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Metal instruments

The group of these instruments comprises all different kinds of bells from the Zhou Dynasty. Most of them were pending from a rack and organized as chimes (bianzhong 编锺). They were an integral part of Zhou ritual music. There were the types of zhong (锺) (the regular word for "bell"), fu (镈), chunyu, nao (铙), and some others with only minimal differences to each other. In recent years, some bronze bell sets have been excavated from Warring States tombs and were reconstructed and reemployed in official performances. Bells were also used during the war, like trumpets in the West, to indicate attacks, redrawal, and other formations.

Gongs (round, or in the shape of a cloud), gong chimes and cymbals (yunluo 云罗) have also be mentioned here. They are instruments of war, of popular festivals, or are used for an opera orchestra.

A metal wind instrument not yet mentioned is the laba (喇叭), a kind of trombone used during festivals and probably introduced from Inner Asia or Tibet, where the monasteries still today employ huge, some ten to fifteen feet long trombones to announce Buddhist festivals.

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