History of the Chinese Flute

The Chinese flute has a long history, dating back to the Neolithic period. At that time, the forefathers lit bonfires, set up prey, and sang and danced around the captured prey while eating, and used the shin bones of flying birds to drill holes to blow (using their sound to trap prey and send signals), which also gave birth to the bone flute, the oldest musical instrument unearthed in China.

Bone whistles and bone flutes were unearthed in 1977 in Hemudu, Yuyao, Zhejiang Province, about 7,000 years ago, and 16 vertical bone flutes (made of bird and fowl limb bones) were unearthed in May 1986 at the early Neolithic site of East Lake Village in Daiyang County, Henan Province, more than 8,000 years ago, according to measurements.

The tone holes ranged from five to eight, with the majority of them being seven-hole flutes, some of which had small holes punched next to the tone holes, which were in perfect harmony with the modern Chinese tones. In 1987, a seven-hole Jiahu bone flute was unearthed at the site of Jiahu in Daiyang County, Henan Province (about 9,000 years old), which was the world's earliest playable musical instrument.

Yellow Emperor period, that is, about 4000 years ago, the Yellow River Basin grows a lot of bamboo, began to select the bamboo as the material for the flute, the "Historical Records" records: "The Yellow Emperor made Linglun cut bamboo in the Kun豀, chopped for the flute, blowing for the phoenix," the bamboo as the material is a big step forward for the flute system, for one thing, the bamboo is vibration than the bone is good, pronounced clear and crispy; Secondly, bamboo is easy to process. Qin and Han dynasties have seven holes bamboo flute, and invented the two-headed flute, Cai Yong, Xun Castor, Liang Wu Di have made twelve law flute, that is, a flute a law.

In 1978, two bamboo flutes were unearthed from the tomb of Zeng Hou Yi in Suixian, Hubei Province, and the two flutes unearthed from the No. 3 Han Tomb in Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunan Province, had blow holes that intersected the plane of the holes with the plane of the holes of the tone holes at an angle of 90 degrees, which was extremely similar to the position of the holes on the flutes of the tomb of Zeng Hou Yi. In time, the two flutes are separated by several hundred years; in space, Changsha of Hunan Province and Suixian of Hubei Province are hundreds of miles away from each other, but the position of the blowhole is almost the same, which shows that the pre-Qin and early Han Dynasty had a generalized form of horizontal blowing of flutes or chi. During the Warring States period, the chi was one of the main melodic instruments played during sacrifices to the gods or feasts at pavilions, and the flute was also very popular, and the flute in the "Flute Fugue" of Song Yu, a student of Qu Yuan, also talked about the flute in the south of the country at that time, which was very similar to the modern flute already. [1]

Han and Jin Dynasties

The flute was called "篴" in ancient times. During the Han Dynasty, Xu Shen's Shuowen Jiezi (说文解字) recorded: "The flute, with seven holes, is also a bamboo flute".

After the Han Dynasty, the horizontal blowing flute has occupied a very important position in the drumming music of the court and the army. This fact reminds people that the development of the Chinese flute has already left its early primitive form, and it is possible that after absorbing the reasonable components of the flutes of other peoples, the flute has become more reasonable and more perfect in terms of meter, shape, etc., and has become more and more cooperative and coordinated with other musical instruments in the orchestra. On the portrait bricks unearthed in Deng County, Henan Province, during the North and South Dynasties, we can clearly see the historical image of the coordinated playing of the drum and flute band. The direction and angle of the player's flute, and the posture of the left and right hands are exactly the same as those of modern flute playing. [1]

Hanfu and flute

Flute refers to vertical flute before the Han Dynasty, and since the Qin and Han Dynasties, the flute has become the same name for both vertical xiao and horizontal flute, and has continued for a long period of time. Han Wu Di, Zhang Qian through the Western Regions after the introduction of horizontal flute, also known as "horizontal blowing". It occupies an important position in the music of the Han Dynasty. Hunan Changsha Mawangdui No. 3 Han Tomb unearthed two bamboo flutes, both belong to the horizontal blowing class of flute instruments.

In the Jin Dynasty there has been a vertical flute, blowing the head with a wood, so that the gas from the gap through, shot to the two whistles hole side ling pronunciation.

North Dynasty, the flute is not only extremely common, but also development, shape, length, thickness changes. To the Northern Zhou and Sui Dynasty, began to have a "horizontal flute" of the name. In the later part of the Sui Dynasty, a ten-hole flute capable of playing chromatic scales appeared.

Tang and Song Dynasties

The "big horizontal flute section" and the "small horizontal flute section" of the Sui and Tang Dynasties used the horizontal flute. In the "Yanle" music of the Sui and Tang dynasties, which was played for enjoyment and entertainment, the Hengfeng flute (then called Hengliu) was widely active in the orchestra, and it can be seen in the murals of the Sui dynasty at Dunhuang and in the pictures of Tang Kabuki musicians. In other historical paintings we find the flute playing in both directions.

During the Tang Dynasty, there were already records of famous flute players, such as Li Mu, Sun Chuxiu, You Cheng'en, and Yun Chaoxia. Among them, Li Mu studied under the musicians from Guzi in the western region, and because of his extraordinary flute playing, his skills were outstanding, and he was called "the best in the world" in flute blowing during the reign of Emperor Kaiyuan.

Chen-Yeh-Yeung's "Book of Music", Volume 148: "The seven-star pipe of the Tang Dynasty is an ancient flute, with a shape like a Chi and a long one, with a number of Ying-guide and seven holes, blowing horizontally, with a hole in the side for sticking the bamboo membrane, and aiding the sound by the sounding of the ***, which was also made by the Liu family ......." Perhaps, at least from the Tang Dynasty onwards, the flute had been recognized as "the best in the world". Perhaps at least since the Tang Dynasty, with Chinese membrane flute tone characteristics of the flute appeared. The flute with membrane is one of the most distinctive marks of the Chinese flute. [1]

From the Tang Dynasty onwards, there was also a distinction between the flute with a large horizontal blow and a small horizontal blow. At the same time, the vertically blown flute was called xiao, while the horizontally blown flute was called dizi. In the Tang Dynasty, Lu Cai made the "Shakuhachi", a vertical flute, which was introduced to Japan, and in the Shokurain Temple in Nara, the ancient capital, there are four horizontal flutes made in the Tang Dynasty in China. Among them, there are one tooth and one carved stone flute, and two bamboo flutes, which are of different lengths, but all of them have seven oval sound holes. Liu made a seven-star pipe flute with a membrane to help the sound, and was the first person to add a membrane to the flute. From the 7th century onwards, the flute was further improved by adding membrane holes, which led to a great development of its expressive power, and the playing technique was also developed to a fairly high level.

Song flute system is diverse, there are forked hand flute, dragon neck flute, eleven holes of the small horizontal blowing, nine holes of the large horizontal flute, seven holes of the jade flute and so on, with the rise of the Song and Yuan opera, opera flourished, the flute became the accompaniment of many kinds of plays, and according to the accompaniment of different kinds of plays are divided into two categories: bang flute and qu flute. The flute is also an indispensable instrument in the bands of folk operas and ethnic minority operas.

Modern

In the 1960s, Zhao Songting invented the row flute, in which two to four flutes in different keys were tied together, expanding the range by more than three octaves, making the music more varied and easier to play.