The Paixiao Tradition

One pipe per note, the panpipe is documented by thirteen-pipe instruments from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng

Related

Paixiao (Chinese panpipes)Yayue (Court Ritual Music)

Time and place

The paixiao binds bamboo pipes of different lengths into a row, one pipe for each note. Examples survive from Chu tombs at Xiasi in Xichuan, Henan, and from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng at Suizhou, Hubei, where two panpipes of thirteen pipes each are about 2,400 years old. It served court ritual in early China, stayed in imperial ensembles, and was rare in villages.

What happened

Its sound comes from a bundle of tubes with mouths on one plane; the player moves the instrument or the head to reach different pipes. The Zeng pipes are graded by length, showing that pitch was already organised. After the Han the single-tube dongxiao rose, the word xiao came to mean the vertical flute, and the panpipe became one item in ritual ensembles. The Qing court still listed it, and in the twentieth century it returned in reconstructions and solos.

Musical features

There are no finger holes: pitch is fixed by pipe length, and more pipes mean a wider range. Chinese panpipes come in single and double wings, the double row easing transposition. The lips travel along the mouths, so the slides possible on a xiao are impossible here; notes are joined by breath, with audible air. The tone is hollow and diffuse, blending easily with sheng and dizi, and best suited to slow melodies.

What to listen for

Hear the separation of one pipe from the next, then the breath between them. Without finger technique the phrase cannot bend; long notes are held by breath and decay naturally at the end. The library's Qing Jiang He and Laba Xiaodiao from Hubei and the Beijing temple song are Chu-region tunes, a Hubei seasonal song and a temple chant, not panpipe recordings.

Common misunderstandings

The paixiao is often confused with the dongxiao, or described as several xiao tied together. The dongxiao is a single stopped tube with finger holes; the panpipe has one note per pipe and no holes to stop. Both were written xiao in old texts, which caused the confusion. Another mistake is to think panpipes play only ancient music; modern composers write for them too.

Sources

• 《中国音乐词典》编辑部编，中国音乐词典（人民音乐出版社）— 条目与年代核对，未引用
• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry "China" — framework and dates checked, not quoted

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