謝孝苹先生，江蘇省泰州市海安縣人，一九二Ｏ年七月十八日出生，一九九八年五月病逝於北京。早年在南京修業，後入東吳大學，修讀國際政治；課餘期間，於一九四Ｏ年隨吳景略學琴，其後加入今虞琴社；一九四五年後，長期服務於南京中國外交界，因工作關係，奔走四方，遂借機請益於張子謙、吳宗漢、夏一峰、查阜西、徐立孫等名家，獲益良多。一九五Ｏ年調至北京外交部；一九七九年，徵調為中國社會科學院歷史研究所研究員。謝先生的琴學論文有《中國古琴學發凡》、《中國古琴創始於虞舜時代論》、《梅庵琴派在海峽兩岸的流傳》、《鳥瞰二十世紀中國古琴音樂》、《旅日琴僧東臯心越傳略》、《海外發現〈龍吟館琴譜〉孤本》……等。
XIE Xiao-ping was born on July 18, 1920 in Haion of Taizhou, Jiangsu Province and passed away of illness in May 1998 in Beijing. When he was young, he studied international politic at Soochow University and graduated there. He then took his career in diplomatic circles of Nanjing. In 1940, he studied the qin under WU Jing-lue and joined the Jinyu Qin Musicians Association. Later on, he studied under the masters ZHANG Zi-qian, WU Zong-han, XIA Yi-feng, ZHA Fu-xi, XU Li-sun, etc. In 1950, he was transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Beijing. In 1979, he was appointed as research fellow of the Chinese Academy of Social Science. He wrote many articles about the qin history.