The ''zhongruan'' (), is a Chinese

plucked string instrument Plucked string instruments are a subcategory of string instruments that are played by plucking the strings. Plucking is a way of pulling and releasing the string in such a way as to give it an impulse that causes the string to vibrate. Plucki ...

. The ''zhongruan'' has a straight neck with 24

frets A fret is any of the thin strips of material, usually metal wire, inserted laterally at specific positions along the neck or fretboard of a stringed instrument. Frets usually extend across the full width of the neck. On some historical instrume ...

on the

fingerboard The fingerboard (also known as a fretboard on fretted instruments) is an important component of most stringed instruments. It is a thin, long strip of material, usually wood, that is laminated to the front of the neck of an instrument. The stri ...

and 4 strings. It is usually played with a

plectrum A plectrum is a small flat tool used for plucking or strumming of a stringed instrument. For hand-held instruments such as guitars and mandolins, the plectrum is often called a pick and is held as a separate tool in the player's hand. In harpsic ...

(guitar pick). It can also be played with fingers (index finger and thumb with acrylic nails), which is similar to the way of playing the ''

pipa The pipa, pípá, or p'i-p'a () is a traditional Chinese musical instrument, belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the "Chinese lute", the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets rang ...

'' (琵琶). The ''zhongruan'' is a tenor-ranged instrument in the family of ''

ruan Ruan may refer to: Buildings * Ruan Center, office building in Des Moines, Iowa * John Ruan House, historic mansion in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, t ...

'' (阮). In ancient

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, the ''ruan'' was called ''Qin pipa'' (Qin ynastypipa, 秦琵琶) or ''Ruan xian'' (阮咸). Now the ''ruan'' has expanded to different sizes and the ''zhongruan'' is the "medium" one. Picture of Ruanjian

Use

The default tuning of ''zhongruan'' is It can also be tuned as or or other variants, according to requirements in music scores. Since the ''zhongruan'' has a rounded, calm and rich tone, it is usually played as a lead instrument in small ensembles and used to accompany other instruments in

Chinese orchestra The term Chinese orchestra is most commonly used to refer to the modern Chinese orchestra that is found in China and various overseas Chinese communities. This modern Chinese orchestra first developed out of Jiangnan sizhu ensemble in the 1920s ...

. It can also be played

solo Solo or SOLO may refer to: Arts and entertainment Comics * ''Solo'' (DC Comics), a DC comics series * Solo, a 1996 mini-series from Dark Horse Comics Characters * Han Solo, a ''Star Wars'' character * Jacen Solo, a Jedi in the non-canonical ''S ...

Construction

A good quality ''zhongruan'' is usually made of

rosewood Rosewood refers to any of a number of richly hued timbers, often brownish with darker veining, but found in many different hues. True rosewoods All genuine rosewoods belong to the genus ''Dalbergia''. The pre-eminent rosewood appreciated in ...

(紅木). For the best sound quality and visual appearance, it is made of

red sandalwood ''Pterocarpus santalinus'', with the common names red sanders, red saunders, protect it Yerra Chandanam, Chenchandanam, red sandalwood, Rakta Chandana, and saunderswood, is a species of ''Pterocarpus'' endemic to the southern Eastern Ghats mou ...

(紫檀木), because red sandalwood is best known for its beautiful

wood grain Wood grain is the longitudinal arrangement of wood fibers or the pattern resulting from such an arrangement. Definition and meanings R. Bruce Hoadley wrote that ''grain'' is a "confusingly versatile term" with numerous different uses, including ...

, unique purplish color, hardness and rareness. Therefore, a red sandalwood made ''zhongruan'' is heavier and more expensive. The lute head (琴頭) is for decoration. Three common decorative patterns are ruyi (如意, good fortune),

peony The peony or paeony is a flowering plant in the genus ''Paeonia'' , the only genus in the family Paeoniaceae . Peonies are native to Asia, Europe and Western North America. Scientists differ on the number of species that can be distinguished, ...

and

dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

. They are usually made of plastic or

ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals is ...

. Under the lute head is a

pegbox A variety of methods are used to tune different stringed instruments. Most change the pitch produced when the string is played by adjusting the tension of the strings. A tuning peg in a pegbox is perhaps the most common system. A peg has ...

