FROM CARD: "SEE MAHILLON VOL. 111, P. 334 NO. 1884. "SZE-HOU-HSIEN" SEE SSU HU OF LARGE CAT."
From Musical Instrument Division card: "Body, a cylinder of bamboo with the septum near the back end, cut to form an open Swastika [now a bit damaged/missing]. The belly is of snake skin glued to the body. The neck is long and slender and inserted in the body like the handle of a mallet. It has four vertical tuning pegs inserted in the end of neck, with their heads down. Four silk strings starting from small end of the tuning pegs, over a low bridge on the belly, but are so far above the neck they cannot be stopped. The first and third strings are tuned C and the second and fourth G. When played the bow hair is placed between the C and G strings. Bow and bridge missing. See No. 54.027. Engel, p. 178 gives the name Ur-heen. Mahillon, vol. 2, p. 98, No. 750, uses the name Ur-heen and Hou-kin. See his letter May 6, 1890. Mahillon, vol. 111, p. 334, to 336 Nos. 1884 to 86, gives the name "Sze hou hsien". He gives the tuning as F, 1C, F, 1C."
Note: In China and Japan, the Buddhist swastika (called the Wan symbol in China) was seen as a symbol of plurality, eternity, abundance, prosperity and long life. See "Swastika." ReligionFacts.com. 21 Nov. 2016. Web. www.religionfacts.com/swastika . Per the website for the Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, California exhibit "Rank and Style: Power Dressing in Imperial China", 2008, the swastika is a good luck symbol introduced into China from India with Buddhism. In 693 the Empress Wu declared the swastika as the source of all good fortune and called it wan, which is the same sound as the Chinese word for "ten thousand" or "infinity." The addition of the swastika to a symbolic wish multiplies that wish 10,000 times. Online site is archived here: https://web.archive.org/web/20160624035350/http://www.pacificasiamuseum.org/rankandstyle/html/symbols.stm .
