The fruit is loquat.
The so-called pipa in history not only refers to musical instruments with pear-shaped sounding boxes, but also refers to all kinds of plucked instruments with similar shapes and different sizes, such as, yueqin, Ruan, etc., which can be said to be pipa instruments. Its names "Pi" and "Pa" are based on the right-handed skills of playing these instruments.
Pipa, also known as "Pipa", was first recorded in the history of Liu Xi's Interpretation of Names and Musical Instruments in the Han Dynasty: "Pipa originated in Hu Zhong, and then drummed. Say yes when you push your hand, and say yes when you pull it, just like when you drum, because you feel famous. " In other words, the pipa is a musical instrument that is played on a horse. It is called a batch when it is ejected forward and a handle when it is picked back. According to its performance characteristics, it is named "batch handle". In ancient times, knocking, striking, bouncing and beating were all called drums. At that time, nomadic people were good at playing pipa on horseback, so they "immediately beat drums." It was not until the Wei and Jin Dynasties that it was officially called "Pipa".
Pipa evolved from straight-necked pipa and curved-necked pipa in history. According to historical records, the straight-necked pipa appeared earlier in China. "Qin Hanzi" in Qin and Han Dynasties is a kind of pipa with a straight handle and a straight neck, which was developed from the cymbals at the end of Qin Dynasty. Ruan is a round wooden musical instrument with four strings and twelve columns, which is played vertically by hand. Ruan Xianshan played this instrument in the Jin Dynasty, so it is commensurate with its name, which is today's Ruan.
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, cultural exchanges were conducted with the western regions through the Silk Road, and the music pipa was introduced from Persia to China via today's Xinjiang. Qupipa is pear-shaped, with four strings and four phases (without columns), and it is played horizontally with a pick. It prevailed in the Northern Dynasties and spread to the southern Yangtze River basin in the first half of the 6th century.
Among the nine or ten pieces of music in Sui and Tang Dynasties, pipa became the main musical instrument, which played an important role in the development of song and dance art in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. From Dunhuang murals and Yungang stone carvings, we can still see its position in the band at that time.
Loquat, an evergreen tree of Rosaceae, also known as Lu Ju, Jin Wan and Jin Bullet, looks like a pipa. So the ancients also called loquat pipa. Speaking of which, there is an interesting story. According to legend, a scholar received a basket of loquat from a friend, and when he saw the word "Pipa" written on the gift list, he mistakenly thought it was white, so he wrote a poem sarcastically: "Loquat is not that kind of pipa, only because of poor literacy in that year. If the pipa can bear fruit, all the silk tubes in the city will open. " Unexpectedly, people can't be ridiculed, but they are handed down as jokes by future generations. In fact, the ancient book "Materia Medica Yi Yan" has long explained that loquat is named after its thick and round leaves.
So pipa was once called pipa, and loquat was once called pipa, but because the name of loquat comes from pipa, you ask what pipa originally meant, not fruit, but musical instrument.