擂琴创始人王殿玉，一八九九年十月十二日生于山东郓城县徐桥村一户贫穷农家，一九六四年十一月二十八日病逝于天津，王殿玉字琢袭、洁尘，八岁时罹患天花，双目失明。十岁拜马玉修为师习三弦弹唱，后随拉四胡之师兄石登岩一起，在陈坡乡一带卖艺，将三弦创改为坠琴，后又将之改革为擂琴。一九二三年，在山东济宁正式以擂琴仿拉戏曲声腔与笙管合奏等音乐，为当地民众所喜闻乐见，一时名声大噪，获“丝弦圣手”及“丝弦大王”之美称，沿途卖艺南下，足迹遍及半个中国。一九四一年，回郓城，创立“东鲁雅乐社”，招收了赵玉斋、韩凤田、郑锡佩、高自成及恩凤印为徒，一九四九年，回家乡，参加平原省大众曲艺团，一九五三年，入天津市曲艺团，同年，参加全国第一届民间音乐舞蹈汇演，获优秀演出奖。
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.