For at least 2,000 years, until the Cultural Revolution, qin strings were always made of twisted silk which had been boiled in a kind of glue. At some stage the lower four strings came to have in addition a mesh around the twisted core. These lower four are wrapped in sequence around one of the legs; the upper three go in sequence around the other leg. The strings that break most often are the fourth and the seventh; these are the last to be wound around each leg, so when they do break none of the others needs to be re-wound around the leg. In addition, many sets contain an extra seventh string.
The vibrating length of strings on a qin is typically 110-117cm (43-46"), but the manufactured length of silk strings may be 250cm (100") or more. About 6cm (2-3") are used to tie a knot at one end of each string, allowing it to be held by a tassel that goes through the bridge to the sound pegs; at the other end the strings extend about 40cm (15-16") beyond the nut (where the vibrating part of the string meets the body) before being wound around one of the two legs under the qin. The strings have graded diameters, the first [lowest] ranging from about 1.4 to 1.75 mm, the seventh from 0.70 to .9 mm.8
Silk strings usually break right where they rub against the bridge. The string is then trimmed neatly near the break and several more inches are required to tie a new knot before the string is reconnected to the tassel at the bridge end, then re-wound around the leg under the qin. In this way a string may be able to break as many as 10 times before it has to be replaced.9
Silk strings become more mellow with use.10 According to my teacher, Sun Yü-ch'in, strings should last for about seven years of normal use, and be at their best during the period of about two to five years. But he thought none of the strings then available (they had to be brought to Taiwan from the mainland) could compare with the good strings of former days.
Problems with Silk Strings?
The traditional sound of the qin as developed over the millenia is characterized by rich colors produced through overtones possible only with silk strings. The richness and subtlety of these overtones generally makes playing with other instruments seem superfluous, while the quiet nature of the tones means that qin music cannot compete with other sounds.
This is primarily a problem because the qin is so often presented in an inappropriate environment. In a perfectly quiet concert hall with superior acoustics one can play without amplification for rather large audiences; here silk strings can be appreciated. Unfortunately, it is more often presented in a venue that has bad acoustics, extraneous sounds, and a low quality amplification system: here of course the traditional musical qualities are totally lost and one is better off using metal strings. In the past the scholar would take a qin to the mountains, then in an appropriate landscape pause to imagine its music. When invited to play at court, of course such a person would refuse: how could anyone appreciate a delicate representation of nature in such a noisy or otherwise acoustically poor environment?11
The tradition that qin music either represents or complements natural sounds can perhaps be called the
"beyond-sound" aspect of qin music. Going further, a common theme in paintings shows a scholar in the countryside with a stringless qin. I have a fan with such a scene, accompanied by an inscription to the effect that there is no need to play if one can already hear the sounds of nature.
One can debate whether the qin was intentionally designed to be quiet. In any case, it would seem that currently there are few people willing to wait for (or confident of finding) the proper environment for the silk string style of qin play. Instead people have developed a taste for the strong and smooth sound of nylon-metal strings instead of the delicate rich sound of silk.
Another perceived problem with silk strings, in addition to their quieter nature, is the belief that they break more easily than nylon metal. This tends to be overemphasized: silk strings are in fact very strong. The main reason for strings breaking is tuning them too high. The problem then is the inclinations of the modern player (encouraged by conservatories and the flashy style of play they often promote) to consider the modern Western concert pitch of A=440 vib/sec to be an appropriate standard for Chinese music, including the qin. Instead silk string players must get used to tuning the strings to a lower pitch (I generally use A=415, as in early Western music), perhaps tuning down even further when the climate (humidity in particular) is variable: climate changes do make silk strings more likely to break. (Constant heat and high humidity also may not been good for the silk strings.)
The other main problem attributed to silk strings is the belief that, besides having a more delicate sound, the sound from the silk strings may be rather scratchy. Although it is true that new nylon-metal strings are immediately ready to play, while silk strings may sound scratchy until they are broken in, it is not correct simply to blame this scratchiness on the quality of the strings now available. Once again the main problem is with the players. Players used to nylon-metal generally have little understanding of how to play with silk: of course when they first try to do so it will not sound good, as the technique for playing them is quite different from that used on nylon-metal. Another factor is that with silk strings if the fingers are not completely clean and dry the sound will be scratchy even with an experienced player. In performance this problem may be particularly critical: if the player gets at all nervous and/or if the room is too warm, the hands may become clammy; with clammy hands, playing on silk strings becomes impossible.
