  A Qin bag, 琴囊 is a soft padded bag that qin people use to protect their instruments from dust. In ancient China, a scholar or a qin master might have a servant or pupil who would carry the qin covered with a qin bag for the master, while they went to a mountain or nearby river. The picture above is a fan painting called Plum Blossom by Moonlight (月下賞梅圖) painted by Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279) artist Ma Yuan(active ca. 1180-1230). A scholar-poet rests on a cliff and his servant or pupil stands behind carrying a qin in a qin bag for him. Nowadays, qin people are still using qin bags. Peiyou likes to sew, so she designed and made several qin bags for her qins and as gifts for friends. The qin bag she designed is a reversible bag, which has a printed side and a solid side, with 3 pairs of strings to tighten up. The bottom side of the bag has two slits right at the position of the two sound holes of the qin. This allows the carrier's fingers to slide in to easily hold the qin while carrying.   | ||
View of printed side. View of solid side.
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View of bottom side.
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