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PitchShengPaixiao (Chinese panpipes)DiziXun

The yu is the sheng grown large — the same principle, taken to its limit.

More reeds, a bigger gourd chest, four *chi* two *cun* long (nearly a metre). And its most famous appearance is precisely the time someone did not play it — *lan yu chong shu*: in King Xuan of Qi's band of three hundred, Master Nanguo faked it for a lifetime.

⚠️ But while it lived, its post was far above "faker" — the *Han Feizi* puts it plainly: "The yu is the eldest of the five tones; when the yu starts, bell and zither follow." ⭐⭐ Rule ㉜: "larger" was once a qualification, then became a burden — the yu rose with the big band and died as the band shrank. Warring States and Han could hold "three hundred at once"; by the Song the court's thirteen divisions had "only a sheng section, no yu section" — what retired it was not an enemy but its little brother, the sheng. And today one line of sheng reform is to build back up to thirty-six reeds: "large" was never wrong — it just came back under another name.

The sheng grown large

Three points:

1. One family, two sizes. The yu works exactly like the sheng (free reeds, reed-pipe coupling); the difference is scale — "the sheng is small with few reeds; the yu is large with many." The dividing line the ancients drew was reed count: "centre pipe, 36 reeds: yu; side pipe, 19 down to 13: sheng" (*Book of Song*). 2. How far was "to the limit"? Zheng Xuan's note to the *Rites of Zhou*: "the yu, 36 reeds; the sheng, 13"; Jia Gongyan's sub-commentary: "the yu is four chi two cun long" — by Han measure, nearly a metre of reed instrument. 3. ⭐ The object speaks. Mawangdui's yu (22 reeds) is not merely "more pipes": it has folded pipes and four twin finger-holes for the low register, with bronze reeds — two thousand years ago, this instrument was already solving the bass problem with pipe geometry.

"When the yu starts, bell and zither follow": it led

In its lifetime the yu was no "faker's instrument" — it was the lead (the eldest member of this batch's "who gives orders" family, rules ⑰–⑱):

• "The yu is the eldest of the five tones; when the yu starts, bell and zither follow." (*Han Feizi*)
• Scale was normal. King Xuan's "three hundred at once"; Linzi's citizens "all play the yu and pluck the se" — in the Warring States the yu was a civic-grade instrument.
• It led the baixi spectacles: Western Han tomb figurines and Eastern Han stone reliefs show it holding an important place in those bands.
• ⭐ And the "yu pitch-pipes" buried at Mawangdui show its relation to the standard: twelve pipes inscribed with the twelve lü names — ancient tuning pipes, the first such find in archaeology. Its very name carries "tuning" (⚠️ research suggests this set may have been a burial replica: its measurements do not match the Han standard). (The paixiao on this site also did the ancient band's tuning — both the gourd and bamboo families produced "measuring instruments.")

Range

竽属气鸣乐器（自由簧 · 匏类）。史料记其规格（三十六簧 · 长四尺二寸 · 马王堆实物二十二簧带折叠管），但鲜载音域，也无传世实测；此处以同族三十六簧笙的音域 G3–G6 示意，不代表竽的实际音域。记谱即实音。

⚠️ This figure must be read with its caveat: the yu's range was never measured — it died too early, leaving only specifications. After an instrument disappears, "how high could it play" becomes unknowable.

Rise and fall

The withdrawal left clear records:

⭐ Note the sharpest lesson in that curve — it was retired by its little brother:

• yu and sheng differ only in scale (large-many vs small-few);
• as ensembles moved from "three hundred in unison" toward finer, more varied scoring, larger meant dearer, heavier, less nimble;
• what survived was the one that did the same job smaller.
• And when modern sheng builders went large again (36 reeds), it was new materials and craft that made it viable — "large" was never the problem; the age that could carry "large" was.

"Lan yu chong shu": the most famous appearance

The *Han Feizi* tells it like a fable already polished:

"King Xuan of Qi had men play the yu — always three hundred at once. Master Nanguo asked to play, and the king was pleased, feeding him from the same stipend as hundreds. When the king died and King Min took the throne, who loved to hear them one by one — and the gentleman fled."

• With three hundred blowing together, whether one man plays is inaudible — the cover of the ensemble;
• heard one by one, he is exposed in a second — the mirror of the solo.
• ⭐ So the instrument's strangest legacy: its most famous appearance is someone not playing it. The idiom "lan yu chong shu" (passing off fakes among the yu) has outlived the yu itself — rule ⑪ says a name can leave its instrument; the yu gives the blackest-comic version: the instrument is gone, and the story still teaches people not to fake it.
• ⭐ And the ancients once rated its sound seriously: the *Book of Rites* — "when the gentleman hears the yu and sheng, he thinks of ministers who gather people together." An instrument later buried under a joke was first heard as "gathering."

Common misconceptions

• "The yu is just another word for the sheng." ⚠️ One family, two instruments, divided by reed count — 22 and up is a yu, 19 and down a sheng.
• "The yu died because it sounded bad." ⚠️ No such evidence: it withdrew through changes in scoring — from civic and baixi star to court-ritual-only to the Song court's "no yu section," replaced by the sheng of the same family.
• "The idiom means the yu was worthless." ⚠️ The opposite: its premise is that three hundred playing together was a magnificent spectacle — the yu was "eldest of the five tones," able to mount such a scene. What was wrong was the man who snuck in.
• "The yu exists only in books." ⚠️ There are objects: the Mawangdui yu (22 reeds, bronze reeds, folded pipes, twin holes) and a set of "yu pitch-pipes" inscribed with the twelve lü; Tang sheng and yu even travelled to Japan and survive in the Shōsōin.
• "It vanished utterly." ⚠️ The name lived on to 1088 (the "yu-sheng"), and its "large" has revived in today's sheng (36 reeds) — just not under the name yu.

