Chinese musical instruments are traditionally grouped into eight categories (classified by the material from which the instruments were made) known as bā yīn (八音).[1] The eight categories are silk, bamboo, wood, stone, metal, clay, gourd and skin; other instruments considered traditional exist that may not fit these groups. The grouping of instruments in material categories in China is one of the first musical groupings ever devised.
Silk
Silk (絲) instruments are mostly stringed instruments (including those that are plucked, bowed, and struck). Since ancient times, the Chinese have used twisted silk for strings, though today metal or nylon are more frequently used. Instruments in the silk category include:
Huleiqin (忽雷琴) - pear-shaped lute slightly smaller than the pipa, with 2 strings and body covered with snakeskin; it was used during the Tang Dynasty but is no longer used
Pipa (琵琶) – pear-shaped fretted lute with 4 or 5 strings
Liuqin (柳琴) – small plucked, fretted lute with a pear-shaped body and four and five strings
Ruan (Chinese: 阮; pinyin: ruǎn) – moon-shaped lute in five sizes: gaoyin-, xiao-, zhong-, da-, and diyin-; sometimes called ruanqin (阮琴)
Yueqin (月琴) – plucked lute with a wooden body, a short fretted neck, and four strings tuned in pairs
Qinqin (秦琴) – plucked lute with a wooden body and fretted neck; also called meihuaqin (梅花琴, literally "plum blossom instrument", from its flower-shaped body)
Sanxian (三弦) – plucked lute with body covered with snakeskin and long fretless neck; the ancestor of the Japanese shamisen
Qiben (起奔) - a four strings plucked lute of Lisu people
Wanqin (弯琴: shaped like a dragon boat. Its shape is very similar to Myanmar's saung-gauk. Another variation of the wanqin held in the form of a harp with four strings was found in a painting of Feitian in Mogao caves, Dunhuang province.
Kongqin (孔琴): A pear-shaped ruan with five strings similar to ukulele
Bowed
Re-enactment of an ancient traditional music performanceA mural from the tomb of Xu Xianxiu in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, dated 571 AD during the Northern Qi Dynasty, showing male court musicians playing stringed instruments, either the liuqin or pipa, and a woman playing a konghou (harp)
Erxian (二弦) – two-stringed fiddle, used in Cantonese, Chaozhou, and nanguan music
Tiqin (提琴) – two-stringed fiddle, used in kunqu, Chaozhou, Cantonese, Fujian, and Taiwanese music
Yehu (椰胡) – two-stringed fiddle with coconut body, used primarily in Cantonese and Chaozhou music
Daguangxian (大广弦) – two-stringed fiddle used in Taiwan and Fujian, primarily by Min Nan and Hakka people; also called datongxian (大筒弦), guangxian (广弦), and daguanxian (大管弦)
Datong (大筒) – two-stringed fiddle used in the traditional music of Hunan
Ghaychak (艾捷克) – four-stringed bowed instrument used in Uyghur traditional music of Xinjiang; similar to kamancheh[2]
Sataer (萨塔尔 or 萨它尔) – long-necked bowed lute with 13 strings used in Uyghur traditional music of Xinjiang. 1 playing string and 12 sympathetic strings.
Khushtar (胡西它尔) – a four-stringed bowed instrument used in Uyghur traditional music of Xinjiang.
Zhu (筑) – a zither similar to a guzheng, played with a bamboo mallet
Niujinqin (牛筋琴) – a zither used to accompany traditional narrative singing in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province. Similar to a se but played with a bamboo mallet.
Combined
Wenqin (文琴) – a combination of the erhu, konghou, sanxian and guzheng with 50 or more steel strings.
Bamboo
A half-section of the Song Dynasty (960–1279) version of the Night Revels of Han Xizai, original by Gu Hongzhong;[3] the female musicians in the center of the image are playing transverse bamboo flutes and guan, and the male musician is playing a wooden clapper called paiban.A bawu in the key of F
Bamboo (竹) mainly refers to woodwind instruments, which includes;
Flutes
Dizi (笛子) – transverse bamboo flute with buzzing membrane
Guan (Chinese: 管; pinyin: guǎn) – cylindrical double reed wind instrument made of either hardwood (Northern China) or bamboo (Cantonese); the northern version is also called guanzi (管子) or bili (simplified Chinese: 筚篥; traditional Chinese: 篳篥), the Cantonese version is also called houguan (喉管), and the Taiwanese version is called 鴨母笛, or Taiwan guan (台湾管)
Shuangguan (雙管) - literally "double guan," an instrument consisting of two guanzi (cylindrical double reed pipes) of equal length, joined together along their length
A set of muyu, or Chinese wooden slit drums. The sound produced is affected by the instrument's size, type of wood, and how hollow it is.
