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The Zheng, commonly known as Guzheng, (pronounced "Goo-Zheng"),
is a plucked string instrument that is part of the zither family.
It is one of the most ancient Chinese musical instruments according
to the documents written in the Qin dynasty (before 206 BC). Zheng
is the forerunner of Japanese koto, Korean kayagum, Mongolian yatag,
and Vietnamese dan tranh. Due to its long history, the zheng has
been called guzheng or Gu-Zheng where "Gu" stands for
"ancient" in Chinese. The guzheng has been a popular instrument
since ancient times and is considered as one of the main chamber
as well as solo instruments of Chinese traditional music. Since
the mid-19th century, guzheng solo repertoire has been growing and
evolving towards an increasing technical complexity.
The Chinese character for "zheng" composed of two parts:
the upper part means "bamboo" and the lower part is
"argue" (see the above character). According to a legend,
there was a master of se, 25-stringed zither, who had two talented
daughters who love playing the instrument. Now there came a time
that the master became too old, and wanted to pass his instrument
over to one of them. However, both daughters wanted to have it.
The master felt miserable and finally, out of desperate, he decided
to split the instrument into two - one got 12 strings, and the
other 13. To his amazement, the new instrument sounds mellow and
even more beautiful than its original. The happy master gave the
new instrument a new name "zheng" by making up the character
with the symbolisms representing "bamboo" and "argue".
The word "zheng", the name of this instrument, pronounces
the same as the word "zheng" which means "argue"
or "dispute". The origin of the Chinese character representing
this instrument seems to indicate that the early version of the
instrument was made of bamboo, which is different from that of
today. However, this legendary story, though it might be true
according to the origin of the Chinese character for this instrument,
should not be taken too seriously.
Zheng (Guzheng) is build with a special wooden sound body with
strings arched across movable bridges along the length of the
instrument for the purpose of tuning. In the early times the zheng
had 5 string; later on developed into 12 to 13 strings in the
Tang Dynasty (618 - 907AD) and 16 strings in the Song and Ming
dynasty (from the 10th to 15th century). The present day zheng
usually has 21-25 strings.
Tuning: The pitch of a given string is determined by the position
of the bridge, therefore, Guzheng can in principle be tuned to
any desired scales. Traditionally, pentatonic scale is used. The
instrumentalist plucks the strings with the right hand and touches
the strings with the left hand to produce the desired pitch and
create subtle tones and ornaments (see the pictures with Liu Fang
playing the Guzheng). Full scale can also be obtained by skilfully
applying press on certain strings from the other side of the bridge
with the left hand.
techniques: Guzheng player attaches a little plectrum on each
finger using a special tape. For traditional repertoires, the
instrumentalist mostly uses three fingers of the right hand for
plucking whereas the left hand pressing the string from the other
side of the bridge to create special tonalities and ornaments.
For some contemporary repertoires, both hands are needed to produce
complicated harmonies using four fingers of each, which means
that even the fingers of the left hand need to ware plectrums.
In some cases, one can use cello bow to play on the Guzheng to
produce sustained sounds and special effects. One can also use
sticks to hit on the strings in the way like a percussion instrument.
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