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TimbreXunDiziXiaoPaixiao (Chinese panpipes)Guanzi

The dizi and the chi look like twins — and their whole difference compresses into one word: the *foot*.

Song-dynasty *Yue Shu* defines the chi in six characters: "the chi is a flute with a foot." The dizi is hollow end to end; the chi is stopped at the end.

⚠️ Beyond that one word, three more differences (the sources list them plainly): where the blow-hole sits (head-end for the dizi, mid-body possible for the chi), how the holes relate (blow-hole and finger-holes in one line for the dizi, ninety degrees apart for the chi), and how it is held (one palm out, one in for the dizi; both palms in for the chi). ⭐⭐ Rule ㊱: "a flute with a foot" — one word apart, two characters; and its whole life hangs on one institution. The foot turns "bright" into "full and solemn," "better suited to sorrow and longing"; and its fate is just as plain: after the Song it lived almost only in ritual music — an instrument that serves one institution dies with it, leaving diagrams, photos and reconstructions.

"The flute with a foot": four differences

⚠️ One honest note: this site does not supply physics the sources don't give. The sources describe what the foot *does* to the sound, not why; so this page does the same. (The paixiao page's "stopped pipes" discussion is a neighbouring case; it is not imported here to fill the gap.)

Zeng Hou Yi's two lacquered pipes

Its most famous "appearance" was in 1978:

• Two bamboo pipes from tomb no. 1 at Leigudun: one thicker, one thinner, 30.2 and 29.3 cm; flute-like in shape, but the tail closed by a natural node — physical proof of the "foot."
• Seven holes: one "upper" by the node, five in a row on the outer face, one "inner" by the other node.
• ⭐ The identification was pure scholarship: compare them with Qing-dynasty chi, consult the chi diagrams in the *Sancai Tuhui*, the *Yuhai* and the *Huangchao Liyue Tushi* — "these two pipes are certainly the chi." The texts and diagrams came first; the burial came later — archaeology checking a picture a millennium old.
• ⚠️ And they can no longer sound: two thousand years in water left the bamboo flesh rotted away, only skin and lacquer remaining — "like a tube rolled from a film." The holes are clear; the voice is gone. What saved them was lacquer (髹漆).
• The pitches come from replicas: six notes — a full pentatonic scale plus one altered tone.

Range

篪属边棱音气鸣乐器（有固定音高）。据曾侯乙墓摹制篪的测音结果，用最简单的指法可奏出 6 个音 —— 一个完整的五声音阶加一个变化音；文献另记宋 · 明时的篪用半孔指法可吹全十二律。此处按「五声音阶加顶端八度」以 C4–C5 示意（调高为示意，非实测）。记谱即实音。

⭐ Six notes looks thin — but it spent its life in ritual music, whose repertoire never asks a player to show off: it asks for steadiness, correctness, and blending with bells and chimes.

Three idioms and two stories

No instrument on this site carries more idioms — and all of them are kind:

⭐ All of them are about accord: the xun (earth) and the chi (bamboo) were a playing pair — one low, one high, one earthen, one bamboo. Two instruments that fit together became the word for people fitting together. (The xun page carries the same half-line — both pages are needed for the pair.)

And two stories, both about music solving things:

• ⭐ Wu Zixu begs with a chi. The *Records of the Grand Historian*: fleeing through Zhaoguan, with nothing to eat, he "puffed out his belly and played the chi, begging in the market of Wu" — a ritual instrument that once served as a beggar's bowl.
• ⭐⭐ The old woman who played the chi (*Luoyang Qielan Ji*, ch. 4). In the Northern Wei, a maidservant of Prince Yuan Chen named Chaoyun was a fine chi player. When the Qiang in Qinzhou revolted and "repeated campaigns failed to subdue them," the prince had her dress as a poor old woman and play while begging. She played the *Longshang Melody* — their own home tune. And: "The Qiang all wept. They said to one another: 'Why abandon our graves and homes to be bandits in the valleys?' And they surrendered in droves." Hence the local saying: "A swift horse and a strong man are no match for an old woman playing the chi." (A Ming couplet later reworked it as "the fair maid plays the flute, the old maid plays the chi.") ⭐ The loveliest part: she played no lofty ritual music — she played their home dialect in sound. A rebellion that swords could not end was ended by a tune from back home.

