Bo Ya / Boya

There seems to be some confusion in ancient sources about Boya's full name. It is commonly written as though Bo is his surname, but a few sources say his surname was Yu, making his name Yu Boya. And some qin references also call him Yu Duan or Yu Rui.⁵

Bo Ya and the Guqin⁶ is the tentative title of a program drawing on the many surviving qin melodies associated with Bo Ya. The following are the relevant melodies I play, all as published in Ming dynasty handbooks; the first two are among the most famous titles in the Chinese music repertoire:

Gao Shan (High Mountains; my recording is of the earliest version)
Liu Shui (Flowing Streams; my recording is of the earliest version)
Feng Ru Song Ge (oblique reference in lyrics)
Jiang Yue Bai (with Qing Ye Yin; shares lyrics/story with #8 below, Ting Qin Fu)
Shishang Liuquan (mp3 version online; sometimes connected to Boya)
Boya Diao Ziqi (mp3 version online)
Shuixian Qu (see below and Shuixian Cao; Boya studies the qin)
Ting Qin Fu (a song telling the Boya/Ziqi story; requires an extra singer)

Some years ago, after playing qin at a meeting with several senior qin players, I asked them for advice on how to improve my technique. One said, "Visit all the relevant beauty spots in China." The others seemed to nod their heads in agreement.⁷

The origins of this concept, learning music from nature rather than from a human teacher,⁸ could well be the story related here: Boya learns his qin playing skills from Cheng Lian⁹ (sometimes Tian Lian?¹⁰) but his playing art from nature. This story is also told in several prefaces to the melody Shuixian Qu, also called Shuixian Cao. The title Shuixian Cao is mentioned in many early lists of melodies, but the earliest surviving tablature using the word "shuixian" is the Shuixian Qu found in Wuyin Qinpu (1579).¹¹

The Qin Shi biography includes a quote from the book of Xunzi,¹² and also mentions the name Fang Zichun, whom Cheng Lian claims as a "teacher".¹³ I have not found mention of Fang Zichun elsewhere.

The most famous story for Boya, telling of his meeting with Zhong Ziqi, usually but not always described as a woodcutter, is told not in the present entry but in Zhong Ziqi's own entry. It is also related in the introduction to the melody Gao Shan. The friendship of Boya and Ziqi is the focus of the qin song Boya Diao Ziqi.

Boya is associated with a famous qin called Hao Zhong (Proclaiming Affection). There are images of Hao Zhong in a number of books. See, for example, Taiyin Daquanji, Chapter 2, image 10 (also compare image 3, Di Zhong).

Stories of Boya are also to be found in the countries near China, especially Japan, where he was called Hakuga.¹⁴

The entry for Boya in Qin Shi is as follows,¹⁵

A great qin player of antiquity, praised after the Spring and Autumn Period and mentioned in books everywhere. He originally studied the qin from Cheng Lian. After three years he became proficient, but still hadn't achieved feelings of solitary beauty. Cheng Lian said, Although I can pass on melodies, I cannot affect peoples' feelings. My teacher Fang Zichun, who lives in the Eastern Sea, can do this. Shouldn't you study with him? So Cheng Lian took Boya to Penglai Mountain in the Eastern Sea. Leaving Boya (there, Cheng Lian) said, Stay here and practise; I will go meet my teacher (to bring him here). He then rowed off in his boat. When Cheng Lian didn't return for 10 days, Boya became very troubled. He stretched his neck and looked in all directions. All was calm and there was no one, only the crashing of waves and the sad cries of sea birds. He then looked up at heaven and sighed, My master is using the no-teacher (method). Could this be in order to move my spirit? He then took up his qin and created Melody of the Water Immortals; so it is said. Xun Qing (Xunzi) once said, When Boya played the qin six (imperial) horses looked up as they ate grass. If birds and beasts were moved, how much more would people be!
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. Bo Ya 伯牙
538.18 and Bio/1097 伯牙 Boya both give only "Spring and Autumn period" for his dates. They do not connect him to any geographical region, nor do they mention his supposed full name 俞伯牙 Yu Boya. The preface to Ting Qin Fu uses this surname, as does the story below connecting Boya to the state of Chu. But the surname Yu is rarely found elsewhere. Xu Jian discusses him in his Outline History, Chapter 1. A. (pp. 4-5).

