Construction
The se's strings were made of twisted silk, in varying thicknesses. According to Lüshi Chunqiu on the number of strings that the se has: "A five stringed se, then became a fifteen stringed se. When Shun came to power, he added eight strings, so it became twenty-three." Another view suggests that the se started out with 50 strings. The Shiban later changes it to 25. "A big se has 50 strings, a middle se has 25." It also says that Fuxi created the 50 stringed se, called Sha whilst the Yellow Emperor reduced it to 25. There also is a "small se" that has half of the strings, 13 strings (like the Japanese koto). But archeological evidence has also unearthed se with 25, 24, 23, or 19 strings. The string number differs from place to place. The length is also different.
Unearthed se have similar construction, namely a flat long sound-board made of wood. The surface board of the se is slightly curved, and has three end bridges and one bridge at the head, plus four wooden posts for the strings to wrap around (some have two or three only). The posts also have patternation or decoration. The tail-end of the instrument has a long " 冂 " shaped opening for the strings to pass through. To string the instrument, one needs to tie a butterfly knot at the head of the string, strung through a bamboo rod, over the bridge at the head and over the main body of the instrument and over into the tail-end bridge into the instrument, out of the sound hole at the bottom of the instrument, over the tail-end and wrapped around the posts in four or three groups.
Although both are ancient zithers, one should note that the guqin and the se are different instruments in their own right.
Read more about this topic: Se (instrument)
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