Zheng Jinwen

Also known as Zi Guangyu

Zheng Jinwen, courtesy name Guangyu, was from Jiangyin, Jiangsu, and played the qin, pipa and other instruments. In 1918 he founded the Qinse Society in Shanghai, renamed the Datong Music Society in 1919, with the aim of studying Chinese and Western music in search of common ground. Drawing on field inquiries and written sources, he reproduced many ancient instruments and worked on instrument reform, and the society grew into a sizeable Chinese orchestra; Liu Yaozhang's ensemble arrangement Chunjiang huayue ye came out of it. He wrote a History of Chinese Music and compiled the Xiao di xinpu, a collection of new scores for vertical and transverse flutes. He died in Shanghai in 1935.