Related

PitchHarmonic SeriesGuqinZhengPipa

How does a single string sing a whole song?

Other string instruments divide pitch by where you stop the string — press here, sound there (frets and a fingerboard make a map of pitches). The duxianqin has no frets and no fingerboard: it has a rod.

⚠️ Push or pull the rod — tension up, pitch up; tension down, pitch down — together with the plectrum and overtone technique, "with one string and one rod it can play six registers, three octaves." ⭐⭐ Rule ㊹: tuning itself becomes the playing — on one string, tension *is* pitch. This site described the bells' three tuning actions (rule ㉕): change tension · change geometry · change mass. On other instruments those are done before the concert; the duxianqin turned "change the tension" into the performance itself.

One scale on one string: the rod *is* the pitch

⭐ Three points:

1. One string, two actions. The right hand plucks; the left hand pushes the rod — pitch in the left hand, colour in the right. 2. The gourd is still a gourd. Early forms had "half a gourd threaded on the rod" for resonance — the "pao (匏)" in its old name *duxian pao qin* is that gourd (a distant cousin in this site's gourd family). 3. ⭐ It is born quiet. Weak bamboo resonance, "suitable only for close, indoor playing," and a bamboo body that "splits easily in damp sea air" — shortcomings that forced three fixes: bamboo-string to steel · overtone position markers (easier to learn) · pickup and output (fit for large stages).

From the palace to the seaside

⭐ This is the batch's most complete record of an instrument's descent, with reasons and destinations spelled out:

⭐ Set it beside the batch's other fates:

• the guanzi chose to sink into folk bands → survives;
• the chi stayed in the palace → died with the institution;
• the duxianqin was expelled — and survived by the sea, entering the national intangible-heritage list in 2011.

The one in the *New Book of Tang*

Its earliest form stands in a Tang dynasty history:

"The one-string gourd zither: made of mottled bamboo, undecorated; the head carved as a viper; the string fastened without pegs, tied at the top; half a gourd, painted, with a bronze bowl, forms the body; over three chi long."

Every element is already the logic of today: hollowed mottled bamboo (now bamboo tube or wooden box), half a gourd as resonator (still called the "gourd resonator"), a bamboo strip for a string (now steel), a viper head carved at the top — and "fastened without pegs": no frets, no fingerboard.

⚠️ Origins differ: a "one-string zither" account, a "one-string gourd zither" account, a combined account, a Vietnamese account — plus a "two-way transmission" account; and a parallel record that in 802 CE the Pyu kingdom (modern Myanmar) sent musicians to the Tang court, "among them the duxianqin." This page sets the accounts side by side.

Range

独弦琴属拨弦弦鸣乐器（一弦 · 摇杆取音）。传统形制有效弦长约 90 厘米，定弦多采用 A 至 C 音域；另有记其音域为 c—c³（约两个八度）。现代改良后（钢丝弦 · 泛音点位刻度 · 拾音器），资料称其可演奏「6 个音区 · 3 个八度」。因音高由摇杆连续改变，本页以 C4–C6 示意其常用音区，不代表全部。记谱即实音。

Common misconceptions

• "One string means one note." ⚠️ The rod changes tension (plus overtone picking): a whole scale on one string — the sources say "six registers, three octaves."
• "It has always been a Jing instrument." ⚠️ More fully: it came from the Central Plains court (as the "one-string gourd zither"), was dismissed in the Tang, drifted through folk hands, and reached the southern coast — where it became the Jing people's emblem.
• "Too quiet to perform." ⚠️ Born quiet (weak bamboo resonance), but since the 1950s steel strings, pickups and overtone markers have made it stage-ready — while "one string, one rod" never changed.
• "Plucked instruments stop the string with the left hand." ⚠️ It has no frets: the left hand pushes and pulls — pitch glides, it does not step.
• "Just colour in an orchestra." ⚠️ It is also a solo instrument: *High Mountains and Flowing Water*, *Fisherfolk's Four Seasons*, *Worshipping the Moon*, *The Bridge in the Wind* — and since 2013 it has had a graded examination system up to level ten.

Timbre, and how to hear it

Three cues:

1. Hear the slide. There are no steps between its notes — the melody is one unbroken line, the inevitable result of playing with a rod. 2. Hear the overtones. The plectrum does not only pluck; it picks overtones — two layers in one sound: a ground tone and a bright one above it. 3. Hear the sea. Bearers call its tone "clear and drawn-out"; by the coast those long notes often paint the rise and fall of the tide. An instrument expelled from the palace learned, in the end, to write the sea.

