Chinese instruments

The flat drum (pinyin: Biǎn gǔ) is a percussion instrument, also known as the battle drum. It was used in religious music and folk weddings in the past, and is now used in folk musical ensembles, dances, lantern festivals, acrobatic troupes, and mass gongs and drums. Widely popular in Jilin Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture and other Korean inhabited areas. It is Mongolian, Tibetan, Korean, Manchu, Naxi, Yi, Miao, Han and other ethnic groups who strike the membrane and sound. The flat drum is round, with a wooden frame, covered with sheepskin or cowhide on both sides, and tightened with ropes. The diameter of the drum surface is 37 to 45 cm.

When playing, the right hand holds a single hammer to strike. The medium-sized flat drum is mostly used in monasteries or Tibetan opera bands in the Kang dialect area.

In the Qing Dynasty, it was used in the court's halogen-bodied music, as many as twenty-four sides. The body of the drum is made of wood, covered with cow, sheep or horse skin on both sides, and the edges of the skin are fixed with two rows of drum nails. The size of the drum varies from 40 cm to 80 cm in diameter, the drum height is 15 cm to 20 cm, and there is a drum ring on each side of the drum body.

Different nationalities have different types of flat drums.