Pipa

Pipa

A pipa from the late Ming dynasty
Classification	Necked bowl lutes String instruments
Related instruments
List Angélique Archlute Balalaika Barbat Bağlama Baglamas Bipa Biwa Bouzouki Chitarra Italiana Çifteli Đàn tỳ bà Dombra Domra Dutar Liuqin Lute Oud Pandura Rubab Qanbus Sitar Surbahar Tambouras Tanbur Tambur Tembûr Theorbo
Sound sample

Pipa
"Pipa" in Chinese characters
Chinese	琵琶
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin pípá pípa Wade–Giles pʻi²-pʻa² IPA [pʰǐpʰǎ] [pʰǐ.pʰa] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization pèih-pàah Jyutping pei4-paa4 IPA [pʰei˩.pʰaː˩]

The pipa, pípá, or p'i-p'a (Chinese: 琵琶) is a traditional 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 31. Another Chinese four-string plucked lute is the liuqin, which looks like a smaller version of the pipa. The pear-shaped instrument may have existed in China as early as the Han dynasty, and although historically the term pipa was once used to refer to a variety of plucked chordophones, its usage since the Song dynasty refers exclusively to the pear-shaped instrument.

The pipa is one of the most popular Chinese instruments and has been played for almost two thousand years in China. Several related instruments are derived from the pipa, including the Japanese biwa and Korean bipa in East Asia, and the Vietnamese đàn tỳ bà in Southeast Asia. The Korean instrument is the only one of the three that is no longer widely used.