I am sending you away because that is what you wish
-- Liu-kuan (chapter 1)

Importance: Liu-Kuan sends Hsing-chen to be reincarnated because he forsook his commitments to Buddhist enlightenment. In this quote he is suggesting that having sinful thoughts indicates that one does not desire enlightenment, and to reach enlightenment one must want it with all his being.

He was altogether different from ordinary men.
-- Narrator (chapter 2)

Importance: This quote introduces Shao-yu as the perfect man. Shao-yu embodies the ideal of Confucian thought, and he is extraordinary in every way.

The flowers in the garden all bloomed at the sound of it, swallows wove through the air in couples, and the nightingales sang to each other.
-- Narrator (chapter 4)

Importance: This quote illustrates the poetic style of Kim's writing. It is in reference to a song that Shao-yu played for Ch'iung-pei, the one when she realized that he was a man trying to court her. In the description of the song's...