The se 瑟 (pinyin: sè) is an ancient Chinese stringed instrument. It is probably the ancestor of many zithers in the east, including the Chinese guzheng and the Japanese koto. It has 25 strings with moveable bridges and has a range of up to five octaves. The gu zheng (古箏) (pronunciation: Media:guzheng. ... Masayo Ishigure plays the koto The Koto (âµ) is a traditional stringed musical instrument from Japan resembling a zither. ... For the numerical computation software, see GNU Octave. ...

History

The history of the se extends back to early Chinese history. It is one of the most important stringed instruments to be created in China, other than guqin and guzheng. Surviving ses have been excuvated from places such as Hubei, Hunan and Jiangnan proviences in China. Other places include Jiangsu, Anhui, Shandong and Liaoning. The Guqin 古琴 (ancient qin, pronounced goo chin) is the modern name for a plucked 7 string Chinese musical instrument of the zither family. ... The gu zheng (古箏) (pronunciation: Media:guzheng. ... Hubei (Chinese: 湖北; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Hu-pei; Postal System Pinyin: Hupeh) is a central province of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Hunan (Chinese: 湖南; pinyin: ) is a province of China, located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting (hence the name Hunan, meaning south of the lake). Hunan is sometimes called 湘 (pinyin: Xiāng) for short, after the Xiang River which runs through the province. ... Jiang Nan (Chinese: 江南, Wade-Giles: Chiang nan) refers to the southern part of the lowest reaches of the Yangtze River, including the southern part of the Yangtze Delta. ... Jiangsu (Simplified Chinese: 江苏; Traditional Chinese: 江蘇; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chiang-su; Postal System Pinyin: Kiangsu) is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. ... Anhui (Chinese: 安徽; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: An-hui; Postal System Pinyin: Ngan-hui, Anhwei or An-hwei) is a province of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Shandong (Simplified Chinese: 山东; Traditional Chinese: 山東; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Shan-tung) is a coastal province of eastern Peoples Republic of China. ... Liaoning (Simplified Chinese: 辽宁; Traditional Chinese: 遼寧; pinyin: ) is a northeastern province of the Peoples Republic of China. ...

According to legend, Fuxi created the se. It is also believed that by the Xia dynasty the se already came into being. It is said that the word for music, yue, is composed of the characters si for silk and mu for wood, and that it is a representation of the instrument. Fu Hsi (伏羲; pinyin fú xī; Pao-hsi), was the mythical First Emperor of China. ... The Xia Dynasty (Chinese: 夏朝; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Hsia-chao), ca. ...

There are also many mentions in Chinese literature, such as Shijing and Lunyu. The se could have been used to entertain guests, ritual performance and hunting rituals.

Construction

According to Lüshi Chunqiu on the number of strings that the se has: "A five stringed se, then became a fifteen stringed se. When Shun came to power, he added eight strings, so it became twenty-three." Another view suggests that the se started out with 50 strings. The Shiban later changes it to 25. "A big se has 50 strings, a middle se has 25." It also says that Fuxi created the 50 stringed se, called Sha whilst the Yellow Emperor reduced it to 25. There also is a 'small se' that has half of the strings, 13 strings (like the Japanese koto). But archeological evidence has unearthed ses that have 25, 24, 23, 19 strings. The string number differs from place to place. The length is also different. The shunning of an individual is the act of deliberately avoiding association with him or her. ... Yellow Emperor The Yellow Emperor or Huang Di (Chinese: 黃帝, Simplified Chinese: 黄帝, pÄ«nyÄ«n: huángdì) is a legendary Chinese sovereign and cultural hero who is said to be the ancestor of all Han Chinese. ... Masayo Ishigure plays the koto The Koto (âµ) is a traditional stringed musical instrument from Japan resembling a zither. ...

Unearthed ses have similar construction, namely a flat long sound-board made of wood. The surface board of the se is slightly curved, and has three end bridges and one bridge at the head, plus four wooden posts for the strings to wrap around (some have two or three only). The posts also have patternation or decoration. The tail-end of the instrument has a long " 冂 " shaped opening for the strings to pass through. To string the instrument, one needs to tie a butterfly knot at the head of the string, strung through a bamboo rod, over the bridge at the head and over the main body of the instrument and over into the tail-end bridge into the instrument, out of the sound hole at the bottom of the instrument, over the tail-end and wrapped around the posts in four or three groups.

One should note that the guqin and the se are different instruments in their own right.

Playing Context

There are very few players of the se, which is considered an extinct instrument. The only notable se player in the 20th century was Wu Jinglüe, who was a qin player. There are also very little musical tablature, a majority existing in qinpu (tablature for the guqin) in which the se was used as an accompaniment to the qin. Front cover of the first folio of the facsimile of Qinxue Congshu This is a list of existing Qinpu or tablature score collections for the Chinese musical instrument, the Guqin. ...

External links

• Chime: Se Chinese site with pictures of se (and qins)

See also

• Guqin