High Mountains and Flowing Water

Characters:

Pronunciation: gao(1) shan(1) liu(2) shui(3)
Explanation: A way to describe beautiful music and a metaphor to describe close friends

Tone: Positive

The Story: In the Spring and Autumn period, an official in Jin named Yu Boya was sent to Kingdom Chu as an envoy. On a moonlit night, Boya began to play his lute. A woodsman named Zhong Ziqi stood by and appreciated it quietly. When Boya saw him, he asked him which tune he played and the man answered the exact name. Boya then asked several questions to him about music and he gave the proper answers quickly. Boya was surprised about this and so he played a tune in which he wanted to express the loftiness of mountains. After his performance, Ziqi said: "It's for the mountains." Then Boya performed another one, Ziqi said: "It's for flowing water." And this was exactly what Boya wanted to show. Boya was very happy about this discovery, and he said to the Ziji: "We can communicate by music, so we must be bosom companions!" Then they swore to be brothers and agreed to came to the same place at same time next year.

Next year, Boya came, but he found out that Ziqi was dead. He went to the tomb of Ziqi and cried. Then he performed with his lute, after the performance, he broke his lute and vowed never to play the lute again.

Usage Example (Pinyin): Ta(1) men(2) gao(1) shan(1) liu(2) shui(3) shi(4) de you(3) yi(2) chi(2) xu(4) le wu(3) shi(2) nian(2).

Usage Example (English translation): Their "high mountains and flowing water" friendship lasted for 50 years.

Note: The spoken Chinese Mandarin language has 4 spoken tones. We have attempted to re-create those above where after each syllable we tell you (1), (2), (3), or (4) as they correspond to each of the 4 tones. We encourage you to complement your Xianzai.com Chinese Idioms newsletter with a good offline study program.