Woods Used for Guzheng

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One of the biggest choices in guzheng manufacture is the woods that are used to create the instruments. Thanks to incredible work by Carol Chang of ChineseZither.net  we have put together a guide on why words like "Sandalwood" and "Wutong" aren't as meaningful as they might seem and a list of the woods you’l see advertised as well as their actual genus and species.

The Complete List of Woods:

There are at least 3 woods used in soundboards, 2 others used in backboards, and 16 woods used in guzheng frames. Each of the woods lends a different tone to the instrument, descriptions of which you can see on Carol Chang's article. Jump to Vocabulary to learn how Hongmu and Sandalwood and ambiguous or to Common Confusions to learn about the general term Wutong.

Vocabulary

Let’s explain some common terms.

Hóngmù (红木): Literally "Red Wood" it's a generic term used when the particular species isn't important. Entry level instruments are often labeled Hóngmù. Dictionaries translate hongmu as Rosewood or Mahogany. Mahogany is native to the Americas, so I can almost guarantee it's not going to be found in entry-level instruments made in China. As for Rosewood...

Rosewood is an over-used catchall. Officially, "Rosewood" refers to trees in the Dalbergia genus, many of which are used for instrument construction. In normal conversation, "rosewood" refers to anything that looks similar to Dalbergia. Over time this has included species in the Pterocarpus, Machaerium, and Dysoxylum genera. The term "Rosewood" does not identify what species of wood the instrument is made of.

Sandalwood: In the guzheng world, "Sandalwood" is used to represent species in the Pterocarpus, Dalbergia, and Bobgunnia genera. This is misleading. In English the term Sandalwood is used to refer either to the Santalum genus which is known for its fragrance or to refer to the family Santalaceae which contains 42 different genera and over 1,000 species. Many countries in Asia and the Pacific do have native Santalum varieties but I have no evidence that these are used to produce guzheng. (11) 

Zǐtán (紫檀): Can refer to multiple high-quality woods. If the wood is only listed as "Zitan" it is probably Madagascar Rosewood, Dalbergia baroni, or  East Indian Rosewood, Dalbergia latifolia. It also makes up part of the Chinese names for the highly prized Red Sander, Pterocarpus santalinus (Xiǎoyè zǐtán) and the highly illegal Brazilian Rosewood, Dalbergia nigra (Bāxī zǐtán). I would expect Brazilian Rosewood to be highlighted if it was used in an instrument. See their entries below for more details.

Sources

(11) "SANTALACEAE" by Xia Nianhe (夏念和) and Michael G. Gilbert, Flora of China Volume 5, p 208-219. 2003.

Common Confusions

Common names, imprecise naming, and mistranslations make figuring out actual wood species a real challenge. Thankfully Carol Chang of chinesezither.net put in the work and I am eternally grateful to her for that. Let's get some terms out of the way:

Paulownia: That's a genus of tree with 8 accepted species and 18 Latin synonyms. Synonyms are proposed names that turned out to refer to an already-identified species.(1) Only some species are used for musical instruments.

Tóng (桐): A category of wood. The 1051 CE book "Tong Guide" (桐谱, Tóng Pǔ), the earliest reference I know of, lists six varieties of Tong. Only some of them are in the Paulownia genus, so "Tong" is not a direct equivalent to Paulownia. (2)

Pāotóng (泡桐): Modern Mandarin name for Paulownia.

Wútóng (梧桐): A name often given as the wood used in guzheng, but covers multiple species. A common translation for Wútóng is Firmiana simplex, but F. simplex is not the most popular wood used for guzheng soundboards (that honor goes to Paulownia), and the most knowledgeable source I have on this, Carol Chang, says F. simplex is a poor choice for a soundboard. Further evidence of these confusions come from ancient records. Those that praise "Wútóng" trees for their instrument-quality wood mention purple flowers. F. simplex flowers with green, yellow, or white-tinted blossoms. The only modern English language source I have that goes into detail about the construction of guzheng says that the Wútóng used in Taiwan for instruments is both Firmiana simplex and an unknown species of tree from Canada, where F. simplex cannot survive.

At one point in history Wútóng could well have meant a particular species. It is, after all, listed as one of the six woods in the Tong Guide. In the modern day though it's used in at least three ways:

• The people in Shanghai use Wútóng as shorthand for Fàguó Wútóng  (法国梧桐, Fàguó = "French") to refer to Platanus × acerifolia, a hybrid tree created in Europe and imported by the French to Shanghai.

• People in Northern China use Wútóng as a generic term for multiple varieties of Paulownia-genus trees.

• People in Southern China use Wútóng to refer to Firmiana simplex, a tree that grows poorly in northern regions.