Because of the low sound output of the qin, amplification is often necessary for performance. Amplification may put disproportionate emphasis on the sound of the fingers sliding on the strings; in addition, standard microphones often fail to pick up the rich overtones which give the silk string qin its distincitve color. A noisy performance environment can have the same effect, and this is why the best performance space is a concert hall with good acoustics and no extraneous sounds. Otherwise the difference between the rich tones of silk strings and the plain tones of nylon-metal are not so apparent.12
Recording with silk strings also requires paying particular attention to certain factors, and the problems are accentuated if one does not want to put the microphones close to the qin. Since the silk-string qin cannot compete with other sounds, the required additional amplification means an exceptionally quiet recording environment is required. Thus beside using metal-string qins, almost all other modern qin recordings have had the microphone right next to, or even under, the instrument. The main exceptions that I know of are a few recordings made in Europe. (Artificial reverberation is also the rule).
When listening to a qin in a natural environment -- a perfectly quiet studio, for example -- the original delicate sound is much quieter than the sound one usually hears in a concert hall. Because in a performing environment the size of the venue as well as the inevitable room noise usually make amplification essential, I feel that a recording often has more potential for conveying the traditional qin spirit than a concert performance does. However, when most people listen to qin recordings almost invariably, in my experience, they set the volume control so that the sound level is much higher than what one would hear in a non-amplified performance. Again, the amplification proportionately increases the sound of the fingers sliding on the strings.
Related to this is the problem that modern silk strings do seem to be more coarse than the good quality silk strings of the past. As mentioned above, the sound of the fingers sliding on silk can be considered as the qi: the breath or life force, of the music. But if the strings are too coarse the breath becomes raspy, and if the player does not know how to play with silk the breath is like gasping. So how does one manage this qi?
The first attempt I heard of to solve the "problem" of sliding sounds came from Lui Tsun-yuen.13 During the 1970 he switched from silk to nylon wire, thus anticipating the nylon metal strings that were invented during the Cultural Revolution. With such strings clammy hands are no problem -- one simply puts a bit of oil on the fingers and goes on playing.
The problem with these substitutes for silk strings is that one then loses the original qi of the qin. Silk strings can be made smoother with the application of wax, but the best solution with modern silk strings is to have the patience to break them in,14 learn how to play with them properly, and find appropriate venues in which to play.
The development of metal strings
Metal qin strings are now usually wrapped in nylon. To summarize, the basic materials for music strings are gut, hair, fiber (in Asia, mainly silk), metal and, more recently, synthetics.15 As for metal, although there is evidence it was used for strings in ancient Persia, more substantial records seem to begin around the 10th century. The New Grove Dictionary mentions them in Europe at that time, and Laurence Picken has written that they may have been used on the huqin two-string fiddle in the Tang dynasty and were definitely used there on a harp (sic) in the 14th century.16 Metal strings on the Middle Eastern qanun zither are mentioned as early as the 13th century, so presumably the closely related santur hammered dulcimer had them when it was introduced into China, where it became the yangqin, about two centuries later. By the end of the 19th century the Chaozhou guzheng zither commonly had metal strings.
This sketch is sufficient to show that, although in China all string instruments were once put in the "silk" category, other materials have also long been in use. In this context it is noteworthy that, although there are classical writings on the "problem" of the low volume output of the qin, any suggested solutions were always in terms of the environment (quiet; solid table; play over a water vat; etc.) or qin design. No known writings, at least until the 1960s, suggested using a material other than silk for qin strings.
All this changed during the Cultural Revolution. One reason given for the introduction of metal strings during that period is the poor quality and lack of availability of silk strings. However, another factor in the switch from silk to metal strings was certainly political: silk strings were thought to emphasize the inward and meditative nature of qin music, while with metal strings it could become a performance instrument, an instrument performed for ordinary people.
