"Mawei" Author Yuan Mei Dynasty: Qing Dynasty: Qijue Type: Nostalgia
Original text
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.
Appreciation The story of the joys and sorrows between Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, Li Longji, and his concubine, Yang Yuhuan, has aroused the poetic sentiments 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 is based on the life of the emperor, and the other is based on the suffering of the common people, which constitutes a sharp contrast. "Mawei" was written by Yuan Mei when he went to Shaanxi to apply for an official vacancy in the seventeenth year of Qianlong (1752) and passed by Mawei Station. There are 4 poems in total. 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.
Translation
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 worth singing, because there are still people in the world. The "Galaxy" that can tear couples apart. I don't know how many couples have experienced the pain of separation and death. 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. 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 those shed on the Palace of Eternal Life
Author information
Yuan Mei (1716- 1797), poet and poetry critic of the Qing Dynasty. His courtesy name was Zicai, his nickname was Jianzhai, and in his later years he was named Cangshan Jushi. He was a native of Qiantang (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang). 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". In the fourth year of Qianlong's reign (1739), he was awarded the title of Jinshi (Jinshi) and was awarded the title of "Jinshi" by the Hanlin Academy. In the seventh year of Qianlong's reign, he was transferred to serve as an official. He served as county magistrate of Jiangning, Shangyuan and other places. He had a good political reputation and was well recognized by Governor Yin Jishan. When his father died at the age of thirty-three, he resigned and adopted his mother. He purchased the Sui family's abandoned garden in Jiangning (Nanjing), renamed it "Suiyuan", built a house and settled there, and was known as Mr. Suiyuan in the world. Since then, he has lived a leisurely life here for nearly 50 years, engaged in writing poems, compiling poems and talking about discovering talents, and rewarding the underachievers, which was the order of the poetry world at that time. Yuan Mei participated in the imperial examination at the age of 24. The test question was "Fu De Yin Feng Xiang Yu Ke". There is a wonderful line in the poem "When you come to the forbidden courtyard with suspicion, people seem to be separated by the Tianhe River". However, the CEOs thought that "the words are not solemn." "Sun Shan will be placed there." Fortunately, the governor at the time, Yin Jishan, stepped forward and was saved from failure.