"The sun rises in the east and rains in the west, and the road is sunny but sunny" comes from "Two Poems on Bamboo Branches (Part 1)" by Liu Yuxi, a poet of the Tang Dynasty. The whole poem is as follows:
Two Bamboo Branch Poems (Part One)
Liu Yuxi of the Tang Dynasty
The willows are green and the Qingjiang River is level, and I can hear the singing of people stepping on the Langjiang River.
The sun rises in the east and rains in the west. There is no sunshine but there is sunshine.
Translation
The Yangliu River is green and the water is wide and flat. I can hear the lover singing on the river.
The sun rises in the east and rain begins in the west. It is said that it is not sunny but it is still sunny.
Notes
⑴Zhuzhi Ci: The title of a modern Yuefu song. Also known as "Bamboo Branch". It was originally a folk song in eastern Sichuan. The poet Liu Yuxi of the Tang Dynasty created new lyrics based on the folk songs, mostly about the love between men and women and the customs of the Three Gorges, and it has been widely circulated. Poets of later generations mostly wrote about love and local customs with "Zhuzhi Ci" as the title. Its form is a seven-character quatrain.
⑵Qing: homophonic with "love". "Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty": also written as "love".
⑶Cushui Bashan: Chushui: ①The name of the water. A breast milk. It is now Xuruhe, Shang County, Shaanxi Province. It is fed by the Chu River, and its water source comes from the Chu Mountain in the southwest of Shangluo County. In the past Sihao hid in Chu Mountain, which is this mountain. Its two water sources are located in the east of Sihao Temple, and go to the south of Gaoche Ling in the east, with many streams on its wings, and turn into Danshui in the north ("Shui Jing Zhu·Danshui" by Li Daoyuan in the Northern Wei Dynasty). ②Generally refers to the rivers and lakes of ancient Chu land. Bashan: ① Daba Mountain. The night rain in Bashan swells the autumn pond. ②Generally refers to the Bashu area. Chushui Bashan: generally refers to the mountains and rivers of Shu and Chu.
⑷Ba people: ①Cuba people. ②The name of the ancient song. "If there is no harmony in "Yangchun", "Ba Ren" will be the next stanza." In the fifth attempt of Jin Zhang Xie's "Miscellaneous Poems", "Ba Ren" was sung, and there were thousands of harmonies. This poem refers to people from Cuba.
⑸Beike: The author refers to himself as saying that the guest is homesick.
⑹祥(hé) that: the harmony of tapping music. Liu Yuxi also wrote "He Na Song": "The willows are lush and green, and the bamboo branches are endlessly affectionate. When Zhou Lang looked back, he heard the sound of He Na." "The music is endlessly exciting, with the same tune but different words. I wish you a long life and a long life as a master." Green Luo: ①Green Qiluo. ②A metaphor for green water microwave. ③The name of lychee. Some Sichuan people call lychee Lvluo. The interpretation and calendar mentioned in the poem cannot be unified. There are three explanations, and all of them make sense.
Introduction to the work
"Two Poems on Bamboo Branches (Part 1)" is the first of a series of poems written by Liu Yuxi, a litterateur in the Tang Dynasty. This poem writes about the mood of a girl immersed in first love. She loves someone, but she doesn't know the other person's attitude for sure, so she has both hope and doubt, joy and worry. The poet successfully expressed this subtle and complex psychology in a girl's tone.
Appreciation of the work
This poem is a poem describing the love between young men and women. It describes the inner activities of a girl in first love who hears her lover's singing on a clear spring day when the willows are green and the river is as flat as a mirror.
The first sentence, "The willows are green and the river is level," describes the scenery the girl sees: willows on the riverside, with green stripes hanging down; the water in the river is as flat as a mirror. It's a beautiful environment. The willows in the Spring River described in this sentence are the most likely to arouse people's emotions, so it naturally leads to the second sentence: "I heard the singing on the Langjiang River." This sentence is a narrative, describing the ups and downs of the girl's heart when she heard her lover's singing.
The last two sentences, "The sun rises in the east and rains in the west, the road is sunny but sunny" are two clever metaphors that use semantic puns. "Sunrise in the east" means "sunny", while "rain in the west" means "no sunshine". "Qing" and "qing" are homophonic, and "youqing" and "wuqing" are lingoes for "affectionate" and "ruthless". "The sun rises in the east and rains in the west", on the surface it means "sunny" and "no sunny", but in fact it is a metaphor for "sentiment" and "ruthless". This made the girl feel really elusive and uneasy. But she is a smart woman, and she discerned clearly from the last sentence that her lover was in love with her, because of the words "you" and "no" in the sentence, the emphasis is on "you". Therefore, she couldn't help but feel happy in her heart. This sentence uses a pun, which not only describes the rainy weather on the river, but also cleverly depicts the girl's confusion, attachment and hope, a series of psychological activities.
This kind of expression based on the characteristics of Chinese phonetics is common in folk love songs of the past dynasties. They are harmonious puns and at the same time vivid metaphors based on active associations. They are often based on familiar scenery, expressing subtle emotions explicitly but implicitly. For example, some Wu Sheng songs from the Southern Dynasties used this kind of homophonic pun to express love. This kind of folk love songs that use harmonious puns to express feelings has a long history and has always been loved by the people. If a writer occasionally imitates something, it will appear novel and gratifying and attract attention. This is one of the reasons why Liu Yuxi's poem is loved by readers.
Creative background
Liu Yuxi served as the governor of Kuizhou from the first month of the second year of Changqing's reign (822) to the summer of the fourth year of Changqing's fourth year (824), the reign of emperor Mu Zong of the Tang Dynasty. He loved the folk song "Zhuzhi Ci" very much, so he wrote the lyrics according to the tune and wrote eleven songs, divided into two groups. This is one of the two songs in a group, written after "Nine Bamboo Branch Ci". It may be that the poet re-created the poem after completing the first nine poems. He did not want to add ten or eleven poems after the first nine poems, so he titled it "Two Bamboo Branch Poems".
About the author
Liu Yuxi (772-842), named Mengde, was born in Luoyang, Henan (see the catalog of disputed places of birth for details). He was born in Xingyang, Zhengzhou, Henan, and his ancestors were from Zhongshan King Jing Liu Sheng (some say he is a descendant of the Huns) was a minister, writer, and philosopher during the Tang Dynasty. He was known as the "poetry hero".
Liu Yuxi was excellent in poetry and prose, and covered a wide range of subjects. Together with Liu Zongyuan, he was known as "Liu Liu", together with Wei Yingwu and Bai Juyi, he was known as the "Three Heroes", and together with Bai Juyi, he was known as "Liu Bai". Famous works include "Inscription on a Humble Room", "Poem on Bamboo Branches", "Poem on Willow Branches", and "Woyi Alley". Three philosophical works, "On Heaven", discuss the materiality of heaven, analyze the origin of "Destiny Theory", and have materialistic ideas. He is the author of "Collected Works of Liu Mengde" and "Collected Works of Liu Guests".