In addition, 538.21 伯牙絕絃 Boya Breaks his Strings tells the story related under Zhong Ziqi and depicted under Boya Mourns Ziqi. And in opera one can find Boya Smashes his Qin (伯牙碎琴 Bo Ya Sui Qin, e.g., in Jing Ju), also called 撫琴訪友 Playing the qin while visiting a friend, 聽琴 Listening to a qin, and 知音會 Meeting of intimates through music. The operas seem often to connect the story to one of the mountains called 馬鞍山 Ma'an Shan.
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2. Folio 2, #12; 9 lines. (Return)

3. Bo Ya Qin Terrace 伯牙琴臺 An old photo of the Boya Qin Terrace, then on a Hanyang hilltop
The best known Qin Terrace (or Guqin Terrace; also sometimes called Heptachord Terrace, Ancient Lute Terrace, etc.) is by Moon Lake in the Hanyang district of Wuhan, a place once part of the ancient state of Chu. Boya is often said to have been from Chu. Other than this, Boya's connection to Wuhan is discussed below. (See also the commentary in Ting Qin Fu, which seems to suggest this event took place along a 清江 clear river near 常州 Changzhou (in Jiangsu province?).

533.23 伯牙臺 Boya Terrace gives two locations, one 浙江海鹽縣東門外 Outside East Gate in Haiyan District, on the north side of Hangzhou bay east of Hangzhou; the other is the one in Hanyang mentioned above. Both are said "by tradition" to have been associated with the Boya and Ziqi story, but no dates are given for the origins of these traditions. I have found no evidence that Haiyan still claims this connection.

In addition, 21570.78/2 Qin Terrace has four references. One says it is the same as Boya's Qin Terrace, as above. However, at least two of the other three are associated with other people: the one in 山東省單縣東南一里舊城北 the north part of the old town one li southeast of Dan district of Shandong province is said to be where 子賤 Zijian (Fu Buqi) played; the one in 河南省魯山縣城北 the north of the Lushan District city of Henan province is said to have been built by 唐元德秀 Yuan Dexiu; the third, in 浙江省杭縣慧日峰西 east of Huirifeng in Hangzhou district of Zhejiang province, gives no association. And Magnificent China has a picture of at least one other Qin Terrace, on 靈岩山 Lingyan Mountain, by Taihu Lake near Suzhou; it is said to have been used by Xi Shi.
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4. Yu Boya of Chu 俞伯牙
The following biography of Boya, as well as the photo above, is adapted from Magnificent China, a book with numerous pre-1949 photographs of China (see pp. 288/9); it was published in 1972 in Hong Kong. A book with the same pictures, arranged differently, was published in Taiwan in 1975 as China, Land of Splendours: a Pictorial Presentation; there the Boya story is on pp. 124/5. The text and layout of the biography in both books, together with three related photographs, are identical; the Chinese text is longer than the English. The book does not quote its sources, so I do not know where this story originated.

Yu Boya lived in the time of 晉平公 Duke Ping of Jin (ruled 557 - 531 BCE). Jin was in what is today southern Shanxi province, while Boya came from the Chu Kingdom to the south. Here he had studied the qin with the great master Cheng Lianzi (Cheng Lian). In order for Boya to better understand the connection between qin music and the sounds of nature, Cheng Lian sent Boya to play in the hills. Boya then went to 泰山 Mount Tai (in Shandong) and listened to the sounds of nature in water and wind. He mastered all these sounds completely. Then he left Chu and took service under Duke Ping, who gave him high rank. After an absence of 20 years from Chu, Boya desired to return home. 楚靈王 King Ling of Chu (r. 538 - 526) was just then completing construction of a palace at 郢 Ying (on the Yangzi upriver from Hanyang), and so Duke Ping made Boya his ambassador to a commemorative event. Here Boya discovered that Cheng Lianzi had died, leaving him his qin. Boya then took a trip along the rivers and streams, eventually coming to Hanyang. Here he anchored his boat in the nearby gorges and began to play on the qin given to him by Cheng Lianzi. As he played he thought sadly of his teacher. Suddenly he heard a sigh coming from the river bank. It came from a woodcutter. Boya invited the woodcutter on board, learning that his name was Zhong Ziqi. Boya, though assuming that Ziqi knew little about music, played several melodies then asked Ziqi if he knew what they signified. The first melody he played was Shuixian Cao. Ziqi said that for him the melody described wind and thunder, birds soaring, fish dancing, all the while water continuing to flow. Boya was astonished that Ziqi understood the music so well. Boya then played Heavenly Wind Melody (5961.674xxx 天風操 Tianfeng Cao). This time Ziqi described in detail how the melody concerned the nearby high mountains. Boya was so pleased with Ziqi they that became close friends. They arranged to meet at the same spot on the same day of the following year. Boya duly arrived at the meeting place, but there was no sign of his friend. He struck his qin and the notes were so mournful that he knew something bad had happened to his friend. He landed and went to Ziqi's village. On the way he saw an old man tending a new grave. The old man told Boya that the grave was that of Ziqi, who had died of a sudden illness. After playing a lament at the tomb (see Huailing Cao), Boya broke his beautiful instrument and never played again. It was mid-autumn.

