Sanxian is a traditional Chinese plucked musical instrument. It is named after Zhang Yousanxian. Influenced by different regions, ethnic groups and cultural customs, sanxian has always been in various forms, which can be roughly classified into large and small sanxian. After the 1950s, some instrument reformers and sanxian players made improvements on the basis of these two types of sanxian and achieved great success.

The traditional sanxian has a total length of about 122 cm and is composed of a resonance box, a headstock, a piano rod, a peg, a bridge and strings.

sound box
Also known as qin drums, drums or drum heads, most of them are flat and oval in shape, like a turtle plate, and there are also flat circles or flat rectangles, but there are fewer. The drum is 22 cm to 25 cm long, 20 cm to 22 cm wide, and 9 cm thick, and is composed of a drum frame and python skin.

drum frame
It is made of four pieces (two in length and two in length) of hard and heavy rosewood, mahogany, red sandalwood or ebony spliced and glued, preferably old mahogany. There are square holes in the upper and lower sides for the piano rods, file the grooves on both sides, and pour out the hard The edges are covered with python skin or synthetic film material, the middle section of the python is blue and white and white is the best. The skin film is cut, wetted and sewn with bamboo sticks. The process of smashing, rubbing, and ironing the board, tying hemp rope, and smashing wedges must be repeated many times. After the glue is fastened, a small groove is sawed around the bevel, and bamboo or bone pieces are embedded for decoration.

headstock
It is the decorative part of the sanxian. The upper part is mostly flat shovel-shaped, the top is wider and curved backwards, with engraved patterns or inlaid bone decorations, and the upper part is ruyi-shaped, carved with large top flowers, and the lower part has a rectangular opening in the middle. The bottom chord groove is provided with three chord shafts on both sides (one on the left and two on the right).

peg

It is cone-shaped, made of mahogany, rosewood and other materials slightly harder than the piano rod, 13.5 cm long, engraved with twist-shaped ornaments on the outside, and inlaid with bone flowers on the top of the shaft.

piano bar
It is a semi-circular cylindrical body, which is glued together by a fingerboard and a backboard. The front is flat and the back is curved, with a length of 80 cm and a mountain pass at the upper end. The fingerboard is mostly made of drum frame wood, only 1.2 cm thick, and the surface is smooth and without grade , the lower end of the piano bar is square and inserted into the square hole of the drum.

drums
In the center of the leather surface, there is a long bridge-shaped bridge made of bamboo. There is a crown (also known as a string guard) at the end of the piano. Three wire, wire or nylon wire strings. At the lower end of the drum, there is a diamond-shaped wooden shell (also known as a claw buckle) to tie the strings.

In the late 1950s, the short-bar big sanxian was designed by Mr. Xiao Jiansheng, a famous Chinese sanxian performer and educator, and manufactured by Tianjin National Musical Instrument Factory. This new type of big sanxian has a standard of the Ministry of Light Industry and is 112 cm in length. The length of the piano bar is 75 cm, the length of the drum is 23 cm, the width is 20 cm, and the thickness is 9 cm. The piano bar is short and the handle is close, which can play fast playing skills; there is a movable mountain pass, which can be adjusted at will; the fingerboard and the drum surface are leveled , the range is extended one octave upwards. Suitable for solo or folk band use.