Rongzhai

Rongzhai was a Mongol scholar and musician in Qing Beijing, of whom little is recorded. In 1814, with associates known as Lord Long and Lord Xiang, he wrote down the fingerings handed on orally by his teachers and compiled the six-juan manuscript Xiansuo Beikao, the string music of Beijing literati. Its thirteen suites, including Shiliu Ban, Jiangjun Ling and Haiqing, are notated in separate parts for pipa, sanxian, zheng, huqin and others, making it one of the earliest surviving ensemble scores. A descendant, Tao Junqi, donated it in the 1950s and it was then published.