Ancient Music Therapy - Modern Music Therapy

In ancient China, there were famous doctors who used music instead of needles, stones and ointments to cure diseases. More than 2,000 years ago, the classic Chinese medical work Huang Di Nei Jing (The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine) put forward the theory of “five tones to cure diseases”. It is believed that different music (Gong, Shang, Horn, Zheng, Feather) corresponds to the five human organs (liver, heart, spleen, lungs and kidneys), and that music influences people's moods to improve the function of the corresponding internal organs. Ancient Chinese music therapy utilizes the rhythms, melodies and tones of music to harmonize the balance of yin and yang in the human body through the selection of specific musical repertoire, thus achieving the effect of treating diseases and promoting health. The book “Zuo Zhuan” also appeared that music has a flavor like medicine, and often listening to the wonderful sound can make people free from all diseases and prolong life.

Westerners study music therapy appeared in the early twentieth century, 1940 in the United States at the University of Kansas formally became a discipline. After more than half a century of development, music therapy has become a mature and complete fringe discipline, through hundreds of clinical treatment methods, forming a number of theoretical schools. More than 80 universities in the United States offer music therapy programs, while there are about 4,000 state-registered music therapists working in psychiatric hospitals, general hospitals, geriatric hospitals, children's hospitals, special education schools, and a variety of psychological clinics. This shows that music therapy, as an interdisciplinary therapeutic approach, has not only been recognized and developed in the academic world, but has also demonstrated its value and effectiveness in practical application.