Chapter 29 Section 4 Sanxian and Huqin

Sanxian, a common stringed instrument in modern times, has been an important accompaniment instrument commonly used in Gushu and Tanci rap music since the Ming and Qing Dynasties.In recent years, some unearthed cultural relics and monuments have proved that it became popular in the Song and Jin dynasties.Its appearance and application are closely related to the rise and wide spread of rap art music at that time. The earliest image of sanxian in history seen today is the image of a stone sanxian musician unearthed from the tomb of the Southern Song Dynasty in Guangyuan, Sichuan (Fig. 30).In the picture, two musicians holding three strings are accompaniment to a performer, and another musician is beating.Figurines playing sanxian were also unearthed from the tomb of Xifeng Fengjin in Jiaozuo, Henan.It can be seen that this musical instrument has been widely used in the Song and Jin Dynasties.The biggest feature of the sanxian shape is that the piano bar is slender and tasteless, and the piano bar is just the fingerboard.This feature brings a lot of convenience to the performance: the left hand can slide up and down on the fingerboard (piano bar) to seek the tone at will, and the changing and tuning are very free and flexible. This makes the melody played by the sanxian fit well with the rap melody with various accents, thus serving as an accompaniment for embellishing the tone and helping the rhyme.It is precisely because of these unique performances that the Sanxian instrument has been used as the main accompaniment instrument in many rap art forms from the Song and Yuan Dynasties to modern times.

The name "Huqin" was originally a general term for the stringed instruments introduced to the Central Plains from the northwest and northern minority areas by the Han people in the Tang and Song Dynasties. Stringed instruments such as pipa, vertical harp, and Hulei can all be called "Huqin" in general. , which means "Huren's Qin", so it did not specifically refer to stringed instruments at that time.In modern times, the Chinese common name "Huqin" has changed into a general term for a kind of stringed instruments played with a ponytail bow sandwiched between the strings, such as the common Erhu, Jinghu, Yuehu (Gaohu), and Sihu. It is generally called "Huqin".The historical differentiation of the scope of appellation of huqin probably began in the Song Dynasty when the stringed instrument gradually emerged and was widely used.According to Song Shen Kuo's "Mengxi Bi Tan", the military song poem "Horsetail Huqin follows the Han army, and the sound of the song is still complaining about Shanyu", at that time, some people called the stringed instrument "Huqin".

The earliest stringed instruments known so far are the two musical instruments "Xiqin" and "Guzheng" mentioned in the literature of the Song Dynasty that appeared in the Tang Dynasty. Xiqin was originally a musical instrument used by "Xi", a minority tribe in Northwest China, so it is called "Xiqin".Its shape is a qin tube like a drum, with two pegs on the qin bar, two strings, and a bow made of bamboo slices to rub the two strings to pronounce.In Song Dynasty Chen Yang's "Book of Music" there is a picture of Xiqin (Fig. 31), which is similar to today's stringed huqin, and is considered to be the distant ancestor of today's stringed huqin.In the Southern Song Dynasty, Xi Qin was written as "Ji Qin".Shen Kuo's "Mengxi Bi Tan · Bu Bi Tan" records a music story about it: During the Xining period (AD 1068-1077), a grand banquet was held in the palace, and Xu Yan, a musician from Jiaofang, was ordered to play Ji Qin for the guests.When the banquet was in the process of toasting, a string of the Ji Qin played by Xu Yan suddenly broke. It is reasonable to say that the Ji Qin with a missing string could not be played, but he still continued to perform without changing the piano, and played the whole piece skillfully. People on the scene were amazed, and since then there has been a single-string playing method of "Yixian Jiqin Ge".This story not only shows that the performance skills of stringed instruments in the Song Dynasty have reached a high level, but also shows that Jiqin was already a solo instrument in the Song Dynasty.

Rolled zither, similar in shape to zither, gets its name because it is played with bamboo chips instead of fingers.According to Tang Jiaoran's "Watch Li Zhongcheng and Hong Erbeauties Singing Guzheng Song", the poem "Ji uses Shu bamboo strings and Chusi, and Qingwa's reverberating sound follows each other", we can see that Guzheng in Tang Dynasty was often used as accompaniment to songs.Song Chenyang's "Book of Music" draws a picture of a zither. It can be seen that the zither at that time had seven strings and could play seven tones.The bow for rubbing the strings is made of "L" shaped bamboo (Fig. 32).Guzheng was called "(Shangzhu Xiaqin) [Zheng Zheng]" in Yuan Dynasty.Until modern times, there are still relics of zither rolling among the people, such as the "Zheng zither" used in "Wu'an Pingdiao" in Hebei; the "Wenzhen qin" used in "Wen Shiyin" in Putian, Fujian; "And so on, all are descendants of the ancient Guzheng.