People & Bonds
伯牙絶絃
백아절현
bó yá jué xián
Baek-a-jeol-hyeon
伯
맏 백
牙
어금니 아
絶
끊을 절
絃
줄 현
Character by character
Meaning
Bo Ya cut his strings — losing the one person who truly understood you.
Origin
From the Liezi. Only Zhong Ziqi heard what Bo Ya meant when he played; when Ziqi died, Bo Ya cut the strings and never played again.
How it is used
Said on losing the person who understood you best.
Frequently asked questions
Q. What does Baek-a-jeol-hyeon mean?
伯牙絶絃 · Bo Ya cut his strings — losing the one person who truly understood you.
Q. Where does Baek-a-jeol-hyeon come from?
From the Liezi. Only Zhong Ziqi heard what Bo Ya meant when he played; when Ziqi died, Bo Ya cut the strings and never played again.
Q. How is Baek-a-jeol-hyeon used?
Said on losing the person who understood you best.
Idioms in the same group
The idioms used in Korea mix phrases from the Chinese classics with ones coined in Korea. Where an expression is not used in China, the entry says so.