Hsiao

Hsiao 1. *end-blown flute of China, in use since the 12th or 11th c. B.C., formerly made of copper, marble, etc., but nowadays of bamboo, its upper end closed by a natural node in which a notch is cut, thus leaving a narrow flue, with 5 front fingerholes and a rear thumbhole; a Confucian instr. that ca. 700 B.C. was a *yüeh, in med. times a *yo and a *ti. The modern instr. is called *tung hsiao. Its full name is feng huang hsiao. See also: cor, 2, fong hsiao; 2. see: siao... (170). Sachs, Curt…