Xiao (flute)

Several dongxiao in the G-key.

The xiao (simplified Chinese: 箫; traditional Chinese: 簫; pinyin: xiāo; Wade–Giles: hsiao¹; Jyutping: siu1, pronounced [ɕi̯ɑ́ʊ̯]) is a Chinese vertical end-blown flute. It is generally made of bamboo. It is also sometimes called dòngxiāo (洞箫; 洞簫), dòng meaning "hole." An ancient name for the xiāo is shùzhúdí (豎竹笛, lit. "vertical bamboo flute", [ʂûtʂutǐ]) but the name xiāo in ancient times also included the side-blown bamboo flute, dizi.^[1]

The xiāo is a very ancient Chinese instrument usually thought to have developed from a simple end-blown flute used by the Qiang people of Southwest China in ancient period. In the oral traditions of the Xiao, practitioners and poets say its sound resembles the sweetness of the Phoenix's call, the king of birds in Chinese belief.^[2]

In modern society, there has been an increase of cultural emphasis of the xiao flute in the Guizhou province. That is due to the presence of Yuping Flute Products there and its developing of "xiao flute culture".^[3] But the xiao flute is seen mostly in that case as a stepping stone for further developments of the Shaxiao flute.^[3]

^ Lim SK, trans. Wong Huey Khey, "Xiao" and "Dizi", in Origins of Chinese Music, illustrated by Fu Chunjiang (Singapore: Asiapac, 2018), 36-41. ISBN 9812299866, 9789812299864; and Wang Chenwei, Wong Samuel, and Chow Jun Yi, The Teng Guide To The Chinese Orchestra (Singapore: World Scientific, 2019), 142-50. ISBN 9813233664, 9789813233669
^ e.g. in a story attributed to Liu Xiang, the player Xiao Shi "could imitate the sound of the phoenix with his flute. He married a princess, and later, with her, transformed into two phoenixes and flew away," from Liexian zhuan (Collected Life Stories of Immortals), in Dao zang (complete collection of Treasury of Daoist Writings), 138. Summarized in English in Paul Waldau and Kimberley Patton, eds., A Communion of Subjects: Animals in Religion, Science, and Ethics (NY: Columbia University Press, 2009), 289, note 42. ISBN 0231136439, 9780231136433
^ ^a ^b Ren Yuanchun. "Deep Development of Yuping Flute Products and Development of Xiao Flute Culture" (PDF). Clausiuspress.com. Retrieved 21 April 2021.

[1] Lim SK, trans. Wong Huey Khey, "Xiao" and "Dizi", in Origins of Chinese Music, illustrated by Fu Chunjiang (Singapore: Asiapac, 2018), 36-41. ISBN 9812299866, 9789812299864; and Wang Chenwei, Wong Samuel, and Chow Jun Yi, The Teng Guide To The Chinese Orchestra (Singapore: World Scientific, 2019), 142-50. ISBN 9813233664, 9789813233669

[2] .g. in a story attributed to Liu Xiang, the player Xiao Shi "could imitate the sound of the phoenix with his flute. He married a princess, and later, with her, transformed into two phoenixes and flew away," from Liexian zhuan (Collected Life Stories of Immortals), in Dao zang (complete collection of Treasury of Daoist Writings), 138. Summarized in English in Paul Waldau and Kimberley Patton, eds., A Communion of Subjects: Animals in Religion, Science, and Ethics (NY: Columbia University Press, 2009), 289, note 42. ISBN 0231136439, 9780231136433

[auto-3] Ren Yuanchun. "Deep Development of Yuping Flute Products and Development of Xiao Flute Culture" (PDF). Clausiuspress.com. Retrieved 21 April 2021.

[1]

[2]

[3]