About
The character 埙, also written as 塤 or 壎 in its traditional forms, refers to an ancient Chinese globular flute typically made of baked clay with several finger holes. Its structure features the earth radical 土 on the left, indicating the clay material used in its construction, while the right side contains the phonetic component 员 (yuán), which replaced the traditional phonetic 員. This character denotes one of the oldest known instruments in China’s traditional eight-tone classification system, with its meaning exclusively tied to this specific musical artifact.