Sun Yu-ch'in hails from Fengtung County in Hopeh. Though his family was in mining, he had poetry as his companion from infancy, and got his first inkling of the ch'in in the ancient verses.
孫毓芹，河北豐洞縣人，家中雖以開礦為業，但他自幼與詩書為伴，在古籍詩詞中對古琴有了粗略的認識。