Long-necked plucked lute of the Han Chinese. The name appears as either sanxian (‘three string’) or popularly as xianzi (‘string’, zi being a diminutive suffix). The sanxian is constructed of a long fretless neck of redwood or other hardwood, its lower end passing through a small oval (or square) soundchamber (see illustration). Distinguishing features include three elongated tuning pegs inserted laterally into a spatula-shaped peg box, strings of silk (more recently of nylon or steel), and covering of the soundchamber on both sides with python skin. The three strings, which hold a short bridge against the snakeskin head, are usually tuned to intervals of a 4th (between the low and middle strings) and 5th (between the middle and high strings), or vice versa. Other tunings are occasionally found as well. In performance, the soundchamber rests on the player’s right thigh, the neck extending out to the left at an upward angle. Strings are plucked using fingernails or a small plectrum.
Several sizes of sanxian are common. In north China, the ‘large sanxian’ of about 120 cm in length is the principal instrument employed to accompany genres of dagushu narrative song. In the Jiangnan area (central-eastern China), a ‘small sanxian’ of about 95 cm is used in the ensemble tradition of sizhu (‘silk-and-bamboo’), Kunqu opera, tanci narrative song and other genres. The Chaozhou people in coastal areas of south China have a still shorter sanxian of about 80 cm, used in xianshi (‘string-poem’) ensemble music and the local opera tradition. Many other varieties of related lutes are found among minority peoples, especially in south-west China, such as the very large long-necked lute of the Yi (about 150 cm) and the small lute of the Lahu (between about 50 and 70 cm).
While the sanxian is popularly believed to have emerged in China during Mongol rule (c14th century), recent research has shown that the name was known during the Tang dynasty (618–907), and a similar lute was depicted in tomb art of the 12th century. While its precise lines of development are not clear, it does seem certain that the instrument was introduced into China from elsewhere. In fact it shares important structural features (such as neck-type, resonator-type and number of strings) with the Setar and tanbur of Central Asia. An important instrument for song accompaniment during the Yuan and Ming periods (c14th to early 17th centuries), the sanxian was subsequently introduced into Japan (Shamisen) and the Ryūkyū Islands. Its popularity in China has continued to the present day, both as an instrument for accompaniment of narrative song and as a low-pitched instrument used in traditional ensembles.
See also China, §IV; Taiwan, §3.
A.C. Moule: ‘A List of the Musical and Other Sound-Producing Instruments of the Chinese’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, North China Branch, xxxix (1908), 1–160; repr. separately (Buren, 1989)
K.Hayashi: Dongya yueqi kao [Study of East Asian musical instruments] (Beijing, 1962/R), 229–37
L. Picken: ‘T’ang Music and Musical Instruments’, T’oung Pao, lv (1969), 74–122
Yuan Bingchang and Mao Jizeng, eds.: Zhongguo shaoshu minzu yueqi zhi [Dictionary of musical instruments of the Chinese minorities] (Beijing, 1986), 218ff
Liu Dongsheng and others, eds.: Zhongguo yueqi tuzhi [Pictorial record of Chinese musical instruments] (Beijing, 1987)
Wang Yaohua: Sanxian yishu lun [The art of the sanxian] (Fuzhou, 1991)
Liu Dongsheng, ed.: Zhongguo yueqi tujian [Pictorial guide to Chinese instruments] (Ji'nan, 1992), 168–73
ALAN R. THRASHER