It’s for everyone.ģ) The guzheng is not "The Piano of China" nor is it "The most popular instrument in China". Yet at one point in the early 1900s some in China said the instrument was for men only. Gender confusions go both ways in modern times it is easy to assume the instrument is for women as they are most commonly featured in photos. Both men and women have played and mastered it for centuries. A harp has a soundboard or resonating chamber that is perpendicular to the strings, while a zither has a soundboard that is parallel to its strings.Ģ) The instrument is not gender-restricted. There already is a Chinese harp: the Kōnghóu! It's better to call a guzheng a Chinese zither. Please be better than me!ġ) The guzheng if often described by westerners as a Chinese harp. I'm ashamed to say I've already made all of them. Try not to make these mistakes when describing the guzheng to others. The instrument is ancient but it is also modern. Yet… the designs were updated significantly just 60 years ago. It was felt that adding the character for ancient or old to the name gave it more prestige. The phrase you see nowadays, “Guzheng” is a bit of a branding effort by the powers that be. Think of these like guitars: Acoustic guitar, Classical guitar, Electric guitar. Examples: Butterfly Zheng, Multitonic Zheng, Centipede Zheng. Various variants have been made and named around Asia. The representative works of Guzheng include: the Homebound Fishermen, Lotus out of the Water, High Mountain and Flowing Water.The historic name for this type of instrument is “zheng”. The music played by the Guzheng suits both refined and popular tastes, and it’s still a popular musical instrument in China. The old silk strings were replaced with nylon strings, which are still being used today. Guzheng remained popular through the late Qing Dynasty ( 1644 AD - 1911 AD), where contemporary Guzheng musicians began the first attempts to formalize Guzheng music by compiling and arranging both classical and popular works such as ‘ High Mountain and Flowing Water' and ‘the Homebound Fisherman.' In 1948, the renowned musician Cao Zheng established the first university level Guzheng program in China. In addition, many new forms of Guzheng appeared through cultural exchanges with Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Vietnam and many other Asian countries. Hou Jin, a scholar of the Eastern Han Period (25 AD - 220 AD) wrote that Guzheng's sound touches the Heavens above and the Gods and spirits below.īy the Tang Dynasty (618 AD - 907 AD), the number of strings had increased from five to thirteen, and the bamboo had been replaced with wu-tong or paulownia wood for the frame of the instrument. Historical records from ancient books and scholarly writings give vivid accounts of the instrument and its music. Because Guzheng was developed in a region called ‘Qin Guo', its name became known as the ‘Qin zheng'.ĭevelopmentGuzheng became very popular in the imperial court and among the common people. Its scale was pentatonic, using the notes DO, RE, MI, SO, and LA with a major note for each of its five strings. The earliest known versions were constructed with a bamboo frame and used silk strings. It originated during the Warring Period more than 2,500 years ago in China. Chinese Zither (Chinese name: Guzheng) is one of traditional musical instruments in China.
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