Pipa is divided into five factions: Wuxi School, Pinghu School, Pudong School, Chongming School, and Wang School.

1. Wuxi School

At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the Pipa was divided into two schools: the south and the north. The Southern School, namely the Zhejiang School, is represented by Chen Mufu and uses the next round. The music he is good at includes "Hai Qing", "Under Armour", "Moon High", "Pu'an Mantra", "General's Order", "Navy Exercise", "Chen Sui", "Wulin Yi Yun" and so on. The northern faction, the Zhili faction, is represented by Wang Junxi and uses the upper chakra. The music he is good at includes "House of Flying Daggers", "Xiao Drum in the Sunset", "Little Pu'an Mantra", "Yan Music Zheng Sheng", etc. Wuxi Hua Qiuping and Hua Zitong studied from the North and South schools, and edited "North and South". The three volumes of the "Secret Edition of the Second School of Pipa Mana", which use Gongchi mana, have a relatively complete record of fingering, and are the earliest pipa mana printed in China. The school taught by Fahrenheit was then called the Wuxi School.
The "Pipa Pupa", the secret version of the two schools of the North and the South, was published three times before and after, which had a great influence on later scholars and provided valuable information for the study of the ancient pipa. Although there are not many direct descendants of the Wuxi School. There are very few people who play according to the original score of "Fahrenheit Score", but other factions have more or less used some of the music in "Fahrenheit Score" to organize the popular performance words. Therefore, the Wuxi School played a linking role in the middle of the Qing Dynasty and made due contributions to the development of the pipa.

2. Pinghu School

The Pinghu School is represented by Li Fangyuan. The Li family is a Pipa family. Five generations have played the piano. Li Fangyuan's father often travels with the piano and visits famous families. Under the influence of his family, Li Fangyuan is self-proclaimed "Pipa addiction". Pai Daqu Pipa New Score, published in the 21st year of Emperor Guangxu's reign in the Qing Dynasty.
The Pinghu School has been handed down from generation to generation by Li Qiyu, Li Fangyuan, Wu Mengfei, Wu Bojun, and Zhu Yingqing (Zhu Ying).
Wu Mengfei was personally taught by Li Fangyuan, and later from Zhang Ziliang, a student of Li Qiyu. He often performed in Shanghai, and his artistic activities were quite extensive, making positive contributions to the promotion of the Pinghu School.
Zhu Yingqing, under the tutelage of Li Fangyuan's high-footed Wu Bojun, pioneered the method of using the big finger of the left hand and broke through the forbidden area of not using the little finger to press the sound in response to the "Fahrenheit spectrum" "pressing the strings with the left hand is strictly forbidden to use two fingers."
The performances of the Pinghu School are both literary and martial, with delicate literary and musical compositions, often accompanied by virtual soothing movements to enhance the sense of curling reverberation. Wuqu pays attention to the momentum, and the following rounds are mainly used (the "General Order" uses the upper rounds). The Pinghu School Pipa has a considerable influence on the formation of various styles of today's Pipa.

