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| 31 OCT 2025 | ISSUE 18 | ||
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| 3. Collections Spotlight — Tsar Teh-yun Collection on Qin Studies | |
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Tsar Teh-yun (1905–2007), renowned as ‘China’s Last Literati’, held a profound cultural heritage, with many artistic accomplishments. An outstanding Qin player and cultural inheritor, she promoted the culture of the Guqin through her unique artistic perspective and elegant performance style and became a symbol of the contemporary literati spirit.
Tsar Teh-yun was born in Huzhou and moved to Shanghai at two years of age. In the late 1930s, she moved to Hong Kong, where she met Qin master Shen Caonong from Xiaoshan and began her studies in qin. When Hong Kong fell to Japanese occupation, Madam Tsar returned to Shanghai. She returned to Hong Kong in 1950, where she participated in many literati gatherings and Chinese music concerts. In 1964, Madam Tsar was appointed as a qin instructor by New Asia College. She was awarded the Silver Bauhinia Star in 2002 in recognition of her contributions to the art and education of Qin music. She also received an Honorary University Fellowship from the Hong Kong Baptist University in 2006. In 1998, her disciples founded the Deyin Qin Society to promote the music and spirit of Tsar Teh-yun.
CUHK Library received a donation from the Deyin Qin Society that comprised items from Tsar Teh-yun’s collection, including manuscripts of Qin scores composed by Tsar Teh-yun and her teacher Shen Caonong, as well as Madam Tsar’s teaching and performance materials, correspondence, newspaper clippings, books, and recordings. With support from the Society, CUHK Library has digitised the collection items and uploaded them to the Library’s Digital Repository to allow Open Access (OA). Some highlights of the collection are described below.
Qin Score Manuscripts
Tsar Teh-yun’s manuscripts of the Yinyinshi Qin Score (vol. 1-4) feature hand-copied Qin tablatures or scores using abbreviated characters; some also provide gongche notations or cipher notations. The use of various fingering techniques on the Qin produces sounds with different timbres. Tablatures that feature fingering instructions in abbreviated format, combined as tablature symbols, record the dazzling timbre range of Qin music and enable this ancient art to be passed on.
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Mist and Cloud over the Rivers Xiao and Xiang
Manuscripts
This collection includes Tsar Teh-yun’s handwritten copies, calligraphies, and performance records. Influenced by her maternal family, Tsar Teh-yun developed a passion for classical literature at a young age. Her poetry is imbued with rich and delicate emotions; her calligraphy, characterised by elegant and fluid strokes, seamlessly blends form and spirit.
%2018_3b.png) Two volumes of Tsar Teh-yun's handwritten copies of Zhang Yan's Lyrics of the White Cloud Amidst the Mountains%2018_3d.png) Information on Hong Kong guqin gatherings and concerts from 1956 to 1988 Correspondence
This collection contains 78 letters, primarily between Tsar Teh-yun and her teachers and friends. It includes letters from Shen Caonong to Tsar Teh-yun and her husband Shen Honglai (1950–1953). The first letter, dated 18 December 1950, mentions the Guqin ‘Tiger’s Roar’ of the Song dynasty, a gift from Shen Caonong to Tsar Teh-yun: ‘I was relieved to know that you have safely arrived in Hong Kong. Did you bring the “Tiger’s Roar” with you?’
%2018_3e.png) Useful Links:
Tsar Teh-yun Collection on Qin Studies: https://repository.lib.cuhk.edu.hk/en/collection/ttyqin Tsar Teh-yun Papers: https://archives.lib.cuhk.edu.hk/repositories/5/resources/512
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