The ''zhuihu'' ( 坠胡,

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese fo ...

: zhùihú; also called ''zhuiqin'' or ''zhuizixian'') is a two-stringed

bowed Bowed string instruments are a subcategory of string instruments that are played by a bow rubbing the strings. The bow rubbing the string causes vibration which the instrument emits as sound. Despite the numerous specialist studies devoted to th ...

string instrument String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the s ...

from

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. In construction, it resembles the ''

sanxian The (, literally "three strings") is a three-stringed traditional Chinese lute. It has a long fretless fingerboard, and the body is traditionally made from snake skin stretched over a rounded rectangular resonator. It is made in several siz ...

'', and likely evolved as a bowed version of that

musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...

. Unlike bowed string instruments in the

huqin ''Huqin'' () is a family of bowed string instruments, more specifically, a spike fiddle popularly used in Chinese music. The instruments consist of a round, hexagonal, or octagonal sound box at the bottom with a neck attached that protrudes u ...

family (such as the ''

erhu The ''erhu'' (; ) is a Chinese two-stringed bowed musical instrument, more specifically a spike fiddle, which may also be called a ''Southern Fiddle'', and is sometimes known in the Western world as the ''Chinese violin'' or a ''Chinese two- ...

''), the ''zhuihu'' has a fretless fingerboard against which the strings are pressed while playing. The ''zhuihu'' is used to accompany a form of traditional narrative singing referred to as ''zhuizi'', which originated in the

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is a ...

province of China. A more modern version of the ''zhuihu'' called the ''

leiqin The ''leiqin'' ( 雷琴 or 擂琴, literally "thunderous instrument"; also called ''leihu'') is a Chinese bowed string musical instrument. Construction It has a metal soundbox covered with snakeskin and a long fretless fingerboard. The two str ...

'' was developed in China in the 20th century. Another related instrument is the

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

ese '' kokyū''.

References

External links

''Zhuihu'' page
from Paul and Bernice Noll site

from Paul and Bernice Noll site
Zhuihu photo

Video

''Zhuihu'' video
Chinese musical instruments Bowed string instruments {{huqin-stub