Most wood (木) instruments are of the ancient variety:
Zhu (Chinese: 柷; pinyin: zhù) – a wooden box that tapers from the top to the bottom, played by hitting a stick on the inside, used to mark the beginning of music in ancient ritual music
Yu (Chinese: 敔; pinyin: yǔ) – a wooden percussion instrument carved in the shape of a tiger with a serrated back, played by hitting a stick with an end made of approximately 15 stalks of bamboo on its head three times and across the serrated back once to mark the end of the music
Paiban (拍板) – a clapper made from several flat pieces of wood; also called bǎn (板), tánbǎn (檀板), mùbǎn (木板), or shūbǎn (书板); when used together with a drum the two instruments are referred to collectively as guban (鼓板)
Ban
Zhuban (竹板, a clapper made from two pieces of bamboo)
Chiban (尺板)
Bangzi (梆子) – small, high-pitched woodblock; called qiaozi (敲子) or qiaoziban (敲子板) in Taiwan
Nan bangzi (南梆子)
Hebei bangzi (河北梆子)
Zhui bangzi (墜梆子)
Qin bangzi (秦梆子)
Stone
The stone (石) category comprises various forms of stone chimes.
Qing (磬) – a cup-shaped bell used in Buddhist and Daoist ritual music
Daqing (大磬) – large qing
Pengling (碰铃; pinyin: pènglíng) – a pair of small bowl-shaped finger cymbals or bells connected by a length of cord, which are struck together
Dangzi (铛子) – a small, round, flat, tuned gong suspended by being tied with silk string in a round metal frame that is mounted on a thin wooden handlephoto; also called dangdang (铛铛)
Yinqing (引磬) – an inverted small bell affixed to the end of a thin wooden handlephoto
Yunzheng (云铮) – a small flat gong used in the traditional music of Fujian [2]
Sheng (Chinese: 笙; pinyin: shēng) – free reed mouth organ consisting of varying number of bamboo pipes inserted into a metal (formerly gourd or hardwood) chamber with finger holes
Baosheng (抱笙) – larger version of the Sheng
Yu (Chinese: 竽; pinyin: yú) – ancient free reed mouth organ similar to the sheng but generally larger
Hulusi (simplified Chinese: 葫芦丝; traditional Chinese: 葫蘆絲; pinyin: húlúsī) – free-reed wind instrument with three bamboo pipes which pass through a gourd wind chest; one pipe has finger holes and the other two are drone pipes; used primarily in Yunnan province
Diangu (点鼓; also called huaigu, 怀鼓) – a double-headed frame drum played with a single wooden beater; used in the Shifangu ensemble music of Jiangsu province and to accompany to kunqu opera
Lilie (唎咧) – reed wind instrument with a conical bore played by the Li people of Hainan
Lusheng (simplified Chinese: 芦笙; traditional Chinese: 蘆笙; pinyin: lúshēng) – free-reed mouth organ with five or six pipes, played by various ethnic groups in southwest China and neighboring countries
Chinese instruments are either played solo, collectively in large orchestras (as in the former imperial court) or in smaller ensembles (in teahouses or public gatherings). Normally, there is no conductor in traditional Chinese music, nor any use of musical scores or tablature in performance. Music was generally learned aurally and memorized by the musician(s) beforehand, then played without aid. As of the 20th century, musical scores have become more common, as has the use of conductors in larger orchestral-type ensembles.
Musical instruments in use in the 1800s
These watercolour illustrations, made in China in the 1800s, show several types of musical instruments being played:
Woman playing a dizi.
Woman playing a jinghu.
Woman playing a luo.
Woman playing a pipa.
Woman playing a sanxian.
Woman playing a yunluo.
Woman playing a xiaoluo.
Woman playing a haotou.
Woman playing a xiao.
Woman playing what looks like a yangqin or some sort of psaltery-like instrument.
^"Archived copy". www.chinamedley.com. Archived from the original on 12 December 2006. Retrieved 11 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^Patricia Ebrey (1999), Cambridge Illustrated History of China, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 148.
Lee, Yuan-Yuan and Shen, Sinyan. Chinese Musical Instruments (Chinese Music Monograph Series). 1999. Chinese Music Society of North America Press. ISBN1-880464-03-9
Shen, Sinyan. Chinese Music in the 20th Century (Chinese Music Monograph Series). 2001. Chinese Music Society of North America Press. ISBN1-880464-04-7
Yuan, Bingchang, and Jizeng Mao (1986). Zhongguo Shao Shu Min Zu Yue Qi Zhi. Beijing: Xin Shi Jie Chu Ban She/Xin Hua Shu Dian Beijing Fa Xing Suo Fa Xing. ISBN7-80005-017-3.
