Sanxian Qin (Three-Stringed Plucked Lute)

定义

西夏乐器，唐代崔令钦《教坊记》出现过三弦之名。四川广元县罗家桥南宋墓出土有雕刻的三弦演奏图像。唐《十部乐》清乐中使用三弦琴，是否是现在所说的三弦琴，值得探讨。安西榆林窟第3窟(西夏)千手千眼观音图像上出现两件三弦琴，对称排列，与近代的三弦极为相似。音箱圆形，琴杆较长，琴头向后弯曲，无品、有码。三弦琴图像的出现，表明甘肃古代西夏时期乐器发展的盛况。

A three-stringed, fretless plucked instrument from the Western Xia (AD 1038–1237), the name of which appears in the book An Account of Girl Entertainers, by Cui Lingqin of the Tang Dynasty. An image of a sanxian is found in engravings unearthed from a Southern Song Dynasty tomb in Luojiaqiao, Sichuan Province. Further research is needed to determine if the sanxian played in the qin music during the Tang Dynasty, and included in the Ten Kinds of Music is the same sanxian of today, but the two painted symmetrically above the Thousand-Armed and Thousand-Eyed Guanyin in Yulin Cave 3 looks very similar to the modern sanxia, with a round body, a relatively long neck, and a backward-curving head. The discovery of the image of a sanxian shows the increasing splendor of musical instrument from Gansu during the Western Xia.