yuan dynastyCommercial theatres of Song and Yuan cities: the Sangjia, Middle and Inner wazi of Bianjing, and zaju staged in Yuan Dadu.
Song and Yuan Zaju1 branchesFrom the Song three-part form of prelude, main play and coda to the Yuan four acts and a wedge fixed by Guan Hanqing and others.
Quyi Storytelling and Ballad Arts12 branchesOne performer, one table: telling, singing and joking through every tale.
Regional Operas22 branchesRegional operas such as Kunqu, Peking, Sichuan and Cantonese opera, telling stories through singing, speech, acting and combat.