Similar to Chinese guzheng, yazheng and se, Japanese koto, Korean gayageum and ajaeng, Mongolian yatga, Vietnamese đàn tranh, and Sundanese kacapi.

Once, during a cold winter, jute (a massive loss of livestock caused by icing of pastures or heavy snowfall, which makes cattle-grazing difficult) meant that people were left without food, and grief settled in the old man's house.

Extracting sounds full of sorrow from the instrument, the performer shows images of his children in melodies of different nature.

These improvised melodies were further developed and came down to us in the form of instrumental pieces-kyuis under the general name "Jetigennin zheteui" ("Seven kyuis of Jetigen").

Modern folklore ensembles use a reconstructed zhetygen, in which the number of strings was increased to 23 to expand the range.