There has been a qin terrace at Hanyang since the Song dynasty, and a district of old Hanyang was called 鐘家村 Zhong Family Village (41566.xxx). Here there is also a Qin Breaking Port (Qin Duan Kou 琴斷口 21570.99xxx). For this reason the famous story is connected to Hanyang.

Some accounts say the above story explains a Chinese expression for "brain drain": 楚材晉用 (Chu talent used in Jin). However, 4/1152 connects this expression with a story from the Zuo Zhuan, 26th year of Duke Xiang (546 BCE; see Legge, V., pp. 521 and 526), that has no connection to Boya (there are also several other unrelated references). Note also that in addition to the specifics about the time and location of this story, it has Boya going into the mountains to learn about nature, instead of to the legendary island of Penglai in the eastern sea.
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5. 俞端 Yu Duan (also 俞瑞 Yu Rui) and Yu Boya 俞伯牙
The Yu of Yu Duan is used the the text with several melodies as Boya's surname, making his full name 俞伯牙 Yu Boya (1462.xxx). In addition he is sometimes called 俞端 Yu Duan (as in Boya Diao Ziqi [QQJC III/189] and in Jiang Yue Bai [QQJC III/112]; both 1549) or 俞瑞 Yu Rui (as in Ting Qin Fu; 1511). The origin of all these other names is uncertain. The biographies of Bo Ya (see above) and 鐘子期 Zhong Ziqi in 琴史 Qin Shi make no mention the names Yu, Duan or Rui; neither do the briefer entries on Bo Ya in Liezi, Xunzi and Huainanzi.

The only prefaces to Gao Shan or Liu Shui that mention the surname Yu are those in Shuangqin Shuwu Qinpu Jicheng (1884) (see Zha Fuxi Guide, pp. 22 [266] and 26 [270]). 1462.0 says the character 俞 when pronounced "Shu" was the name of an ancient kingdom northwest of Mount Tai in Shandong (modern 平原縣 Pingyuan County), as well as a personal name. I cannot find this listed as Boya's home, but some stories speak of him traveling in the area north of Mount Tai.
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6. Boya and the Guqin: Further program comments
The first seven melodies on the list above have about 40 minutes of music that I myself have reconstructed and perform; a separate singer would be needed for #8, Ting Qin Fu. From this the program could be expanded in several ways. One would be to include melodies from Boya Xinfa (Shared Teachings of Boya), the only qin handbook named after a famous player of antiquity. Another would be to include other melodies with tangential references to Boya or to this story. For example, the preface to the melody Lingxu Yin says it must have been "written by...a friend like Zhong (Ziqi)."
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7. Inspiration from art and nature
Related to this, in the quiet studio one can also gain inspiration from looking at relevant paintings.

Being personally told to gain inspiration from nature has had for me special significance. Since then I have tried to focus my China travel on places connected to qin, and to find art that also relates to qin. One example of this is related with the melody Mid Autumn Moon, which I once had occasion to play on a peak of the Huangshan Mountain range during Mid-Autumn evening. Some time later I found what seemed to me a relevant painting; looking at it helps me relive the experience.

My personal reaction to this type of experience has, so far, been that in such an environment my playing tends to become slower and more contemplative, with each note sufficient unto itself. However, I have also had this experience when simply playing on a good instrument in a very quiet studio, with no other sensory input. The resulting sound may seem even more abstract to the uninitiated listener (meaning just about everyone, since so few people actually know the ancient melodies), but to the 知音者 zhiyinzhe (one who knows music) the melody is in fact just as clearly there.
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8. Learning without a teacher 無師自通
The Qin Shi biography says only "無師 without a teacher". For the expression "無師自通 without a teacher oneself succeeds" 7/127 gives several examples, but none involves learning from nature. (Return)

9. Cheng Lian 成連
11820.165 Cheng Lian tells only the story of him sending Bo Ya to Penglai. Giles, Po Ya, also has this story. Van Gulik (Hsi Kang, p.88) writes that the 田連 Tian Lian (see next footnote) in Xi Kang's Qin Fu was said to be Cheng Lian. (Return)

10. Tian Lian 田連
22219.xxx, but 7/1276 Tian Lian says he was a qin master, quoting Han Feizi (外儲), which also mentions another qin master, 成竅 Cheng Qiao (11820.xxx). The story also compares them to two famous charioteers, 王良 Wang Liang (21295.461) and 造父 Zao Fu (39772.4). (Return)

11. Melody of the Water Immortals (Shui Xian zhi Cao 水仙之操)
The title of this melody usually omits the "of" (zhi) used here. This title, as well as Shuixian Qu and simply Shui Xian, is applied to a variety of melodies. Occurrences of this title are traced in a footnote to Shuixian Qu None of the commentaries discusses any specific connection between Boya and water immortals. (Return)

12. Xunzi 荀子
Xunzi is a philosopher said to have lived ca. 310–238 BCE. His interpretation of Confucius, rather different from that of Mencius, is found in the book called Xunzi.

