Rattle Early for musical instruments not toys

The rattle is China's traditional, ancient musical instruments and toys, appeared in the Warring States period. The main body of the rattle is a small drum with two pellets on both sides, and a handle under the drum, which turns the handle and flings the pellets to make the sound. The body of the drum can be wooden or bamboo, as well as clay, cardboard; drum surface made of sheepskin, cowhide, snakeskin or paper, of which the wooden body of the sheepskin surface of the rattle drum is the most typical. Early rattles were musical instruments rather than toys.

The earliest rattles were called "rattle" (táo). The rattle produced during the Warring States period as a percussion instrument, relying on the shaking of the ears to hit the sound, the sound of the rhythm of the lightness of the sound, the rhythm of the height of the sound, the size of the sound is not easy to control, can not be successfully and accurately complete the complexity of the drums. The rattle is used in the court music of the past dynasties, and it is a commonly used instrument in the ritual ceremonies. The Book of Books - Yiji says: "The rattle and drum are in charge of the lower pipe, and the drumstick is a percussion instrument." This proves that the rattle was often played together with drums, percussion and drumsticks. The commentary on the Shujing also says: "The rattle belongs to the music under the hall," i.e., it is played in the second half of the music. The Zhou Rituals - Chun Gong - Xiao Shi said: "Teaching drums, rattles, drumsticks, percussion, xiao, pipes, strings, songs". It can be seen that rattles and pipes and strings and other instruments have the same status side by side.

Development to the Song Dynasty rattles have appeared in three areas, one is the use of rituals and music; the second is the use of business; the third is children's toys. The rattle has been used in rituals and music throughout the ages, and the Song Dynasty was certainly no exception. Commercial use refers to the "cargo drums", the folk cargo usually hold a rattle to attract customers. At the same time, rattles also became a favorite toy for children. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Li Song's "Cargo Figure", we can see the painting of the rattle, modeling is quite elaborate, the drum handle made of gourd handle, drum shape such as a jar, the ears are more special, similar to the leather strip, holding the handle shaking, the leather strips beat the drum surface sound. There are also "four rattles" by four small gradually larger drums, one by one stacked on top of each other, turn 90 degrees between each other. Each drum has a bullet to do the ears, drums set under the smooth and delicate handle.