Typological Analysis of the Chinese Qin in the Late Bronze Age

The qin, a type of horizontal zither, has become China's foremost musical instrument since the age of Confucius (551-479 BC). From an archaeological perspective, however, very little was known about the morphology of the Bronze Age qin until the discovery in 1978 of the tomb of Marquis Yi dated 433 BC in Suizhou. Four other instruments of the same kind have also been excavated in the last four decades. This paper aims to carry out a typological analysis of the Chinese Bronze Age qin based on this corpus of available specimens. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT