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Mawangdui Tomb 3, Zhu (Wooden Zhu)

The zhu has shrunk and some of the lacquer has fallen off. Made of wood. The zhu is made of a whole piece of wood. The head of the instrument is rectangular and has string posts shaped like mushrooms on the surface board. The tail-end of the instrument is thin and long, like a neck. Its cross-section is near diamond-shaped. The tail section is wide and flat, and raises upward. There are five bamboo nails on the inside of the string posts near the head of the instrument and another five bamboo nails on the wide and flat part of the tail of the instrument. These are used for fixing five strings in place. The whole body of the instrument is painted with black lacquer. The size of the zhu and the absence of a sound chamber suggest that this was used as a model.

  • Measurements:Total length: 31.3cm, among which: length of the head is approx. 15.8cm and length of the tail-end is 3.8cm; total height: 3.8cm, among which: height of the body is 2.9cm and the height of each protruding post is 0.90cm above the body; width of the head: approx. 2.0cm, width of the tail-end: 1.5-1.8cm.