From the Rites of Zhou to the Confucian temple: a ritual-only lifeline

⭐ Read beside the guanzi's chart and two fates emerge:

• The guanzi "sank" from court to folk wind bands — and is played today;
• The chi stayed inside ritual music — "after the Song it faded, used mainly in court ritual"; by Ming–Qing it left diagrams; the 1957 Qufu photo is its last living appearance.

It did not die of music. It died of an institution.

Common misconceptions

• "Chi is just an old word for dizi." ⚠️ Two instruments: the dizi is hollow, the chi has a foot — plus blow-hole position, hole alignment, hand position and timbre. (As early as the Han, sources note the two names were "near in sound but different in form" — the confusion is ancient.)
• "Its foot stops it sounding." ⚠️ The reverse: the foot *is* its form. The Zeng Hou Yi pipes are silent because the bamboo flesh rotted, not because of their design — replicas sound six notes.
• "Just a bit-player in ritual music." ⚠️ It was one of the twenty fixed instruments of Sui–Tang ritual; in 1113 one court band had twenty-eight chi players; and with the xun it forms the Chinese word for harmony.
• "Everything in the *Book of Songs* is rarefied." ⚠️ Wu Zixu begged with a chi in the market of Wu; Chaoyun, disguised as a poor old woman, ended a revolt with a tune from home.
• "Lost means lost forever." ⚠️ Today the Yanfei chi is built from the excavated finds (with extra holes for range), and the Shengyueshu at the Temple of Heaven has reconstructed it from the texts with modern materials — it is coming back, in another body.

Timbre, and how to hear it

Three cues:

1. Hear the stopped roundness. Beside the dizi it loses brightness and gains thickness — the sources' words: "full and solemn." 2. Hear the steadiness. Its whole life was spent blending with bells and chimes — its aesthetic is fitting in, not standing out. 3. Hear the longing. The sources say it suits "sorrow and longing" — poets wrote the dizi often and the chi seldom; and whenever the chi appears, it is nearly always at a distance, or in loss.

The family

⭐ Columns two and three together show a whole pedigree of open versus stopped: chi · xun · paixiao stand on the stopped side, dizi and xiao on the open side — and one Zeng Hou Yi funeral furnished both.

Next

Next, an instrument almost nobody has seen — bearing one of the oldest names in Chinese wind music:

the yue. The *Shuowen* defines it like a riddle: "yue: a bamboo pipe of music, three holes, to bring all voices into accord." Is it a three-holed pipe, or a row of bound tubes? — scholars have argued for two thousand years.

Yue. :::

