To bethe quintessence in Qiang culture，Shibi music has survived for more than a thousand years yet rapidly decayed in recent decades.

Hidden in a deep valley，A'er is a remote village of Qiang People in Sichuan Province； therefore，the preservation of Shibi music in A'er seems to be more thoroughly successful than other places.For this reason，the village was chosen to be as my systematic studying case which carried out for over five years to explore the essence，core functions，and transformation patterns of Shibi music.According to these findings，this thesis both argues and proposes feasible strategies to safeguard the intangible cultural heritage in A'er.

Main conclusions to be presented in this thesis can be summarized as follows：

In the modern knowledge system，theissue of Shibi music should belong to the field of natural science and technology but not of art or religion，since its nature and core function seemed to be so exceptionally technical as to solve Qiang People's problems in real life.

The essence and core function of Shibi music are always stable in the process of historical change.In the meantime，they are decisive factors influencing the changes of morphology and characteristics of Shibi music.

To preservethe essence and core function is the key to inherit Shibi music.

Thepreservation pattern in art cannot be applied to all intangible cultural heritages of music.The output of basic research should be solid enough before protection in order to formulate a proper protection scheme according to objective circumstances.

Key words：Shibi music；Function of music；Transformation；safeguarding intangible cultural heritage of music；Qiang；A'er village of Wenchuan

To bethe quintessence in Qiang culture，Shibi music has survived for more than a thousand years yet rapidly decayed in recent decades. Hidden in a deep valley，A'er is a remote village of Qiang People in Sichuan Province； therefore，the preservation of Shibi music in A'er seems to be more thoroughly successful than other places. For this reason，the village was chosen to be as my systematic studying case which carried out for over five years to explore the essence，core functions，and transformation patterns of Shibi music. According to these findings，this thesis both argues and proposes feasible strategies to safeguard the intangible cultural heritage in A'er. Main conclusions to be presented in this thesis can be summarized as follows：In the modern knowledge system，theissue of Shibi music should belong to the field of natural science and technology but not of art or religion，since its nature and core function seemed to be so exceptionally technical as to solve Qiang People's problems in real life. The essence and core function of Shibi music are always stable in the process of historical change. In the meantime，they are decisive factors influencing the changes of morphology and characteristics of Shibi music. To preservethe essence and core function is the key to inherit Shibi music. Thepreservation pattern in art cannot be applied to all intangible cultural heritages of music. The output of basic research should be solid enough before protection in order to formulate a proper protection scheme according to objective circumstances. Key words：Shibi music； Function of music； Transformation； safeguarding intangible cultural heritage of music； Qiang； A'er village of Wenchuan（AI翻译）