The yu is an idiophonic

tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is a large Felidae, cat and a member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Asia. It has a powerful, muscular body with a large head and paws, a long tail and orange fur with black, mostly vertical stripes. It is ...

-shaped

percussion instrument A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

that was used in ''

yayue ''Yayue'' () was a form of classical music and dance performed at the royal court and temples in ancient China. The basic conventions of ''yayue'' were established in the Western Zhou. Together with law and rites, it formed the formal represent ...

'', the ritual music of

ancient China The history of China spans several millennia across a wide geographical area. Each region now considered part of the Chinese world has experienced periods of unity, fracture, prosperity, and strife. Chinese civilization first emerged in the Y ...

's Zhou

dynasty A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a monarchy, monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A dynasty may also be referred to as a "house", "family" or "clan", among others. H ...

Form

The yu is a hollow wooden box shaped and usually painted to resemble a tiger. The back is serrated with 27 teeth, sometimes positioned to match the stripes of the tiger.

Performance

The yu is played with a

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...

whisk A whisk is a cooking utensil which can be used to blend ingredients smooth or to incorporate air into a mixture, in a process known as '':wikt:whisk, whisking'' or '':wikt:whipping, whipping''. Most whisks consist of a long, narrow handle with ...

with about 15 tines. The whisk is used to strike the head and to run across the serrated back.

Use

In antiquity, the yu was used to mark the end of a piece of music. The head was struck three times and then the back was crossed once to bring the music to a close. This contrasted with the zhu, a tapered hollow box whose inner bottom surface was struck to mark the beginning of music. Both instruments appear in Zhou-era annals and the

Classic of History The ''Book of Documents'' ( zh, p=Shūjīng, c=書經, w=Shu King) or the ''Classic of History'', is one of the Five Classics of ancient Chinese literature. It is a collection of rhetorical prose attributed to figures of ancient China, an ...

but are now rarely used, with surviving examples usually simply displayed in museums and

Confucian temple A temple of Confucius or Confucian temple is a temple for the veneration of Confucius and the sages and philosophers of Confucianism in Chinese folk religion and other East Asian religions. They were formerly the site of the administration of ...

s. The

Classic of Music The ''Classic of Music'' () was a Confucian classic text lost by the time of the Han dynasty. It is sometimes referred to as the "Sixth Classic" (for example, by Sima Qian) and is thought to have been important in the traditional interpretations ...

that instructed creation and use of the ''

'' instruments is almost entirely lost, and aspects of modern construction and performance are guesswork or replacement. Nonetheless, a few templesincluding the main

Taiwan Confucian Temple The Tainan Confucian Temple () or Quan Tai Shou Xue (, lit. "First Academy of Taiwan"), is a Temple of Confucius, Confucian temple on Nanmen Road () in West Central District, Tainan, Taiwan. History Kingdom of Tungning The temple was built in ...

still use them for

Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, religion, theory of government, or way of life. Founded by Confucius ...

ceremonies. The reconstructed form is also used in Shaoxing Opera.

Legacy

The

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

eo is essentially identical to the yu and continues to be used in Korean ritual music. The

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...

ngu ( or ) is also essentially identical to the yu.

References

External links

Page that talks about history of the Yu.Page that talks about the history of the Yu.
Idiophones Chinese musical instruments {{China-music-stub