Qin as object

The qin was prized as a collector's item as well as a music instrument (this sometimes
causes problems for players who would like to play an old instrument). Stringless qins,
while they may seem to refer to the instrument itself, concern more the issue of qin ideology.

Links here are to articles about the physical qin, including:

Qin Body
Basic construction, with links to more information
Silk strings (availability from China and Japan)
In particular: Articles by Wong Shu-Chee.
Contrast: Metal strings, introduced during the Cultural Revolution
More recent: Silk strings with steel filament core
Compare: Synthetic strings (複合絃 fuhexian)
Plus: A scientific examination of the different tonal colors....
See also: Can metal strings cause damage, in particular from ultrasonic vibrations?
- Warning: the so-called "NAGA new silk strings" are not made of silk³
Tassels (see at right, hanging down from the qins)
Making and attaching them
Zhen (tuning pegs; the tassels are attached to them)
Their origin and use
Hui (studs; see at right, along the right side of each qin)
Their origin and use
Cases for qin
Modern cases for modern travel
Tables for qin
Including intructions on how to make a basic one
Acquiring a qin
Some basic rules, silk and metal string differences, and a link to the biggest US source
Qin Studio
Best type of room; compare Playing qin in nature
Qins in public and private collections
Mostly concerns museums where you can see qins, plus in captivity?
Xiao Xiang Ye Yu,
The qin used in my CD Music Beyond Sound.

Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. Physical properties: appreciating, acquiring, constructing
As an art object and collector's item, much has been written about the qin and its dimensions from an aesthetic standpoint. A typical example is this invocation, which praises the appearance as well as the sound.

As for making a qin, today there are qin-making clubs partly inspired by the high cost of good instruments, but also suggesting that to appreciate the instrument properly you should also engage in its construction. In Hong Kong there have been several clubs along these lines. Most active is the 蔡昌壽斲琴學會 Choi Chang Sau Qin Making Society (website). It was established in 2011 but Mr. Choi had already been teaching qin making since 1993. His company, 蔡福記 Choi Fuk Kee (website), started by his father in Fujian but based in Hong Kong since about 1960, originally made a variety of stringed instruments.
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2. Image: Hanging a qin
In the above image (the one on the right is from the Ming dynasty) the instruments are hung (as shown at right) by a chain connected at the top to a hook screwed into the wall above the instrument and at the other end to a 3" S-hook connecting a link in the chain to the edge of the sound hole ("broad pond") that is near the instrument top as hung).
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3. Misuse of the words "silk strings"
Because of the aura evoked by "silk", and perhaps also due to the increasing awareness of the history and special nature of silk strings, the word silk is sometimes evoked even where no silk is actually involved. For example, the "Silk String Quartet", a London-based Chinese music group, plays instruments traditionally classified as "silk", but today none of the players ever actually uses silk strings.

"NAGA new silk strings"

"NAGA new silk strings", introduced in 2008, also have no silk in them; nor do they sound like silk to anyone with whom I have spoken who regularly uses silk strings. They are composite strings developed in Xiamen for use on guqin but inspired by the composite strings that now often replace gut strings on early Western musical instruments. Nevertheless, as of 2022 the NAGA affiliated website continues to claim, "We are the only supplier that carries these exciting new silk strings, developed by NAGA and its associates http://www.guqin.org." Having been challenged, NAGA no longer claims there is real silk in the strings (though this statement can still be found on websites that quote the original NAGA promotion). NAGA still does not reveal either the producer, maker or the actual material. From direct examination by several people, including myself, the so-called "NAGA new silk strings" seem to be identical to "龍人古琴絃 Longren Guqin Xian", strings originally sold by the 廈門龍人琴坊 Xiamen Longren Qinfang but now widely available on the internet and not connected to the Longren Qinfang.

