Qin Masters

Mei Yueqiang on the Guangling School of Guqin | 1995 Interview
Mei Yueqiang on the Guangling School of Guqin | 1995 Interview
In 1995, Mei Yueqiang — master of the Guangling school of guqin — spoke about his lineage, his students, and what he was trying to preserve. He passed away in... Read more...
Wang Jianhou's handwritten copy of Qin Xue Jin Qiu, a Qing dynasty qin score collection
The Same Melody, a Hundred Years Apart
Master Mei Yueqiang's Yi Yun Zhai — the Studio of Moving Clouds — and the inner spirit of Guangling guqin tradition. A reflection on transmission, solitude, and the music that... Read more...
Wang Jianhou playing qin, 1940s Nanjing
By Day, a Doctor. By Night, a Qin Player.
Wang Jianhou was a doctor who ran a clinic at the Nanjing docks and played qin in the evenings. He was also the first teacher of Mei Yueqiang — the... Read more...
Zhang Gong holding the first guqin made in Yangzhou after the founding of the People's Republic
The Man Who Made the First Qin in Yangzhou
Zhang Gong (1940–2016) was the maker of the first guqin produced in Yangzhou after the founding of the People's Republic — and the man who helped bring the Guangling school... Read more...
The Passing of the Qin
The Passing of the Qin
Hong Kong, summer 2022. Stranded by the pandemic, guqin practitioner William Xu sought out Professor Tang Jianyuan — student of the great scholar Rao Zongyi — and spent seven hours... Read more...
Tasting Mei : Afterword — A Note on Tuning and the Living Pitch
Tasting Mei : Afterword — A Note on Tuning and the Living Pitch
Originally written by Shi Hong. Translated and published with respect for the original author. When scholars today discuss the tuning of the guqin, they tend to focus on relatively fixed... Read more...
Master Mei Yueqiang performing on the guqin under stage lighting, his hands resting gently on the strings
Tasting Mei · XVII : Beyond the Yangguan Pass
Originally written by Shi Hong. Translated and published with respect for the original author.The first time I met Master Mei was in the deep autumn of 1987. A memorial service... Read more...
Master Mei Yueqiang holding his guqin beside a river, standing among golden autumn reeds in his blue scholar's robe
Tasting Mei · XVI : Wild Geese Descending on the Sandbar
Originally written by Shi Hong. Translated and published with respect for the original author.There is a saying in the guqin world: "Half a piece of Pingsha is enough to travel... Read more...
Master Mei Yueqiang painting plum blossoms at his desk, brush in hand, wearing a blue scholar's robe
Tasting Mei · XV : Wind Stirs the Plum Blossoms
Master Mei Yueqiang on painting plum blossoms and playing Meihua — the phoenix nods three times, the resilience of old branches, and a piece never fully learned before he was... Read more...
Master Mei Yueqiang eating at his small table in Jiandao Lane, Yangzhou, a plum blossom painting on the wall behind him — savoring, not craving
Tasting Mei · XIV : From Drunkenness of the Body to Drunkenness of the Heart
By Shi HongAround 1993, Master Mei settled permanently in Yangzhou. He sold the qin that had accompanied him for many years — the one named Haiyue Qiucheng ("Sea-Moon Autumn Clarity")... Read more...
Mei Yuqiang playing the guqin
Tasting Mei · XIII : The Joy of Mountains and Forests (Part Two)
Shan Ju Yin — the "little Qiao Ge" — and the mountain hermit ideal in Mei Yueqiang's playing. With notes on Qiu Ye Du Yi and Geng Shen Diao Wei:... Read more...
Master Mei Yueqiang playing the guqin, a historic photograph
Tasting Mei · XII : The Joy of Mountains and Forests (Part One)
By Shi HongMaster Mei often said: "The four great pieces of the Guangling school are Yu, Qiao, Mo, and Pei" — referring to Fisherman's Song (渔歌), Woodcutter's Song (樵歌), Mozi's... Read more...
The Blind Master: Shi Kuang, Music, and the Art of Hearing a Kingdom
The Blind Master: Shi Kuang, Music, and the Art of Hearing a Kingdom
A Name That Became a MetaphorIn classical Chinese, when a writer wishes to describe someone with extraordinary powers of hearing, they reach for a single name: Shi Kuang.He was the... Read more...
Mei Yuqiang playing the guqin beneath a plaque reading 'Teacher of Ten Thousand Generations'
Tasting Mei · XI : To Guangling, He Returned His Tradition
To return is not to go back. It is to arrive — for the first time — at the place you were always meant to be. In the autumn of... Read more...
Tasting Mei · X : One Melody, Three Souls
Tasting Mei · X : One Melody, Three Souls
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 tenth installment.In April 2025, William... Read more...
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...