Guzheng

Guzheng (Chinese 古箏 / 古筝, pinyin gǔzhēng; 古, gǔ means "ancient" or "old"), also zheng, obsolete dscheng (箏 / 筝, zhēng), is a vaulting board zither with a long tradition played in Chinese classical music. It consists of strings plucked by finger picks, a sounding body made of wood, and movable bridges. When tuning the instrument, the pitches can be adjusted by moving the bridges, quite unlike many other instruments where the bridges are fixed.

The guzheng first appeared during the period of the Contested Empires (481-256 BC) and first became popular at that time. The elegant sound and the numerous expressive possibilities of the instrument were decisive for Chinese music. Originally the guzheng had five strings. During the Tang Dynasty (618-906 A.D.) the number of strings was increased to 13. Later the number of strings was increased to 16, 18 and 21. Today the guzheng can have up to 25 strings, mostly tuned pentatonically. Typically there are 21 strings.

Since the time of its origin in central China, many individually different types of guzheng have emerged. The instrument is thus the "ancestor" of various Asian zithers, or is at least related to them, such as the Mongolian yatga, the Vietnamese đàn tranh and the Korean gayageum. The role of China could be compared to the influence of Greek culture in the Mediterranean during the ancient period. The Japanese koto came to Japan from China during the Tang dynasty. The Japanese wagon, on the other hand, shows a stronger influence from Korea.

In the 1950s and 1960s the guzheng was improved again, both in terms of construction and the expansion of playing techniques, which were increasingly adapted to the requirements of contemporary music and orchestral playing. The guzheng player Xu Fengxia, who lives in Germany, uses partly experimental playing techniques to combine classical Chinese music with jazz and free improvisation. Chanyuan Zhao, who also lives in Germany, plays classical Chinese music and, with Benjamin Leuschner in the Duo Seidenstraße, also modern adaptations.