Guan (double-reed pipe) is the name of a musical instrument, known as “bili” in ancient time. It is a wind instrument that originated from Guizi (today’s Kucha, Xinjiang). In Sui and Tang dynasties, it was used in Jiubuyue (nine kinds of music) and Shibuyue (ten kinds of music); in Song dynasty, there was a bili bu (bili department) in the jiaofang shisan bu (thirteen departments of court conservatory). According to Xu Wei’s Nanci xulu (a Ming history of drama), “now southern songs are sung to the accompaniment of dizi, guan, sheng and pipa”, which suggests that guan is among the traditional kunqu accompanying instruments. As described in Jichangyuan wenge ji (A Record of Hearing Singing in Garden of Ecstasy), “xiao and guan are essential for making chords…Xie Linquan was good at playing guan as an accompaniment instrument…” As some veteran artists recall, in the past, northern songs were sung to the accompaniment of guanzi, which was later replaced by suona. Guanzi is a wind instrument consisting of a wood cylindrical tube with eight holes on it (seven finger holes on the top and one thumb hole on the back) and a reed made from Arundo cane that is inserted into the top end of the tube. Guanzi is available in three sizes: the large, medium and small sizes with the full range of over two octaves. Its upper range sounds sharp and penetrating, the mid range smooth and loud and lower range deep and sustaining with a bit nasal voice. Guanzi is also blown for folk occasions and religious rituals.