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赠汪伦 - Zèng Wāng Lún
唐 -- Táng (618-907)
李白 Lǐ Bái (701-762)
李白乘舟将欲行- Lǐ Bái chéng zhōu jiāng yù xíng，
忽闻岸上踏歌声- Hū wén ànshàng tà gē shēng。
桃花潭水深千尺- Táohuātán shuǐ shēn qiān chǐ，
不及汪伦送我情- Bù jí Wāng Lún sòng wǒ qíng。
送我情- Sòng wǒ qíng。
李白乘舟将欲行- Lǐ Bái ché zhōu jiāng yù xíng，
忽闻岸上踏歌声- Hū wéng ànshàng tà gē shēng。
桃花潭水深千尺- Táohuātán shuǐ shēn qiān chǐ，
不及汪伦送我情- Bù jí Wāng Lún sòng wǒ qíng。
送我情- Sòng wǒ qíng。
不及汪伦送我情- Bù jí Wāng Lún sòng wǒ qíng。
送我情- sòng wǒ qíng。
|#|Present the Poem to Wang Lun
By Li Bai (701-762)
Tang Dynasty (618-907)
I Li Bai am about to sail/leave by boat,
Suddenly I hear singing with/on the stamps/stamping on the bank.
Peach Blossoms Pool’s water is a thousand feet deep,
Yet,it's shallower than the friendship of Wang Lun seeing me off.
I Li Bai am about to sail/leave by boat,
Suddenly I hear singing with/on the stamps/stamping on the bank.
Peach Blossoms Pool’s water is a thousand feet deep,
Yet, it's shallower than the friendship of Wang Lun seeing me off.
Yet,it's shallower than the friendship of Wang Lun seeing me off.
|#|Li Bai (701-762) is one of the greatest poets in China. He was born in Chengji --it is near today's Gansu province ( someone else said it is today’s Tianshui in Gansu ). When he was 5 years old, he was taken to Sichuan by his father.
Li Bai was influenced by both Confucianism and Taoism. He started to travel in the country when he was 25 years old. He entered the imperial court and became a member of the Han-lin Academy at the age of 42. He was greatly delighted and eager to serve the emperor as a capable statesman. But the Emperor Xuanzong only had wanted him as a wonderful palace poet to write trivial lyrics. He was unwilling to serve such a meaningless function, so he left from the capital in less than two years, to start his second journey aimlessly wandering all over the country. Then he was charged as an adherent of the rebels and sentenced to exile. On the road to exile, he was pardoned but He died of illness at Dangtu in today's Anhui Province.
Li Bai lived in the most flourishing times in the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907). Most of his poems reflected a spirit of more positive times. He is considered as the foremost romantic poet in the Tang Dynasty and his writing style has been affecting poets ever since.
About 1,100 poems by Li Bai still survive. They are very popular and many of them have been recited by Chinese children.
Zeng Wang Lun – Present the Poem to Wang Lun is just one of most famous poems of Li Bai.
Writing Background of the Poem
In about 755, Li Bai went to Jing County, in today’s Anhui Province from Qiupu (today’s Guichi of Anhui Province). A local person, Wang Lun, treated him so well that Li Bai wrote this poem and sent it to Wang as a gift.
There are 3 different versions about Wang Lun.
The first version said he was the magistrate of Jing County. Li Bai went to visit Wang Lun. They admired each other so much that neither wanted to say goodbye. Li Bai wrote the poem during a tour around the Peach Blossom Pool in Jing County.
The second version said Wang Lun had another name, Feng Lin. He had a literary reputation and was a good friend of Wang Wei and Li Bai. They often communicated with poems and Li Bai wrote this poem for him.
The third version said Wang Lun was just an eminent villager in Jia Village of Jing County. In 755, when he knew Li Bai was visiting Jing County living at the house of his uncle’s, he was so excited that he could not help writing a letter of invitation to Li Bai: “Does Mr. Li like to to for a tour? There is peach blossom for 10 miles here. Does Mr. Li like to drink? There are 10,000 hotels here.” With a joyful heart, Li Bai accepted his invitation. As soon as Li arrived there, he asked where the Peach Blossom Garden and the hotels were. Wang Lun answered, “The Peach Blossom is just the name of a pool and there is no peach blossom here; the family name of the owner of the hotel is Wan ( the pronunciation of 10, 000 is Wan in Chinese), there are no 10,000 hotels here at all.” It made Li Bai laugh loudly and he stayed there for a few days.
On the day Li Bai would leave, Wang Lun sent him 8 famous horses and 10 pieces of silk fabric; his servants sent them to the boat ahead of Li Bai. After having a farewell meal or during the time that Wang Lun was not at home, Li Bai boarded his boat and would like to set sail. Suddenly, he heard someone singing a song near by. When he turned his head and looked back, he just saw Wang Lun and some villagers singing a farewell song and dancing on the bank. The sincere friendship of Wang Lun and the traditional farewell style touched Li Bai’s heart so much that he created this poem for Wang Lun immediately.
|#||#|The first line: 李白乘舟将欲行- Lǐ Bái chéng zhōu jiāng yù xíng. 李白 Lǐ Bái is the name of the poet; 乘 chéng means by; 舟 zhōu means boat ; 将jiāng means will, be going to; 欲yù means want, wish ; 将欲jiāng yù means be about to; 行 xíng means go . This line means I Li Bai am about to leave / sail by a boat.
