The ancient serpent was carved from a single piece of wood, while the serpent made in the Qing Dynasty has been glued into a rectangular resonance box from the panel, the bottom plate and the frame plate. The strings are made of silk strings. On the first Yueshan (Shouyue) and the end Yueshan (weiyue), each string has a goose column that can move left and right to adjust the length of the string and determine the pitch.
Since the 1930s, our country has successively produced nearly 20 tombs in the Chu and Han tombs such as Changsha, Xinyang and Jiangling, most of which have the same shape and are consistent with the records of the pre-Qin and Han dynasties (very few are 23 or 24 string). The strings are divided into three groups, the middle group of seven strings, and the inner and outer groups of nine strings each.
From Mawangdui No. 1 Han tomb unearthed in the early Western Han Dynasty, it can be seen that the thickness of the strings is divided into two groups, the outer nine strings are a group (the diameter of the outer string decreases from 1.2 to 0.6 mm), and the middle seventh string is divided into two groups. The string and the inner nine strings are another group (the diameter of the string decreases from 1.9 to 0.5 mm from the inside to the outside).
Se is generally tuned according to the pentatonic scale, and the heptatonic scale is obtained by pressing the strings to raise a semitone.
In 1979, an ancient serpent was unearthed from the tomb of Zeng Houyi in Suixian County, Hubei Province. It was made by Zeng Guo, a prince of Chu State in the early Warring States Period (before 433 BC), with a dragon figure sculpture at the end and a painted phoenix pattern on the side of the resonance box. . It is the oldest surviving se in my country and is now in the Hubei Provincial Museum.
Seers are usually divided into two types according to their length and number of chords. The big selves are 180-190 cm long and have 25 strings; the small selves are about 120 cm long and have 16 strings. In the collection of the Institute of Chinese Music in Beijing, there is an exquisite Daser made in the early Qing Dynasty (17th century), which is 209 cm long.