The following is a mind map of the past and present life of Erhu:

1. The origin of Erhu

In the late Qin Dynasty, people suffered from the battle of the Great Wall, so they played strings and drums. Remember it as the beginning of Pipa. The pressing drum is small like a drum, has a handle, and is more than a foot long. However, the strings are attached to the head of the drum and belong to the end of the handle. It is very different from the pipa, and its shape is similar to that of the modern Miqin. It is clear that the secret harp is a portrait of a stringed harp.

The Tang Dynasty's "Book of Rites and Music" says, "The pipa has a round body, a round neck and a small neck. It was named Qin Hanzi. The legacy of Gai Xian Gu came from Hu Zhong and was passed down to the Qin and Han Dynasties. Today, it is also known as Ji Qin." Qin Hanzi".

In the Ming Dynasty, opera music was unprecedentedly prosperous. Bowed string instruments like the huqin were widely used in various musical forms, as accompaniment for traditional Chinese opera music, or as the lead instrument for bands, which provided good conditions for the development of the huqin. This ethnic musical instrument flowed into the Central Plains and gradually became Chinese in the process of integrating with the music culture of the Central Plains. The Huqin began to truly dominate the Central Plains and enter the stage of national music history.

In order to adapt to various music forms, bowed string instruments like the huqin have developed. Finally, the scope of the xiqin has gradually narrowed, and it still refers to a stringed instrument similar to the erhu in later generations. The scope of the huqin has continued to expand, and gradually Including stringed instruments similar to the Xiqin, it was not until the Qing Dynasty imperial ritual music diagram that the fiddle and the second string were classified into the Huqin category. At this point, Huqin finally became the general name for Han stringed instruments.

2. The development trajectory of Erhu in the first half of the 20th century

At the beginning of the 20th century, opera music developed unprecedentedly, with many types of operas and different genres, among which the number of banqiang operas increased As a result, more bowed string instruments like Huqin have been widely used. In Pihuang opera, Huqin has become the name of the type of Qupai. "Because the string instrument mainly uses Huqin, it is called 'Huqin Qupai'; Bangzi opera mainly uses banhu." String performance is called Banhu Qupai.

Although the vigorous development of opera music has promoted the rapid development of Huqin music, Huqin is still only used as an accompaniment instrument, attached to opera music, and has no independent social status of its own. It was Mr. Liu Tianhua who brought the erhu, a beggar instrument, to the music stage as a solo instrument, and also introduced it to higher professional music colleges and became a standardized professional discipline.

To this point, erhu music has become a standard. A new page in history! At the same time, the folk artist "A Bing" had a great influence on the development of Erhu. His Erhu works are famous both at home and abroad, and their artistic value is immeasurable. They are priceless treasures of national music. This work made the erhu achieve its first leap since its origin.

A Bing, a folk artist in the same historical period as Liu Tianhua, also made a great contribution to the development of the erhu in the first half of the 20th century. The works are close to people's lives and reflect the helplessness and yearning for life of the working people living at the bottom of society.