The Eight Sounds or Eight Tones (八音)

The eight categories are: silk, bamboo, wood, stone, metal, clay, gourd and hide. There are other instruments which may not fit these classifications. This is one of the first musical classifications ever.

Silk (絲)

Silk instruments are mostly stringed instruments (including those that are plucked, bowed, and struck). Since ancient times the Chinese have used twisted silk for strings, though today metal or nylon are more frequently used. Instruments in the silk category include:

Plucked

1. Guqin (Chinese: 古琴; pinyin: gǔqín) - 7-stringed zither

Se (Chinese: 瑟; pinyin: sè) - 25-stringed zither with moveable bridges (ancient sources say 13, 25 or 50 strings)

2. Guzheng (古箏) - 16-26 stringed zither with movable bridges

3. Konghou (箜篌) - harp

4. Pipa (琵琶) - pear-shaped fretted lute with 4 or 5 strings

5. Sanxian (三弦) - plucked lute with body covered with snakeskin and long fretless neck

6. Ruan (Chinese: 阮; pinyin: ruǎn) - moon-shaped lute in five sizes: gaoyin-, xiao-, zhong-, da-, and diyin-; sometimes called ruanqin (阮琴)

7. Liuqin (柳琴) - small plucked, fretted lute with a pear-shaped body and four strings

8. Yueqin (月琴) - plucked lute with a wooden body, a short fretted neck, and four strings tuned in pairs

Qinqin (秦琴) - plucked lute with a wooden body and fretted neck; also called meihuaqin (梅花琴, literally "plum blossom instrument", from its flower-shaped body)

9. Duxianqin (simplified Chinese: 独弦琴; traditional Chinese: 獨弦琴) - the instrument of Jing People (Vietnamese people in China) plucked zither with only one string.