Shī Kuàng 師曠
Late-Spring-and-Autumn-period musician of the Jìn 晉 state, zì Zǐyě 子野. The traditional state-musician (tàishī 太師) of Jìn under Dukes Dǎo and Píng (mid-sixth century BCE). Blind from birth; in the Zuǒzhuàn and Guóyǔ he appears as the standard exemplum of supernatural musical perception. His name became a literary metaphor for both blind acuity and supreme musical-and-prognosticatory skill.
The Zhúpǔ 竹譜 (KR3i0045) entry Qínjīng 禽經 (Bird Classic) is pseudepigraphically attributed to him with a Jìn-period Zhāng Huá 張華 commentary. The Sìkù editors have firmly established that both work and commentary are forgeries — likely Sòng-period (early-to-mid Northern Sòng) compositions, possibly by followers of Wáng Ānshí’s 王安石 zìshuō 字說 school, fabricated and attributed to ancient authorities to give the text canonical weight.
Shī Kuàng’s biographical lifedates here (c. -572 to -532) are conventional reconstructions from the Zuǒzhuàn references to his activities under Jìn Dǎogōng and Jìn Pínggōng. He did not write the Qínjīng.