Apparently the first metal strings for qin were very smooth. However, much research was focused on trying to re-capture the sound of silk while still taking advantage of the durability of metal. This led to experimenting with different coiling effects: the inner core is not simply covered smoothly in nylon, but the nylon is made somewhat rough, as silk would be. Strings have been made with metal coiled around silk or nylon. More common is nylon (I am not sure about silk) coiled around a metal core. As a result, some metal strings are much more mellow than others, but still the sound is quite distinctive.
By the year 2000 virtually all qin players in China were exclusively using metal strings wrapped in nylon.17 Metal strings obviously expand the potential scope of the instrument in some ways but, in my opinion, the scope would be even broader if, instead of talking about whether silk is better or metal is better, there was more effort made to distinguish the developing metal-string styles from silk-string styles. We could then consciously develop each style in a manner natural to their different properties.
For a time I also used metal strings alongside the silk ones -- switching back and forth. It is not making a value judgment but simply stating a fact to say that using metal strings has a definite effect on the way one plays. For reconstructing old music I feel most comfortable using silk strings, and so today about the only time I play with metal strings is when required to do so: while visiting other players or in a very humid environment.
I must emphasize that I don't object to metal strings per se. As with close miking, the sound can be quite interesting, and indeed I hope one day to have an electric qin with metal strings and magnetic pickups. It particularly concerns me, though, that in China today virtually no one uses silk strings, almost all recordings use close miking plus reverberation, and there is little debate about this. If the Western guitar is broad enough to embrace classical, folk, popular and so forth styles, so too is qin, and the place to begin is by developing distinctive silk-string and metal-string sounds. With the qin this might naturally result in classical styles (reconstructing, preserving and developing the past) and modern styles (re-interpreting the past and encouraging new development).
An interesting characteristic affecting the ability of metal strings to reinterpret the past is their longer resonance. This may facilitate a meditative style of play, and one might even argue that the cleaner and longer lasting sounds that metal strings produce during slides makes them just as capable of evoking meditative qualities as even the best quality silk strings of the past. Although they lack the color of silk, metal strings encourage the development of new forms of slides, vibrato and other ornamentation. For new music the longer resonance is already used in some meditative (or New Age) styles of music. Meanwhile, the increased tension of metal strings also allows faster play (as can be heard in the conservatory styles that now seem to dominate). Their thinner sound allows more precision and may make blending the qin with other instruments easier. When playing with other instruments metal strings also have a particular advantage in that they are much more easily amplified. There are today experiments with electric qins; these of course require metal (or metal core) strings.
Balanced against this is the fact that metal strings can cause severe damage to a qin. For this reason, metal strings should be used exclusively on the new instruments now available, some of which are very good. Unfortunately, many people use them on lovely antique instruments, perhaps causing them permanent damage.
Reviving silk strings
The above may suggest that metal strings are more appropriate than silk strings for modern music that silk strings. Nothing could be further from the truth. Much of the perceived problems with silk strings concern their small volume of sound. With technology this problem can be overcome. This means that that the rich overtones that often make the silk string sound somewhat unstable can be naturally or digitally manipulated in interesting new ways. If color is important to a music composition, the silk string sound has a big advantage.
If the aim is "historically informed performance", then the advantages of metal strings generally become disadvanges. If metal strings allow the development of methods of ornamentation that were not possible with silk strings, that is wonderful: as long as one remembers that this was not part of the original music. People who hear silk strings in an appropriate environment often agree readily that their basic sound is more beautiful than the metal string sound. The problem is that it is rare to hear high quality performances of silk string qin in an appropriate environment.
This problem is often directly connected to the venues commonly used for qin performance. Because the qin was more likely to be played in a studio or garden than on a stage, such venues are often used for qin performances. The problem with this is that such places are usually noisy and the sound system inadequate. It is much easier to appreciate qin music in a quiet concert hall with good acoustics and, if necessary, a good sound system, than to appreciate it in a beautiful but noisy traditional environment. Unfortunately, in China these modern venues seem generally to be reserved for concerts of Western music or modernized Chinese music.