Xiamen composite strings (廈門複合絃 Xiamen fuhe xian)
These strings were originally marketed as "Longren ice strings" (龍人冰絃 Longren Bingxian) but are now often simply called "ice strings" (冰絃 bingxian). In this way they try to create an assumption that they have some connection to the famous "ice strings" of the past. As for Longren Guqin itself, it is a Fujian-based organization that, now organized as the Longren Guqin Cultural Village (龍人古琴文化村 Longren Guqin Wenhua Cun), carries out many activities supporting guqin. And although at one time their website included a testimonial by Li Xiangting about the composite strings, in my last search I could no longer find it. What it said was, in part:

"High-strength composite fiber strings" from Xiamen have a timbre like traditional silk strings and are as smooth and firm as steel strings.... They eliminate the noise while moving fingers along the strings, are less sharp and their sound is not as long-lasting as steel ones.... They are appropriate for playing all sorts of pieces in any style..., are strong and firm, not easily broken and work well in a wet environment.... I tried the strings on a 1,000-year-old qin as well as on a Zeng Chengwei qin; on both they are ideal.... (Thanks to Chunson Wang for the translation.)

People I met in China in 2009 were calling them "composite strings" (複合絃 fuhe xian"; fuhe is short for 複合材料 fuhe cailiao). I was told that they were a joint production between people in Shanghai and Xiamen, and that they cost 300 RMB a set (less when making a bulk purchase). They do not include any silk.

In spite of what Li Xiangting says, these fuhe strings most closely approximate the sound and feel of gut strings, but are more resonant; in this way they resemble the lute strings often used today (by "non-purists", defined as people who do not accurately describe what they are doing) for early Western music. The nature of the fuhe string construction seems to require that the lower strings be tightened considerably more than the upper ones, leading to some playing difficulties. A number of senior players in China have criticized them for their uneven sound and the way they continue to need tightening, a process that eventually weakens them. The second generation of fuhe strings are pre-knotted; I assume they are also pre-stretched in Xiamen, but have not yet personally confirmed this.

These fuhe strings make an interesting alternative to nylon/metal, and as with them they are thus best used for playing in less-quiet environments, for playing together with other instruments, and for expanding/changing the traditional qin aesthetic. On such occasions I have enjoyed playing on them, but not so much when playing solo in a quiet environment: they are simply incapable of reproducing the sort of color variation that characterized qin music for millennia, much less the silk sound itself. From my experience no one who generally plays a silk string qin thinks the composite strings sound or feel like silk.

Thus the NAGA statement that the sound of their strings "is good as that of silk strings made before and during the 1950s" is best seen as a promotional strategy underlain by an attempt to justify the rejection of the silk string tradition by players such as Li Xiangting. This rejection is underlined by the fact that NAGA declines to make real silk strings available through their online store (see comment on availability).

Regarding the sound of old silk strings, in 2009 Wang Fei wrote to me that,

"The reason (Li Xiangting) doesn't use the type of silk string that you think is traditional silk is because he thinks the quality is not the same as with the type of silk strings he played in the 1950s....I can tell you now that he prefers NAGA new silk strings because he thinks their quality is close to that of the silk strings he used in the 50s....I still have some new sets of 1950s silk strings in sealed boxes since the 50s which I got through a very valuable donation from a scholar...."

Based on an essay by Zha Fuxi about problems with qin strings in the 1950s (see further), I think Wang Fei may be referring to the Jinyu Qinshe strings of the 1930s (see Jinyu Qinkan). My own experience with such strings is playing ones made in the 1970s by the company of Fang Yuting. My experience with those strings shows that it would then certainly have been possible to revive the art of making silk strings (comment).

In any case, hopefully one day Wang Fei or Li Xiangting will make a recording with such old strings to demonstrate the validity of their claims about them. Meanwhile, it would also be valuable to me to hear specific comments by them (or anyone) describing in what way the silk string sound of modern recordings, such as my own (many of which are online), differs from the silk string sound to which they refer.

As for other claims in the testimonial by Li Xiangting, my teacher Sun Yü-ch'in told me that the (hopefully smooth) sliding sound of the fingers on silk strings was the qi (life force) of the music. As for putting the composite strings on 1,000 year old instruments, if their hardness affects the lacquer at all the way nylon-metal does (during the period I was using metal strings, after a year or two of regular use they began to make divots in the lacquer where they were most often pressed down), this is indeed a tragedy.
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