Yu Boya Smashes His Zither
Chinese 4402
First Analysis Assignment
Yilin Zhang
“Yu Boya Smashes His Zither in Gratitude to an Appreciative Friend” is the first story in Feng Menlong’s collection Stories to Caution the World (警世通言, 1624), which is one of the Three Words (三言) collection compiled by Feng Menglong. One night, Yu Boya, an official in the state of Jin, boated for sight-seeing and played his zither. By chance he met an “unwelcome guest” Zhong Ziqi, a woodcutter who truly understood Boya and could distinguish different meanings in Boya’s music. Then Boya and Ziqi pledged brotherhood and became bosom friend. However, one year later, when Boya heard that Ziqi died from consumption, he felt deeply grieved because he lost his sympathetic friend and good brother. Boya knew that no one would understand him as Ziqi did, so he cut the strings of his zither, smashed the zither into pieces and vowed never to play …show more content…
Those knowing commentaries build into the story, shape as well as enrich the reader’s reading experience from different aspects. Along with the story, the commentary delivers the value concept and the standard to the reader. Also, the erudite commentator can utilize the space to emphasize the factual information of the story, and can provide the reader a chance to know other historical volumes. Lastly, the commentary can serve as a bridge that connects the narrative and the reader, and it can bring some crucial findings in the story to the reader’s attention. As the commentary closely relates to the story, it reflects the commentator’s continuous engagement with the story as well. Even though “Yu Boya Smashes His Zither in Gratitude to an Appreciative Friend” only includes eleven commentaries, the narrative and the commentary make an equal contribution to shape the story. Most importantly, the commentary helps the reader understand the narrative
First Analysis Assignment
Yilin Zhang
“Yu Boya Smashes His Zither in Gratitude to an Appreciative Friend” is the first story in Feng Menlong’s collection Stories to Caution the World (警世通言, 1624), which is one of the Three Words (三言) collection compiled by Feng Menglong. One night, Yu Boya, an official in the state of Jin, boated for sight-seeing and played his zither. By chance he met an “unwelcome guest” Zhong Ziqi, a woodcutter who truly understood Boya and could distinguish different meanings in Boya’s music. Then Boya and Ziqi pledged brotherhood and became bosom friend. However, one year later, when Boya heard that Ziqi died from consumption, he felt deeply grieved because he lost his sympathetic friend and good brother. Boya knew that no one would understand him as Ziqi did, so he cut the strings of his zither, smashed the zither into pieces and vowed never to play …show more content…
Those knowing commentaries build into the story, shape as well as enrich the reader’s reading experience from different aspects. Along with the story, the commentary delivers the value concept and the standard to the reader. Also, the erudite commentator can utilize the space to emphasize the factual information of the story, and can provide the reader a chance to know other historical volumes. Lastly, the commentary can serve as a bridge that connects the narrative and the reader, and it can bring some crucial findings in the story to the reader’s attention. As the commentary closely relates to the story, it reflects the commentator’s continuous engagement with the story as well. Even though “Yu Boya Smashes His Zither in Gratitude to an Appreciative Friend” only includes eleven commentaries, the narrative and the commentary make an equal contribution to shape the story. Most importantly, the commentary helps the reader understand the narrative