Recent problems in silk string production
By the end of the Cultural Revolution top quality silk strings were not even in production. Most silk strings were either too coarse, giving a rough sound, or too thin, giving a somewhat thin sound and breaking too easily. They also have to be wrapped just right, or they may unravel. The coarse strings can be made smoother by rubbing them with the type of paraffin which melts at body temperature.18
Fang Yuting might in some ways be considered the last traditional maker of silk strings for qins.19 According to Zha Fuxi in 1955 (cf. Collected Essays on Qin Study, p. 384 ff), for about 800 years the best silk strings were said to come from Hangzhou, in particular using silk made in the Tangqi district near Hangzhou. However, disruptions in China from the end of the Qing dynasty eventually led to that industry closing down. During the 1930s some qin players, in particular Wu Jinglue and Zhuang Jiancheng, got together with Fang Yuting, a traditional string maker in Suzhou, and helped Fang start a company which then produced the best strings. After 1949 Fang's company dominated the industry and the Hangzhou companies never revived.
Unfortunately the Suzhou strings, if they ever were of the same quality as the best old Hangzhou strings, did not maintain that quality in the 1950s. Zha wrote that the government structure made it difficult for musicians (qin players in particular) directly to contract factories to give advice on quality control, and in addition the silk string factories couldn't get the best quality silk (3A) from Hangzhou. Fang wanted to move to Hangzhou, but wasn't allowed to. As of 1955 they were still trying to get a consignment of good Tangqi silk to make strings.
The production of silk strings stopped during the Cultural Revolution. When in 1972 the young qin player Gong Yi came to Hong Kong to perform (with metal strings), Tong Kin-Woon asked him about the situation with silk strings. Gong said he was not sure if Fang Yuting was still alive, but he thought perhaps Fang's son could still make strings. Tong asked Gong if he could order some sets of good ones to be especially made. This was said to be unlikely because, as mentioned, individuals were not supposed to tell factories what to do. Nevertheless, about a year later about 100 sets of good silk strings suddenly arrived in Hong Kong from Suzhou. Another year or so later perhaps another 100 sets were also sent, but some of these were not of such good quality (the best are wrapped in purple thread; the next best in red thread).
For my CD Music Beyond Sound I used strings from a purple-wrapped set which I had used about one year. However, there was apparently little general demand for these strings as people were turning more and more to the metal strings. Then in about 1995 reasonably good strings were again available from Suzhou, though not of the same quality as the ones made over 20 years earlier. Since then I have had mostly failures but some successes in finding them in shops and elsewhere in China.20
In recent years some people again worked with the Suzhou strings makers to produce truly good quality strings. In 1998 Shum Hing-Shun of Hong Kong organized the production of some sets of thicker silk strings (I used a set of these for Folio III on my Shen Qi Mi Pu CD set), and early 2000 saw the production of some very high quality silk strings, organized by Wong Shu-Chee, now living in Vancouver. Since then Shu-Chee has produced several more sets, though in 2004 he said he would not be doing this any more.21
This, of course, is very important work. Fortunately old Chinese books have a lot of information about most aspects of sericulture and silk string making. See in particular Taiyin Daquanji (15th c. or earlier) and Yuguzhai Qinpu (1857).
Another promising sign is the interest of some early Western instrument players in silk strings. Some strong arguments have been made that silk strings were used on medieval Western instruments.22 The argument is based on references in texts (references to silk are mostly indirect) as well as descriptions of sound (silk is much more resonant than gut). Currently Alexander Raykov in upstate New York is making good quality silk strings for early Western instruments. He has also made a set for me to use on qins; they are very good (upper strings only). His website has further information (as of 2009 not functioning: see Raykov on silk).
Silk strings require good quality instruments, and since today there are again some very good qin makers it should not be surprising that good silk strings seem not to be very far behind.
Scientific analysis of the qualities of the silk string sound
In addition to being gentler on the instrument and less likely to cause permanent damage, silk strings on a qin produce a very rich sound that is quite distinctive from that of the nylon/metal strings commonly used in China since the Cultural Revolution or that of the even newer composite strings. This is something that can be measured scientifically.
