Jia Hu bone flute was unearthed in Jiahu site, Wuyang County, Henan Province, China, 7800~9000 years ago. It is made of crane ulna and is the earliest musical instrument discovered in China.
The discovery of Jia Hu's bone flute also advanced the origin of China's music civilization from the legendary Huangdi period about 5,000 years ago to the middle Neolithic period more than 8,000 years ago.
Knowledge expansion:
Mr Xiang Peng Huang, former director of the Music Research Institute of China Academy of Art, once put forward his own views on the naming of Jia Hu bone flute. He believes that an ancestor has many descendants and should not be named after one of them.
Jahu bone tube is the ancestor of China wind instruments, so we should not name the early instruments with later names. However, he suggested that instead of insisting on the name of a certain kind of offspring, it is better to use the most natural and simple name at present called "Di".
At this point, the discussion about the naming of Jia Hu musical instruments was suspended. However, Zhengguo Liu thinks that naming the flute is obviously the same as "naming ancestors after their descendants".
In terms of modeling, Jia Hu bone flute mainly shows five characteristics. First, exquisite and meticulous. Jia Hu bone flute is made very finely, and its surface is often engraved with various patterns, such as dragons, tigers and eagles. Lifelike, full of rich artistic atmosphere. Second, the length is different. The length and size of Jahu bone flute are also very different.
Some are only a few inches long, others are several feet long. This change in length also has different effects on the timbre and pitch they play. Third, the number of holes drilled in the pipe body is different. The drill hole of Jia Hu Bone Flute is oval or round, and there are 4-8 holes on the same side of the pipe body. At present, there are five-hole Jia Hu bone flutes and seven-hole Jia Hu bone flutes.
Fourth, bending is changeable. The flute body of Jia Hu Bone Flute often presents curved and changeable shapes, such as S-shape and Z-shape, which are not only beautiful, but also helpful to the adjustment of timbre and pitch. At the same time, the bone flute in Jiahu is still mainly in the shape of ulna, with the sides of the bone flute slightly protruding, while the middle of the bone body is concave, and the bone flute is curved as a whole.
On the whole, the lines of Jia Hu bone flute are very smooth and soft, and it feels smooth, with good aesthetic feeling and touch.