The sanxian (Chinese: 三弦 (絃?), literally “three strings”) is a Chinese lute — a three-stringed fretless plucked musical instrument. It has a long fingerboard, and the body is traditionally made from snakeskin stretched over a rounded rectangular resonator. It is made in several sizes for different purposes and in the late 20th century a four-stringed version was also developed. The northern sanxian is generally larger, at about 122 cm in length, while southern versions of the instrument are usually about 95 cm in length.
A large northern Chinese sanxian (大三弦)The sanxian has a dry, somewhat percussive tone and loud volume similar to the banjo. The larger sizes have a range of three octaves. It is primarily used as an accompanying instrument, as well as in ensembles and orchestras of traditional Chinese instruments, though solo pieces and concertos also exist. The sanxian is used in nanguan and Jiangnan sizhu ensembles, as well as many other folk and classical ensembles.
A sanxianTraditionally the instrument is plucked with a thin, hard plectrum made from animal horn but today most players use a plastic plectrum (similar to a guitar pick) or, alternately, their fingernails. This use of fingers to pluck the instrument often shares technique with that of the pipa and is most commonly used in performance of sanxian arrangements of works traditionally written for the pipa. This allows for pipa techniques such as tremolo to be used. Other techniques for sanxian include the use of harmonics and hitting the skin of the instrument with the plectra or fingernail (comparable to the technique used to play the northern Japanese tsugaru-jamisen).
A closely related musical instrument is the Japanese shamisen, which is derived from the sanxian but which generally uses cat or dog skin rather than snakeskin to cover its resonator. Even more closely related is the Okinawan sanshin, which is also covered in snakeskin. Additionally, the sanshin and sanxian share a structurally similar body part consisting of a round-edged square of wood. In the Japanese shamisen, the body (sao) is made of four pieces of wood instead of one. The Vietnamese ?àn tam is also very similar to the sanxian.
In addition to its use in traditional and classical Chinese music, some popular and rock musicians have used the sanxian, most notably the singer He Yong.