Flute character

An old Chinese character for a bamboo flute, also a kind of bamboo. In the flute sense, it is an older form related to 笛.

The earliest known written mention appears in the Zhouli, a classical book about court offices and rites. It lists 篴 among the bamboo wind instruments taught by the court music office, placing it in ritual music. Dictionaries also preserve the separate bamboo meaning.

Why does its flute meaning shift?

The name passed through flute traditions with different designs. Han-era commentary disagrees about the instrument’s holes and blowing direction, so a historical 篴 cannot always be assigned to one modern flute.

The Zhouli lists 篴 beside 籥 and 篪, other ritual wind instruments. Later accounts connect it with the vertical-flute tradition represented by 簫 and 洞簫. Korean court-music records describe the instrument as vertical and compare it with tungso, a Korean vertical flute. These are historical connections, not interchangeable names.

What does 篴 mean when someone sends it to you?

Usually an old or specialist reference to a flute. Sent alone, it reads like a quotation, a music-history term, or a deliberate old spelling; the message may leave the exact instrument unclear.

For an ordinary modern flute, 笛 is clearer. Keep 篴 in a historical quotation or discussion of traditional music; ask for context if the exact instrument matters.