What is a pipa?

Pipa, a traditional plucked instrument in China, is known as the king of folk music and the first plucked instrument. It has a history of more than 2,000 years in China, and the earliest musical instrument called Pipa appeared in the Qin Dynasty. In the Qin Dynasty, pipa was also the general name of all "root" plucked instruments in China. Our country's pipa also spread to other parts of East Asia, and developed into later Japanese pipa, Korean pipa and Vietnamese pipa. The pipa in this period not only refers to the musical pipa with pear-shaped sounding box, but also refers to a variety of plucked instruments with similar shapes and sizes, including, yueqin, Ruan, etc., all of which can be said to be pipa instruments.