[1][2] While the earliest written records of the đàn bầu date its origin to 1770, scholars estimate its age to be up to one thousand years older than that.

[3] A popular legend of its beginning tells of a blind woman playing it in the market to earn a living for her family while her husband was at war.

The đàn bầu, played solo, is central to Vietnamese folk music, a genre still popular today in the country.

With the invention of the magnetic pickup, the usage of the đàn bầu spread to ensembles and also to contemporary Asian pop and rock music.

[5] The dúxiánqín (Sino-Vietnamese: độc huyền cầm; Chinese: 獨絃琴) is essentially the same instrument but given a Mandarin name, played by the Jing people in China, who are ethnically Vietnamese.