More on Tong Woods

Here are 11 names for Tong woods you might encounter:

Báitóng (白桐, "White Tong"), Báihuā tóng (白花桐, "White flower tong") and Báihuā Wútóng (白花梧桐) are all equivalent to Báihuā Pāotóng (白花泡桐), which is Paulownia fortunei.

Fàguó Wútóng (法国梧桐) 'French Wutong', a tree in Shanghai, refers to Platanus × acerifolia.

Gāng tóng (冈桐), Paulownia tomentosa, also known in Chinese as Zǐhuā tóng (紫花桐) or Rìběn Pāotóng (日本泡桐, "Japanese Paulownia")(3). Ancient texts suggest this could also be a good wood for instruments. It is frequently cited in modern times as prime wood for Japanese Kotos and Korean Gayageum, and is cultivated widely, including in the United States and Turkey(7). 

Qīngtóng (青桐), Firmiana simplex, also called Wútóng (梧桐) in some places.  Explicitly called out in a few ancient Chinese sources as a poor choice for musical instruments.(5) Mei Han 2013 also references Firmiana platanifolia; this is an accepted synonym for Firmiana simplex. (6)

Yóu tóng (油桐), Vernicia fordii or the  "Tung Tree". Its seeds can be used to create Tung oil which is used in some varnishes for musical instruments. I don't have evidence the wood was ever used to construct them.(4)

Soundboard Woods

The main wood used in modern soundboards is Paulownia elongata or Lánkǎo Pāotóng (兰考泡桐). It's a fast growing tree that was planted in large numbers in Henan province's Lankao county (兰考) in about 1965 to act as a windbreak to control dust and preserve farm fields. Someone realized it could make fine lumber for musical instruments, and suddenly the dust control measure became a money maker. (*)

But what about pre-1965 zhengs?

Paulownia fortunei  or Báihuā pāotóng (白花泡桐) was a popular pre-1965 wood for instruments. It's from the same genus as the P. elongata and is still touted as the wood used in the qin. 

Cunninghamia Lanceolota or Shānmù (杉木) is used for zhengs made in the Chaozhou style, named for what is now a city in Guangdong province in southeast China.

"Hey!" I hear you cry "What about 'Wutong wood' and 'Firmiana simplex'?? I see that everywhere!" Well, there's a (long) answer for that. I hope you brought snacks.

Backboard Woods

Unfortunately Cheng 1991 is the only one of my sources to describe the woods used in the backboard. He mentions Mulberry, Elm, Catalpa ovata, Phoebe nanmu (a synonym for Machilus nanmu), and Paulownia. Mulberry and Elm aren't particularly helpful as they could be common names of individual trees, common names for categories of trees, or translations from Chinese. The other two are specific species but I have yet to find good references on their usage or value. Sources only offer descriptions of the plants themselves. That leaves me with these names:

Catalpa ovata, also known as Chinese catalpa, Yellow catalpa and Japanese catalpa.(7) The Chinese character 梓 may refer to it but I doubt that's a specific term.(8)

Phoebe nanmu is cited in Cheng 1991. P. nanmu is possibly confused with another species used in guzheng frames, Phoebe zhennan, as some english references use nánmù (楠木) to refer to P. zhennan (9). Diān nán (滇楠), which could be expanded to Diān nánmù (滇楠木) refers to P. nanmu, and suddenly we're talking in circles (10). Some english-language articles claim one or the other were used in the construction of the Forbidden City, but no article states both were, hightening my suspicion that these woods are confused for each other. Send me an email if you have more sources for me!

Frame Woods

All parts of the guzheng affect its sound. That goes for the woods used in its frames and ornamentation as well as the soundboard. 

Because the frame also has a lot to do with the look of the instrument, wood choice is many and varied. Below is the list of woods compiled from Carol Chang's work at chinesezither.net. Woods that aren't on this list could certainly be used, but these are the ones you are most likely to encounter. If you can find me proof of other woods being used, ideally with 汉字 or down to the genus and species names, I would be happy to add them!

Movable Bridges

Movable bridges are made of hard woods with a high density as this transmits the sound better. Each wood transmits sounds slightly differently allowing for a range of effects to the timbre. Dalbergia species are the most common. I've seen bridges advertised as being made of unidentified hardwoods, unidentified rosewood, African Blackwood, Thailand Rosewood, and Zitan wood, the last three of which are all Dalbergia species (see below). As a point of price comparison, if generic hardwood bridges retail for $X then generic rosewood go for about $2X, and African Blackwood bridges cost about $3X. The precious woods jump in price both because of the wood and because the string rest material is often more expensive as well. A brief survey on Chinese online marketplace finds high-end bridges are sold for as much as $24X the cost of a generic bridge set.

There are mentions of bridges made of ivory or jade though I have not found definitive sources. There are modern day efforts to perfect hollow ceramic bridges, and I've seen low-end instruments with plastic ones, but wood remains he most common.