Wu Jinglüe (吳景略) (February 5, 1907 – August 16, 1987) is considered one of the most important

guqin The ''guqin'' (; ) is a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument. It has been played since ancient times, and has traditionally been favoured by scholars and literati as an instrument of great subtlety and refinement, as highlighted b ...

players of the 20th century and was also an active researcher and teacher. He was born in the town of Xitang,

Changshu Changshu (; Suzhounese: /d͡ʐan¹³ ʐoʔ²³/) is a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Suzhou, Jiangsu province, and is part of the Yangtze River Delta. It borders the prefecture-level city of Nantong to the northeast across the Yangt ...

County, near

Suzhou Suzhou is a major prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu province, China. As part of the Yangtze Delta megalopolis, it is a major economic center and focal point of trade and commerce. Founded in 514 BC, Suzhou rapidly grew in size by the ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu is a coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province in East China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the List of Chinese administra ...

, China, and died in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. Wu served as a professor at the

Central Conservatory of Music The Central Conservatory of Music (CCOM; ) is the national music academy of China, located in Beijing. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education. The academy is part of Project 211 and the Double First-Class Construction. Overview Fo ...

in Beijing, and played a prominent role in raising the guqin to professional standards as a concert instrument. His boldly passionate but also lyrically refined style was widely syncretic and incorporated influences from various qin schools as well as folk and Western music. The two most distinguished players to transmit his style and repertoire are Li Xiangting and Wu Wenguang (吳文光), currently the leading guqin figures in Beijing's conservatories; Wu's broader influence extends much more widely. Wu styled himself an inheritor of the Yushan school of qin play influential during the Ming dynasty, but this association draws from his place of birth and his artistic aspirations rather than any unbroken lineage or firm stylistic affinity. His contemporary tradition is sometimes called Wu school, Yushan school, or Yushan Wu school.

References

1907 births 1987 deaths Guqin players Musicians from Suzhou 20th-century Chinese musicians People from Changshu {{String-musician-stub