MUZI MUZIChinese Matrix

Bone Flutes and Clay Ocarinas

Flutes of crane bone, ocarinas of clay

Introduction

The Jiahu bone flutes and prehistoric clay xun, the earliest wind instruments known in China

Bone flutes and clay ocarinas (xun) are the earliest wind instruments known in China. The flutes from Jiahu in Wuyang, Henan, are made from the wing bones of red-crowned cranes and date to about 7000–5700 BCE; they have five to eight holes, and the best-preserved one can still play a scale. The xun is a globular or egg-shaped vessel flute of fired clay: a one-hole xun was found at Hemudu in Zhejiang, and the Banpo xun from Xi'an can sound four notes. The Book of Songs pairs the xun with the chi flute, so it was still played under the Zhou. The bone flute has long since died out, but in the 1980s Zhao Liangshan developed a multi-hole xun that brought the instrument back to the concert stage.

Timeline

Neolithic to present
7000 BCE · OriginThe Jiahu site in Wuyang, Henan (c. 7000–5700 BCE) yielded six complete bone flutes and fragments of about thirty more, cut from crane ulnae with five to eight holes; the seven-hole flute can play a scale.5000 BCE · EvolutionA one-hole clay xun from the Hemudu site in Zhejiang, about seven thousand years old, is an early fired-clay wind instrument from the lower Yangtze.4000 BCE · EvolutionThe xun from Banpo in Xi'an (Yangshao culture), 5.8 cm long and more than six thousand years old, was tested in 1978 and sounds four notes.1983 · ImpactIn the 1980s Zhao Liangshan modelled a ten-hole xun on prehistoric shapes to widen its range; his 1983 stage performance brought the xun back into concert life.
  1. 7000 BCEOriginThe Jiahu site in Wuyang, Henan (c. 7000–5700 BCE) yielded six complete bone flutes and fragments of about thirty more, cut from crane ulnae with five to eight holes; the seven-hole flute can play a scale.
  2. 5000 BCEEvolutionA one-hole clay xun from the Hemudu site in Zhejiang, about seven thousand years old, is an early fired-clay wind instrument from the lower Yangtze.
  3. 4000 BCEEvolutionThe xun from Banpo in Xi'an (Yangshao culture), 5.8 cm long and more than six thousand years old, was tested in 1978 and sounds four notes.
  4. 1983ImpactIn the 1980s Zhao Liangshan modelled a ten-hole xun on prehistoric shapes to widen its range; his 1983 stage performance brought the xun back into concert life.