In ancient times, playing the piano (mostly playing the guqin), playing chess (mostly Go and Chinese chess), calligraphy, and painting were skills that literati and poets (including some famous ladies) must master for self-cultivation. Together they are called Qinqi, calligraphy and painting, or the "Four Friends of Literati". Today often expresses personal cultural quality.
According to literature, Fuxi (2400 BC-2370 BC) invented the harp. The harps are all made of sycamore wood, with hollow cavities and silk ropes as strings. The Qin originally had five strings, but later it was changed to seven strings; the harp had twenty-five strings. It can be seen from the number of strings that the volume of the zither is larger than that of the qin.
Go, according to literature, was invented by Yao and Shun (2205 BC-2110 BC). Go was called "Yi" in ancient times, which means "you throw a piece and I throw a piece." The name "Go" means "a chess game that uses encirclement and counter-encirclement tactics to determine the outcome."
Calligraphy is a unique art form in the Chinese character culture circle. Calligraphy emerged after the invention of Chinese characters. According to literature, Chinese characters were invented by Cangjie, the historian of the Yellow Emperor (2337 BC-2307 BC).
Painting was produced before the invention of writing, and may also appear at the same time as calligraphy (the ancients said that "calligraphy and painting have the same origin"). The earliest professional painter mentioned in the literature is "Huoshou", the sister of Emperor Shun (2162 BC-2110 BC).