Pipa is a traditional plucked instrument in East Asia with a history of more than 2,000 years. The earliest musical instrument known as "Pipa" appeared around the Qin Dynasty in China. The "jue" in the word "Pipa" means "two jades collide, making a pleasant sound", indicating that this is a musical instrument that sounds by hitting the strings.

1. Five-string Pipa

At the turn of the Han and Wei Dynasties, music from the Western Regions was introduced to China from India via the "Silk Road". The earliest record can be found in "Sui Shu Music Zhi". It flourished in the Central Plains in the fifth and sixth centuries AD. Later spread to southern China.
During the 500 years from the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the five-stringed pipa was popular and became the main musical instrument of Xiliang, Qiuci, Tianzhu, Shule, Anguo and Goryeo in the nine and ten pieces of music in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. In the works of many poets such as Zhang Hu and Bai Juyi in the Tang Dynasty, there are descriptions of the five-stringed pipa. The structure of the five-stringed pipa is roughly the same as that of the ancient four-stringed pipa. replaced by the lute.
In the Tang Dynasty, a variety of musical instruments were introduced to Japan from China. Among them, in 756 AD, the luodian red sandalwood pipa, which was introduced to Japan, was hidden in the Zhengsangyuan of Todaiji Temple in Nara, Japan. This five-stringed pipa made of red sandalwood , fine craftsmanship, the whole body is decorated with snails, and there is also a picture of a camel man playing a pipa on the belly. It has become a rare treasure in the world's art treasure house.

In the 1930s, the Shanghai Datong Concert once made a five-stringed pipa, with three strings on the right side of the headstock and two on the left side. Due to war and other reasons, this five-stringed pipa has been lost. In the aspect of pipa reform, there has been an exploration of reducing the string spacing on the four-string pipa and adding a bass string to the five-string pipa. In order to maintain the traditional shape of the pipa, the newly added bass D (or E) string is tied to the harp at the headstock (center above the string groove). This five-stringed pipa expands the bass range, enriches the timbre, improves performance skills, and opens up new prospects for the creation and performance of pipa music.

2. Four-stringed pipa

In Japan, it is called Le Biwa.

3. Nanyin Pipa

Nanyin is the traditional culture with the most cultural flavor in Quanzhou, and it is the representative of the world's intangible cultural heritage. Nanyin, also known as Nanqu, Nanyue, Nanguan and Xianguan
The composition of major categories is a large variety of music that preserves the richness and integrity of ancient Chinese music.
The pipa has been passed down through the ages, and has changed to varying degrees in terms of appearance, specifications and playing postures. The Nanyin Pipa is named after the performance of the folk music "Nanyin". The pipa has developed into a vertical embrace since the Tang Dynasty, but Fujian Nanyin has always maintained the ancient horizontal embrace, so it is also known as "horizontal embrace of the pipa".
The Nanyin Pipa is popular in southern Fujian and Taiwan. It is one of the main instruments for playing Nanyin, and it plays a leading role in the orchestra. It is often paired with the Nanyin Dongxiao to play the melody of the music together, making the light and euphemistic Fujian Nanyin rich in local characteristics.

The structure of the Nanpa is exactly the same as that of the Pipa. The length of the piano is 93-104 cm, the head of the pipa is phoenix-tail-shaped, the neck is curved, the resonance box is pear-shaped, but the abdomen is wider. Backboards were previously hollowed out from pine but are now mostly made from harder woods. The panels use paulownia wood, locally known as "spring board". There are 4 phases attached to the front of the neck of the qin whisker. There are 10 frets on the top and the middle of the panel. They are mostly made of ivory, tortoiseshell or bamboo, which are called "tones". On both sides of the frets, there are sound holes in the shape of a crescent eyebrow, which are called "reed holes". The tie strings below the panel are larger. Using 4 silk strings, from low to high, they are called the busbar, the third wire, the second wire and the sub-wire. The general tuning is mostly (d, g, a, d1).
The playing style of Nanpa is simple and unique, and its rhythm has the flavor of striking a bell. Playing skills mainly include playing, picking, holding fingers (quick picking), finger pointing, finger swiping, flipping, half-jumping, pressing sound, fingernails (equivalent to the "button" of holding a pipa vertically), fast finger dropping and Slow down and wait.
There are also many popular pipa varieties. According to the quality of materials, craftsmanship and sound quality, they are divided into advanced, intermediate and popular pipa. From the number of phases and grades, it can be divided into four-phase 10 grades, six-phase 18 grades, 24 grades, 25 grades and 28 grades.

4. arpeggio

On the basis of the pipa, the back plate, which originally only played the role of sound reflection, was thinned so that it could vibrate, and the binding strings were changed to move up and down to increase the volume of the violin, and the tuning method of the cello could be adopted. It can participate in the band performance, and is most suitable for playing large-scale national orchestral works with modern themes. It has strong penetrating power and is extremely difficult to be concealed by other instruments. But not widely.

5. Moon Papa

It has the advantages of two musical instruments, Yueqin and Pipa. It can be tuned and played according to the traditional method of Pipa, and it can also be tuned and played with violin strings. The pronunciation of "Yuepa" is more powerful than that of the Yueqin, the volume is loud, the sound quality is pure, the tone is crisp, full and translucent.

6. Soprano Pipa

The upper right part of the piano body is crescent-shaped, with sound holes and sound windows on the ventral surface. The sound column in the piano is adjustable, and the pronunciation is one octave higher than that of the ordinary pipa.

7. Electric Pipa

It maintains the national style of the original pipa in appearance, and only installs some electrical components on the front panel of the piano case. The speaker emits sound. In order to avoid the reverberation caused by resonance, the electric pipa increases the thickness of the panel, reduces the volume of the resonance box, and makes the sound quality more pure. The sound of the electric pipa is soft and beautiful, crystal clear, and has rich expressive power

8. Crystal Pipa

It was pioneered by Zhao Cong and has applied for a patent, which shocked the music industry. Made of high-grade glass, with an electric speaker installed on the piano panel, the sound is clear and translucent, but the lingering sound is not long.