noun

Meanings

  1. 1 (in 琵琶) pipa, a four-stringed lute

Examples

Tā tán zhe yì qǔ dòngtīng de pípá.
She is plucking out a moving tune on the pipa.
琵琶半遮面
Tā yóu bào pípá bànzhēmiàn.
She half hid her face behind the pipa.

Tips

culture
A bound character: it occurs only in 琵琶 (pipa lute). Bai Juyi's poem 'Song of the Pipa' made the image of a woman half-hiding her face behind the 琵琶 one of the most quoted lines in Chinese poetry.

Components

semantic
jué
paired jade (doubled 王)
Top doubled jade element. In string-instrument characters this paired graphic represents the strings or tuning pegs of the lute, a graphic marker shared with and .
phonetic
to cling to; (place name)
Bottom supplies the sound — bā drifting to pá. It contributes no meaning here; the same phonetic appears in and .

Filed under radical (yù, #96) by convention. is not a separate component in , so no strokes are highlighted.

Stroke Order