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\t\u7435\u7436 — Pípá<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \tThe pipa (Chinese: \u7435\u7436; pinyin: pípá) is a four-stringed 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 26.<\/p>\n \n \tHow to play<\/strong><\/p>\n \tAnother Chinese four-string plucked lute is the liuqin<\/em>, which looks like a smaller version of the pipa.<\/p>\n \n \tLiuqin, smaller than Pipa<\/strong><\/p>\n \tThe pipa is one of the most popular Chinese instruments and has been played for almost two thousand years in China. Several related instruments in East and Southeast Asia are derived from the pipa; these include the Japanese biwa, the Vietnamese \u0111àn t\u1ef3 bà, and the Korean bipa. The Korean instrument is the only one of the three that is no longer used; examples survive in museums, but attempts to revive that instrument failed.<\/p>\n \tThere are many references to pipa in Tang literary works, for example, in A Music Conservatory Miscellany Duan Anjie related many anecdotes associated with pipa. The pipa is mentioned frequently in Tang Dynasty poetry, where it is often praised for its refinement and delicacy of tone, with poems dedicated to well-known players describing their performances. A famous poem by Bai Juyi<\/em>'s Pipa Xing<\/em> (\u7435\u7436\u884c, which means a story of Pipa), describes a chance encounter with a female pipa player on the Yangtze River.<\/p>\n \n \tBai Juyi, a famous poet in Tang Dynasty<\/strong><\/p>\n \tIn the late 20th century, the electric pipa was developed by adding electric guitar-style magnetic pickups to a regular acoustic pipa, allowing the instrument to be amplified through an instrument amplifier or PA system. <\/p>\n