The full version of the quote given in Qin Shi is from 荀子，勸學 the chapter Quan Xue (Encouraging Study, Part 7) of the book of Xunzi, as follows:

昔者 In former times,

瓠巴鼓瑟而潛魚出聽 When Hu Ba played the se, fish came out of the water to listen;

伯牙鼓琴而六馬仰秣。 When Boya played the qin, six (imperial) horses looked up from eating.

Xunzi uses this to illustrate how even the smallest actions have significance, concluding that worthy actions must likewise bring reknown.
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13. Fang Zichun 方子春
No further information (13936.xxx, Bio/xxx) on this teacher of Cheng Lian (Return)

14. Bo Ya stories in Japan
In Japan Bo Ya is usually called Hakuga. Most online information about Hakuga comes from commentary on Kyoto's 祇園祭 Gion Matsuri. In connection with the melody Bo Ya Mourns Ziqi this site has an image from that festival and some comments.

In addition, there is the following story from Kakuzo Okakura (岡倉天心 Okakura Tenshin, 1862 - 1913), The Book of Tea, 1906. The complete English book is included on the website of the World Wide School (see Chapter 5).

It is not clear whether Okakura was translating this story from an original Japanese source. Presumably what he calls a harp would have been written 琴 qin. Kiri is Japanese for the 桐 tong tree, from which qin were commonly made. I do not know of any stories connecting Bo Ya to a place called 龍門 Longmen (49812.191).

The Taoist Tale Taming of the Harp

Once in the hoary ages in the Ravine of Lungmen stood a Kiri tree, a veritable king of the forest. It reared its head to talk to the stars; its roots struck deep into the earth, mingling their bronzed coils with those of the silver dragon that slept beneath. And it came to pass that a mighty wizard made of this tree a wondrous harp, whose stubborn spirit should be tamed but by the greatest of musicians. For long the instrument was treasured by the Emperor of China, but all in vain were the efforts of those who in turn tried to draw melody from its strings. In response to their utmost strivings there came from the harp but harsh notes of disdain, ill-according with the songs they fain would sing. The harp refused to recognise a master.

At last came Peiwoh, the prince of harpists. With tender hand he caressed the harp as one might seek to soothe an unruly horse, and softly touched the chords. He sang of nature and the seasons, of high mountains and flowing waters, and all the memories of the tree awoke! Once more the sweet breath of spring played amidst its branches. The young cataracts, as they danced down the ravine, laughed to the budding flowers. Anon were heard the dreamy voices of summer with its myriad insects, the gentle pattering of rain, the wail of the cuckoo. Hark! a tiger roars,--the valley answers again. It is autumn; in the desert night, sharp like a sword gleams the moon upon the frosted grass. Now winter reigns, and through the snow-filled air swirl flocks of swans and rattling hailstones beat upon the boughs with fierce delight.

Then Peiwoh changed the key and sang of love. The forest swayed like an ardent swain deep lost in thought. On high, like a haughty maiden, swept a cloud bright and fair; but passing, trailed long shadows on the ground, black like despair. Again the mode was changed; Peiwoh sang of war, of clashing steel and trampling steeds. And in the harp arose the tempest of Lungmen, the dragon rode the lightning, the thundering avalanche crashed through the hills. In ecstasy the Celestial monarch asked Peiwoh wherein lay the secret of his victory. "Sire," he replied, "others have failed because they sang but of themselves. I left the harp to choose its theme, and knew not truly whether the harp had been Peiwoh or Peiwoh were the harp...."
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15. The original Chinese of Boya's biography in Qin Shi (琴史，卷二，十二號) is as follows (compare other early Shuixian Cao introductions),

伯牙，古之善琴者也。見稱於春秋之後雜見於諸家之書。嘗學鼓琴於成連先生。三年而成，神妙寂寞之情未能得也。成連曰﹕我雖傳曲，未能移人之情。我師方子春在東海中能移人情，與子共事之乎？乃共至東海上蓬萊山。留伯牙，曰﹕子居習之，我將迎師，刺船而去。旬日不返，（伯）牙心悲，延頸四望。寂寞無人，徒聞海水洶涌。群鳥悲鳴。仰天歎曰﹕先生亦以無師矣。蓋將移我情乎？乃援琴而作『水仙之操』，云。荀卿嘗曰﹕伯牙鼓琴，六馬仰秣。鳥、獸猶感之，況於人乎？
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Return to QSCB, or to the Guqin ToC.

	昔者	In former times,
	瓠巴鼓瑟而潛魚出聽	When Hu Ba played the se, fish came out of the water to listen;
	伯牙鼓琴而六馬仰秣。	When Boya played the qin, six (imperial) horses looked up from eating.