Minneapolis Institute of Art

Vertical flute

China

Date

c. 1800

Medium

Bamboo

Department

Asian Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

The Chinese have used bamboo to create functional objects since the Stone Age. The material is inexpensive and extremely versatile. The Zhu bu , or Bamboo Treatise , from the third century describes how to use bamboo for food, the manufacture of paper, pipe stems, buckets, brush handles, medicine, and musical instruments. The excavated tomb of Marquis Yi of Zheng (433 BCE) yielded several wind instruments made of lacquered wood and bamboo. These included pan pipes, reed mouth-organs, and two transverse flutes. While much later in date, this bamboo flute is similar in size and structure to the one being played by the Eastern Han tomb figurine shown here. It is not certain when the bamboo flute was first used by the Chinese, but it was common throughout the Bronze Age and, by the Han dynasty, it seems to have gained popularity as an instrument for entertaining. The bamboo flute, like the qin , or zither, has remained a favorite instrument of scholars down to the present day. China, Asia

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