Musical Instrument

Guzheng (Ancient Chinese Musical Instrument)

Guzheng.   Attribution : © Glenn Francis, www.PacificProDigital.com

The Guzheng or zheng is some kind of zither.

The strings are plucked to play it, not strum like a guitar.

As such ancient guzheng players used to wear tortoiseshell or ivory as fingerpicks.

If you are an avid viewer of Chinese historical costume dramas, you would have seen a guzheng being played by either or both the male and the female leads or even anyone in the cast.

The sound of the guzheng is atmospherically and ethereally old china.

It is so powerful that it is used in some fantasy historical dramas as some sort of weapon of destruction.  Love it.

Though, a version of guzheng can also be found in other Asian countries such as gayageum in Korea, koto in Japan, yatga in Mongolia, etc.