1 Don’t sing the song of eternal regret, there is also a Milky Way in the world.
From "Mawei" written by Yuan Mei in the Qing Dynasty
Don't sing the song of eternal regret, for there is also a Milky Way in the world.
When couples say goodbye in Shihao Village, they shed more tears than in the Palace of Eternal Life.
1 Full text appreciation
The story of the joys and sorrows between Tang Xuanzong Li Longji and his imperial concubine Yang Yuhuan has aroused the love and thoughts of many literati. Bai Juyi's famous "Song of Everlasting Sorrow" not only reveals the political tragedy caused by Tang Xuanzong's favor with Yang Guifei, but also expresses his sympathy for the love tragedy of the two. However, Yuan Mei's poem was able to break away from the clichés and create new ideas. He examined the love tragedy of Li and Yang in the context of the tragic experiences of the common people, emphasizing that the suffering of the general public was far beyond that of the emperor's concubine. "Song of Everlasting Sorrow" and "Shi Hao Li" are well-known famous poems, and their creation background was the Anshi Rebellion. One of them takes the life of the emperor as the theme, and the other takes the suffering of the common people as the main theme, which constitutes a sharp contrast.
"Mawei" was written by Yuan Mei in the 17th year of Qianlong's reign (1752) when he passed by Mawei Station when he was waiting for an official vacancy in Shaanxi. It has 4 poems. Yuan Mei separated from her concubine and went to Shaanxi, which was uncontrollable. Thinking of Li Yang's love story written in Bai Juyi's "Song of Everlasting Sorrow", she believed that the separation of life and death among ordinary people was too numerous to mention, and the separation of life and death between Li and Yang did not deserve sympathy. The love story about Tang Xuanzong and Yang Guifei's Qixi reunion that was circulated at that time and written into "Song of Everlasting Sorrow" is not worthy of singing, because there are still "Galaxies" in the world that can separate couples. I don't know how many couples have gone through life, separation, and death. Pain. Scenes of farewell between husband and wife, such as in Shihao Village where the son died in battle and the wife became a widow, or when the old man climbed over the wall and the old woman enlisted in the army, are more tear-jerking than the tragic love story between Xuanzong and his concubine.
The two sentences "Don't sing the song of eternal regret, there is also a Milky Way in the world" show the poet's deep sympathy for the sufferings of the lower class people; the sentence "There are more tears than those in the Palace of Eternal Life" reveals the various unfortunate forces in society The reality that many couples cannot be reunited.
The whole poem expresses emotions by chanting Mawei, advocating that poetry should reflect the people's suffering life, and showing the author's progressive literary creation views.
Although this poem is a lyrical work, it is actually a discussion poem. The first two sentences use Ma Wei as the title to put forward arguments, and the last two sentences use allusions to demonstrate the above points. The arguments and supporting materials were originally old, but the author turned the cliché into novelty, making it serve him to put forward new viewpoints. The old became new, which is quite a bit like turning iron into gold. The whole poem is just as the author himself said: "I use the past events of the ancients to express my own embrace." ("Suiyuan Poetry Talk")
Yuan Mei's "Mawei" is very interesting. From the title to the text, there are allusions everywhere, but they are all well-known allusions, so it feels very popular when reading. But the poem also contains rich content, which is worth recalling. The title is "Mawei", which is the place where Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty was forced to execute Concubine Yang Guifei - Mawei Station (today's west of Xingping County, Shaanxi Province). At that time, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty fled to Sichuan to avoid the Anshi Rebellion and passed through Maweiyi. The troops refused to go westward, and finally forced Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty to execute Yang Guozhong and Yang Guifei. Yuan Mei's poems were inspired by this incident. The "Song of Everlasting Sorrow" in the first sentence refers to Bai Juyi's famous long poem "Song of Everlasting Sorrow", in which the love between Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty and Yang Guifei is described in a touching and sympathetic way. The "Galaxy" in the second sentence refers to the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. They were separated by the Milky Way, which was also very tragic. The "Shihao Village" in the third sentence refers to "Shihao Officials" written by Du Fu. In the poem, there is an old couple who were separated because the government arrested them as soldiers. The "Eternal Life Palace" in the fourth sentence refers to a palace in the Tang Dynasty palace. There is a poem in "Song of Everlasting Sorrow": "On July 7th, when no one is whispering in the Eternal Life Palace in the middle of the night," it means that Tang Xuanzong and Yang Guifei vowed to each other together. The first sentence is inspired by historical events, the second sentence talks about the many separations in the world, the third sentence gives an example, and the fourth sentence compares it with the historical events in the first sentence. This is really going back and forth, like a loop without any reason, every sentence arouses people's reverie, and every sentence is thought-provoking.
1 Full text translation
There is no need to sing about the joys and sorrows of the emperor's concubines; there is also a Milky Way in the world, which separated thousands of couples. There are countless couples like that in Shihao Village, and the tears of the common people are much more than the few shed on the Palace of Eternal Life.
1 Introduction to the author
Yuan Mei (1716-1797) was a poet and essayist in the Qing Dynasty. His courtesy name was Zicai, his nickname was Jianzhai, and in his later years he was called Cangshan layman, Suiyuan master, and Suiyuan old man. Han nationality, from Qiantang (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang). He became a Jinshi in the fourth year of Qianlong's reign and served successively as magistrate of Lishui, Jiangning and other counties. He had political achievements and returned home at the age of forty. Build a garden at the foot of Xiaocang Mountain in Jiangning and chant in it. He recruited many poetry disciples, especially female disciples. Yuan Mei was one of the representative poets during the Qianlong and Jiaqing periods. Together with Zhao Yi and Jiang Shiquan, he was known as the "Three Great Masters of Qianlong".