Skin and Chinese drums
Used for drumheads, the historic significance of skin is found in the signaling nature of the drums themselves (rather than, say, in communion with the hideyielding water buffalo). More than twenty drum types are cited in the an cient texts, of which the fingu, jiangu, taogu, and bofu have survived in ritual practice. The jingu ('Jin kingdom drum'), like most ancient Chinese drums, has a barrelshaped shell, onto which two drumheads are tacked.This drum,the largest in the Chinese instrumentarium, rests in a frame drumhead upward. Ac cording to the Zhouli text, the jingu was initially a military instrument, employed for issuing orders. A commentary on this text states that the diameter of the drumhead was“6.6 Chinese feet' (c.130cm).While most drums of this type today are smaller,the magnificent jingu at the Beijing Confucian shrine is close in size to this ancient ideal.
More impressive in terms of decoration is the canopycovered jiangu ('mounted drum'), a mediumlarge drum mounted on an anchored vertical post,drumheads sideward. Suspended over this drum is a richly ornamented canopy,with four colorful tassels hanging from its four corners (typically held in the mouths of carved dragons) and a carved egret on top of the frame. This canopy has been a consistent feature of the Jiangu drum since it was first pictured in Handynasty art (q.v.Liu 1988:30 ff).A second drum of similar size but without the canopy,known as yinggu('responding drum'), is also employed in ritual performances. Both are struck with unpadded beaters and utilized in per cussion interludes between hymn phrases.
The taogu and bofu drums are smaller, but no less important. The taogu is a small drum (diameter:c. 12 cm) mounted on a long round handle,with two short cords (attached to either side of the shell) with a bead on each end. When the han dle is rotated,the beads alternately hit the heads in a rapid tremolo.Three short rolls signal the beginning of each hymn. The bofu (literally 'strikeslap') is a drum of moderate size.It rests horizontally on a low rectangular frame and is struck with the hand to accentuate the beat of the hymns.
