The ''paixiao'' (traditional: 排簫; simplified: 排箫;

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

: ''páixiāo''; also pái xiāo) is a Chinese wind instrument, a form of

pan flute A pan flute (also known as panpipes or syrinx) is a musical instrument based on the principle of the closed tube, consisting of multiple pipes of gradually increasing length (and occasionally girth). Multiple varieties of pan flutes have been ...

. A major difference between the Chinese Paixiao and the panpipes used in European and South American traditions, is that at the top of the Chinese instrument the pipe holes are each cut angled or with notches. This allows for bending the pitch in similar capacity to the dongxiao down a

minor second A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically. It is defined as the interval between two adjacent no ...

. This allows Chinese paixiao to be fully

chromatic Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair, ...

without loss in

timbre In music, timbre ( ), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or musical tone, tone. Timbre distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voice ...

, even though the included pipes are tuned diatonically.The method of blowing ''so'' is to hold the head of the frame with both hands, with the mouthpiece facing the front, place the lower lip on the mouthpiece, and find and blow each tube according to the pitch. In Korea, an instrument called the ''so'' (

hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The let ...

: 소;

hanja Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom. (, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, wh ...

: 簫) was derived from the ''paixiao'' and used in ritual music. The ''so'' is made up of 16

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, bu ...

tubes, so each sound is played in one tube.

History

The earliest paixiao discovered so far in the world is the

bone A bone is a Stiffness, rigid Organ (biology), organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red blood cell, red and white blood cells, store minerals, provid ...

paixiao in the early Western Zhou Dynasty 3000 years ago. The two earliest bamboo paixiao unearthed from the

tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng The Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng () is an archaeological site in Leigudun Community (), Nanjiao Subdistrict (), Zengdu District, Suizhou (during the Spring and Autumn period called Sui County), Hubei, China, dated sometime after 433 BC. The tomb co ...

in the Warring States period are more than 2400 years ago. They are shaped like the wings of a Phoenix. They are all made of 13 bamboo tubes of different lengths arranged in turn and wrapped with three bamboo tubes. The surface is decorated with red three corner patterns on a black background. In ancient times, male and female paixiao were often used as ensemble to set off each other, just like male and female duets. During the 1600 years from the spring and Autumn period to the end of the

Tang Dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...

, the number and length of PaiXiao were different, which were spread through the ages and improved by instrumentalists. There are still two pieces of PaiXiao from Tang Dynasty in the Zhengcang courtyard of Dongda temple in Nara, the ancient capital of Japan. In the Institute of Chinese music in Beijing, there is a paixiao made in the

Qianlong The Qianlong Emperor (25 September 17117 February 1799), also known by his Temple name, temple name Emperor Gaozong of Qing, born Hongli, was the fifth List of emperors of the Qing dynasty, Emperor of the Qing dynasty and the fourth Qing empe ...

period (1736-1795) of the Qing Dynasty. There are 16 pipes in total. Each pipe is engraved with a sound name. The craft is very exquisite and the shape is beautiful. There are two golden dragons rising from the clouds on the set frame. In 1981,

Jilin opera Jilin opera (, Pinyin: Jiju) is a form of Chinese opera, especially popular in Jilin province, China. Compared to Kun opera or Beijing opera, it is played in modern Mandarin, similar to Pingju opera. Jilin opera came into Beijing in the secon ...

house developed the double row and key Paixiao. This kind of paixiao has a wide range of sound, which can not only play melodious and soothing music, but also play lively and lively music. A musician named Gao Ming (高明) plays a version called the ''paidi'' in the

Music and Dance Show at the

Shaanxi Grand Opera House Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see § Name) is a landlocked province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichuan (SW), Gansu (W), Ni ...

Xi'an Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by #Name, other names, is the list of capitals in China, capital of Shaanxi, Shaanxi Province. A Sub-provincial division#Sub-provincial municipalities, sub-provincial city o ...

; he has been a member of this ensemble since 1982. While his instrument superficially resembles the instrument used during the Tang Dynasty, its pipes have ducts rather than being end-blown, it is played with the pipes held horizontally rather than vertically, and it is set up to play in parallel thirds.

References

{{Traditional Chinese musical instruments Panpipes Chinese musical instruments

History

See also

References