Xi Kang

Xi Kang ⁴ (223 - 262) had the style name Shuye, and was also called Zhongsan Daifu.⁵ His family's ancestral home was near the modern Shaoxing, but when he was born they had moved to northern Anhui province. At the time this was in the area ruled by the Wei dynasty, which had been started by Cao Cao (155 -220) during the Three Kingdoms period. Xi Kang married a granddaughter or great-granddaughter of Cao Cao, leading him originally to a government position in the Wei capital, Luoyang. However, by the time he was an adult the Wei was under the control of the Sima clan, which in 265 founded the Jin dynasty. Around 245 he left Loyang to live across the Yangzi River in Shanyang,⁶ about 60 km northeast of Luoyang.

Shanyang then became the center of activities for the famous group of scholars called the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove.⁷

Xi Kang was a noted thinker and poet. However, due to his connections to the wrong faction and, by tradition, his moral nature in an immoral period, he was in the end executed by the Sima faction in 262. By tradition at his execution he played Guangling San one last time, saying its tradition would die with him.

There are many stories in which Xi Kang meets ghosts. Gu Guan Yu Sheng, below, is one. Several other mentioning qin are related in Van Gulik, Lore, p.157.

Xi Kang is especially associated with four melodies said to be the Four Melodies of Xi Kang:⁸

Other melodies especially connected to him include:

Writings by Xi Kang to be found in Qinshu Daquan include:

Rhapsody on the Qin (also included in its entirety in his biography below)⁹
A letter breaking off relations (with Shan Tao, excerpt)¹⁰

His biography begins as follows:

嵇康 Xi Kang, style name 叔夜 Shuye, was from 譙國銍 Zhi in the kingdom of Qiao (southwest of 宿州 Suzhou in the northern part of modern Anhui province). He had the highest of skills amongst his peers, but did not look for fame. He taught students to preserve his own way, lived correctly while waiting for appropriate times, but died without getting an appointment in those ruinous times.... Wrote a 琴賦 Rhapsody on the Qin.... (translation incomplete.)

Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. 8500.12. He is discussed in detail in QSCB, Chapter 3.A. (pp.26-29). See also his biographies in Knechtges, Wen Xuan III, pp.390/1, and in R. H. Van Gulik, Hs'i Kang and his Poetic Essay on the Lute. (Return)

2. 95 lines (includes the entire 琴賦 Qin Fu) (Return)

3. This image is from an illustrated Ming dynasty Liexian Quanzhuan, which developed out of the Han dynasty Liexian Zhuan. See also the Xi Kang Guangling San images. (Return)

4. 嵇康，字叔夜，號中散大夫 Xi Kang, style name Shuye, also called Zhongsan Daifu. Regarding pronunciation of his surname, Knechtges writes (op.cit.) that, fleeing a flood, his family had moved from 會稽 Guiji (also called Kuaiji, in Zhejiang) to 致 Zhi (in Anhui). According to the 晉書 History of Jin they then changed their family name from 奚 Xi to 嵇, which is normally pronounced "Ji". The new name "was derived from the final syllable of their native place, Guiji, except that they wrote it with 'mountain' in the lower right portion of the character and pronounced Ji as Xi", so that they wouldn't have to change the pronunciation of their surname.
(Return)

5. The name "中散大夫 Zhongsan Daifu" is used in the Qin Shi biography of Xi Kang's son, Xi Shao)
(Return)

6. 山陽 Shanyang
(Return)

7. 竹林七賢 Zhulin Qi Xian
(Return)

8. 嵇康四弄 Four Melodies of Xi Kang
These four (長清，短清，長側，短側) are included in some old melody lists; when added together with 蔡邕五弄 Cai Yong's five pieces (see in the same list ) these make the 九大弄 nine great pieces.
(Return)

9. Qin Fu 琴賦 (中文 online)
There are several translations into English, including,

R. H. Van Gulik, Hs'i Kang and his Poetic Essay on the Lute
David R. Knechtges, Wen Xuan III, Rhapsody on the Zither
(Return)

10. 嵇康，絕交書； extracted from the middle of 嵇康，與山巨源交書, Letter breaking off relations with 山濤 Shan Tao (style name Juyuan). The original is in Wen Xuan, Chapter 43 (pp. 1985 - 1999; the extract is on p.1992). The whole letter is translated by James Hightower in Birch, ed, Anthology of Chinese Literature, Vol. 1, pp. 162 - 166; qin is translated "lute", p.164. (Return)

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