Related

TimbreHarmonic SeriesShengQiang fluteDiziYu (mouth organ)

The wind section ends with its one "boundary case."

The jaw harp makes no sound from airflow — it is a plucked idiophone: a fixed-at-one-end lamella vibrates, and the mouth amplifies and shapes it. Small enough for a pocket (8–9 cm), yet called "the first instrument humanity possessed" — "humanity's first sound."

⚠️ And its most astonishing fact comes from Shimao, Shaanxi, in 2017–2018: twenty-odd bone jaw harps from the Huangchengtai, about 4,000 years old — the earliest and largest find of its kind anywhere in the world. The report's conclusion: the Hetao region of north China may be the "homeland" of the world's jaw harps. ⭐⭐ Rule ㊴: an eight-centimetre object that moved the coordinates of world music history — "humanity's first sound" and a diffusion line from north China to the Eurasian steppe. It is also why the wind section ends here: the last lesson is where "wind instrument" ends.

How it sounds: not on a string, in the mouth

Three points:

1. A strip and a frame. "A thin lamella, fixed at one end, vibrates" — the Shimao pieces are frame-and-tongue in one, the tongue cut out of the bone itself. 2. The hand drives it, not the breath. Finger-plucking (or string-pulling) sets the tongue moving — hence plucked idiophone. The "string" is plucked by your finger and drawn by your mouth. 3. ⭐ Pitch and melody are separated: the reed gives a base vibration, the melody is selected as overtones by the mouth and tongue — your mouth is the soundbox.

Shimao: an instrument's file, 4,000 years old

⭐ Every line of that file is worth reading:

⭐ And the report's account of playing is nearly a painting: "one hand pinches the foot, holds the harp loosely to the lips, the other pulls the cord… with mouth resonance and tongue position" — giving "chirring, humming" tones. The researcher imagines the empty terrace 4,000 years ago: "a sound like cicadas and swarming bees."

A line from north China to the Eurasian steppe

• It still sounds worldwide: Inuit, Native American, Sámi, Ainu… an eight-centimetre object that is genuinely a world instrument.
• ⭐ And archaeology has drawn its diffusion line: from about 2000 BCE to the 5th century CE — some 2,500 years — harps unearthed from north China, the Mongolian plateau and southern Siberia share the same structure, narrow strips, mostly string-pulled; "a diffusion line from north China toward the Eurasian steppe emerges naturally."
• At home it lives among 30+ peoples under 50-plus names: Evenki "mukulian", Mongol "ahu min'er", Manchu "mokuni", Yi "honghong / nongguo", Dai "bai", Li "kougong"…
• ⭐ Its uses have stayed the same: feelings, courtship, ritual, amusement, social life. In 2008 (Butuo Yi) and 2011 (Beichuan Qiang) it entered the national intangible-heritage list.

Range

口弦的「音域」概念与一般乐器不同：簧提供基础振动，可辨的旋律来自口腔选出的不同泛音。记载不一：羌族口弦「音域不足一个八度」；布拖彝族口弦「簧片可发宫 · 商 · 羽等音」（约三个音）。本图只示意「不足一个八度」，不代表所有形制。记谱即实音。

The name was wrong twice

Its commonest modern name is 口弦 — "mouth *string*" — and it has no string at all. The first mistake: early writers understood it by analogy with the zither's strings, and gave it a "string" character.

Its old name, "簧", was mistaken too: Han-dynasty *Shuowen* glosses it as "簧: the reed of a sheng," making it a part of a mouth organ. The archaeological view runs the other way: the pre-Qin "huang" was made of bone or bamboo, "sounded by pulling a cord — a separate instrument, not a sheng part."

⭐ Hence names-history item ⑱: a name built on a misunderstanding — "mouth string" mistook a reed for a string; "sheng's reed" mistook an instrument for a component. And when "huang" died out in the Central Plains after the Yuan, the wrong name was forgotten with it; from the Ming people simply called it "口琴" (mouth organ) — until modern archaeology and ethnography recognised it again: "口簧" is its true name.

