Performers › Musicians
Gu Jian
Late-Yuan southern-song singer from Qiandun near Kunshan, credited by Wei Liangfu's Nanci yinzheng as an early shaper of the Kunshan tune
On a flat rock above a waterfall, a seven-string zither and a bamboo flute lie on a spread of blue-green cloth; beyond, a waterfall pours into a churning teal pool among misty peaks, with pine branches arching at the top left.
Also known as Hao Fengyue Sanren · Zi Tingyu
- Roles
- Musicians
Gu Jian, styled the Idler of Wind and Moon, lived at Qiandun (now Qiandeng) near Kunshan at the end of the Yuan. Wei Liangfu's Nanci yinzheng says he was skilled in southern song and in old-style rhapsodies, kept company with the literati Yang Weizhen, Ni Zan and Gu Ying, and declined repeated summonses from Köke Temür; it ties the early name 'Kunshan tune' to him. On that account he is traced back as an early founder of the Kunshan tune, though other evidence is scant and scholars still debate the claim. The same text credits him with eight juan of Fengyue Sanren yuefu and ten of Taozhen yeji, neither of which survives.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; lived in the Zhizheng reign at the end of the Yuan