Qin Body

The most complete classical source for qin construction is the Yuguzhai Qinpu (Qin Handbook from the Studio for Abiding with Antiquity), published in 1855 by Zhu Fengjie; it has four folios.⁴ The first folio concerns music theory; the second describes qin construction; the third has a variety of information, such as describing qin parts, stringing a qin, qin tables and so forth; the fourth has an explanation of finger techniques. Most of Folios Three and Four were later reproduced in the well-known handbook Qinxue Rumen (1864).

Yuguzhai Qinpu has not been re-published and is today hard to find. However, Jim Binkley, a friend from Taiwan who is now a network engineer in Portland, Oregon, has made a translation of large sections of the book, including all of the material concerning qin construction, and put it online; an updated version of this translation is also available in book form.⁵

The present page outlines my basic understanding of qin construction, also providing links to further information.

Basic Construction

A qin is generally made from two boards about 125 cm x 20 cm, cut and joined together so that there is a sound box inside running most of the length of the board; the top board is somewhat rounded on top, the bottom usually flat. Other than some modern electric qin that, needing no sound box, consist of one solid piece of wood, the only known variant on this two-board construction is what might be called a "double-top qin"; it adds a thin board below the top one, for added resonance.⁶ The famous so-called "100-piece qins" (baina qin) still basically consist of two boards as described above, each of the two boards consisting of a number of smaller pieces glued together.⁷

Traditional Chinese paintings often show the qin played on a player's lap, but normally a qin is placed on a table when played; this table can have considerable influence on the sound.⁸ As the player sits facing the instrument the qin bridge, made of a solid piece of hard wood, will be to the right, about 10 cm from the right end of the instrument. Two legs about 30 cm from the left end raise the lower surface of the qin off the table. The seven strings extend across the bridge then across a nub at the left end, continuing under the instrument where they are tied to the legs. Running along the farthest (lowest) string are studs (hui), usually of mother of pearl, marking certain harmonic nodes.

Near the middle of the bottom is a sound hole, measuring perhaps 2.5 x 20 cm, while near the left bottom is a somewhat shorter sound hole. Old handbooks say that above each of the two sound holes, on the bottom of the top piece, there should be a nayin⁹ This nayin may almost reach to the sound hole, and my teacher told me the purpose of this was to keep the sound resonating inside as long as possible, so that although it was not as loud it was more enriched. In many instruments today one can see that the nayin have been cut away. There can be two reasons for this (other than them having worn or rotted away with age): the belief that this will lead to a louder sound; or so as to get at something inside, in particular the sound pegs.

On the other hand, Luc Breton says that the purpose of the nayin should be to reinforce the fundamental of a note (any musical note consists of the fundamental plus the overtones which give it color), and removing it can actually weaken the sound. This might explain why instruments with metal strings often lack them: metal strings do not have such rich overtones, so it is not so important that the fundamental be reinforced.

Old handbooks also always mention that there should be two sound posts inside, a round "heavenly post" towards the right and a squared "earthly post" towards the left.¹⁰ The exact position is never given. Modern qins often omit these posts, and on old qins they are often missing, perhaps removed. Once again, one function of the sound posts is to reinforce the fundamental. Qins designed for use with metal strings do not need them and people who put metal strings on old instruments may remove them. My earlier new qins by He Mingwei¹¹ have them, but the later ones do not.

They are also sometimes hard to find: on one of my qins by He Mingwei the heavenly post was particularly hard to find because it is deep inside the qin, near the 4th stud. Presumably it was put in before the two halves were sealed closed. The best way to try to look inside a qin seems to be with a small dentist mirror and a flashlight.

One of my old instruments was originally missing its sound posts while in the other they were eaten away by worms. In both cases, after Luc Breton had put in new sound posts (using old wood), trying various positions, the sound was dramatically improved. According to him the position of the heavenly post seems to be most important, and it will typically be placed either one third or one half the distance from the right end of the sound box (not of the instrument) to the left end of the sound box. (Perhaps also one quarter?) The other post need not be so precise.