One set of scientific measurements23 has suggested that the sound of silk strings on a qin is characterized by weak fundamental (1st harmonic) tones combined with extremely rich overtones that fade very slowly. Other stringed instruments can also produce quite rich overtones, but so far research seems to indicate that they die very quickly (within one second on a guitar, for example), whereas on the qin the overtones can remain strong for five seconds or more. This helps explain the appeal of certain characteristics of the traditional repertoire, such as repeating the same note on different strings; nylon-metal strings are not capable of producing such varied color from repeating one note. However, although to my ears the sound of non-silk strings on a qin is much less rich, to my knowledge the quality and fading of overtones for these other strings on a qin has not yet been scientifically tested with sufficient thoroughness.24
Summing up, to take account of the differences between a qin with silk, nylon-metal or composite strings perhaps one should revert to the old term "seven-string qin" (qixian qin) when referring to all three versions. Although one could make a good argument that the nylon-metal string qin is sufficiently different that it should have its own name, and that with the addition of nylon-metal strings the "old qin" (guqin) has become a "new qin", such a radical change should not really be necessary; in addition the term "new qin" is already in common use to refer to any newly made stringed instrument. (Unfortunately, the romanization of "qixianqin" makes it unlikely to catch on in English.)
To compare the situation with that of the Western guitar, there are major differences between the guitars used for classical music, folk music and rock music. Guitars can be described as electric guitars, steel-string guitars, nylon-string guitars and so forth, but they are still guitars. The important thing here is being aware of the differences caused by strings and by the subsequent related changes both to the structure of the instruments and to the playing methods. When this happens people will naturally wish to know whether the seven-string qin about to be heard or discussed has nylon-metal strings (gangsixian qin), composite strings (fuhexian qin), or silk strings (sixian guqin or, simply, guqin).25
Preserving the old helps give a more solid base to the new. It also allows more variety: the more the better.
1.
Silk strings 絲絃 or 絲弦
On the other hand 4 has both 4.231 七絃 qixian and 4.232 七絃琴 qixianqin. The former is said to be short for the latter, with a reference given to 嵇康，酒會詩 Poem of a Wine Gathering by Xi Kang. The latter names the seven strings as on a guqin, though only using the word "qin" rather than "guqin". "Seven-string qin" may in fact be the best term to use today when referring to a "guqin" regardless of what type of strings it uses (further comment above and below).
It must be noted that nowadays use of the word "silk string" does not guarantee strings made of silk. One example is the ensemble formed in England in 2006 calling itself "Silk String Quartet". It consists of pipa, zheng, erhu and yangqin, but none of the players actually uses silk strings. When it comes to the qin world, the prevalent conservative ideology contrasts starkly with most players' ignorance of silk strings. Dealing with silk strings is sometimes inconvenient, largely due to the fact that most current teachers do not present them as an alternative. But the basic conundrum is that, while there are no real problems with silk strings if you follow the tradition of playing for self-cultivation, even people who want to think they are following the tradition are in fact more focused on performing, usually for people who do not know the traditional aesthetic. There is further comment on this in the footnote Misuse of the words "silk strings".
2.
Silk string category 絲絃類
All stringed instruments were categorized under silk, and perhaps at that time all Chinese stringed instuments did use silk. However, most Chinese instruments played today were introduced into China from outside after the Han dynasty, and presumably many of these came with strings made of other materials, such as 馬尾絃 horse-hair strings, 腸絃 gut strings, or 鋼絲絃 metal strings. Western language writings on musical instruments seem very happy to ignore the issue of strings, and in China I am not familiar with research on the introduction of these materials for use as strings on musical instruments.
3.
Articles by Wong Shu-Chee (黃樹志 Huang Shuzhi)
The first of these is translated as "Through Qin Strings, Inquiring about the Guqin's Past, Present and Future Path of Development."
Unauthorized versions of these articles, often abridged and with mistakes, can be found in various places online. Some time ago I give a link to one as an example, only to be told later that someone had apparently taken over that Chinese site so the link was quite embarrassing! (It is gone now, but I wonder how often that happens.)
4.
Metal strings 鋼絲絃
5.
In spite of these comments about 氣 qi, in later years he followed the trend to metal strings.
6.
絲桐﹕silkwood, silk-wood, silk and wood
See also Instrument construction: Consequences of the change from silk to metal strings
8.
