Yangqin

The trapezoidal yangqin (simplified Chinese: 扬琴; traditional Chinese: 揚琴; pinyin: yángqín) is a Chinese hammered dulcimer, originally from Persia (modern-day Iran). It used to be written with the characters 洋琴 (lit. "foreign zither"), but over time the first character changed to 揚 (also pronounced "yáng"), which means "acclaimed". It is also spelled yang quin or yang ch'in. Hammered dulcimers of various types are now very popular not only in China, but also Eastern Europe, the Middle East, India, Iran, and Pakistan. The instruments are also sometimes known by the names "santur" and "cymbalom".