Bill Porter South of the Yangtze quotes

"Yuehyang Tower. China had three such towers dating back nearly two thousand years. The other two were in Wuhan and Nanchang. The one in Yuehyang was the smallest of the three. It was only fifteen meters high. But it was a better place to watch the sunset than the other two, both of which now look out over polluted cities."

From South of the Yangtze by Bill Porter

P.82: Yu Po-ya was one of ancient China's most famous musicians, but he never felt his music was truly appreciated until the day he met Chung Tzu-ch'i. One day around 1000 BC, when Po-ya was playing his zither on this very terrace overlooking the place where the Han River joins the Yangtze, a wood collector stopped to listen. The wood collector's name was Chung Tzu-ch'i. When Po-ya was done playing, Tzu-ch'i described to Po-ya what the musician had been thinking about while he played. Po-ya was so impressed the two became fast friends despite belonging to very different social classes. Years later, when Chung Tzu-ch'i died, Yu Po-ya smashed his zither and never played again. Why play when no one understands? Ever since then, the Chinese have used their example to refer to a friend who truly understands the other. They call such a person a chih-yin, someone who "knows your tune."

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Character list of Inherent Vice the novel

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Motley Kamuka

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