The page on Ancient techniques has
further details about string wrapping and gauges, including the following chart
(see also length/breakage):
Sample modern silk string gauges (mm)
9.
Qin string length and breakage
10.
In contrast, strings of gut and other materials are usually considered to be at their best when new.
11.
Performing with silk strings
12.
Amplification
13.
Lui Tsun-yuen (呂振原; Mandarin: Lü Zhenyuan) and his nylon strings
14.
Breaking in new silk strings
With the better quality of strings available from around 1980 until the early 2000s such breaking in was much quicker. Unfortunately the more recently available strings are more coarse again.
The process of breaking in qin strings can be speeded up by various methods. Originally I would take a piece of silk or cotton cloth, pinch it around a string and run it back and forth many times. The strings would heat up and you had to be careful, but this would make them smoother after a while. Another method is first to put some wax (chemical wax of the type that melts at a temperature higher than body temperature) into the cloth, then apply this to the strings; this method can be very effective. A third such treatment is to apply raw egg white. This also assists in the smoothing process, but mainly helps keep the mesh on the lower four strings from unraveling.
15.
Synthetic materials
16.
Laurence Picken, Folk Musical Instruments of Turkey, p.269.
17.
Current reactions in China to silk strings
18.
Making silk strings smoother
Another technique is to wipe the silk strings with egg white. This makes them very smooth. However, this may affect the chemical composition of the strings themselves, specifically the glue, making the strings more likely to break. And some people say that this also attracts bugs to chew on the strings.
19.
Fang Yuting 方裕庭 （1885-1977）
20.
Current availability of silk strings for guqin
(for the mis-named "new silk" or metal/nylon see NAGA)
Payments must be in HK dollars. They also have an address in Scarboroguh Ontario, but I don't know if orders can be arranged through them.
In sum, although it takes some determination and perhaps Chinese language skills, it is possible to find silk strings. Thus the main reason for the difficulty in finding them is the fact that almost all teachers in China use metal strings and thus have a vested interest in them, while overseas organizations such as NAGA for apparently similar reasons decline to make them available for sale (see further comment).
21.
Availability of silk strings from 黃樹志 Wong Shu-Chee (see also his
articles)
Qin players in China who would like the silk strings (只供應國內琴人) should contact:
22.
Silk strings on early Western musical instruments
With regard to importing silk strings into Europe from Asia, they would probably only have had to come from as far as the Ottoman empire. Silk strings were used for a long time in Central and Western Asia, and from there they apparently also made their way to India, as shown in the following quote (from Allyn Miner, Sitar and Sarod in the 18th and 19th Centuries, 1993 and 1997, p.61).
Silk strings may also have been used later by the famous Mughal court musician Tansen. Unfortunately, there is little discussion of the qualities of various string materials in any of these sources.
23.
Scientific measurements of the sonic qualities of silk stringsAs yet, to my knowledge the only test of this has been the one supervsed in 1998 by Andrew Horner and Lydia Ayers
(website) of the computer science department at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Andrew and Lydia had previously measured the overtones produced by several other stringed instruments. After discussing the issue with me, they had one of their students carry out a project trying to synthesize silk string guqin sounds, in the process measuring overtones created by open, stopped and harmonic tones. For this I played only single notes (no slides or ornaments) using each technique. The most noticeable results from measuring the harmonics were their richness, the strength of the fourth harmonic in particular, and the slow fade of the overtones over five seconds or more.
Thus, although our tests confirmed the richness of the overtones produced by silk strings, since we did not make comparable measurements on an instrument with nylon/metal strings, any conclusions must be considered preliminary. (See also the next footnote.)
24.
Another scientific test of guqin sound
The summary of their results includes the statement, "Guqin tones are slightly inharmonic and they exhibit phantom partials." This suggests either that no special effort was made to measure the overtones and their decay, or that the overtones on a nylon/metal stringed qin are not at all remarkable. If, as the paper states, the "inharmonicity [is] caused by string stiffness", this should be stronger on a qin with nylon-metal strings than one with the less rigid silk strings. If my understanding is correct, phantom partials are also more likely with rigid strings, and thus should be less with silk strings.
