The Story of Yingying shows how society can destroy love. The tale Yuan Zhen weaves about Zhang and Yingying displays how love becomes weakened when outside force are allowed to have an influence on what people feel inside their hearts. The two lovers fall apart and end up never seeing each other again because of a number of outside forces acting upon their relationship.

At the beginning of the story, Zhang is unable to express his feelings toward Yingying. The social standards that Zhang imposes on himself and the standards that Mrs. Cui imposes on her family limit Zhang’s ability to profess how he truly feels. These standards have been imposed on their lives because of the way that these characters view society.  Instead of professing his love outright for Yingyng, Zhang has to pursue other more indirect means so he does not offend Mrs. Cui or break his own social rules. Eventually, the two do end up falling in love with each other and find a way around society for at least a moment.

Shortly after the two have fallen in love, Zhang leaves for Chang’an because he is socially obligated to live there while he pursues his schooling. The distance puts a strain on his and Yingying’s relationship. Zhang manages to come back and visit Yingying, but it is only once and for a brief period of time. Before long, Zhang is again socially obligated to travel back to Chang’an for his scheduled examinations. At this point in the story, we see that Zhang views his schooling as socially more important than his love for Yingying.  

Near the end of the story, we see how Zhang has obtained a generalized view about all beautiful woman. He says, “It is a general rule that those women endowed by heaven with great beauty invariably either destroy themselves or destroy someone else.” Zhang then makes reference to the stories of King Xin of the Shang and King You of the Zhou who were destroyed by women. It is obvious that the stories about the two kings and the feeling they imbue Zhang with have come from society and are not native to Zhang’s heart. If he had felt that beautiful women would destroy him from the start, he would have most likely avoid his affair with Yingying.

At the very end of the story when both Zhang and Yingying have married other people, we see a final example of how society has corrupted their love for each other. Zhang returns to the village where Yingying is living and asks her husband if he can meet with her. This shows that because of social standards Zhang cannot simply knock on Yingying’s door and talk to her. He has to follow the social order of asking permission to see her. To make matters worse for Zhang, Yingying refuse to see him. She sends him two letters explaining how she is no longer attractive and ashamed to show herself to him. She fears she is now socially unattractive and that it would be socially unacceptable for her to meet with him since they are both married.

If Zhang had abandoned his attempt to try and make a place for himself in society by getting an education and following the social norms of other people, he could have focused on truly loving Yingying and avoided the sorrow of losing her. He did not though and he decided to follow the socially acceptable path of getting his education. To truly love something, a person must make sacrifices and dedicate a huge portion of their life to that which they love. In The Story of Yingying, Zhang loved his education more than Yingying. He followed the thing that was more appealing to society instead of what he felt he loved in his heart. Because of his choice, he lost the true love of his life.