In
Chinese mythology, Ling Lun is said to have created
bamboo flutes which made the sounds of many birds, including the mythical
phoenix. "In this way, Ling Lun invented the five notes of the
ancient Chinese five-tone scale (gong, shang, jiao, zhi, and yu, which is equivalent to 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 in
numbered musical notation or do, re, mi, sol, and la in western solfeggio) and the eight sounds made by eight musical instruments. The
Yellow Emperor (Huangdi) is said to have ordered the casting of bells in tune with those flutes. An alternative text, the
Lushi Chunqiu (; ), from the third century BCE credits another culture hero,
Kui—who is often confused with a one-legged mythical monster bearing the same name—with the invention of music. In one version of the story, Kui makes a drum by stretching animal skin over an earthen jar that defeats another monster. In another version,
Yellow Emperor fashions a drum from the skin of a
kui monster. ==Cultural legacy==