The term sixian qin (silk-string zither) is not to be found, as yet, in any dictionary. Originally it would not have been meaningful, since all Chinese stringed instruments were categorized as having silk strings.² Today silk strings are very rare.³ Almost all players in China use metal strings (also called nylon strings, since they are nylon with a metal core.⁴ As a result most available CDs of silk-string recordings are re-issues of recordings from before 1965 (see the silk string qin discography. It is partly because of this that on this website I consciously use the term "silk-string zither". I think it important to remind people that there is a distinctive silk-string style. In fact, one of the strengths of the qin is that it can accommodate both a silk-string style and a metal-string style.

My qin teacher Sun Yü-ch'in called the sliding sound of fingers on silk strings the qi (breath or life force) of qin music.⁵ Poets often referred to the qin as "silk and wood" sitong).⁶ Silk strings can be said to epitomize the qin's traditional role as an instrument of self-cultivation. There is strong evidence that metal strings cause damage to the structure of the instrument.⁷) So why would a traditional player turn away from silk strings?

Basics of qin strings

Strings on a qin normally have a vibrating length of 42-44 inches (110 cm), but the manufactured length of silk strings may be 100 inches or more. About 2 inches 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 15 inches beyond the nut before being wrapped around one of the two legs. 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

For at least 2,000 years, until the Cultural Revolution, the 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 string most likely to break is the seventh, so many sets contain an extra seventh string; next most likely to break is the fourth.

A string usually breaks where it rubs against the bridge. It is then trimmed neatly near the break and several more inches are required to tie a new knot before the string is re-wrapped around the bridge.

Problems with Silk Strings

The sound of the qin as developed over the years is so delicate that it cannot compete with other sounds. Claims have been made that it complements natural sounds, but perhaps this refers to the "beyond-sound" aspect of qin music. Thus, a common theme in paintings shows a scholar in the countryside with a stringless qin, with an accompanying verse to the effect that there is no need to play if one can hear the sounds of nature.

Perhaps this was an observation born of necessity. 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.

Besides having a more delicate sound, silk strings break more easily and the fingers, especially if not completely clean and dry, can easily sound scratchy when sliding on silk strings. In performance the problem is more critical. Climate changes make silk strings more likely to break. The low sound output often makes amplification necessary. Amplification often puts 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. And if the player gets at all nervous and/or if the room is at all warm, the hands become clammy; with clammy hands playing on silk strings become impossible.

Even without clammy hands the difficulty in recording with silk strings is again 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 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 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.

I first heard about this problem from Lui Tsun-yuen⁹ when I visited him in Los Angeles in the mid 1970s, shortly after I began qin studies. At that time Lui, who taught qin at UCLA, 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.

Smooth nylon wire never caught on, but metal-nylon strings have. With these strings clammy hands are no problem -- one simply puts a bit of oil on the fingers.

The development of metal strings

The basic materials for string are gut, fiber (in Asia, mainly silk), metal and, more recently, synthetics.¹⁰ 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.¹¹ 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; never, until the 1960s, in terms of using a different material 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.¹² 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 capacity of metal strings in reinterpreting the past is their longer resonance, facilitating a meditative style of play. One might even argue that, compared to poor quality silk strings, metal strings produce a cleaner sound when sliding and are thus better able to evoke that aspect of the sound of the best quality silk strings of the past. Metal strings also 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.¹³

Silk strings become more mellow with use. They usually break right where they rub against the bridge. The string is then re-tied using the extra length from the other end, wrapped around the leg under the qin. In this way a string a string can usually break about 10 times before it must be replaced. 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 available today could compare with the good strings of former days.

Fang Yuting might in some ways be considered the last traditional maker of silk strings for qins.¹⁴ 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.¹⁵

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.¹⁶

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.¹⁷ 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.

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 silk strings

In addition to being gentler on the instrument, the silken sound of the qin in very distinctive. One analysis says this is largely due to the fundamental (1st harmonic) tones being rather weak but the overtones extremely rich. Is this true, and can metal strings produce the same richness?

In 1998, with Andrew Horner and Lydia Ayers of the computer science department at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, we tried to test this. Preliminary results confirmed the richness of the overtones produced by silk strings. 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 remain strong for several seconds. To my ears the sound of metal strings is much less rich than that of silk strings, but the reason for this has not yet been scientifically tested with enough thoroughness.

Conclusion

To sum up, one could make a good argument that the metal string qin is sufficiently different that it should have its own name: with the addition of metal strings the qin is no longer an old qin (guqin), but a new qin (xinqin). However, such a radical change should not really be necessary. 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 someone is going to play a steel string guqin (gangsixian guqin) or a silk string guqin (sixian guqin).¹⁸

Preserving the old helps give a more solid base to the new. It also allows more variety: the more the better.

 
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. Silk strings 絲弦
28058 絲 includes 28058.53 絲弦 si xian, which it defines as a string for music instruments, giving 紅樓夢 Hong Lou Meng as a reference.

