Yu Boya and Zhong Ziqi were people from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
1. Boya
Boya was a native of Yingdu, Chu State (now Jingzhou, Hubei Province) during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Although he was from Chu, he served as a senior official in Jin State and was proficient in the art of piano. The story of Boya playing the qin and meeting his bosom friend is a story that happened on his way back to China after visiting relatives.
This story was first handed down orally among the people, and there is no precise record in history. In ancient books, the story about Boya playing the qin was first seen in the book "Liezi" written by Lie Yukou of Zheng during the Warring States Period.
After textual research, Boya’s original surname is Bo. It is said that his surname is Yu Mingrui and his given name is Boya. This is a fabrication by Feng Menglong, a novelist in the late Ming Dynasty. According to historical records, Zhong Ziqi was a native of Jixian Village, Hanyang, a villager. He was proud of Ziqi, and there was a slang word passed down from word to mouth: "Ziqi met Boya, and his friends were passed down through the ages."
In the Ming Dynasty, Feng Menglong compiled "Words of Warning to the World" and went to Hanyang to visit the deceased. Since the pronunciation of "Yu" in "Ziqi met Boya" in Hanyang dialect is the same as that of "Yu", both of them are omitted, so we misunderstood "Ziqi met Boya, and they have known each other for thousands of years."
"Yu Boya dropped his qin to express his gratitude to his close friend through the ages." Boya became Yu Boya in Feng Menglong's works - "Yu Boya threw down his qin to express his gratitude to his close friend", collected in "Warning to the World".
2. Zhong Ziqi
Zhong Ziqi, name Hui, courtesy name Ziqi. A native of Hanyang, Chu State (now Jixian Village, Caidian District, Wuhan City, Hubei Province) during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. According to legend, Zhong Ziqi was a woodcutter who wore a bamboo hat, a raincoat, a pole on his back, and an axe.
Historical records record that when Boya returned home from visiting relatives, he was playing the piano by the Han River. Zhong Ziqi happened to meet him and sighed: "It's as tall as a mountain and as vast as a river." Because of similar interests, the two met. They became close friends. After Zhong Ziqi's death, Boya believed that there was no more music in the world and stopped playing the harp for the rest of his life.
Extended information:
Yu Boya and Zhong Ziqi are a pair of close friends that have been passed down through the ages. Boya was good at playing, Zhong Ziqi was good at appreciating. This is the origin of the term "bosom friend". Later Zhong Ziqi died of illness, and Boya was extremely sad.
I believe that no matter how ignorant there is in the world, there will be no one in the world who can understand the artistic conception of his playing like Zhong Ziqi. So I broke my favorite piano and broke it into pieces, and never played the piano again for the rest of my life.
As early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in the fourth century BC, Lie Yukou, a native of Zheng, recorded in "Liezi Tangwen" that "Bo Ya was good at playing the harp, and Zhong Ziqi was good at listening. Boya was good at playing the harp. , Aiming at the high mountains, Zhong Ziqi said: "How good, the mountains are as tall as Mount Tai"
Aiming at the flowing water, Zhong Ziqi said: 'How good, the ocean is like a river'..." No matter it is. "Aiming at the mountains" or "aiming at the flowing water", whenever Boya expresses a certain theme or image in his music, Zhong Ziqi will be able to understand its meaning.
One day, Boya and Zhong Ziqi were traveling in the shade of Mount Tai. During a heavy rainstorm, they stopped at the foot of a rock. Boya felt depressed, so he played the piano for a while. The music initially expresses the scene of rain falling on a mountain stream, and then simulates the sound of surging mountain streams and collapse of rock and soil.
After each piece of music was played, Zhong Ziqi "ran out of the fun" and explained the images in the music thoroughly and thoroughly. Boya then left the qin and sighed: "It's good, it's good, you can hear the meaning in the music. What you think is what I think. How can I hide my voice?"
So the two became close friends in life. However, there is no content in Liezi that Boya stopped playing the harp due to Zhong Ziqi's death. The first chapter of Feng Menglong's "Warning to the World" in the Ming Dynasty is "Yu Boya dropped his qin to thank his bosom friend".
In this novel, Boya becomes Yu Boya, a music official, while Zhong Ziqi becomes a woodcutter in Hanyang. A short allusion of more than a hundred words from ancient times has now completely transformed into characters, places, and events. A story-telling novel with a complete plot.
The reason why "High Mountains and Flowing Waters" can be recorded and reproduced many times in the classics of various scholars during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period is inseparable from the background of the "scholar culture" at that time. In the pre-Qin era, hundreds of schools of thought contended and talents flourished. Many scholars had a weak concept of country and were not loyal to their vassal states.
These talented people move frequently among countries, and they all hope that their master will find them. They hope to meet princes and princes who understand them like a close friend, so that they can show what they have learned. This has been the dream of almost all readers for thousands of years.
However, only a few can achieve this goal. More people spend their entire lives without being recognized for their talents, and some live in hiding in the shops, while others live in the mountains and forests forever. It can be seen that "High Mountains and Flowing Waters" was widely circulated in the pre-Qin era.
Because the moral behind this story is the beauty of encounters in life and the shortcomings of encounters in life. Therefore, it is reasonable that it has caused countless people to scream for thousands of years.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Bo Ya Zi Period