3. Pudong School

The Pu Yue School was passed down from Ju Shilin, and passed down from the teachers of Ju Shilin, Ju Maotang, Chen Zijing, Ni Qingquan, and Shen Hao.
Ju Shilin was a native of Huinan, Nanhui County, during the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty. The date of birth and death is unknown.
It is said that Ju once took a boat to Hushu Pass in Suzhou. Since the city gate was closed at night, Ju Sui played the pipa for entertainment. The officers and soldiers guarding the gate were moved by the sound of the violin, and they were happy and released the switch. Therefore, there is a beauty of "playing to open the Hushu Pass". pass. Ju Shilin has left a hand-written pipa score of "Xianxuyouyin", which was published by the People's Music Publishing House in 1983 under the title "Ju Shilin's pipa score".
Ju Shilin's disciples include Ju Maotang, Chen Zijing, Cheng Chuntang, etc. According to the "Nansha Magazine": "At that time, there were people who were good at playing the pipa in my town: one was Mr. Chen, and the other was Chen Zijing. Zijing often traveled and ate outside, recalling Guangxu Dinghai (1887). When I arrived at the Wang's house outside the east gate of Shanghai, Shi Zijing was seated, and he saw the bronze armor on his fingers and played "The Overlord Unloads the Armor". The gong and drum technique began in Chen, and Chen's disciple Cao Jinglou was the best at this technique. The pipa used by another disciple of Chen Ni Qingquan is larger and longer than usual. It is called a big set of pipa, which can highlight the momentum of martial arts.
Chen Haochu, a further disciple of Chen, made important contributions to the development of the Pudong School, cultivated a large number of pipa performers, and compiled and published Yangzhengxuan Pipa Score.
The characteristics of the Pudong School Pipa are: the martial art is majestic, it is good at using the big Pipa, the bow is full and powerful, and the Wenqu is quiet and delicate. Its distinctive traditional techniques include: pinch roll, long pinch roll, various clips and sweeps, big splits, flying, double flying, rolling four strings, changing the number of strings, merging four strings, three strings and two strings, sweeping, and eight. The phoenix nodding of the sound, a variety of chants, timbre changes, gongs and drums, etc.
4. Chongming School
Chongming is located in the northeast corner of Shanghai. It was passed down by the master of "Yingzhou Ancient Melody". Because it originated in Chongming Island, later generations are called Chongming School. The Chongming School has been handed down from generation to generation by Jiang Tai, Huang Xiuting, Shen Zhaozhou, Fan Ziyun, Fan Shaoyun, etc., and is famous for its timeless and beautiful literary style. The Chongming school pipa can be traced back to the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty more than 300 years ago. At that time, the northern school pipa was introduced to the Tongzhou area near Chongming, including Bai Zaimei, Zi Yuru father and son, Fan Huapo, Yang Tingguo and others. The early Chongming school pipa inherited the northern school pipa of Bai Zaimei, and its style evolution was influenced by local customs.
In 1916, the publication of "Yingzhou Ancient Diao" edited by Shen Zhaozhou and re-edited by Xu Lisun was renamed "Mei'an Pipa Spectrum" and published, thus making the Chongming School Pipa able to carry forward. In 1918, Liu Tianhua, a master of modern Chinese traditional music, learned Yingzhou ancient pipa music with Shen Shi, and took these pieces to perform in various places. In 1928, he mastered the main piece of the school, "Flying Flowers and Diancui", which is very important for the promotion of Chongming. Pipa played a very positive role.
The Chongming school pipa fingering requires "the twisting method is sparse and strong, the wheel method is dense and clear", and advocates "slow and continuous, fast but not chaotic, elegant and upright music, not too high in pitch, not too fast in festival". In particular, the wheel finger is good at "coming out of the wheel", so the sound is delicate and soft, it is good at expressing quiet and elegant emotions, and it has a leisurely and delicate taste. At the same time, "heavy clips and light wheels" prefer monophonic and clipped bullets, thinking that "although wheel fingers are easy to listen to, but too many are too low and inelegant". Therefore, most of his repertoires are wenban ditties, among which the famous slow and wenban pieces such as "Flying Flowers and Green", "Zhaojun Resentment", etc., are elegant and upright; "Fish's Playing in Water" and other ditties are full of life interest.

5. Wang School

The Wang School, also known as the Shanghai School, is an important Pipa school in the history of Chinese music since the 20th century, and it is also the only school named after an individual. The formation of the Shanghai School set off the third climax in the history of Chinese pipa development.
Wang Yuting's pipa skills were inspired by Wang Huisheng. Later, Wang Huisheng taught Chen Zijing the pipa score to Wang. Later, he was taught by Ni Qingquan and Cao Jinglou of the Pudong School and Yin Jiping of the Pinghu School. He was eclectic, and he compiled the traditional pipa music according to the actual performance of flower sounds, and taught them widely.
Wang taught the students to use Gongji notation, and each handwritten copy and handed it to the students, which has become a precious calligraphy treasure. Those who play according to Wang's music are known as Wang School by later generations. In the "Pipa Playing Method" compiled by Lin Shicheng and published by the Music Publishing House in 1959, the "Shanghai Wang Yuting School" was first listed as one of the Pipa schools in the form of words. The first characteristic of the Wang School's performance is that at that time, the southern school pipa usually used the lower rounds, but Wang's creative use of the upper rounds laid the foundation for the pipa to use the upper rounds. Secondly, he did not stick to the traditional playing method, and carefully revised the ancient score to make it more refined, and achieved better results than before. The performance of the Wang School Pipa is powerful and touching.
Wang has cultivated a large number of modern and contemporary outstanding pipa players. Such as Wei Zhongle, Sun Yude, Li Tingsong, Cheng Wujia, Jiang Fengzhi, etc.