It might be noted that use of the word "silk string" does not actually mean strings made of silk. Thus an ensemble formed in England in 2006 calls itself "Silk String Quartet". It consists of pipa, zheng, erhu and yangqin, but none of the instruments uses silk strings.
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2. Silk string category 絲絃類
At least by the Han dynasty the Chinese had categorized music instruments according to eight materials into "8 sounds" (八音 1475.217):

1. 金（鐘）       gold (bells)
2. 石（磬）       stone (chimes)
3. 絲（絃）       silk (strings)
4. 竹（管）       bamboo (tubes, for blowing)
5. 匏（笙）       gourd (mouth-organ)
6. 土（壎/塤） earth (ocarina)
7. 革（鼓）       leather (percussion)
8. 木（柷敔）  wood (zhu and yu; ancient wooden instruments for stopping and starting an ensemble respectively)

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.
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3. 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:

1. 從琴絃探討古琴過去、現在與未來的發展路向
2. 談古琴絃規格
3. 琴絃答問

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. See, for example, 關於對絲弦的一點探討 (Concerning a little enquiry towards silk strings), on http://www.7xianqin.com.
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4. Metal strings 鋼絲絃
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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5. In spite of these comments about 氣 qi, in later years he followed the trend to metal strings.
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6. The potential for damage from metal (metal/nylon) strings is largely due to the following:

1. The increased string tension possible with metal strings causes more stress on the wood. This can also affect the lacquer, which is a form of cement which should be loosely connected to the wood.
2. The hardness of the strings combined with the requirement that the player push down firmly on the strings causes more damage to the lacquer under the strings.
3. The ultra-sonic vibrations from metal strings might damage the cellular structure of the wood. For example, one study looking for an answer as to why violinists who use metal strings change the violin bridge more often than those who play with gut strings discovered that the cellular structure of the bridge decayed very rapidly when metal strings were used.
4. The nature of sound means that the soundbox inside a qin should be different for metal vs silk strings. Sometimes people modify the sound box of an old qin so that it sounds better with metal strings, thereby perhaps doing permanent damage to an antique.
5. Still in the soundbox, old qins traditionally have two sound posts. These are often missing, but if they are present they may be removed from an instrument now being used with metal strings: the sound posts apparently reinforce the fundamental, and with metal strings this may not be so necessary. Placement of the soundposts is very important and this positioning may be lost.
6. The way the strings vibrate (silk wider, metal tighter) means that metal strings can be closer to the strings than silk can. Sometimes an old bridge is lowered to take advantage of that. Less commonly, if the instrument is re-lacquered they top surface may be modified to accommodate metal strings.

See also Instrument construction: Consequences of the change from silk to metal strings
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7. 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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8. The page on Ancient techniques has further details about string wrapping and gauges, including the following chart:

Sample modern silk string gauges (mm)

	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

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9. 呂振原 (Mandarin: Lü Zhenyuan).
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10. Since Dupont developed nylon in the 1930s, this material has become common for music strings all over the world.
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11. Laurence Picken, Folk Musical Instruments of Turkey, p.269.
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12. Since then I have had several 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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13. 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.
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14. Fang Yuting 方裕庭 （1885-1977）
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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15. Current availability of silk strings for guqin
Here is a listing of recent successes in obtaining silk strings in China (see also the next footnote).

1. In Suzhou in 2004 I found silk strings for qin under the brand name 虎丘牌 Huqiu Pai (Brand of Tiger Hill, a famous spot in Suzhou). They came in a small blue box with a blue label. I have not seen them since.
2. In 2006 I bought silk strings through 汪鐸 Wang Duo from 潘國輝 Pan Guohui; an online article (see translation) says he studied silk string making from Fang Yuting (see above). These strings came in a clear plastic cover with an insert (see copy).
3. In November 2007, again in Suzhou, I found silk strings available at several music instrument stores. The owners were somewhat vague about their origin. They came in the same light blue boxes with light red labels and six digit telephone numbers that were available from the 1990s.
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16. Availability of silk strings from 黃樹志 Wong Shu-Chee (see also his articles)
Contact for Wong Shu-Chee is taigustring@yahoo.com.hk. In January 2007 he told me the following about the availability of his strings.

17. The evidence suggesting that early Western instruments sometimes used silk strings includes the following:

1. The general assumption is that stringed instruments usually used gut for the strings; gut strings are made from sheep's gut, and there is no reason given how it came to be called catgut. In fact, medieval and renaissance sources rarely mention the actual material used for the strings, and when they do mention this they often specify both "sheep's gut" and "cat's gut", as though they are different.
2. The etymology of the word "catgut" is disputed, but one theory points out that the word "caterpillar" (producer of silk) comes from the French for "wooly cat"; most European caterpillars were wooly in appearance. This suggests that "catgut" might originally have referred to silk cord.
3. Silk string is known to have existed in Europe even before medieval times; its uses included for fishing line, and a 16th century source mentions a fisherman using a catgut lute string as a fishing line.
4. The biggest expense for string instrument players was string-replacement: gut strings could break very easily and often; thus, although silk strings would have been very expensive, the fact that they can last for years makes the likelihood of their use less remote, even if the silk strings were imported from Asia.
5. Some early records mention strings vibrating for up to 10 seconds after being struck: gut strings vibrate a second or two at most, but silk vibrations can continue for 10 seconds.
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18. Of course, 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.
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