Jiang Kui (ca. 1155 - 1221), a major poet, musician and critic, was a native of Boyang, in modern Jiangsu province. He lived in or near Hanyang in Hubei province from about age 10 to 30, after which he lived in Huzhou, now Zhejiang province's Wuxing.³ Jiang Kui never achieved important office, making a living by selling his calligraphy and getting patronage from wealthy friends

He wrote Gu Yuan, the earliest qin melody to survive in China, as well as 17 ci songs and 10 ritual songs.⁴ There are very few other pre-Qing dynasty songs in which the lyrics and music are known to have been composed by the same person.

His Sketches to Investigate Antiquity of Qin and Se (Qin Se Kaogu Tu) is described in Qinshu Cunmu.

The original essay in Qin Shi Xu begins,

Incomplete. ⁵

 
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. 姜夔，字堯章 Jiang Kui, style name Yao Zhang. See Nienhauser, ICTCL, p.262ff. (Chiang K'uei) (Return)

2. 18 lines; credited source: 海紅寮碎墨 (Return)

3. 鄱陽 Boyang; 漢陽 Hanyang; 湖洲 Huzhou; 吳興 Wuxing (Return)

4. 詞調（十七首）、越九歌（十首） 17 ci songs and 10 ritual songs (entitle "9 Songs of Yue"). Transcribed in Pian. (Return)

5. (Return)

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