Common misconceptions

• "It is a wind instrument." ⚠️ It is a plucked idiophone: a lamella vibrates; airflow only *shapes*. This page keeps it in the wind section as the boundary case.
• "It has a string." ⚠️ The name is wrong: no string — only a vibrating tongue. "Reed" (簧) is the accurate word.
• "Just a small toy." ⚠️ Those 23 pieces came from the Shimao palace terrace; the pre-Qin "huang" was a noble's instrument, and a Han palace once held a "Reed Drumming Hall." It is the earliest jaw harp find in the world.
• "It belongs only to minority peoples." ⚠️ It once flourished in the Central Plains — by the late 4th century it was "very popular" in Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou; it vanished there only after the Yuan. Today it lives among minorities *and* worldwide.
• "You just blow." ⚠️ Its sound is held in the mouth: lips loose, cavity shaped, tongue moved — the same reed, a different world for every player.

Timbre, and how to hear it

Three cues:

1. Hear the tune inside the hum. The buzz is the reed's base tone; the melody is overtones picked by the mouth — so it sounds "out of tune" and yet in tune every phrase. 2. Hear "cicadas and bees." The Shimao researcher's phrase for a sound 4,000 years old. 3. Hear the smallness. A pocket instrument — and one of humanity's earliest instrument forms. Music need not be big.

The family

⭐ One sentence for the table: "reed" is the busiest word in instrument history — in the sheng it rides on air, in the jaw harp on a finger, and in a mistranslation it became a string.

Next

The wind section closes here — from the dizi to the jaw harp, fourteen entries.

Next: plucked strings. The first is the Silk Road's most splendid figure: it vanished from the Central Plains and was rebuilt in the 20th century; Dunhuang's murals are full of it, and the Shōsōin still keeps a real one.

Konghou, the Chinese harp. :::

