龠

yuè

亼 + 𠕁 + 𠱠

Definitions

yuè flute; pipe, ancient measure

Etymology

Pictograph of an ancient wind instrument with bamboo pipes.

About

龠 (yuè) is both an independent character and a traditional radical. Originally a pictograph, it depicts an ancient wind instrument, several bamboo pipes bound together, with a mouthpiece at the top and finger holes, resembling a panpipe or flute, used in ceremonial and ritual contexts. The character later came to serve as a unit of volume measurement in ancient China. Due to the specialized nature of the object, 龠 now appears mainly in historical, musical, or classical texts, and it also functions as a semantic component in characters associated with flutes and harmony.