Wood

The underlying principal regarding the two boards that form the main part of the qin body is that to produce more sound the top board should be made from lighter wood, but for more substance to the sound the bottom board should be made from heavier wood. The amount of roundness on top can vary considerably.¹² Inside the qin the top board is cut so that the thickness is less towards the sides and greater in the middle. The bottom board, which may be serrated inside, appears to be quite flat on the outside, but there is almost always some rounding, especially towards the sides.

The grain of the wood should be straight, fine and widely spaced. According to tradition, the best wood for the top is wutong,¹³ for the bottom zi wood.¹⁴ However, there are many types of wutong and today good quality wutong is very difficult to find. Thus other woods are often substituted, particularly other types of tong as well as certain types of pine.

The tradition of making new qins from old wood remains popular. Such wood may be taken from temples, coffins and the like. These were rarely made of wutong or zi. One common material from old sources for use on the tops is said to be sha also called shan¹⁵ (according to my dictionary the Latin name is cunninghamia sinensis or cryptomeria, apparently related to fir or pine). For the bottom board new qins from ancient materials are said often to use nan (machilus nanmu).¹⁶

The wood for making a qin must be dry, as the sap (lacquer) in the wood obscures the sound. In addition, uncured wood often cracks if there is a sudden change of temperature (the wood expands or contracts, but the lacquer doesn't). The most famous stories of wood drying tell either of Liezi hearing a tree burning after being struck by lightning and from the crackling sound deciding to make a qin, or of Cai Yong hearing the crackling noise of wood burning in a stove, and from this making his scorched tail qin. More commonly, sap can be removed by such techniques as soaking the wood first in lye then in water; or by heating it over a fire.¹⁷

Wood that has been dried by age rather than artificially is said to give a better sound, but the scientific principles for this are not clear. The sound of a silk-string qin does continue to improve with age, but this could also be related to the loosening of the lacquer.

Lacquer ¹⁸

The top surface of the qin the surface must be very hard, as the fingers press down very firmly. Yet the wood must be soft enough that it can produce sound. The is the reason the qin is covered with thin coats of lacquer.

The word "lacquer" can be confusing. Eymologically it seems related to a substance from bugs which on the Indian lac tree produce a substance often called shellac, used to make furniture look like lacquer objects from Japan (hence this process was called "Japanning".) The true Japanese and Chinese lacquer objects are covered with the sap of the Chinese or Japanese varnish tree (also called lacquer tree). Because of this confusion the term often used today for this "real" lacquer is urushiol, "a poisonous oily liquid phenoolic compound C15H27C6H3(OH)2 in the sap of the Oriental lacquer trees (Rhus verniciferi and R. succedanea) and present also as one of the principal blistering substances in poison ivy, poison oak and poison sumac that hardens and becomes colored by atmospheric oxidation" (Webster's). Urishiol is comparable to the Chinese "shengqi", raw lacquer.

The surface of the qin is protected by about five thin layers of raw lacquer mixed with a fine powder, topped by another four or so layers of clear lacquer. Lacquer will only dry in humid climate and when exposed to air (hence, if not applied in very thin coats the inside will never dry). When it does dry it polymerizes, forming in effect a hard natural plastic coating impervious to water and resistent to corrosive substances.

The raw lacquer should come from the varnish tree. The best is said to come from Sichuan province. The basic lacquer is thick and viscous; otherwise it has been treated in some way (i.e., is not really shengqi). Originally the lacquer is said to be yellowish white, like rice; after it is boiled it is called "cooked lacquer; once dried it appears black. Heating or boiling the lacquer affects only its color and shine.

Deer horn powder¹⁹ is considered the best material for making the underlying "cement". Today gypsum is often used, but it is very bad (it may look good at first, but it soon starts chipping off). Ground tile (as used on a roof) was also used in the past.

