Vertical notched flute of the Han Chinese. The name xiao (which was the ancient name for panpipe) is onomatopoeic. The notched flute, historically known by names such as di, guan and chiba, was not called xiao until about the 12th century. It is one of the most venerated of Chinese instruments, possessing a pure and ‘natural’ tone quality (associated with bamboo) and embodying important associations with the Confucian ethos and cosmology. As known by the name di, the instrument was likened to the Confucian concept of di, a different character meaning ‘to wash away evil from the mind’. A later variant known as chiba was twice the length of the ‘yellow bell’ pitch (huangzhong, the foundation pitch of the empire calculated on a tube of 0·9 feet), sounding a root pitch one octave lower and thus achieving correspondence with the universe.
The present-day xiao is constructed of bamboo, with an inward-sloping notch at the upper end (to assist tone production), five frontal finger-holes plus one dorsal thumb-hole, and two or more tassel holes near the lower end. External lengths vary by region, the crucial measurement being the location of the lower tassel holes (which define the vibrating length), for D flutes usually between about 50 and 52 cm below the blow-hole, depending upon internal diameter. Range is about two octaves commonly (d' – e''').
Several basic regional types are usually identified, all with variant constructions. Most common is the zizhu (‘purple bamboo’) xiao, characteristic of the Jiangnan area of central-eastern China. Longest of the regional variants (about 75 cm or more), this type is constructed from a species of bamboo with long, straight internodal sections, and it has a U-shaped notch carved through the uppermost node (which otherwise closes off most of the opening). Refined in tone and moderate in volume, this xiao is performed solo, in duet with qin or zheng zithers, or in small ensembles. The second major type is the dongxiao, employed in nanguan music of southern Fujian and Taiwan. Shorter than the Jiangnan xiao (about 57 cm), the dongxiao is constructed from ‘stone bamboo’ or other relatively thick species, and has a U- or V-shaped notch (the top node completely open), the lower end cut from the bamboo root. In theory, the instrument should have ten nodal outcroppings, though some variants have only nine. Other variants include the slender yuping xiao, and the yaxiao (‘refined’ xiao), a 1930s semi-chromatic eight-hole flute adapted for performance with the qin zither.
The history of the Chinese vertical notched flute is one of constantly changing terminology. Inscriptions on oracle bones from after the 14th century bce reveal the names of two flutes, yan and guan. The Zhouli (c3rd–2nd centuries bce) and other classic texts mention the names di (a name later applied to transverse flutes) and guan (‘pipe’, a name later applied to reed-pipes). Both had finger-holes and presumably notches as well. The Zhou dynasty di must have been a four-holed flute, because during the Han dynasty (206 bce–ce 220) the poem Changdi fu (‘Long di poem’) reports that a fifth hole had been added (a thumb-hole at the back). Other writings of this period speak of another vertical flute, the six-holed qiangdi, an instrument of the Qiang tribal people of western China. This instrument was quite long and slender and may have been related to the unnotched vertical flute of Western Asia (Ney). But the Chinese vertical flute (di) was already documented in late Zhou literature as a standard instrument employed in ritual ensembles.
Because of its ritual use, the root pitch of the di was usually the same as the ‘yellow bell’ pitch (which changed from one dynasty to another). However, its roughly equidistant finger-hole positions obviously did not coincide with the accepted orthodoxy of circle-of-fifths temperament, because numerous attempts were made to correct this discrepancy.
During the Tang dynasty (618–907), the most significant type of vertical flute became known as chiba guan, or simply chiba (literally, ‘1·8 (Chinese) feet’). Preserved at the Shōsōin treasury in Japan are eight chiba (pronounced Shakuhachi in Japanese) dating from this period. They are of bamboo, jade, stone and ivory, between 34 and 44 cm in length, with outward-cut notches and five finger-holes plus one thumb-hole. After the Tang, the name chiba was found less frequently in the literature (perhaps because of changes in measurement systems), and by the 11th and 12th centuries the name dongxiao became more common. Among local musicians of southern Fujian province, both names are used.
That long, thin vertical flutes, known as shudi (‘vertical’ di) or changdi (‘long’ di) were also in use during the Tang is attested by representations in cave art and citations in period literature. According to the scholar Zhu Xi (1130–1200), the long flute was called xiao by his time (the term di increasingly being used to identify transverse flutes). A very few notched flutes constructed of porcelain, jade and bamboo survive from the 16th or 17th centuries. A larger number of 19th-century xiao are preserved in museums throughout China, North America and Europe, including handsome red-lacquered flutes decorated with gilded dragon motifs, taken from various Confucian shrines.
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Hayashi K. and others: Shōsōin no gakki [Musical instruments in the Shōsōin] (Tokyo, 1967) [with Eng. summary]
Cheung Sai-bung: Zhongguo yinyue shilun shugao [Historical studies of Chinese music] (Hong Kong, 1974–5)
Tong Kin-woon: Shang Musical Instruments (diss., Wesleyan U., 1983); repr. in AsM, xv/1 (1983), 166–73
Lu Songling: ‘Chiba chutan’ [Preliminary study of the chiba], Quanzhou lishi wenhua zhongxin gongzuo tongxun, no.1 (1985), 9–18
Liu Dongsheng and others, ed.: Zhongguo yueqi tuzhi [Pictorial record of Chinese musical instruments] (Beijing, 1987)
Liu Dongsheng and Yuan Quanyou, eds.: Zhongguo yinyue shi tujian [Pictorial guide to the history of Chinese music] (Beijing, 1988)
Liu Dongsheng, ed.: Zhongguo yueqi tujian [Pictorial guide to Chinese musical instruments] (Ji'nan, 1992), 114–15, 119–21
Zheng Ruzhong: ‘Musical Instruments in the Wall Paintings of Dunhuang’, CHIME, no.7 (1993), 4–56
Zhongguo yueqi zhi, qiming juan (aerophone vol.) [forthcoming]
Zhongguo yinyue wenwu daxi [forthcoming]
ALAN R. THRASHER