Story“伯牙鼓琴”

In the current relationship between people in society, it is complicated to see who is your real friend and who is trying to frame you. Although the present society is complex, there are still people who call each other soul mate, where two people understand what the other person is thinking mostly. In the history of china, there are documents recorded that there is also soul mate for Guqin. This story is also used in Chinese textbooks in the age group of primary school. The story is called “伯牙鼓琴”.

The story began where Ziqi(子期), the soul mate of Boya (伯牙) went up into the mountains to get some firewoods. Then he heard the sound of an instrument that he never heard of. Under his curiosity, he went after the sound and saw Boya play the Guqin. When Boya started playing, Ziqi explained to Boya saying that he performs well, and the music he played allowed him to imagine a giant, majestic mountain straight ahead of him. Boya was quite shocked because he was thinking about a majestic mountain as well. Then Boya started to think about the surging stream while playing. Later Ziqi told Boya, “ The tune you're playing feels like rushing stream!” Boya was astonished by what Ziqi felt from the music he played. After a long time of conversation, they become each other's best friend. Whenever Boya plays Guqin, Ziqi is always with him. However, after Ziqi past away, Boya felt so depressed that he cut up the string of his instrument, and throws it away because he knows that there will be no one worth it to listen to him playing it. Deep inside Boya, he knows he has lost his only soul mate.

‘伯牙鼓琴，锺子期听之。方鼓琴而志在太山，锺子期曰：“善哉乎鼓琴，巍巍乎若太山。”少选之间而志在流水，锺子期又曰：“善哉乎鼓琴，汤汤乎若流水。”锺子期死，伯牙破琴绝弦，终身不复鼓琴，以为世无足复为鼓琴者。’

This text above is the original words of this story. The word ‘soul mate‘ came from this story. As a person who plays Guqin, I know how it feels while playing the instrument and understands how the performer's mood could affect the music. However, I never experience others understands me from the inside, a soul mate.