One of the reasons the sound of a qin improves with age is thought to be the fact that with age the lacquer loosens its grip on the wood, allowing it to vibrate more freely. (Compare dryness.)

Strings ²⁰

Until the Cultural Revolution, when metal strings were introduced, these were always made of silk. For further information see the separate section on Silk strings.

However, it might be mentioned here that metal strings may damage old instruments. For example, studies have shown that metal strings on violins quickly cause cellular damage to the bridges, so that they have to be replaced more quickly. Could the use of metal strings on antique qins be causing similar long-term damage? Where the metal strings touch the wood they certainly cause more wear.

See also Buying a qin, or return to the Guqin ToC.

Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. Qin body and construction: personal details
My familiarity with qin construction comes largely from reading and conversation, with very little practical experience. What I originally learned came from my first qin teacher, Sun Yü-Ch'in (Sun Yuqin), with whom I studied in Taiwan from 1974-6. Then during my subsequent 24 years in Hong Kong I learned much from Tong Kin-Woon, who has always had a particular interest in buying (and selling) new qin, collecting old ones, building and restoring them, researching construction techniques, and so forth. I should also mention several trips to Switzerland, where qin player Georges Goormaghtigh, in order to get his qins repaired, worked with a local Japanese lacquer specialist, Richard Bart, and a lute and bow maker Luc Breton, with the result that these two masters can now do very good work on qins.

As for Sun Yuqin, when he arrived in Taiwan from the mainland in 1949 he had no qin, so he realized he would have to make one. He was able to borrow a copy of Yuguzhai Qinpu and copy out most of the second folio by hand. From this taught himself to make qins, then later taught these essentials to a local wood craftsman, Mr. 葉世強 Ye Shiqiang (Yeh Shih-Ch'iang), who subsequently became quite a good qin maker. For outer appearance Mr. Ye modeled his early qins on the famous Tang dynasty qin preserved in Japan and seen in a color plate in R.H. Van Gulik Lore of the Chinese Lute, facing page 192.

My own first qin, completed by Mr. Ye right around the time I began studying with Mr. Sun, has the name Survived the Fire (焚餘 Fenyu). A fire in an apartment I was sharing with then ethnomusicology student Jim Binkley damaged the instrument, but after repair Mr. Sun said the tone had improved (presumably as a result of the wood being drier), so he inscribed this name on the back. Jim and I visited Ye Shiqiang a number of times to learn about qin making. Jim, who has subsequently made a number of qins himself, was then beginning his translation from Yuguzhai Qinpu, as mentioned above.
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2. Qin body image The full image can be found in Van Gulik, Lore, p. 219. It comes from the 琴學入門圖解 Kingaku nyumon zukai (Kyoto, 1828). Other items beside the qin are:: Qin table (琴案 qin'an, also called 琴棹 qinzhuo)
The qin rests on 琴薦 qinjian (qin mats), also called qin pillows (琴枕 qinzhen);
The player will sit on a "couch" (榻 ta).
Note also from the line in the middle that the original illustration apparently extended over two pages: the part of the qin to the right has seven strings, but to the left it seems to have only five. (Return)

