The Freer and Sackler Galleries apparently have five qin zithers, including two made of iron. At least four of these can be seen online:

From 6 February to 1 October 2000 two qins from the collection were displayed in an exhibition called The Dragon's Moan, named after the qin of that name in their collection. And from 30 April to 17 September the Sackler Gallery exhibition Music in the Age of Confucius exhibited what might be predecessors of the qin, but these were not from their permanent collection.

When I visited the museum in 1997 I saw two wood and two iron qins in storage, the wooden ones including Dragon's Moan and another called Jie Feng (Melodious Phoenix), which is apparently not on display in the exhibition, being replaced by a newly acquired Ming dynasty qin called Spring Breeze, said to be in playing condition. In 1997 the only one in playing condition was one of the two iron qins, but of course it had a very weak tone.

What prompted me to visit the museum at that time was that I had just produced my first CD using a borrowed Song dynasty qin, and was hoping a museum might let me use one of their antique qins to do my Shen Qi Mi Pu recordings.

I was particularly interested in Dragon's Moan, whose full title is Kumu Longyin, meaning the Dragon moans from the dried wood. Several players in China (including Wang Shixiang, see below) had recommended it to me. Apparently several famous Chinese players and scholars who examined this qin in the 1940s spoke so highly of it that it now has a reputation as the best instrument in an American museum.

During my visit I saw in museum records that Zha Fuxi re-strung it in 1945 and Wang Shixiang himself re-strung it in 1948. They said it dates from either Tang or Song dynasty.

Unfortunately, in 1997 I found that the lacquer near the lower studs was so uneven that the instrument was no longer playable. At that time I was told the Museum had a policy of not repairing such instruments.

In 2002 I revisited the collection together with other members of the New York Qin Society, at which time I was told that either I was misinformed or the policy has changed, and that this one may soon be restored. The museum had also recently acquired another Ming dynasty instrument.

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