Kui (夔) | 24 Histories

Overview

The translated histories identify Kui as a musician and official. This record brings together 3 passages from 3 chapters across 3 histories, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Kui	夔	Kui
Personal name	Kui	夔	Kui

Identity

Historicity: Legendary
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Strongly inferred · hanshu:098:s0102, jiuwudaishi:145:s0117
Sex: male
Explicit · shiji:002:s0193

Roles

Musician
Official

Life and dates

Attested activity

Qualitative: legendary antiquity
Explicit · hanshu:098:s0102, jiuwudaishi:145:s0117, shiji:002:s0193

Events and relationships

Kind: ritual-music · Role: performer · Action: performed-Nine-Shao
Explicit · shiji:002:s0193

Source notes

Historicity: legendary
Explicit · jiuwudaishi:145:s0117, shiji:002:s0002

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

Book of Han, Chapter 98Volume 87a: Yang Xiong 1 · 1 passage

Open chapter

陰陽清濁穆羽相和兮，若夔、牙之調琴。 Clear and turbid, high and low notes answer one another like Kui and Boya tuning a flawless lute.

Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 145Volume 145: Treatises 7 Music 2 · 1 passage

Open chapter

臣等竊以音之所起，出自人心，夔、曠不能長存，人事不能常泰，人亡則音息，世亂則樂崩，若不深知禮樂之情，安能明制作之本。 We hold that music arises from the human heart; masters like Kui and Kuang cannot endure forever, and human affairs cannot always prosper—when men die, music falls silent; when the age is chaotic, music collapses. Without deep understanding of ritual and music, how can one grasp the foundations of cultural order?

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 2Annals of Xia · 1 passage

Open chapter

於是夔行樂，祖考至，群后相讓，鳥獸翔舞，簫韶九成，鳳皇來儀，百獸率舞，百官信諧。 Then Kui played the Nine Shao; the ancestral spirits drew near; the lords yielded to one another; birds and beasts danced; phoenixes appeared; every creature joined the measure, and the officers moved in perfect accord.