Performers › Musicians
Yao Bingyan
Hangzhou-born qin player and founder of the Yao lineage of the Zhe school, a pupil of Xu Yuanbai famed for reconstructing Jiu Kuang from the Shenqi Mipu.
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.
- Roles
- Musicians
Yao Bingyan was born in Hushu, Hangzhou, in January 1921. He taught himself erhu and sanxian as a youth, was introduced to the qin by Wang Jianhou, and in the mid-1940s became a pupil of the Zhe-school master Xu Yuanbai, who had him work out pieces from notation himself and corrected him, training his skill in reconstruction (dapu). Settling in Shanghai in 1951, he spent his spare time on old handbooks such as the Shenqi Mipu and Xilutang Qintong and reconstructed nearly fifty pieces; his 1957 Jiu Kuang became the best known, alongside Youlan, Huaxu Yin and Guangling San. He was vice president of the Jinyu Qin Society and in 1982 was engaged to teach qin at the Shanghai Conservatory. He died of illness in Shanghai in March 1983. His reconstructions appear in Qinqu Gouchen.
Life and times
Dates 1921–1983