Pipa Pavilion

Pipa Pavilion

Built in the Tang Dynasty, Pipa Pavilion (Pipa, a Chinese lute) derives its name from the poem Song of the Lute Player. In the tenth year (815 AD) of the Yuanhe Reign of the Tang Dynasty, poet Bai Juyi was demoted as the defense minister of Jiangzhou. When seeing a guest off at the estuary of the Penjiang River the following year, he heard a female Lute Player playing a song full of bitter-sweet beauty, which reminded him of his frustrated career. He then wrote a long narrative poem Song of the Lute Player that has been handed down the ages. People of Jiangzhou (now Jiujiang) erected a pavilion at the place where he saw the guest off and named it “Pipa Pavilion” after the poem.