Whether or not my understanding of this and other observations made in the paper are correct, clearly it would be very interesting to compare the results of their measurements of the rather modern nylon/metal sounds with results from similar measurements made of the traditional silk string sounds. In particular, once similar research has been done on a guqin with silk strings, the results of their nylon-metal string research will be very significant for understanding not just traditional guqin sounds per se, and how they have changed since the Cultural Revolution; it will also help explain how and why the new strings are changing the methods people use when playing the instrument.
25.
A new name for the "old qin" that does not use silk strings?
Return to the top or to the Guqin ToC.
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a
separate page)
28058 絲 has no 絲絃琴 or 絲弦琴 sixianqin; what it has is simply 28058.53 絲絃 si xian, which it defines as a string for music instruments, giving 紅樓夢 Hong Lou Meng as a reference.
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At least by the Han dynasty the Chinese had categorized music instruments according to eight materials into "8 sounds" (八音 1475.217):
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Wong Shu-Chee, who in the 1990s was involved in a project to produce higher quality silk strings, has written several interesting articles in Chinese on the subject. He has given me permission to post them on this website:
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Presumably the term "metal-nylon" or "nylon-metal" would be most accurate, but generally the term used is either "metal strings" or "nylon strings".
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28058.45 絲桐 sitong says this is another name for the qin, with numerous references beginning with 史記 Shi Ji Chapter 46, 田敬仲完世家
Hereditary House of Tian Jingzhong Wan (more under
Zou Ji).
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7.
Causes of damage from metal strings
Divots in the lacquer (see #1)
The potential for damage from metal (metal/nylon) strings is largely due to the following:
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thick
standard
medium
thin
1st
1.75
1.64
1.52
1.40
2nd
1.60
1.49
1.38
1.27
3rd
1.45
1.35
1.24
1.14
4th
1.30
1.20
1.10
1.00
5th
1.15
1.10
1.00
0.90
6th
1.03
1.02
0.90
0.80
7th
0.90
0.85
0.80
0.75
As mentioned above unused silk qin strings may have a length of 250cm (100"); however, ones made today seen often to have a length closer to 200cm (6'9") when new. Typical vibrating length of strings on a qin is 110-117cm (43-46"), however some qin may be several centimeters shorter. About 6cm (2-3") are used to tie a knot at one end of each string, allowing it to be held by a tassel that goes through the bridge to the sound pegs; at the other end the strings extend about 40cm (15-16") beyond the nut (where the vibrating part of the string meets the body) before being wound around one of the two legs under the qin. When a string breaks it is usually where it rubs against the bridge. Trimming the broke string and tying a new knot shortens the string about 6 cm. This is why the top three strings, which do not have an outer mesh, might break more than 10 times before they are too short to be used. As for the lower 4 strings, which have an outer mesh, with my older sets this mesh may extend on a new string almost all the 38 cm to the foot. This means they may break five or more times before having to be replaced. On the newer sets, however, the mesh often extends only about 8cm. This means that, good as they sound, one of these strings can break at most twice before it must be replaced.
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Perhaps my favorite performance was one at N.S.I. in San Diego: it seated 300 people but the sound was just as good at the back of the hall as it was on stage. Here one could close one's eyes and imagine listening personally in a scholar's quiet studio. Unfortunately, it is more common to present the qin in a place where you might be able to see remnants of traditional Chinese culture, but you have to have a vivid imagination to hear the music as it was originally intended. Everywhere there seems to be little effort put into making acoustically superior small recital halls. In their absence one must hope for an amplification system of such high quality that it can capture the rich colors of silk strings (since nylon-metal do not have these colors, this is not such an issue with them - the aesthetic is very much changed).
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A superior amplification system is essential to bringing out the full range of delicate colors available from a silk string guqin. Once again, because such systems are rarely used, or incorrectly used, in guqin performances, many people have never heard the distinctive possibilities of the silk string sound.
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Lui Tsun-yuen taught guqin for many years at U.C.L.A., and in the mid 1970s, shortly after I had begun qin studies, I visited him there. At that time Lui was one of a tiny handful of active qin performers and his recordings were among the very few then available. He had a lovely old Song dynasty qin, but he used nylon fishing wire for strings. He related to me his opinion that the noisiness of the sound of fingers sliding on the strings was a major reason for the qin's lack of popularity, and so he was using strings that were perfectly smooth.