Sources

• ⭐⭐ 定义与"四不同"：「篪是中国古代汉族竹制横吹管乐器……宋代《乐书》称其为『有底之笛』」；「宋代陈旸《乐书》：『篪，有底之笛也，横吹之』，指其底端封闭」；四不同：「① 结构特征不同：篪是『有底之笛』，其底端封闭，而笛和箫都是整管中通；② 吹孔位置不同：笛子将吹口开在管的头端，（有些）篪将吹口开在管的中间；笛的指孔和吹孔在同一条直线上，而篪的吹孔 · 出音孔与五个指孔呈九十度；③ 演奏手型不同：演奏笛时一手手心向外 · 一手手心向内，演奏篪时需两掌心均向里；④ 音色不同：相比于笛的清脆，篪的音色更为浑厚而庄重，更适于表现悲伤和思念的情绪」依百科与报刊科普资料
• ⭐ 文献形制：「据《周礼 · 郑玄注》和陈旸《乐书》等书记载，均说篪为 6 孔（包括上出孔）· 底端封闭的一种横吹竹管乐器」；「《周礼》记载以竹管制成，管长一尺四寸至一尺二寸不等，底端封闭，设一吹孔 · 五按音孔及后出音孔」；《康熙字典》等「篪为管乐，长尺四寸，围三寸，一孔上出，横吹之」；「篪分为雅篪和颂篪两种，雅篪用于雅乐，声音较低；颂篪用于颂乐，声音较高」；晋代「它的吹孔已改用一个高出管身 1 寸 3 分（约 4.3 厘米）的『翘』（义嘴）吹奏……宋 · 明宫廷所用的篪，几乎全是这种形制」依古籍与通行资料
• ⭐⭐ 曾侯乙墓：「1978 年……擂鼓墩一号墓……出土两支竹制管乐器。这两支管乐器，一略粗，一略细，制作工艺相同，外形很像竹笛，但其尾部由天然竹节封死，身着七孔：平放时，靠竹节一孔上出，中间五孔并列外出，另靠竹节一孔内出。把这两支乐器与清朝篪对照，参考《三才图绘》《玉海》《皇朝礼乐图式》关于篪的图形及有关说明，可以断定这两支竹管乐器是篪无疑」；「长度分别为 30.2 厘米和 29.3 厘米」；「由于年代太久，加上泡在水里，竹肉均已烂掉，只剩下竹皮和漆皮，好似一层薄膜卷起的筒子，孔窍清晰，但无法吹奏出声音来」；「髹漆工艺功不可没……这也是彩漆竹篪千年不腐 · 形制得以完整保存的真正奥秘」；「经复原可奏六声音阶」依考古与报刊资料
• ⭐ 测音与文献音域：「篪的性能，从曾侯乙墓摹制篪的测音结果来看，使用最简单的指法，可奏出 6 个音，即一个完整的五声音阶加一个变化音。据文献记载，宋 · 明时的篪，使用半孔指法，可吹全十二律」依乐器资料
• ⭐⭐ 成语与典故：《诗经》「伯氏吹埙，仲氏吹篪」——「古人常以『埙篪』比喻兄弟和睦，形成『埙篪之交』典故」；相关成语另有「如埙如篪」「埙篪相和」；「后人称要好的朋友为『埙篪之交』就是由此而出」；《史记》「伍子胥出昭关，至于陵水，无以糊其口……鼓腹吹篪，乞食于吴市」依古籍与通行资料
• ⭐⭐ 老妪吹篪（《洛阳伽蓝记》卷四）：「有婢朝云，善吹篪，能为《团扇歌》《陇上声》。琛为秦州刺史，诸羌外叛，屡讨之不降。琛令朝云假为贫妪，吹篪而乞。诸羌闻之，悉皆流涕。迭相谓曰：『何为弃坟井，在山谷为寇也？』即相率归降。秦民语曰：『快马健儿，不如老妪吹篪。』」；「羌人闻其吹奏的《陇上声》等乡音，感怀流涕」；明代萧良有《龙文鞭影》「美姬工笛，老婢吹篪」化用此典依《洛阳伽蓝记》原文与辞书资料
• ⭐ 历史沿革：周代「《周礼 · 春官》中就记载了笙师掌教吹竽 · 笙 · 篪 · 埙等管乐器」；「春秋战国时期……不用于雅乐的伴奏 · 合奏，也可单独演奏」；汉代「竹笛已在宫廷乐队及民间大量使用，并取代了篪在乐队中的部分地位，但篪在雅乐中仍是主要乐器」——《后汉书 · 明帝纪》「永平十年……召校官子弟作雅乐，奏《鹿鸣》，帝自御埙 · 篪和之」；「隋唐时期，篪是钦定雅乐二十件乐器之一」；「北宋政和三年，一个宫廷乐队中就有吹篪乐工二十八人之多」；「元代，宫廷雅乐三十七种乐器，其中也有篪」；「明清时期，不少典籍中都曾记述过篪在乐队中的地位和作用，有些还绘有篪的图形」；「清《皇朝礼乐图式》卷八即有篪图」；「一九五七年，中国舞蹈艺术研究会赴山东曲阜孔庙考察雅乐乐舞时即拍有乐生吹篪的照片」；「宋以后，因主要用于宫廷雅乐而逐渐失传」依古籍与通行资料
• ⭐ 现代复原：「现代根据出土实物仿制的『雁飞篪』通过增设音孔扩展音域，兼具箫笛音色特征」；「当代亦有天坛神乐署等机构依据文献并运用现代材料（如 PPR 管）成功复原篪」；「2023 年，电影《封神第一部》中伯邑考演奏篪的情节」；另据辞书，「篪原是一种汉族民间乐器」依报刊与辞书资料
• 「篪与笛应是读音相近而形制有异的同类乐器」（汉代）；篪的异体写法有「箎 · 竾」依乐器资料
• 「篪属于八音中的竹」依通行资料

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.