Timbre, and how to hear it

Three cues:

1. Hear the "family." Same principle as the sheng — the point is not a different colour but bulk: more reeds, longer pipes, a bigger chest. 2. The sound of "gathering." The *Book of Rites* heard "ministers who gather people" in it — the free reed is sustaining, dense, and dozens can stack without fighting — that is the acoustics behind "three hundred at once." 3. Hear its post. "When the yu starts, bell and zither follow" — listen imagining the lead: it sounds, and only then does the band move.

The family

⭐ The first two rows are this batch's latest "one family, two fates": same "eldest of the five tones," the little brother alive today, the big brother surviving only in an idiom. (Compare the paixiao and the xiao — the many-tubed one shrank, the large one vanished; what survived was always the lighter.)

Next

The gourd class is complete once its "largest" is written — but the gourd road never closed:

the next instrument also keeps its gourd as a resonator, and it is a living instrument — the hulusi: one melody pipe, two drone pipes, free reeds again, and the gourd kept right there in the name.

Hulusi. :::

Sources

• ⭐⭐ 定义与分界：「竽是中国古代一种气鸣乐器，属自由簧，类似于笙，不过较之为大，到宋已失传。亦有说法云大笙叫做竽，小笙叫做和」；「以竹为苗，以匏为斗」；「在合奏中调音和领奏」依通行乐器资料
• ⭐⭐ 规格（簧数分界）：《周礼 · 春官 · 笙师》「笙师掌教吹竽 · 笙」，郑玄注引郑司农「竽，三十六簧；笙，十三簧」；贾公彦疏「竽长四尺二寸」；《风俗通》「管三十六簧也，长四尺二寸；今二十三管」；《宋书 · 乐志》「宫管在中央，三十六簧曰竽；宫管在左旁，十九簧至十三簧曰笙」；《说文解字》「笙，十三簧」「竽，三十六簧」；「一般都把二十二簧 · 二十三簧 · 三十六簧或以上型制称作竽；十九簧以下称作笙」依古籍与通行资料
• ⭐ 同族与评价：《吕氏春秋 · 仲夏纪》高诱注「竽，笙之大者」；《礼记 · 乐记》「君子听竽笙，则思畜聚之臣」；《管子 · 任法》「钟鼓竽瑟，宫中之乐，无禁圉也」依古籍
• ⭐⭐ 领奏：《韩非子 · 解老》「竽也者，五声之长者也，故竽先则钟瑟皆随」；《史记 · 苏秦列传》「临菑甚富而实，其民无不吹竽鼓瑟，弹琴击筑，斗鸡走狗，六博蹋鞠者」依古籍
• ⭐⭐ 三百人：《韩非子 · 内储说上》「齐宣王使人吹竽，必三百人，南郭处士请为王吹竽，宣王说之，廪食以数百人。宣王死，湣王立，好一一听之，处士逃」依《韩非子》
• ⭐⭐ 马王堆实物：「1972 年发掘的马王堆一号汉墓出土了数件乐器，包括瑟 · 竽各一具，以及一套『竽律』—— 由十二根长短不一的竹管构成……根据竹管下部墨书的十二律吕名称可知，这套竽律即文献所载古时用来定音的『律管』，为考古实物的首出」；⚠️「（该套律管）尺寸和音高的实测数据与汉制律管的标准不符……（发掘报告判断）并非实用乐器，而是为随葬制作的明器」；「（马王堆）三号墓除出土瑟 · 竽外，又有七弦琴和六孔箫，这些都是首次发现的西汉实物」依马王堆发掘资料与音乐考古研究
• ⭐ 实物细节：「湖南长沙马王堆汉墓出土了一件二十六斗眼（二十二簧）的竽……除二十二根单管外，还有几个折叠管装置，其中四个管有双按孔的精巧设计，用于低音演奏……簧片是用铜片制作而成」（另有资料将一号墓出土的竽与这套形制描述混记，此处并注）依考古资料
• ⭐ 汉代地位：「从出土的西汉百戏陶俑和东汉石刻百戏画像中，也可看出竽在百戏乐队中占有重要地位」依考古资料
• ⭐⭐ 衰亡：「南北朝到隋唐时期，竽 · 笙这两件乐器虽然仍并存于世并得到普遍地应用，但竽一般就只用于宫廷雅乐演奏了，例如唐文宗就规定『竽』只能用于他自己所喜好的『云韶乐』之中」；「隋唐时期竽还存在，但在九 · 十部乐中已不用」；「到了宋代，竽则销声匿迹，在教坊十三部中，只有笙色而无竽色」；「宋代以后，竽逐渐失去在宫廷中的地位，由笙取而代之。宋元祐三年（1088 年），出现十九簧的『竽笙』」依乐器史资料
• ⭐ 东传与近代：「中国历史上的笙和竽，曾于盛唐之时东传日本。在奈良东大寺的正仓院内，现在还收藏着中国唐代制作的六支笙 · 竽」；「改革后的笙出现了二十一簧 · 二十四簧 · 三十六簧以及扩音笙 · 中音抱笙 · 键盘排笙等形制」依文物与乐器资料
• ⚠️ 音域说明：史料记竽之规格（三十六簧 · 长四尺二寸）而鲜载音域；本条音域图以同族笙的音域示意，不代表竽的实际音域依资料整理
• 「竽属于八音中的匏」依通行资料

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