Chuān Miáo [川苗] minority (province Sichuan, on the borders of Szechwan [Sìchuān, the short form of which is Chuān (川) !], Kweichow [Guìzhōu] and Yúnnán); R. Gorden Agnew, »The music of the Ch’uan Miao« in Jl. of the West China Border Research Society, vol. XI (1939) describes it as an "instrument of great importance" that "consists of a vertical pipe or mouthpiece connecting with a bulbous air chamber into which 6 pipes of varying length are inserted, giving the typical scale of the instrument"; Because the scale of the Liù shēng is quite different from that of the vocal one (the third interval is, in terms of the vocal scale, an augmented one, involving a note never used in songs), the instrument is never used to accompany songs, a peculiarity Agnew describes as "one of several surprising and inexplicable observations made during the course of the analysis of Ch’uan Miao music".

Sizes differ from small ones with pipes of only a few inches in length to large ones with pipes 5 to 6 feet long; The scale is pentatonic, with the 6th note constituing a so-called "octave", or having twice the vibrations of the lowest pipe: (1) keynote, (2) whole tone, (3) whole tone, (4) whole tone, (5) tone and a half, (6) "octave" to (1); Pitches are not always strictly accurate, and there may be unintentional deviations.

Liou cheng, Liu šêng