Feng Lei Yin first appears in the Shen Qi Mi Pu, the oldest surviving guqin collection, compiled in 1425. This version was transmitted by Xia Yifeng, based on Mei Yueqiang’s teaching score, and unfolds in three sections.
The piece draws its spirit from the Yi Jing: “Stir all things with thunder and lightning; nourish all things with wind and rain.” The music is grand and sweeping — evoking the moment when the sky opens, when wind and thunder move together across the landscape, when the world is briefly, magnificently, out of human control.
Among guqin pieces, Feng Lei Yin is unusual in its scale and force. Most guqin music turns inward. This piece turns outward — toward the vastness of heaven and earth, toward the power that moves through all things whether we attend to it or not.
Recorded by Mei Yueqiang. Part of the ongoing series presenting his complete surviving recordings.
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