Ruan and Sanxian

Introduction

The round-bodied, straight-necked ruan and the long-necked, skin-faced sanxian

The ruan and the sanxian are both long-necked plucked lutes. The ruan has a round body, a straight neck, four strings and frets; its early form was called the Qin pipa, and it took the name ruanxian from Ruan Xian, one of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, who was famed for playing it, later shortened to ruan. On the Southern Dynasties brick relief from Xishanqiao in Nanjing, Ruan Xian holds this instrument. The sanxian has a long fretless neck and a small skin-faced body; a similar instrument appears in Southern Song stone carving, the Ming scholar Yang Shen said it began in the Yuan, and it later spread north and south in large and small forms. Today the ruan has grown into a family of small, middle and large sizes, and both instruments belong to the plucked-string section of the Chinese orchestra.

Timeline

1. 450OriginOn the brick relief of the Seven Sages and Rong Qiqi from a Southern Dynasties tomb at Xishanqiao, Nanjing, Ruan Xian plays a round-bodied, long straight-necked lute, an early clear image of the ruan.
2. 690EvolutionIn Empress Wu's reign a copper round-bodied lute with thirteen frets was reportedly found in a tomb in Sichuan and named ruanxian after the instrument Ruan Xian played, fixing the name.
3. 1250EvolutionA sanxian-like long-necked lute appears in a Southern Song stone carving (1217-79), earlier than the view that the sanxian began in the Yuan.
4. 1550EvolutionThe Ming scholar Yang Shen wrote that the sanxian began in the Yuan; the name appears in Ming texts, and the instrument spread widely north and south in large and small forms.