The second line: 忽闻岸上踏歌声- Hū wén àn shàng tà gē shēng: 忽 hū means “ suddenly ”; 闻wén means hear; 岸上àn shàng means on the bank; 踏tà means stamp, tread; 歌gē means v. sing, n. song; 声 shēng means sound ; 踏歌tà gē means beat time to a song with the feet or dancing accompanied by singing. It was a kind of the folk customs in Tang Dynasty. This line means, suddenly I hear singing and stamping on the bank or suddenly I hear singing with the stamp on the bank.
The first two lines are so simple and natural, just like speaking, but they have told the time, location, and it has delivered the sounds and pictures to readers. Now in our minds maybe there is a big view with several different pictures. We can imagine that in a beautiful view with green mountains and blue water, under a big maybe wallow tree by a wide pool, a poet has boarded a boat; he was about to sail and to continue a new journey somewhere soon. Suddenly, a good-humored sound with stamps of feet flew into his ears.
Wow! Here is what he has seen – Wang Lun and a group of villagers on the bank singing and dancing with stamping of their feet to see him off. What feeling is in his heart now? Try to imagine, days ago, he got a warm letter of invitation and was “ tricked ” to come to the beautiful village, was warmly treated for several days, was given so many gifts and a wonderful farewell banquet and now… I am sure, no matter who he is, he would be moved indeed.
Therefore, the first two narrated lines have prepared very well for the second two lines to express his thankful emotion naturally.
The third line: 桃花潭水深千尺 Táohuātán shuǐ shēn qiān chǐ – Peach Blossom Pool’s Water is a thousand feet deep. 桃花táohuā means peach blossom ; 潭 tán means deep pool, pond 桃花潭 táohuā tán means Peach Blossom Pool; It is in today’s An Hui Province, and it is said the water of it is too deep to be fathomable.水shuǐ means water; 深shēng means deep; 千 qiān means thousand 尺chǐ is a unit of length (= 1/3 meter).
The last line:不及汪伦送我情 Bù jí Wāng Lún sòng wǒ qíng – It is shallower than the friendship of Wang Lun seeing me off. 不 bù, means not, do not; 及jí means reach ; 不及bù jí means not equal to ; 汪伦 Wāng Lún, this is the name of the friend of Li Bai. This poem was just written for him. 送sòng means see someone off ; 我wǒ means I, me; 情qíng means feeling, affection, love, here means friendship.
The third line further tells us the location – Peach Blossom Pool and its character. Though there is no peach blossom in the village, but the name of the pool has brought people into the beautiful view of the peach blossom. And the words “ Shen Qian Chi – ten thousand feet deep” have told us the feature and the character of the pool -- Depth. The depth of the pool just like the warm friendship of Wang Lun gave me. No, the latter is deeper than the former. Thereupon, the last two lines are expressed with so much deep feelings naturally: The Peach Blossom Pool’s water is ten thousand feet deep; it is shallower than the friendship of Wang Lun sending me off.
The whole of the poem uses only 28 Chinese characters, a simple and natural language expressing a deep and warm friendship between Wang Lun and Li Bai. To borrow the natural things’ character to compare to a person’s friendship, so that it has not only expressed an abstract human feeling materially and vividly, but also makes this poem deeper and makes people think. Maybe this is just the reason why the little poem has been popular for more than 1,400 years.
|#|1. Simplicity does not equal roughness. Sometimes, something simple but natural may be the one beautiful and prompting considerable thought. How to make and live simply but naturally is really a great art which is worth us to study and to practice always.
2. To take the words too literally or interpret something without real understanding would mislead people or delay our work or life.
To be honest, I could recite this poem in my childhood, but I did not really understand the meaning of the word Peach Blossom in this poem until I started to write an article. Therefore, on Feb 20, 2016, on the second day I came back to China from the USA, I started to create a new painting to match this poem and I created it with water, mountains, trees, especially, a lot of white blossom flowers because I thought the “ Peach Blossom Pool” in the poem and I felt very well after I completed it with a big smile. Days ago, when I read the story of how Li Bai was “ tricked ” to go to the village of Wang Lun and how Wang Lun explained his words about the Peach Blossoms and about the hotels in his letter. There is no any Peach Blossom but a pool named Peach Blossom Pool in his village and there are no 10 thousand ( its pronunciation is Wan in Chinese) Hotels but just the owner of the hotel’s family is Wan, I did not realize that I had made a mistake as Li Bai had done. :- )
Both of us were tricked by the literal meaning of the words in the invitation and in the poem.
I am thinking, fortunately Li Bai and I did not work on something important and we could just laugh at it as a joke. If the things have happened on something important and relate to the destiny of an organization or a person, what will happen?
So, how to avoid interpreting anything without real understanding maybe is a quite serious thing in our study, work and life. Do you agree with me?
For sharing the wonderful poem with you and my readers, I created a piece of music and an article first in June, 2005 and I created two paintings to match them and re-composed the music in Feb, 2016 and in Sep, 2016. Now I have re-done all of the things and re-written the article. During I was worked on it, Mr. Mike Joyce from Britain, Mrs. Fran Giglio and Mrs. Faith Eastman from the US, Dr. J. Darragh M. Elliott from Canada, Mr. Xu Yang and Mrs. Chang Xiaoguang from China have given me their hands and helped me on my English translation. Professor Meng Wei Ye corrected my music and he directed me to make the records in a professional recording studio in Oct, 2016.
Mr. Ray Heaton from Britain has checked and corrected this article and I have final edited it in the USA in Nov, 2016.
I really hope it will be some help with your Chinese and Chinese culture studying and hope to hear your comments and directions.
Shirley Yiping Zhang
Nov 12, 2017 in China
Nov 16, 2016 in the USA
April 17, 2016 in China
June 13, 2005 in China
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