Yue Chu (pinyin: Yuè chǔ) is a musical instrument of the Gaoshan people, which is popular all over Taiwan Province. It evolved from a wooden pestle, a tool for pounding rice at first. It is often made of hardwoods such as red camphor wood, which is in the shape of a long rod with two thick ends and a thin middle. The specifications are different, and the size and length are different. Each one makes a sound, and more than 5 can be combined into a song.
As early as 1700 years ago, the wooden pestle and the wooden drum were used by the ancestors of the Gaoshan people to call for gatherings. When the Gaoshan people are pounding the rice, they often dig a cave in the interior of the house, put a stone slab at the bottom of the cave, and several women stand around, each holding a wooden pestle more than two meters long to pound the rice. The wooden pestle hits the slate and sends out a clanging sound like a bell, which spreads far and wide in the middle of the night. Later, people found that wooden pestles with different lengths and thicknesses could make different sounds of high and low levels, and could play lively rhythm and harmonious music, so they called it "Musical Pestle", and the songs accompanied by it were called "Musical Pestle". Song", and the music played with it is called "Pessle Music".