Guan (instrument)

This article is about the Chinese wind instrument guanzi. For the early Chinese book, see Guanzi (text).

The guan (Chinese: 管; pinyin: guǎn; lit. 'pipe', 'tube') is a Chinese double reed wind instrument. The northern Chinese version is called guanzi 管子 or bili (simplified Chinese: 筚篥; traditional Chinese: 篳篥) and the Cantonese version is called houguan 喉管. It is classified as a bamboo instrument in the Ba Yin (ancient Chinese instrument classification) system. Unlike other instruments in the double-reed family of woodwinds which mostly have conical bores, such as the Chinese suona or the Western oboe, the guan has a cylindrical bore, giving its distinctive mellow, yet piercing buzz-like timbre.

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