Up to now, there is no consensus on the emergence and historical age of Lanzhou drum. According to the summary of Siku Quanshu, "Zhao Linde (Tianling Temple) began to write drums in the Shang Dynasty in the Song Dynasty, and the Romance of the West Chamber consisted of 12 pieces of butterfly lovers". Mu Shaotang of Zhenyuan applied this theory in A Brief History of Gan Ning Qing Dynasty, saying that "the founder of Gu Zi Ci was Zhao (Tianling Temple), the king of Anding County in Song Dynasty". Tao Dun, an expert in modern folk art, also said: "After Yuan Zhen wrote Biography of Cui Yingying in Tang Dynasty, Zhao, a poet in Song Dynasty, wrote a rap drum poem about Cui Wei, and Dong Jieyuan, a Jin Dynasty writer, wrote The West Chamber and Gong Diao. Another "A Brief History of Rap Art" compiled by the Quyi Institute of the Chinese Academy of Art clearly records: "Lanzhou Drum originated in the Song Dynasty and was popular in Lanzhou, Gansu." In this way, drum researchers put forward the following opinions: one opinion clearly puts forward that Lanzhou drum may have originated in Song Dynasty and flourished in Yuan and Ming Dynasties, but it does not rule out the influence of Song Ci and Yuan Qu; Another point of view is that it may have evolved from the Zhu Gong tune of Song Ci and Yuan Qu, which is closely related to Dunhuang Bianwen in Tang Dynasty. There is also a view that the drum lyrics, which were widely circulated in the North during the Northern Song Dynasty, were first introduced to Anding County, and then introduced to Lanzhou after being enriched by Zhao, absorbing the advantages of "flat tune", "hook tune" and "dang tune" which were popular in Lanzhou at that time, and became one of the top ten popular tunes in Lanzhou. However, the book "Research on Lanzhou Drum" puts forward a new viewpoint: "Lanzhou Drum should be produced after the formation of Beijing octagonal drum and Shaanxi plum blossom, and it should be said that it came from other places, not initiated by a local person ..." "Lanzhou Drum is a new local folk art born out of Beijing octagonal drum and began to be used in local entertainment places around the Qing Dynasty. There are obvious differences in the production time here, and the book clearly puts forward the Daoguang and Xianfeng periods in the Qing Dynasty. But all the above statements have one thing in common, that is, the production of Lanzhou drum can never be done by one person, and there is always a historical development process. As for which opinion is the correct conclusion, further study is needed.
As an ancient art, Lanzhou Drum has attracted the interest of many foreign scholars since 1980s and 1990s. 1983, Professor Zhao Rulan, an American Chinese from Harvard University, made a special trip to Lanzhou to record Lanzhou drums. After she returned to America, she translated them into English, which had a great influence and was highly praised by American musicians. She regards this ancient art as "the treasure of China".