# Listening to the Qin

- By: Tang Yin (Chinese, 1470–1523)
- Date: late 1400s–early 1500s
- Medium: hanging scroll; ink and light color on silk
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: Overall with knobs: 118 x 45 cm (46 7/16 x 17 11/16 in.); Painting: 35.8 x 29.1 cm (14 1/8 x 11 7/16 in.)
- Culture: China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
- Credit line: Gift of Herbert F. Leisy in memory of his wife, Helen Stamp Leisy
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/1977.199)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1977.199/1977.199_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

The painting alludes to a legendary incident from the life of Ji Kang 嵇康 (AD 223–262), a guqin player who belonged to a group of 3rd-century eccentric intellectuals. Ji Kang is known as the author of a Guangling San (廣陵散; Melody from Guangling), a composition for the guqin so haunting that it aroused spirits to visit him. The painting depicts the moment when one of the spirits––disguised as a human––is helped by another to emerge from the ground, while others are drawn to the musician playing in his cottage under the full moon.