3. My translations from Taiyin Daquanji
My translations were originally done with the advice of Sun Yuqin (see above), as well as the assistance of my classical Chinese teacher in Taiwan, 方慕廉 Fang Mulian. The translations were then revised in consultation with Tong Kin-Woon, who during my 24 years in Hong Kong provided a lot of further information about qin construction and many other aspects of the qin.
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4. Qin Handbook from the Studio for Abiding with Antiquity (與古齋琴譜 Yuguzhai Qinpu; 1855)
Author: 祝鳳喈 Zhu Fengjie. Four folios:: 1. Study of the string tones (絃律考 Xianlü kao)
2. Record of essentials (錄要 Lu Yao)
3. Complete essentials for studying qin (學琴備要 Xue qin beiyao)
4. What must be understood to play qin (彈琴會解 Tan Qin Huijie)
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5. Translation of Yuguzhai Qinpuu by Jim Binkley
Jim began this translation in Taiwan in 1975 in consultation with such people as Sun Yuqin and Ye Shiqiang. What he had available then was a portion of Yuguzhai Qinpu that Mr. Sun had hand-copied (most of Folio 2 and some parts of Folio 3). A number of years later he obtained a microfilm copy of the entire work, and thus has been able to expand his translation. It is this expanded translation that he has made available, with revisions and added commentary, online. As mentioned, an updated version of this is is available in hard copy (see same link). You can contact him at jrb@cs.pdx.edu.
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6. Double top qin
Tong Kin-woon has discovered that a number of early qin had tops made of two pieces: a relatively thick outer top board (it must be thick and lacquered to withstand pressure from the players' fingers) and a thin underboard inside. When new these thin underboards (or inner-tops) could add resonance to the sound of the qin, but apparently their thinness also led to them often partially disintegrating over the centuries, to the extent that people eventually did not realize they existed. Dr. Tong has himself discovered a number of such instruments, and has made some new qin utilizing this technique.
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7. Baina qin 百衲
This style is so famous that sometimes qin have lines cut into them to simulate separate pieces.
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8. Qin table (琴棹 qinzhuo or 琴案 qin'an)
This is a table especially designed for qin play. It could be so named because of the way it assists the sound, a narrow elegant table for performance, or a wide table so that the teacher and student can play facing each other. Some even have a hole to the player's right, so that the qin can rest on what appear to be its right legs while the qin pegs (琴軫 qinzhen) and tassels extend down through the hole. However, these apparent legs are actually called "paws" (鴨掌 yazhang, lit. "duck paws") or "peg protectors" (護軫 huzhen), and they are often somewhat fragile, so it is not common to use them as legs. The qin seems to be more stable when the right end of the body just before the pegs is actually resting directly on a "qin mat" (also called qin pillow, 琴枕 qinzhen) on the table top, with the "paws" just off the end of the table; to the left the actual qin legs also rest on a qin mat.
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9. Na yin 納音
Yin means "sound"; meanings of "na" include "stitch, receive, accept, enjoy, offer, restrain".
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10. Sound posts
Heavenly pillars (天柱 tianzhu); earthy pillars (dizhu 地柱)
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11. 何明威 He Mingwei lives in Chengdu
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12. Some experts say that the amount of roundess on the top can help determine in what dynasty the qin was made.
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13. Wutong 梧桐
"Wutong" is generally translated either as "pawlonia" or "parasol tree"; Latin names include sterculia platanifolia and fermiana platanifolia. The word wutong wood is closely associated with the qin, as is 桐 tong by itself (tongmu 桐木). There are apparently a number of regional varieties, but it is often said that the tong or wutong growing today generally does not have the right grain for making qins. Mathews' says "it is sometimes called the national tree of China; the trunk is straight and beautifully green; it is said to be the only tree on which the phoenix will rest." Eberhard, A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols, says it represents the female element, while bamboo represents the male.
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14. Zi mu 梓木
Zimu is often translated as catalpa ovata)
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15. 杉木 Sha or shan mu
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16. 楠木 Nan mu
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17. Artificially drying wood
Such dried wood is made commercially by putting wood into especially designed ovens. Tong Kin-Woon told me that when he himself first started making qin his method of drying wood was as follows. Starting with old wood cut into the approximate dimenstions he would make a bed of coals and put a swing over it. He would then swing the wood back and forth over the coals until it had lost about 90% of its weight.
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18. Lacquer tree (漆樹 Qi shu
It is not clear why qi shu seems to have the botanical name "varnish tree" rather than "lacquer tree". In Japanese 漆 is pronounced "urushi", and from this comes the word "urushiol", referring to raw lacquer.
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19. Lu jiao shuang 鹿角霜
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20. Xian (string) is written both 絃 and 弦 .
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