The English word for this national musical instrument is Chinese pinyin, and then some comments are added

Pipa The pipa - is a plucked Chinese string instrument. Sometimes called the Chinese lute, the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body. It has been played for nearly two thousand years of history in China, and belongs to the plucked category of instruments

guzheng - is a traditional Chinese musical instrument. It belongs to the zither family of string instruments.

Dulcimer yangqin - is a Chinese hammered dulcimer originally from Persia (modern-day Iran). It used to be written with the characters

The flute is Flute

The same goes for famous songs

gao shan liu shui high mountains and flowing water meaning high mountains and flowing waters

Shi mian Mai fu meaning ambush from ten direction

Er quan ying yue Erquan Yingyue meaning the second moon-reflecting spring

Some English information on Chinese classical music

Chinese classical music is the traditional art or court music of China. It has a long history stretching for more than three thousand years. It has its own unique systems of musical notation, as well as musical tuning and pitch, musical instruments and styles or musical genres.

Chinese music is pentatonic -diatonic, having a scale of twelve notes to an octave (5 7 = 12) as does European-influenced music.

Music of China appears to date back to the dawn of Chinese civilization, and documents and artifacts provide evidence of a well-developed musical culture

as early as the Zhou Dynasty (1122 BC - 256 BC).

According to Mencius, a ruler had asked Mencius whether it was moral if he preferred pop songs to the classics. The answer was that the only thing matters being whether or not he loved his subjects.

The Imperial Music Bureau, first established in the Qin Dynasty (221-207 BC), was greatly expanded under the Emperor Han Wu Di (140-87 BC) and charged with supervising court music and military music and determining what folk music would be officially recognized. In subsequent dynasties, the development of Chinese music was strongly influenced by foreign music, especially that of Central Asia.

Traditional orchestral instruments

* Woodwind and percussion

o dizi, sheng, paigu, gong, paixiao, guan, bells, cymbals

* Bowed strings

o erhu, zhonghu, dahu, banhu, jinghu, gaohu, gehu, yehu, cizhonghu, diyingehu, leiqin

* Plucked and struck strings

o guqin, sanxian, yangqin, zheng, ruan, konghou, liuqin, pipa, zhu

Chinese vocal music has traditionally been sung in a thin, nonresonant voice or in falsetto and is usually solo rather than choral. All traditional Chinese music is melodic rather than harmonic. Chinese vocal music probably developed from sung poems and verses with music.

Instrumental music

Instrumental pieces played on an erhu or dizi are popular, and are often a

available outside of China, but qin, pipa and zheng music, which are more traditional, are more popular in China itself. The qin is perhaps the national instrument of China, and its virtuosos are stars. These include Zha Fuxi, Wu Wen'guang , Lin Youren, Wu Jinglue, Wu Zhaoji, Guan Pinghu, Zhang Zijian, Li Xiangting and Gong Yi. The zheng, a form of zither, is most popular in Henan, Chaozhou, Hakka and Shandong. The pipa, a kind of lute, believed to have been introduced from the Arabian Peninsula area during the 6th century and improved, is most popular in Shanghai and surrounding areas.

Opera

Chinese opera has been hugely popular for centuries, especially Beijing opera. The music is often guttural with high-pitched vocals, usually accompanied by suona, jinghu, other kinds of string instruments, and percussion. Other types of opera include clapper opera, Pingju, Cantonese opera, puppet opera, Kunqu, Sichuan opera, Qinqiang, ritual masked opera and Huangmei xi.