Xiao D - Tang Xiao Style Flute - Open Mouthpiece - 6 Holes

The first specimens of Xiao flutes, which bore resemblance to current versions, date back to the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD), representing a period about 500 years prior to the first Pueblo flutes of the Americas. At the Nanjing Museum, one can find a clay statuette depicting a musician playing the Xiao, dating from the Han period. It is believed that these flutes were initially imported from the Qiang culture, located in the northwest of the Sichuan province, also known as Szechwan, a region that was part of the Silk Road. Merchants who traveled this route often carried flutes with them, and this possibly made them one of the trade items of the time.

It is important to note that these early Xiao models did not feature the same arrangement of holes and the same number of holes that we find in current versions. The standardization of the number and arrangement of holes occurred only during the Jin dynasty (265-420 AD). Furthermore, these primitive flutes had different designations, one of which being the term “shudi” or “shuúzhúdi,” which can be literally translated as “vertical bamboo flute.”

Before the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD), any flute made from a single tube was commonly called “di.” The term “xiao” was reserved to designate a set of tubes joined in a manner similar to a pan flute. As the Tang dynasty advanced, the transverse flute gained increasing popularity, and from that point on, the name “di” became associated primarily with transverse flutes. Meanwhile, the term “xiao” began to be used to describe a vertical flute, and the Chinese pan flute came to be called “paixiao,” which can be translated as “line of xiao.” However, it was only during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) that the name “xiao” established itself as the standard designation for the specific instrument we have today.

Variations of the xiao include the qinxiao, which is a narrower version, and the shorter and thicker southern version, called nanyin dongxiao (“notched flute with southern sound”) or nanxiao, from Fujian and Taiwan, which was imported to Japan in the 14th century and later became the Shakuhachi.

Traditionally, xiaos are used as a solo instrument or combined with a guqin, a Chinese zither. The sound of the xiao is rich and smooth like a Pueblo (Anasazi) flute, but softer, with less wind and air noise. Xiaos can also play two octaves. Original text by Scott August, a master in the art of playing the Xiao flute and the Pueblo flutes.