止stop
Pinyin: zhǐ
Terms and marksStop here; in old scores mostly combined with other characters, as in fan zhi or “to such-and-such string”.
How it is played
In old scores, zhi almost always combines with another character: fan zhi means the harmonic passage ends here; gun, fu and li written “to string so-and-so” mean play as far as that string and stop. In the handbooks consulted, no entry explains a lone zhi as damping; the right-hand damping of the strings with the palm is called fu. The Lingxian editor offers a separate zhi mark that can be used to indicate that the sound is cut off here.
In the classical handbooks
泛止也。言泛音止也。Gist: Fan zhi: it says the harmonics stop.
至也。或滾至某絃，或歷至某絃，或沸至某絃而止也。Gist: Zhi (至, “to”): gun to such a string, or li to such a string, or fu to such a string, and stop.