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Although friendship according to the Confucian tradition occupies the last place in the five social relations, it plays an important role in Confucian writings. The friendship between Bo Ya and Zhong Ziqi finds its continuation in that of Fan Shi and Zhang Shao, insofar as in both cases one of the two friends dies. These friendly alliances tinged with a tragic tone and going back to the pre-imperial period and to the Han Dynasty never ceased to fuel the imagination of the Chinese who sublimate or amplify them in all kinds of literary genres: poetry, theatre and novel. All the authors underscore the faithfulness of these characters, their virtue – a universal feature in this type of social relationship. They also emphasize the spiritual link that transcends life and death. Based on the translation of these well-known and celebrated narratives, we intend to show how the exemplary nature of friendship is enhanced or mythologized and how intertextuality has shaped the Chinese vocabulary itself in this regard.