Outside the pavilion, on the side of the ancient road, the grass is beautiful. The evening breeze blows the willow flute, and the sunset is beyond the mountains.
The horizon of the sky, the corner of the earth, and the intimate friends are half scattered; A gourd ladle of turbid wine makes me happy. Say goodbye to Meng Han tonight.
outside the pavilion, by the ancient road, the grass is blue and the sky is blue. The evening breeze blows the willow flute, and the sunset is beyond the mountains.
-Li Shutong's Farewell
Most people in China who can sing can sing Li Shutong's Farewell.
In p>1915, Li Shutong, a teacher in Hangzhou No.1 Normal University, wrote this famous song Farewell. It belongs to the "School Music Song" written by Li Shutong in his early years. The so-called "school music songs" refers to a group of ambitious intellectuals in the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, who advocated the great role of music in ideological enlightenment and actively advocated setting up music classes in schools. At the same time, some young students studying in Japan used the tunes that were popular in Japan and Europe and America at that time to fill in new words and compose new songs. In addition, "school music songs" often use China's classical poems to fill in new lyrics. Li Shutong's "Farewell" has these distinctive characteristics of "school songs": one is to fill in the lyrics in classical poetry style, and the other is to choose American popular tunes for music. If you don't understand these backgrounds, you will inevitably feel confused and puzzled about some characteristics of Farewell that are different from modern songs.
Writing poems to bid farewell to friends is a basic motif of China's classical poems. Farewell poems are an important part of Tang poetry and Song poetry. "I shall think of you in a floating cloud, so in the sunset think of me" in Li Bai's "Seeing Friends Off" Wang Wei's: "I advise you to have a glass of wine, and there is no reason to go out to Yangguan in the west." ("Send Yuan Er Shi An Xi") Wang Bo's: "Know yourself in the sea, and heaven remains our neighbourhood." ("farewell to vice-prefect du setting out for his official post in shu") Wang Changling's: "If relatives and friends in Luoyang ask each other, a piece of ice heart is in the jade pot." ("at hibiscus inn parting with xin jian") are all famous sentences in farewell poems. As for Bai Juyi's Farewell to the Ancient Grass: "boundless grasses over the plain, come and go with every season. Wildfire cannot burn it out, and spring wind's blow can bring it back to life. Wild grass wild flowers spread over the ancient road, the end of the grass under the sun is your journey. O Prince of Friends, you are gone again, I hear them sighing after you. " There are many similarities with Li Shutong's Farewell.
The image and language in Farewell are basically the inheritance of China's classical farewell poems. Drinking in the pavilion, seeing off the ancient road, folding willows to bid farewell, waving at sunset and leaving the grass behind are all common images in farewell poems for thousands of years. However, "Farewell" concentrates all these images with a short lyric, and strongly shocks the "collective unconsciousness" of China people's parting with a "comprehensive" impact. Therefore, Farewell has become a cultural and psychological symbol of China people's parting.
In ancient times, farewell poems were usually written to bid farewell to a friend, and they were real people. But what is intriguing is that according to the current materials, it is not clear which friend Li Shutong's "Farewell" is addressed to. In my opinion, "Farewell" is not written for specific friends, but a symbolic farewell poem that Kubinashi clearly refers to. "Farewell" is divided into three paragraphs. The first paragraph is "Writing Scenery", which depicts the concrete scene of farewell outside the pavilion and along the ancient road; The second paragraph is lyrical, expressing the sadness of knowing friends and falling to the end of the world; The third paragraph is a repetition of the first paragraph, but it is not. It is a repetition of words and a sublimation of meaning: I experienced "seeing my friends off" and realized that life is short, like a sunset, full of biting cold. The whole lyrics are filled with a strong sense of emptiness in life, and there are deep hints of epiphany.
In a word, Farewell actually conveys Li Shutong's consciousness of seeing his friends off, understanding life and seeing through the world of mortals with a symbol that has no clear reference. Therefore, "Farewell" is not just a eulogy for friends to wave and send each other; But a "prelude" for Li Shutong to leave the world and become a monk.