Zheng

 

 

 

“The zheng 箏 is sometimes called the guzheng 古箏. As early as in the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. - 25 A.D.) there was already a written record of the name “zheng”. … … The zheng was used as an accompaniment instrument in court banquets and folk festivals in the Han Dynasty, and in Yanyue 燕樂, or banquet music, during the Tang Dynasty.

 

Nowadays, influenced by the development of a modern Chinese orchestra, different versions of the zheng are made to perform compositions written with Western idioms. The technology of pedal mechanism borrowed from the harp and the concept of a double-zheng have also been tried out, but nowadays these versions are still not as popular as the traditional one.

                                   

Today the zheng appears in two versions: as a traditional 16-string zheng, and a modern 21-string zheng. The former type is usually used in traditional regional music, while the latter is used in the modern Chinese orchestra and also for performing contemporary solo pieces. The instrument is plucked with fingers. In the performance of traditional pieces, only the right hand plucks and the left hand presses the strings to produce sliding gestures, or to raise the pitch. In the performance of contemporary pieces, however, the left hand sometimes also plucks. The bridges of the zheng are movable in order to change the tuning of the instrument from one pentatonic scale to another.” (So Hon To)