擂琴創始人王殿玉，一八九九年十月十二日生於山東鄆城縣徐橋村一戶貧窮農家，一九六四年十一月二十八日病逝於天津，王殿玉字琢襲、潔塵，八歲時罹患天花，雙目失明。十歲拜馬玉修為師習三弦彈唱，後隨拉四胡之師兄石登岩一起，在陳坡鄉一帶賣藝，將三弦創改為墜琴，後又將之改革為擂琴。一九二三年，在山東濟寧正式以擂琴仿拉戲曲聲腔與笙管合奏等音樂，為當地民眾所喜聞樂見，一時名聲大噪，獲「絲弦聖手」及「絲弦大王」之美稱，沿途賣藝南下，足跡遍及半個中國。一九四一年，回鄆城，創立「東魯雅樂社」，招收了趙玉齋、韓鳳田、鄭錫佩、高自成及恩鳳印為徒，一九四九年，回家鄉，參加平原省大眾曲藝團，一九五三年，入天津市曲藝團，同年，參加全國第一屆民間音樂舞蹈匯演，獲優秀演出獎。
WANG Dian-yu
WANG Dian-yu was born on October 12, 1899 in Yun Cheng county, Shandong province and passed away of illness on November 28, 1964 in Tianjin. He was also named Zhou-xi and Jie-chen. When he was eight years old, he got smallpox and both eyes lost sight. At the age of ten, he learned the sanxian and singing from MA Yu-xiu. Later on, he followed his fellow apprentice to make live in Chenpo village. At that time, he transformed the sanxian to zhuiqin and then modified it to leiqin. In 1923, he formally and publicly presented the leiqin to play the operatic tunes and imitation on various instruments’ sound in Jining, Shandong. In 1941, he returned to Yun Cheng and founded the Ensemble of Dong Lu. He then admitted ZHAO Yu-zhai, HAN Feng-tian, ZHENG Xi-pei, GAO Zi-cheng and EN Feng-yin as his fellow student. In 1949, he returned to his hometown and joined the Ping Yuan Quyi Group. In 1952, he was transferred to the Tianjin Quyi Group. At the same year, he was selected to participate in the 1st National Join Performance of Music and Dance Show and won the outstanding performance prize.