Cui Lingqin

Cui Lingqin came from the second branch of the Cui clan of Boling, from Anping county; his grandfather and father both served as prefects. In the Kaiyuan era he was an administrator in the Left Jinwu Guard and later an assistant editor in the Bureau of Compilation, ending his career as vice director of the Imperial Academy. His Jiaofang ji, whose preface notes his Jinwu post in the Kaiyuan years, describes the court entertainment offices of Emperor Xuanzong, the lives and anecdotes of their performers, and lists over three hundred tune titles, making it a key source for Tang song and dance and for the origins of later ci tune patterns. He also annotated Yu Xin's Lament for the South.