The family

⭐ Worth remembering: the character "匏 (gourd)" has now appeared three times in this batch (sheng, yu, the hulusi) — and the old name "one-string gourd zither" reminds us: in Chinese instruments, the gourd has always been a soundbox.

Next

The plucked section continues with one from Xinjiang — one of the Uyghur people's most-used plucked instruments.

It has a python-skin face (like the sanxian and erhu), and it grew different forms in different oases.

Rawap. :::

Sources

• ⭐⭐ 结构与机理：「独弦琴长约 1 米，主要由琴体 · 摇杆 · 弦轴 · 琴弦 · 共鸣葫芦以及挑棒（拨片）构成，两端呈马蹄形落地支撑，琴身中间悬空放大共振效果。它仅凭一根琴弦 · 一根摇杆，就能演奏出 6 个音区 · 3 个八度」；「演奏时右手持竹签拨弦，左手推拉摇杆控制音高，通过泛音技法呈现复合音响效果」；「传统形制有效弦长约 90 厘米，定弦多采用 A 至 C 音域」（另有记音域 c—c³）依报刊与辞书资料
• ⭐⭐ 《新唐书》记载（历史）：「早在《新唐书》中就有记载：『独弦匏琴，以斑竹为之，不加饰，刻木为虺首，张弦无轸，以弦系顶；复以半匏，皆彩画之，加上铜瓯，以作为琴，长三尺余。』彼时的独弦琴琴身以整段斑竹掏空制成，取半个葫芦（匏）作为天然共鸣器，仅一根竹篾为弦，琴头雕刻蛇形纹饰，形制古朴简约」；「唐贞元十八年（802 年），南亚骠国（今缅甸）向唐王朝进献歌舞，其中就有独弦琴」（此说与中国起源说并存）依古籍与报刊资料
• ⭐⭐ "从宫廷到海边"（命运）：非遗传承人赵霞的说法：「独弦琴前身独弦匏琴曾是中国古代宫廷中流传的乐器之一。到唐代，其因一弦 · 无品 · 多音，落入了难学 · 易忘 · 声音小 · 不中听之境地，致使师者越来越稀 · 学者越来越少，慢慢被宫廷乐队所罢弃，自此流落民间。因其音量细小，也逐渐被排除出文坛戏班之外，最终来到了万里之外的南方滨海之地」依报刊资料
• ⭐ 起源诸说：「关于独弦琴的起源……在中国有三种起源说：① 起源于中国的一弦琴；② 起源于独弦匏琴；③ 由一弦琴和独弦匏琴发展而来；还有一种是起源于越南」；「现有研究更多支持中国起源论」；另有「双向传播说」；「殷商时期已有雏形」（一说）依辞书与报刊资料
• ⭐⭐ 族属与流行：「独弦琴……主要流传于广西防城港京族三岛（巫头 · 万尾 · 山心），是我国唯一海洋民族京族最鲜明的文化标识之一」；京语称「旦匏」（或旦莫衣埃）；「主要流行于广西防城港 · 钦州以及北京的京族聚居地区」依报刊与辞书资料
• ⭐ 材料与改良：早期「截取长约百厘米 · 直径 12 至 16 厘米的粗壮毛竹筒，劈去小半，所余大半边竹筒作为琴身；以薄竹篾作弦，竹片或牛角片弯制成摇杆，杆身穿缀半截葫芦以加大共鸣」；短板：「竹筒共鸣效果微弱 · 音量偏小 · 仅适合近距离室内弹拨；且竹制琴体极易受潮湿海风侵蚀断裂」；现代革新：「原始竹篾 · 麻绳琴弦替换为钢丝弦」·「琴面增设泛音点位刻度，降低入门学习门槛」·「加装内置拾音器与扩音接口，解决传统乐器音量微弱 · 难以适配大型舞台的短板」· 便携款「尺寸缩减六成」；木制琴由「桐木面板 · 松木底板与红木框板胶合成长方形匣状」；「虽然几经变迁，独弦琴始终保留着『一弦一摇杆』的核心设计」依报刊与辞书资料
• ⭐ 非遗与曲目：「2011 年 5 月 23 日被列入第三批国家级非物质文化遗产名录，项目编号 Ⅱ-154」；代表性传承人苏春发（2007 年认定为国家级传承人）· 赵霞（东兴京族博物馆馆长）；「2013 年，独弦琴开始有了考级机制，最高为十级」；代表曲目：《高山流水》《渔家四季歌》《拜月》《静静的海》《过桥风吹》《问明月》依非遗与辞书资料
• 「独弦琴在民族乐队中往往作为色彩性乐器使用；音色柔和优美，高音清晰 · 中音明亮 · 低音丰满，宜于表现悠长抒情的旋律」依辞书资料

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.