Performers › Musicians
Bo Ya
Traditionally a Spring and Autumn master of the qin whose friend Zhong Ziqi could hear the mountains and flowing waters in his playing; when Ziqi died he broke his strings, the origin of the zhiyin ideal of the friend who truly understands.
Mural of the cultural record “The Art of the Guqin”, which this person is tied to.
Also known as Yu Boya (name used in Ming fiction)
- Roles
- Musicians
Bo Ya is traditionally described as a Spring and Autumn master of the qin; his dates and home are unknown. The Xunzi says that when Bo Ya played, the six horses looked up from their fodder. The Lüshi chunqiu and the Liezi tell how, when he played with lofty mountains in mind, Zhong Ziqi said 'towering like Mount Tai', and with flowing water in mind, 'surging like a river'; when Ziqi died, Bo Ya broke his qin and cut its strings, never playing again because no one left could understand his music. The idioms 'high mountains and flowing water' and zhiyin come from this story. The full name Yu Boya appears only in Ming fiction such as Feng Menglong's Jingshi tongyan, not in pre-Qin texts.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; traditionally of the Spring and Autumn period