jinghu
The jinghu (京胡; pinyin: jīnghú) is a Chinese bowed string instrument in the huqin family, used primarily in Beijing opera. It is the smallest and highest pitched instrument in the huqin family. The jinghu has a tone similar to a violin but raspier.
Also recorded as jing hu
jinghu
Creator:Shinsai, "Katsu" Tajima · This file was donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. See the Image and Data Resources Open Access Policy · CC0
- Name
- Jinghu
- Field
- chordophone
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
The jinghu (京胡; pinyin: jīnghú) is a Chinese bowed string instrument in the huqin family, used primarily in Beijing opera. It is the smallest and highest pitched instrument in the huqin family. The jinghu has a tone similar to a violin but raspier.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
No house-authored Note is published until its assertions and sources pass the VALÉORINE evidence contract. The documentary article remains available in full while that enrichment is being consolidated.
Documentary enrichment in progress · no unsupported statement published
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for jinghu. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Evidence Panel
not yet certified
- Identity
- resolved
- Independent source families
- 0
- Admitted assertions
- 0
- Open conflicts
- 0
Authority files
wikidata · Q873588
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Jinghu • Classification — Bowed string instrument • Related — * Erhu • Huqin
Construction
Construction
Like most of its relatives, the jinghu has 2 strings that are customarily tuned to the interval of a 5th which the hair of the non-detachable bow passes in between. The strings were formerly made of silk, but in modern times are increasingly made of steel or nylon. Unlike other huqin instruments (erhu, gaohu, zhonghu, etc.) it is made of bamboo. Its cylindrical soundbox is covered with snakeskin (python) on the front (playing) end, which forms a taut drum on which the bridge (bamboo) rests, sandwiched between the drum and the strings, which are connected to a peg at the bottom of the soundbox.
Use
Use
In Beijing opera, the jinghu mostly follows the singer's voice but adds ornamentation. Jinghu performers in Beijing opera rarely shift into higher positions, and instead choose to compress the melody into a single octave. The jinghu was also featured prominently in the single "Shinjitsu no Uta" by the Japanese band Do as Infinity.
Trying out instruments at a Nanjing store, 1991
Eric Golub from Foster City, California · Jing hu in Nanjing BLUR
fiddle belonging to Gao Yuefeng, bought in Shanghai, 1986
Eric Golub from Foster City, California · jing hu and sheet music
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
authority record
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Collectables
20,755 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Jimmy White's Cueball WorldWork
- JinbeiOrganisation
- Jing erhuTerminology
- Jingai MakyōWork
- jingleTerminology
- jingle bellTerminology
- JinxterWork
- jirbaTerminology
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own an object connected with jinghu?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.