Sources

• ⭐⭐ 定义与地位：「口簧琴，又称口弦 · 口簧 · 响篾等，是一种依靠一端被固定的具有一定弹性的薄片振动而发音的拨奏体鸣乐器」；「古称『簧』」；「被称为『人类拥有的第一件乐器』或『人类初音』」；「是研究人类远古音乐的『活化石』」；「是中国最小的民族乐器之一」；「在我国，至今有 30 多个民族还在使用这种乐器，所用名称达 50 余种」依乐器资料与新华网资料
• ⭐⭐ 石峁遗址（考古）：「2017 年至 2018 年，陕西石峁遗址皇城台地点出土了 20 余枚（一说 23 件）绳振式骨制口簧，这是目前已知世界范围内时代最早 · 数量最大的一次发现，表明中国北方河套地区可能是世界口簧的祖源地」；「骨质窄条片状，由琴鞘和簧片组成，器身镂刻舌簧，一般长约 8 至 9 厘米 · 宽约 1 厘米 · 厚度仅 1—2 毫米」；「为框舌一体的自体簧，框首圆孔外缘保留了绳子拉振时形成的磨痕，暗示它是通过拉振实现簧舌的振动，即所谓绳振簧」；「与这些口弦琴一起发现的还有骨制管哨和陶制球哨」；「测年数据显示，这些口弦琴制作于距今约 4000 年前」；「2019 年，石峁遗址被评为『全国十大考古新发现』」；孙周勇《陕西神木石峁遗址出土口簧研究》（《文物》2020）；「石峁口簧是近现代流行于世界各地的口弦类乐器的祖型」依考古研究资料 · 新华社与新华网资料
• ⭐⭐ 演奏法（石峁报告）：「一手拇指 · 食指轻捏框尾，将口簧贴近唇部虚含，另一手扯动线绳以振动簧框，簧框带动簧舌在舌窗中前后振动，通过乐器与口型的紧密结合，并借助口腔共鸣与舌位的变化，发出『呷呷』『嗡嗡』的音律」；布拖彝族口弦「演奏时通过唇舌变动与口腔共鸣发声，音色变化多端」，「竹质长 15 厘米形如短剑，铜质长 8 厘米形如树叶，簧片可发宫 · 商 · 羽等音」；羌族口弦「用长约 10 厘米的金竹制作，依靠扯动麻线振动发音，音域不足一个八度，主要用于婚嫁 · 恋爱等场合」依考古报告与非遗资料
• ⭐⭐ 文献与失传：「先秦至晋的古籍记载，『簧』是贵族使用的一种高雅的乐器，尤为文人雅士所喜爱；据《汉宫阙疏》所载，在汉代皇宫中还建有一座『鼓簧宫』」；《诗经》「君子阳阳，左执簧」「吹笙鼓簧」（《小雅 · 鹿鸣》）；《世本 · 作篇》《魏书 · 乐志》有「女娲作笙簧」的传说；汉 · 刘熙《释名 · 释乐器》「以竹铁作，于口横鼓之」；「在公元 4 世纪末，在中国四川 · 云南 · 贵州一带的少数民族地区，『簧』已经非常流行」；「北宋陈旸《乐书》中载有『竹簧』和民间流行的『铁叶簧』，这是见于文献的最早图像」；「元代以后，『簧』在中原内地逐渐失传，『簧』的名称也渐渐被人们遗忘了。明代以来，口弦被称作『口琴』」；《清朝通典》「以铁为之，一柄两股，中设一簧，末出股外。横衔于口，鼓簧转舌，嘘吸成音」；《大清会典图》亦载其图依古籍与乐器资料
• ⭐⭐ "簧"到底是不是笙的零件（学术争议）：孙周勇认为「先秦文献中的『簧』多以骨 · 竹制成，穿绳拉振成音，是单独乐器，并非笙的配件」—— 与汉代许慎《说文解字》「簧，笙中簧也」（释簧为笙的配件）不同；《诗经》「吹笙鼓簧」可作两解依新华网与考古研究资料
• ⭐ 各民族的名称（50 余种中举例）：「鄂温克族称『木库莲』，蒙古族称『阿胡敏儿』，满族称『莫库尼』，彝族称『洪洪』或『弄果』（布拖彝称『勒果』），傣族称『拜』，黎族称『口弓』」；别名另有「响篾 · 吹篾 · 弹篾 · 口弦琴」依乐器资料
• ⭐ 世界性与扩散：「（口簧）流行于世界大部分地区」；「爱斯基摩人 · 印第安人 · 北欧拉普人 · 北海道阿依努人等也擅用此类乐器」；「公元前 2000 年左右至公元 5 世纪，约 2500 年的历史中，在中国北方 · 蒙古高原以及俄罗斯南西伯利亚地区的欧亚草原东部区域，出土了一批早期口簧，它们基本结构相似，均为窄条薄片状，多属拉线式」；「如果将公元 2 世纪之前的口簧出土地点放置在地图上，一条口簧从中国北方向欧亚草原扩散传播的线路就会自然显现出来」；「口簧最初的传播可能与北方人群的北进及西迁相关……在进入匈奴文化区域后向欧亚草原东部扩散，同时向南进入中原地区」依新华社 · 中国日报资料
• ⭐ 用途与非遗：「历史上，口簧广泛用于情感交流 · 求爱 · 祭祀等活动」；「多用于娱乐和男女社交活动」；「2008 年布拖彝族口弦 · 2011 年北川羌族口弦分别列入第二批和第三批国家级非物质文化遗产名录（遗产编号 Ⅱ-136 · 类别：传统音乐）」；「现为内蒙古自治区级非物质文化遗产」依非遗资料
• ⚠️ 分类口径：Hornbostel–Sachs 与多份中文报告归入拨奏体鸣乐器（并非气鸣）；中文另有把口簧与笙 · 巴乌同列为「自由簧」类部件的用法 —— 口径不同，本页按石峁考古报告与非遗资料的「拨奏体鸣」标注，并把它留在吹管编制里作为边界件说明依资料整理
• 「口弦属于八音中的竹（多为竹制，亦有骨 · 铜 · 铁制）」依通行资料

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