摘要
OF all Chinese musical instru-ments,among the most im-portant throughout historyhas been the bamboo flute.includ-ing a vertical type called xiao.In1973 one such flute,complete witha mouthpiece made of bone,wasunearthed in the Yangtze valley,and in 1987 another of a similardesign was found in the valley ofthe Yellow River.Both were discovered to have been made 7,000 to8,000 years ago,considerably earlierthan the“world champion,”a boneflute found in Sweden.The latterwas a mere 4,000 years old.Yuping County in the eastenpart of Guizhou Province is