Based on the predecessors?studying achievement combined with my own investigation and study, my dissertation makes a systematic exposition of the four- hundred-year developing history of Chinese Yangqin which is including three parts: In part one, I inquire into Yangqin’s historic origin and comment on the four main views concerned with Yangqin’s origin in accordance with the various appearances and structures of Yangqin and it’s wide spreading. In part two, I focus on expounding yangqin’s spreading and its vicissitudes in china. There are two sections in this part. In section one, in view of Yangqin’s spreading into china, I draw such a conclusion that Yangqin was brought to China from Europe via macau by Ricci,Matthieu in 1610. In section two, based on the available data, I summarized Yangqin’s appearances and structures, its spreading areas and playing during the period of the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China (1919- 1949). In part three, I mainly discussed the Yangqin art of China four parts including the musical instrument reform, music composition, performing skill’s, theory studying and its instruction. Moreover, I also summarized the great achievement of Yangqin art made in the latest fifty years and point out the problems which needs solving in the future development of Yangqin art. The almost-400-year developing history of Yangqin in China is also Yangqin’s ationalizing process and the social, historic and cultural background of different periods play a decisive role in the process of Yangqin’s ationalizing I just want to take the musical instrument, Yangqin as a typical example. I expect to be able to demonstrate the ordinary developing law of traditional Chinese musical instrument through this thesis so as to provide some concrete facts and experience both for the progress of our nation’s musical instrument and the cause of our instrumental music. Writer: Li Xiang-ying Translator: Zhou Zheng-heng