Yelü Chucai

Yelü Chucai (1190 - 1244) was a Khitan, a descendent of its royal house, the 遼 Liao, whose empire was centered in northeast China from 907 - 1125); after this his ancestors had served in the Jin government. Yelü Chucai himself was their governor of Beijing when it was taken over by the Yuan in 1214. After this he accompanied Genghis Khan (1162 - 1227) on some of his campaigns in Central Asia. He later became an administrator for Genghis' successor, Ogotai (1185 - 1241), in which capacity he is said always to have been benevolent.

Yelü Chucai is perhaps the most famous early non-Han qin player. The biography here also mentions several other qin players who were his contemporaries: Mi Dayong,³ Miao Xiushi,⁴ the Old Master of 10,000 Pines⁵ (a teacher) and Zhang Zhiwen,⁶ (a student).

Yelü Chucai advocated a simple style of qin play. This is perhaps summed up best in a set of two poems he wrote, Loving the qin playing techniques of Qiyan (a nickname of Miao Xiushi). These have been translated as follows by R. H. Van Gulik in his Lore of the Chinese Lute.⁷

I firmly believe that rarefied tones constitute the real great music,
Frequent use of vibrato ritardando confuses the melody, frequent use of other vibrato leads to a lax style.
People of the present day do not understand the meaning of Master Qiyan's music,
They only love the fashionable style, and play the qin so as to produce a rude noise.

Frequent application of vibrato grates upon the ears of the listener,
This style is aimed only at captivating the common fancy.
The pure tones are simple - but who can appreciate them?
People only say that Qiyan does not use the wooden sounds.⁸

Yelü Chucai also wrote a poem about Guangling San that includes a description of it being played by one Zhang Qizhi.⁹

The original Qinshi Xu biography begins as follows.

Yelü Chucai, style name 晉卿 Jinqing, nickname 湛然居士 Zhanran Jushi (Retired Scholar in Tranquility), was 遼東丹王 Prince Dan of Liaodong....

More to be added.

Yelü Chucai's son, 左丞相耶律鑄 Vice Premier Yelü Zhu,10 (1221 - 1285) was also a poet. Qinshu Daquan includes several poems by him about qin. See

Folio 19A, #54
Folio 19B, #156
Folio 20A, #76 and #77

Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1 29648.116 元，契丹人，履子，字晉卿，號湛然居士，又號玉泉老人.... ; Khitan, during Yuan dynasty, son of Lü style name Jinqing, nicknames Zhanran Jushi and Yuquan Laoren. Qin Shi Xu sources are:

元史 History of the Yuan Dynasty
湛然居士集 Zhanran Jushi Ji (Collected Writings of the Tranquil Retiree [Yelü Chucai])
淥水亭雜識 Lushui Ting Zazhi (Miscellaneous Records of the Green Water Pavilion [18106.3xxx])
Chunhu Manlu
(Return)

2 愛棲巖彈琴聲法, from 湛然居士文集 his Collected Works. The original poems (again copied from Van Gulik) are

須信希聲是大音，猱多則亂吟多淫。
世人不識棲巖意，祗愛時宜熱鬧琴。

多著吟猱熱客耳，強生取與媚俗情。
純音簡易誰能識，即道棲巖無木聲。
(Return)

3 弭大用 Zhang Dayong (Return)

4 萬松老人 Wansong Laoren (Old Man of 10,000 Pines)
25455.262 has nickname only for 楊彝 Yang Yi (late 14th c., so not him). (Return)

5 苗蘭 Miao Lan (Miao Xiushi) (Return)

6 張之聞 Zhang Zhiwen (Return)

7 Van Gulik, Lore, page 78, footnote 171; the transliteration has been changed to pinyin. (Return)

8 Van Gulik's footnote, p.76, explains: "'Wooden sounds' refers to the vibrato and other graces, produced by rubbing the string on the surface of the soundbox.... Yelü Chucai in his later years abandoned the technique taught by his earlier masters 弭大 Mita and 萬松 Wansong.... Yelü Chucai was especially interested in the melody Guangling San...." (Return)

9 張器之 Zhang Qizhi (13th c. CE)
10026.xxx; no further information, except that this was during 1201-1208, and Yelü Chucai's poem identifies Zhang as a Daizhao -- see Rao Zongyi, Historical Account", p.87. (Return)

10 29648.166; Bio/1409 (Return)

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