What You Need To Know About Xun

Xun the traditional Chinese music instrument

Xun is another ancient musical instrument that has been in existence since ancient times.

Basically, Xun is considered one of the oldest and most traditional musical instruments in China. According to different archaeological finds, Xun has been around for about seven thousand years.

Xun is also known as the Chinese vessel clay flute, and this is because of its globular shape and the material it’s made from.

It is usually egg-shaped and made of pottery. This instrument is considered an aerophone because it produces sound mainly by the vibration of a body of air.

In this post, we are going to discuss and describe the xun. Briefly narrate its origin and talk a little about the different types of xun we have out there.

Xun In Bayin Classifications Of Musical Instruments

The Chinese use a traditional method to group their musical instruments and this system is the eight sound categories called bā yīn.

The bā yīn is an ancient system and was traditionally used to classify different kinds of musical instruments. This system based its classification of the musical instrument on the material used to construct the instrument.

In particular, the eight categories of bā yīn classifications of musical instruments are bamboo, earth(pottery), gourd, hide(skin), metal, silk, stone, and wood.

With this special classification of musical instruments, xun belongs to the earth (clay or pottery)category.

And xun is considered the only surviving instrument in the earth category of bā yīn classifications of musical instruments.

Material Used To Make The Xun

Initially, stone, baked clay, or bone are used to make the xun.

However, it later became earthen and materials like clay or ceramic are used to make the instrument.

In fact, bamboo is sometimes used to make the xun.

Construction and Description of the Xun

This instrument is usually made with clay or ceramic. Majorly, it is structurally made with an egg-shaped body and flattened bottom.

Also, it has five finger holes that allow the player to vary the tone as they blow through the mouth hole.

Specifically, it has at least two finger holes at the back and

three finger holes at the front.  The finger holes at the back of the instrument are for thumbs. The range of the five holes xun is about one octave.

The modern version of the instrument comes with eight to ten finger holes and has a wider range. In particular, the modern finger holes on xun are smaller and each finger has its hole.

Modern xun, commonly in an eight to nine-hole version with a wider range

The blowing hole sits at the top of the instrument and the player blows across a hole to play the instrument.

The xun is very much like an ocarina but its mouthpiece is not fipple like an ocarina. Also, there are other Chinese flute-like instruments that are similar to xun but they have a fipple mouthpiece. Examples are Wudu and Taodi.

Moreover, the xun can be seen in different sizes. Watch how xun is being made in the video with the link.

History of the Xun

All findings about this instrument have shown that xun has a long history dating back to ancient times. 

We cannot say specifically that we have verified most findings on this Chinese ancient instrument because of its very long history. 

The origin of this special wind instrument traced back to the stone age. Also, it links so much with the initial and primitive hunting practices of the Chinese people. 

It is said that Chinese people believed that xun came from hunting tools, especially stone meteors.

According to the story, people usually tied a mud or stone ball to the rope and used it to hunt wild animals.

These ropes with the stones tied were thrown at the animal so that they wrap around the animal’s limb and bring the animal down.

Some of the mud or stone balls used for this hunting rope were hollow. As a result, they make several sounds when people throw them.

Consequently, most people enjoy these hollow balls and find a way to blow air into them. Eventually, the stone meteor for animal hunting evolved into the musical instrument called xun.

Xun Musical Instrument Development

The earliest xun had just one hole, and subsequently, more holes were added to it. Moreover, its shapes came in different forms like a ball, a fish, a pear, an ellipse, or a flat circle.

The vessel flutes that look like xun were discovered by archaeologists in the common grave of the Xia dynasty. The xun discovered possessed three finger holes and they were able to play do, mi, fa, so, and la notes.

However, during the Shang dynasty, the number of finger holes as well as the shape of the instrument were standardized. This standardization formed the basis of the xun we have today.

Almost xun of the Shang dynasty possessed five-finger holes. They have the capability to produce all the whole tones as well as the half-tones in one octave.

This design produced sound with so much better quality and greatly enhanced the instrument’s expressive capacity.

Later, the six holes version of this egg-shaped windpipe instrument appeared at the end of the 3 century BC.

The instrument is used in the sound track of the 2018 Chinese television series Ashes of Love. Listen here to the Unsullied, the Ashes of Love opening theme song played with xun.

Twenty Century Xun development

Different Chinese musicians have contributed greatly to the further physical improvements of the xun. This instrument experienced great development after its resurgence in the 1930s.

As a result, the six holes version was further developed into nine finger holes by Professor Chenzhong at the Tianjin Conservatory of Music in the 1960s.

The nine finger holes on the new instrument are arranged in such a way that makes the playing of the instrument convenient for the performance.

Besides, the new nine finger holes model maintained the tone quality of its predecessor and kept the original form. Moreover, it sounds louder and covers a more tonal range.

In fact, the nine-finger hole xun allows professional players to express the instrument’s musicality as a result of its capability to produce 26 notes.

Subsequently, a new model with ten finger holes was developed by Zhao Liangshan. The new ten finger holes designed by Zhao were suitable to play high-octave notes. There are now twelve finger holes xun in the market.

Watch and listen to the ancient Chinese clay flute xun being played.

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