showing the
Gandhara lute being played by a musician (right), 1st–2nd century AD There are some confusions 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 of the period from the
Qin to the
Tang dynasty, including the long-necked spiked lute and the short-necked lute, 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, with the
pipa being invented so she could play music on horseback to soothe her longings. The earliest mention of pipa in Chinese texts appeared late in the
Han dynasty around the 2nd century AD. although modern scholarship suggests a possible derivation from the
Persian word "
barbat", the two theories however are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Liu Xi also stated that the instrument called
pipa, though written differently ( or ) in the earliest texts, originated from amongst the
Hu people (a general term for non-Han people living to the north and west of ancient China). This may have given rise to the
Qin pipa, an instrument with a straight neck and a round
sound box, and evolved into
ruan, an instrument named after
Ruan Xian, one of the
Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove and known for playing similar instrument. Yet another term used in ancient text was
Qinhanzi (), perhaps similar to Qin pipa with a straight neck and a round body, but modern opinions differ on its precise form. 25,
Tang dynastyThe pear-shaped pipa is likely to have been introduced to China from
Central Asia,
Gandhara, and/or India. Pear-shaped lutes have been depicted in
Kusana sculptures from the 1st century AD. The pear-shaped pipa may have been introduced during the
Han dynasty and was referred to as Han pipa. However, depictions of the pear-shaped pipas in China only appeared after the Han dynasty during the
Jin dynasty in the late 4th to early 5th century. Pipa acquired a number of Chinese symbolisms during the Han dynasty - the instrument length of three
feet five
inches represents the three realms (heaven, earth, and man) and the
five elements, while the four strings represent the four seasons. Depictions of the pear-shaped pipas appeared in abundance from the
Southern and Northern dynasties onwards, and pipas from this time to the Tang dynasty were given various names, such as Hu pipa (), bent-neck pipa (, quxiang pipa), some of these terms however may refer to the same pipa. Apart from the four-stringed pipa, other pear-shaped instruments introduced include the five-stringed, straight-necked, wuxian pipa (, also known as
Kuchean pipa ()), a six-stringed version, as well as the two-stringed hulei (). From the 3rd century onwards, through the
Sui and Tang dynasty, the pear-shaped
pipas became increasingly popular in China. By the
Song dynasty, the word pipa was used to refer exclusively to the four-stringed pear-shaped instrument. The pipa reached a height of popularity during the
Tang dynasty, and was a principal musical instrument in the imperial court. It may be played as a solo instrument or as part of the imperial orchestra for use in productions such as
daqu (, grand suites), an elaborate music and dance performance. Some delicately carved
pipas with beautiful inlaid patterns date from this period, with particularly fine examples preserved in the
Shosoin Museum in Japan. It had close association with
Buddhism and often appeared in mural and sculptural representations of musicians in Buddhist contexts. Additionally, masses of
pipa-playing
Buddhist semi-deities are depicted in the wall paintings of the
Mogao Caves near
Dunhuang. The four and five-stringed
pipas were especially popular during the Tang dynasty, and these instruments were introduced into Japan during the Tang dynasty as well as into other regions such as
Korea and
Vietnam. The five-stringed
pipa however had fallen from use by the
Song dynasty, although attempts have been made to revive this instrument in the early 21st century with a modernized five-string pipa modeled on the Tang dynasty instrument. During the Song dynasty,
pipa fell from favour at the imperial court, perhaps a result of the influence of
neo-Confucian nativism as
pipa had foreign associations. However, it continued to be played as a
folk instrument that also gained the interest of the literati. The
pipa underwent a number of changes over the centuries. By the
Ming dynasty, fingers replaced
plectrum as the popular technique for playing pipa, although finger-playing techniques existed as early as Tang. Extra
frets were added; the early instrument had 4 frets (,
xiāng) on the neck, but during the early Ming dynasty extra bamboo frets (品, pǐn) were affixed onto the
soundboard, increasing the number of frets to around 10 and therefore the range of the instrument. The short neck of the Tang
pipa also became more elongated. from around 10 to 14 or 16 during the Qing dynasty, then to 19, 24, 29, and 30 in the 20th century. The 4 wedge-shaped frets on the neck became 6 during the 20th century. The 14- or 16-fret
pipa had frets arranged in approximately equivalent to the western
tone and
semitone, starting at the
nut, the
intervals were
T-S-S-S-T-S-S-S-T-T-3/4-3/4-T-T-3/4-3/4. Some frets produced a
3/4 tone or "neutral tone". In the 1920s and 1930s, the number of frets was increased to 24, based on the 12 tone
equal temperament scale, with all the intervals being semitones. The traditional 16-fret
pipa became less common, although it is still used in some regional styles such as the pipa in the southern genre of
nanguan/nanyin. The horizontal playing position became the vertical (or near-vertical) position by the Qing dynasty, although in some regional genres such as nanguan the pipa is still held guitar fashion. During the 1950s, the use of metal strings in place of the traditional silk ones also resulted in a change in the sound of the pipa which became brighter and stronger.
In Chinese literature playing a pipa,
Ming dynasty Early literary tradition in China, for example in a 3rd-century description by
Fu Xuan,
Ode to Pipa, associates the Han pipa with the northern frontier,
Wang Zhaojun and other princesses who were
married to nomad rulers of the
Wusun and
Xiongnu peoples in what is now
Mongolia, northern
Xinjiang and
Kazakhstan. Wang Zhaojun in particular is frequently referenced with pipa in later literary works and lyrics, for example
Ma Zhiyuan's play
Autumn in the Palace of Han , especially since the Song dynasty (although her story is often conflated with other women including Liu Xijun), The
pipa is mentioned frequently in the
Tang dynasty poetry, where it is often praised for its expressiveness, refinement and delicacy of tone, with poems dedicated to well-known players describing their performances. The encounter also inspired a poem by
Yuan Zhen,
Song of Pipa (). Another excerpt of figurative descriptions of a pipa music may be found in a eulogy for a pipa player,
Lament for Shancai by
Li Shen: During the Song dynasty, many of the
literati and poets wrote
ci verses, a form of poetry meant to be sung and accompanied by instruments such as
pipa. They included
Ouyang Xiu,
Wang Anshi, and
Su Shi. During the
Yuan dynasty, the playwright
Gao Ming wrote a play for
nanxi opera called
Pipa ji (, or "Story of the Pipa"), a tale about an abandoned wife who set out to find her husband, surviving by playing the
pipa. It is one of the most enduring works in Chinese theatre, and one that became a model for
Ming dynasty drama as it was the favorite opera of the
first Ming emperor. The Ming collection of supernatural tales
Fengshen Yanyi tells the story of
Pipa Jing, a pipa spirit, but ghost stories involving
pipa existed as early as the Jin dynasty, for example in the 4th century collection of tales
Soushen Ji. Novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties such as
Jin Ping Mei showed
pipa performance to be a normal aspect of life in these periods at home (where the characters in the novels may be proficient in the instrument) as well as outside on the street or in pleasure houses. ==Playing and performance==