葉伯和的《中國音樂史》是目前所知最早以「中國音樂史」為名的專著，上卷出版於1922年，下卷僅於1929年刊登在《新四川日刊副刊》中。雖然做為第一本中國音樂史，這本書在出版後沒多久，隨即為人所遺忘，在之後的中國音樂史相關論述中一直未見該書蹤影。直到1992年上下卷重新合併再版，這本書才又以歷史資料的姿態重新回到世人面前。雖然這本書的論述十分簡單，嚴格來說是屬於綱要式的著作，但它是中國第一本以西方音樂史方法撰寫的音樂史，以今日看來，它反映出來的是二十世紀初期，中國音樂與西方音樂學最初碰撞的火花。葉伯和以西洋音樂史觀、比較音樂學、以及音樂學的研究分析方法，重新架構中國的傳統音樂史，在卷秩浩繁的史料中，尋找他所要的「真正音樂」的元素，試圖重塑以音樂本身為論述的中國音樂史。本文將以這本書為文本，以時代背景與寫作脈絡為經緯，來重新審視這本著作，呈現其在二十世紀初中國音樂史發展中的歷史價值。

Bo-he Yeh’s Zhongguo yin yue shi is, as its title suggests, the first general history of Chinese music. It was published in two parts. The first part was published by the author in 1922. The second part, published in 1929, appeared in The Sichuan Daily Supplement. Even though it was the first documented history of Chinese music, this book was soon forgotten; it literally disappeared in the literature of Chinese music history until its republication in 1992. Despite its simple, brief discussion of Chinese music history, Zhongguo yin yue shi served as a pioneer of the writing of music history in Chinese culture. Yeh based the methodology inherent in the writing of Western music history to introduce Chinese music history. Therefore, this work reflects a collision between historical musicology in Western music tradition and traditional Chinese music, a collision that took place in the early 20th century. Based on the perspectives of historical musicology in Western culture and comparative musicology (later known as ethnomusicology), as well as the manner of research and analysis in historical musicology, Yeh re-constructed the history of traditional Chinese music. From numerous historical documents, which he used as his reference sources, Yeh searched for the elements representing "music in itself" in order to re-define the history of Chinese music. In this essay, I use Zhongguo yin yue shi as my major source and complement my discussion of this source with the historical context of early 20th-century China and Yeh’s biography. I aim to re-evaluate this work, showing its significance in the context of the development of Chinese music history in the early 20th century.