Qin Masters

Master Mei Yuqiang playing the guqin
Tasting Mei · IX : The River Heard at Night
Tasting Mei is a series of essays on the guqin tradition as remembered through the life and teaching of Master Mei Yuqiang. This is the ninth installment.The Title That Explains... Read more...
Liangxiao Yin — moonlight over ancient Chinese rooftop, guqin piece by Master Mei Yuqiang
Tasting Mei · VIII : The Flavor of the Scholar's Heart
Tasting Mei is a series of essays on the guqin tradition as remembered through the life and teaching of Master Mei Yuqiang. This is the eighth installment.A Single CharacterAmong all... Read more...
Calligraphy of Emperor Wu of Han's Qiufeng Ci — Autumn Wind Poem
Tasting Mei · VII : What the Autumn Wind Understands
Tasting Mei is a series of essays on the guqin tradition as remembered through the life and teaching of Master Mei Yuqiang. This is the seventh installment.The Beginner’s Piece That... Read more...
Xia Yifeng at the guqin
Tasting Mei · VI : The Mastery of Xia Yifeng
Tasting Mei is a series of essays on the guqin tradition as remembered through the life and teaching of Master Mei Yuqiang. This is the sixth installment.A Daoist Who StayedXia... Read more...
Tasting Mei · V : The Lady with Two Qin
Tasting Mei · V : The Lady with Two Qin
Mei Yueqiang had five teachers in his life. On quiet afternoons, I sometimes saw him count them out on his fingers with quiet deliberateness — Wáng Jiànhóu, Zhào Yúnqīng, Xià... Read more...
Master Mei Yueqiang playing guqin, with Chinese calligraphy scrolls in the background
Tasting Mei · IV : The Fisherman and the Woodcutter
A Digression Worth ReadingThere is a passage in the sixteenth-century novel Journey to the West that has almost nothing to do with the story. In the ninth chapter, the author... Read more...
Master Mei Riqiang holding his guqin in a classical Chinese garden, wearing a traditional blue robe, autumn leaves on the ground
Tasting Mei · III : A Prayer for Every Living Thing
A Wish for All Creatures The name says everything, if you know how to read it. Pu’an — the two characters that give this guqin piece its name — carry... Read more...
Wang Jianhou, guqin master and teacher of Mei Yueqiang, photographed in a traditional Chinese garden, black and white vintage portrait
Tasting Mei · II : The Physician Who Played by Moonlight
A Sound Through an Open Window There are moments that redirect a life entirely — not through grand announcement, but through a sound drifting through an open window on an... Read more...
Guqin master Mei Yueqiang, black and white portrait photograph, smiling with a warm and open expression
Tasting Mei · I : The Flavor That Lingers
Prologue There is a Chinese saying: the most exquisite things cannot be put into words — and even if they could, they cannot be passed on. The writer Shi Hong... Read more...