The yu and the sheng are both ancient reed-pipe instruments.
Tips
culture
Famous from the idiom 滥竽充数 — a man who couldn't play hid in a 300-piece yu orchestra and drew a salary, until a new king made each player perform solo. It means a fraud passing as competent, or padding to make up numbers.
Bamboo cap on top, head-form of 竹. Ancient wind instruments were made of bamboo pipes, so the bamboo radical marks instruments and bamboo objects. Same family as 笙 (the related mouth-organ) and 笛 flute.
