Pipa

Pipa

Classification	Necked bowl lutes String instruments
Related instruments
List Angélique Archlute Balalaika Barbat Bağlama Baglamas Bipa Biwa Bouzouki Charango Chitarra Italiana Çifteli Đàn tỳ bà Dombra Domra Dutar Komuz Irish bouzouki Liuqin Lute Mandocello Mandola Mandolin Oud Pandura Rubab Setar Sitar Surbahar Tambouras Tanbur Tambur Tembûr Theorbo Tiorbino Topshur Veena

Pipa
"Pipa" in Chinese characters
Chinese	琵琶
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin pípa IPA [pʰǐ.pʰa] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization pèih-pàah Jyutping pei4-paa4

The pipa (Chinese: ; pinyin: , [pʰǐpʰǎ]) is a four-stringed Chinese musical instrument, belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the Chinese lute, the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets ranging from 12 to 26. Another Chinese four-string plucked lute is the liuqin, which looks like a smaller version of the pipa.

The pipa is one of the most popular Chinese instruments and has been played for almost two thousand years in China. Several related instruments in East and Southeast Asia are derived from the pipa; these include the Japanese biwa, the Vietnamese đàn tỳ bà, and the Korean bipa. The Korean instrument is the only one of the three that is no longer widely used; examples survive in museums, but recent attempts to revive the Korean instrument have been partially successful in recent years.

There are considerable confusion and disagreements about the origin of pipa. This may be due to the fact that the word pipa was used in ancient texts to describe a variety of plucked chordophones from the Qin to the Tang Dynasty, as well as the differing accounts given in these ancient texts. Traditional Chinese narrative prefers the story of the Han Chinese princess Liu Xijun sent to marry a barbarian Wusun king during the Han Dynasty, and the pipa was created so she can play music on horseback to soothe her longings. Some researchers such as Laurence Picken and John Myers suggest a non-Chinese origin.