Hsi K'ang, 223-62, poet, philosopher, painter and musician, was one of the most remarkable scholars among the brilliant men who, in the third century, lived at Lo-yang, the capital of the short-lived Wei Dynasty. Not only was Hsi K'ang a gifted writer and a great lute player, he also had the reputation of a profound philosopher. Yet this scholar who preferred the comtemplation of life beyond to the noisy affairs of this world had the courage to live up to his lofty ideals. A loyal servant of the Wei emperors, he fearlessly opposed the Ssû-ma Generalissimo who had usurped the Imperial prerogative. When his friend was innocently thrown into prison by the dictator, Hsi K'ang stood up for him at once although he fully realized that by doing so he signed his own death sentence. When, at last, his hour [of] execution approached, Hsi K'ang calmly drew his beloved lute unto him and, unperturbed, played his last melody.

Until the appearance of this work almost thirty years ago, Western writers had not done justice to this great figure. So cursorily indeed had Hsi K'ang been treated that his character and career were, at times, grossly misrepresented. Dr. R.H. van Gulik made in this present work the first attempt at revealing the greatness of a man who belongs not only to ancient China but to mankind at large. Hsi K'ang's life and work are described here as they arise from the carefully studied contemporary documents themselves.

Hsi K'ang's claim to fame is especially based on his Ch'in-fu or Poetical Essay on the Lute. This difficult specimen of Chinese artistic prose, an important source for our knowledge of ancient Chinese music, is once again made available in its first translation into a Western language. Copious notes are added, and thus a significant document is made accessible to all students of China and of Oriental music.

Robert Hans van Gulik was born in Holland in 1910, and died there in 1967 while on home leave from his ambassadorial duties in Tokyo. Recipient of B.A. degrees in Law and Politics and in Chinese and Japanese from the University of Leyden (in 1933) and of a Litt. D. from the University of Utrecht (1935), he had already mastered enough Chinese in his university days to be able to translate difficlut Chinese texts and to write in Chinese script. He joined the Netherlands Foreign Service in 1935 and for many years represented his country in China, Japan, Lebanon, Malaysia, and Washington. He took up his last post, Ambassador of the Netherlands to Japan, in 1965.

In addition to his diplomatic work, he maintained such an interest in scholarly pursuits that he acquired perhaps an even greater name for himself as an authority on oriental literature, art, and history; as a skilled calligrapher whose script wins the admiration of even experts; and as the prolific author of several Chinese detective stories whose hero, Judge Dee, can take a place among such greats as Sherlock Holmes and Perry Mason.

His scholarly works include: Hayagriva, the Mantrayanic Aspect of Horse-Cult in China and Japan (1935); Erotic Color Prints of the Ming Period (1951); Chinese Pictorial Art as Viewed by the Connoisseur (1958); Sexual Life in Ancient China (1962); The Gibbon in China, An Essay in Chinese Animal Lore (1967).