Bo Ya 俞伯牙. A famous lute-player of old, who when young studied under a teacher known as Cheng Lian. The latter carried him to the Isles of the Blest, in order to get his musical sense improved. He was afterwards thrown into the society of a wood-cutter, named Zhong Ziqi 鐘子期, who was such an excellent connoisseur of music that when Bo Ya played hills he could see Mount Tai rise up before his eyes, and when he played water he could see the headlong torrent dashing down. At Zhong's death, Bo Ya broke his lute and never played again.
--Herbert A. Giles (1845-1935), A Chinese Biographical Dictionary (pub. 1898, Kelly and Walsh, Shanghai)
This is a very famous story in China and Japan (where the two friends are called Hakuga and Shoshiki and feature in the annual Gion Matsuri parade in Kyoto). It is originally from Liezi (列御寇 or 列子). Here is more about the story and the music.
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Commission
Friends, when I am dead, hang up
my little harp behind the altar,
where the wreaths of many dead young girls are shimmering.
The friendly sexton will then show visitors
the little harp, rustling with the red ribbon,
wound around the harp,
that flutters under the golden strings.
Often at sunset, he says in wonder, the strings
sound all alone, as soft as the hum of bees;
the children playing in the churchyard
heard it and saw how the wreaths were trembling.
--Ludwig Christoph Heinrich Hölty (1748-1776)
Auftrag
Ihr Freunde, hänget, wann ich gestorben bin,
die kleine Harfe hinter dem Altar auf,
wo an der Wand die Todtenkränze
manches verstorbenen Mädchens schimmern.
Der Küster zeigt dann freundlich dem Reisenden
die kleinen Harfe, rauscht mit dem rothen Band,
das an der Harfe festgeschlungen,
unter den golden Saiten flattert.
Oft, sagt er staunend, tönen im Abendroth
von selbst die Saiten, leise wie Bienenton;
die Kinder, auf dem Kirchhof spielend,
hörtens und sahn, wie die Kränze bebten.
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