Vertical flute

China

c. 1800

Bamboo

Minneapolis Institute of Art

The Chinese have used bamboo to create functional objects since the Stone Age. The material is inexpensive and extremely versatile. The <I>Zhu bu</I>, or <I>Bamboo Treatise</I>, from the third century describes how to use bamboo for food, the manufacture of paper, pipe stems, buckets, brush handles, medicine, and musical instruments. The excavated tomb of Marquis Yi of Zheng (433 BCE) yielded several wind instruments made of lacquered wood and bamboo. These included pan pipes, reed mouth-organs, and two transverse flutes. While much later in date, this bamboo flute is similar in size and structure to the one being played by the East