(弦軸箱) with

tuning peg A variety of methods are used to tune different stringed instruments. Most change the pitch produced when the string is played by adjusting the tension of the strings. A tuning peg in a pegbox is perhaps the most common system. A peg has a ...

s (琴栓) that hold the strings. The pegs are usually made of wood or buffalo horn. Nowadays, most ''zhongruan''s have tuning

machine head A machine head (also referred to as a tuning machine, tuner, or gear head) is a geared apparatus for tuning stringed musical instruments by adjusting string tension. Machine heads are used on mandolins, guitars, double basses and others, and ar ...

s (弦鈕) instead of a peg box, since they make it easier to tune. There are some makers that still use the traditional peg box system but coupled with fine tuners at the tailpiece. The strings (弦) were made of silk in the old times. The number of strands of silk determined the thickness of the string. Nowadays, metal wound polymer strings are used. A

nut Nut often refers to: * Nut (fruit), fruit composed of a hard shell and a seed, or a collective noun for dry and edible fruits or seeds * Nut (hardware), fastener used with a bolt Nut or Nuts may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Co ...

(山口) is placed between the pegbox and the neck to secure the strings. It is usually made of plastic, buffalo bone or ivory. The neck (琴頸) connects the lute head and the body. It has a

(指板) and 24

(品). The frets are usually made of plastic, buffalo bone, wood and metal (copper). For a good quality ''zhongruan'', the frets are made of a combination of plastic and copper, or wood and copper, with the metal part inlaid at the top of each fret. In combining two materials, the frets last without damaging from long-time practice. The circular

sound box A sound box or sounding box (sometimes written soundbox) is an open chamber in the body of a musical instrument which modifies the sound of the instrument, and helps transfer that sound to the surrounding air. Objects respond more strongly to vibr ...

(共鳴箱) body is made of a combination of front board, back board and side board. There are two

sound hole A sound hole is an opening in the body of a stringed musical instrument, usually the upper sound board. Sound holes have different shapes: * round in flat-top guitars and traditional bowl-back mandolins; * F-holes in instruments from the vio ...

s (音孔) on the front board to transmit sound. Some common shapes for the sound holds are circle, moon, S, and bird. At the lower part of the body, a

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

(琴碼) is placed to support the strings and transmit vibration. At the bottom of the body is a

tailpiece A tailpiece is a component on many stringed musical instruments that anchors one end of the strings, usually opposite the end with the tuning mechanism (the scroll, headstock, peghead, etc.). Function and construction The tailpiece anchors t ...

(縛弦) to anchor the strings. Note that the frets on all Chinese lutes are high so that the fingers never touch the actual body—distinctively different from western fretted instruments. This allows for a greater control over timbre and intonation than their western counterparts, but makes chordal playing more difficult.

Some Zhongruan music pieces

*《滿江紅》 The River All Red (zhongruan concerto) *《雲南回憶》Reminiscences of Yunnan (zhongruan concerto) *《睡蓮》 Water Lily (zhongruan solo) *《絲路駝鈴》 Camel Bells of the Silk Road (zhongruan solo) *《孤芳自賞》Narcissistic (zhongruan solo) *《火把節之夜》 The Night of the Torch Festival (zhongruan solo) *《倒垂簾》The Turned Over Curtain (zhongruan solo) *《中阮摇滚》, also named《男人的刀》Zhong Ruan Rock N' Roll (zhongruan solo) *《山歌》Folk Song (zhongruan solo) *《天地之間》 Between the Sky and the Land (zhongruan duet)

Composers and performers

Performers: *张思安 Djang San (inventor of the electric zhongruan) *

Jan Linton Jan Linton is a British singer, musician and producer from Warrington who helped internationalise the music scene in Tokyo, Japan. Biography Jan Linton studied violin from the age of four, moving briefly onto piano, before discovering pop ...

(western and Chinese style CD releases) *刘波 Liu Bo *沈非 Shen Fei *潘宜彤 Dabby Pan *吳強 Wu Qiang *张蓉晖 Zhang Ronghui (新加坡华乐团 Singapore Chinese Orchestra) *阮仕春 Ruan Shichun *陈素敏 Tan Su-Min, Clara *饶思名 Rao Si-Ming, Jonathan *魏蔚 Wei Wei *苗晓芸 Miao Xiaoyun, tenor and bass ruan,

*刘星 Liu Xing *张鑫华 Zhang Xinhua *徐陽 Xu Yang *罗彩霞 Lo Chai Xia *魏育茹 Wei Yuru''The Art of the Chinese Lute'',

ARC Music ARC Music is a world music and folk music label based in West Sussex, England, that was established in 1976. Naxos acquired ARC in 2019. Film and television ARC Music has been used in the films ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crysta ...

EUCD1864, 2004 Composers: *张思安 Djang San (inventor of the electric zhongruan) *苏涵达 Tommy Su Handa *林吉良 Lin Jiliang *吳俊生 Wu Junsheng *劉星Liu Xing *寧勇Ning Yong *王仲丙 Wang Zhongbing

References

{{Authority control Chinese musical instruments Necked lutes Plucked string instruments

Use

Construction

Some Zhongruan music pieces

Composers and performers

See also

References