The Jinghu is popularly called as huqin. Its high pitch and vigorous tone is considered an ideal accompaniment to Beijing opera, in which the Jinghu performs the melodies. With the development of Pihuang Qiang, one of the four major tone systems of Chinese local operas, the Jinghu came to be standardised in about 1790 during the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing dynasty.
According to different tone systems in Beijing opera, the two strings can be tuned in three ways: la - mi, sol - re, and re - la. Its range is within one and a half octaves. In its accompaniment, the Jinghu coordinates with the vocal part very closely.
