Chinese musicology is the academic study of traditional Chinese music. This discipline has a very long history. Traditional Chinese music can be traced back to around 8,000 years ago during the Neolithic age. The concept of music, called 乐 (Chinese: 樂; pinyin: yuè), stands among the oldest categories of Chinese thought; however, in the known sources, it does not receive a fairly clear definition until the writing of the Classic of Music (lost during the Han dynasty). Chinese music has always been interacting with different cultures throughout its long history, dating all the way back to the Xia and Shang dynasties.