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My teacher Sun Yü-ch'in said silk strings were at their best after a two year breaking in period, then began to deteriorate after five. This apparently applied to the type of strings then available, which were rather coarse, and he did not suggest any methods for breaking them in other than by playing them regularly until they become smoother.
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Since Dupont developed nylon in the 1930s, this material has become common for music strings all over the world. Other sythentic forms include the composite qin strings made in Fujian since 2007 (often advertized misleadingly as "new silk").
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Since leaving Hong Kong in 2000 I have had several noteworthy experiences of playing along side qin players who have either never used silk strings or have not used them in a long time. Often they say that they think the silk string sound is better. Some have switched to silk. More common, though, seems to be the opinion that silk strings are "too much trouble".
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Some accounts call him the last traditional maker of silk strings for qins, but see also the article about Pan Guohui. Some information about Fang can be found through an internet search in Chinese for "方裕庭" (an English search rather stupidly turned up a stolen [because unattributed] old copy of the present page on a website selling metal strings, adding a corny picture of a harpist). The 塘棲 Tangqi district is centered about 20 kilometers north of Hangzhou. 查阜西 Zha Fuxi, 吳景略 Wu Jinglue and 莊劍丞 Zhuang Jiancheng were all famous qin masters. Most of the information about this comes from 琴絃問題 Qinxian Wenti, an article in Zha Fuxi: Collected Writings about Qin, pp. 384-387.
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Here is a listing of recent successes in obtaining silk strings in China and Hong Kong (see also the next footnote).
1F, 106-118 Prince Edward Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong (by Prince Edward MTR)
(852)2381-2025
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Contact for Wong Shu-Chee is taigustring@yahoo.com.hk. In January 2007 he told me the following about the availability of his strings.
The New Asia Institute of Advanced Chinese Studies
6 Farm Road, To Kwa Wan, Kowloon, Hong Kong (every Saturday)
香港九龍土瓜灣農圃道６號 新亞研究所 （逢星期六有活動）
Contact person: Miss Jade Tse 謝淑瓊
Tel: (852) 9465-8442
Email: jadetse@gmail.com
Tel: (86)139 1776 7235
E-mail: sunsong100@gmail.com
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Evidence suggesting that early Western instruments sometimes used silk strings includes the following (see details):
In order to display the beauty of the bridal-bed of poetry 12 screens [pardah:modes] have been stretched along the fine and thin silken chords fastened to the wooden pegs of the Rabab (Askari 1972:110).
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In 2006 guqin a paper was published in Finland analyzing sounds from a nylon-metal string qin; the main aim was apparently to synthesize the sound. There is an introductory webpage entitled Model-Based Sound Synthesis of the Guqin, with some linked sound samples, and the resulting article is available in a
.pdf file. The test considered all three components to the string vibrations: transversal (a combination vertically and horizontally at one point of the string), longitudinal (horizontally from one end of the string to another, as with a
slinky), and torsional (if the string twists/rotates). It particularly comments on "inharmonicity" (overtones/partials produced that do not have the theoretically correct relation [e.g., 2/1; 3/2] to the fundamental) and "phantom partials" (very high overtones related to longitudinal vibrations of the strings).
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As mentioned, it is very unlikely that the metal string guqin will ever be called a "new qin" (xinqin 新琴). Other attempts at new terms also have problems. Thus, since "steel qin" (鋼琴 gangqin) has already been given to the Western piano, terms like "steel-string qin" (鋼絲琴 gangsi qin) would probably cause more confusion with pianos. Metal-wire qin (鐵絃琴 (tiexian qin) seems equally unlikely. Steel string guqin (鋼絲絃古琴gangsixian guqin) and silk string guqin (絲絃古琴 sixian guqin) are terms that clearly describe two types of guqin. However, instead of finding a new name for the pervasive metal string instruments perhaps one should (at least in English) concentrate on using a term such as silkqin or silkchin for the old qin and otherwise use the general term seven-string qin (七絃琴 qixianqin).
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