Qin
The qin is a musical instrument favored by Chinese scholars. It is a stringed instrument, resembling a Western zither. The body, or sounding box, of a qin was usually made of two different types of wood. The upper section was made of tong wood and the lower part of zi wood. It was originally a five-stringed instrument, but it is believed that as early as the Zhou dynasty two further strings were added. All surviving qin are seven-stringed.