Any chance you could explain the five poem references in the chorus of 山外? 👀👀👀
(I love love love ur tls and the accompanying notes for context/elaboration, you put so much thought and effort into them and it shows!! Just read ur tl of Hen Bie and cried ;-;)
i'll take any chance to obsess over classical chinese poetry so i'd be delighted to :D ty for finally giving me the motivation to flesh out my explanations of them in my translation bc i've been too lazy to do it before this, but also you might regret having asked me this by the time you finish reading this post lol
also i'm rly rly glad you liked my tl of henbie! the last line still gives me ulcers every time i think about it, it was so difficult 😭
anyway so 山外 chorus!! it has eight lines split into two stanzas and the first three lines of each stanza is a poetic reference which is absolutely insane to me?? lyricist大大 真是太佩服您了
the first line of both stanzas is 山外青山楼外楼 / beyond the mountains are yet more verdant mountains—beyond the towers are yet more towers. i translated it a bit more literally to get the parallel structure, but a more figurative translation might be something like an unending expanse of verdant mountains—the buildings stretch on for so long one cannot tell where they begin or end.
this line comes from the 七绝 / seven-character quatrain 《题临安邸》 / on the subject of the inns and residences in lin'an by song dynasty poet 林升 lin sheng. (note: 邸 here refers to an inn, but i've also translated it as residence to emphasise lin sheng's criticism of the government officials who have come, in his view, to visit lin'an in this poem.)
the poem goes something like this (aka, have yet another very rough tl):
山外青山楼外楼, / beyond the mountains are yet more verdant mountains—beyond the towers are yet more towers;
西湖歌舞几时休? / at what hour will the singing and dancing on the western lake come to an end?
暖风熏得游人醉, / the fragrance wafting through the warm breeze sweeps the sight-seers into a drunken stupor;
直把杭州作汴州。 / they have simply taken hangzhou to be once-glorious bianzhou.
context! this poem was written after the fall of the (northern) song to the jurchen invaders. as the capital of the song dynasty, bianzhou (known today as kaifeng) was captured and sacked by the jurchen, and the song rulers who managed to escape fled to southern china, whereupon they made hangzhou the capital of the southern song. the emperor gaozong, the only one of the imperial house who wasn't in bianzhou at the time, took the throne in lin'an, which he favoured for being a 人间天堂 (paradise on earth, basically). the officials then proceeded to engage wantonly in song and dance—that is, in a life of degenerate extravagance and debauchery, and it got to the point where hangzhou was labelled a 销金锅 (lit. "a pot of melting gold"), which is now used to describe a place in which huge amounts of money and gold are frittered away. it was this exact attitude that this poem is criticising lol.
(i'm putting the rest under a read more because i am apparently incapable of shutting up)
the second line is 不如黄鹂鸣翠柳 / it cannot compare to the singing of golden orioles in jade-green willows. this line is adapted from the first line of the third (and most famous) of 杜甫 du fu's 《绝句四首》 / four quatrains: 两个黄鹂鸣翠柳 / two golden orioles sing in jade-green willows.
some background info on du fu because the guy is just ridiculous: he's known as one of the three greatest tang dynasty poets, aka the triumvirate 李杜白 lidubai, which stands for ���白 li bai, 杜甫 du fu, and 白居易 bai juyi. depending on who you ask, either he or li bai is the greatest classical chinese poet of all time. he's known as either the 诗圣 / poet-sage, for the way he engages with morality in his poetry, and also the 诗史 / poet-historian, because of his extant poetry (and it's a truly insane amount, btw, i mean, close to 1500, which is wild for a guy who lived in the 8th century), many were intended as political commentary and therefore indirectly shed light on the effects felt by the common people. anyway, he's also extremely notable for his range and technical excellence, because given just how many poems he wrote, it's kind of understandable that he ended up writing in all the poetic forms available to him at the time. but also wow.
the most incredible part to me about him is that he specialised in 律诗 / regulated verse (about two-thirds of his extant poetry is in this form) which is. holy shit. this form is incredibly demanding, and it's absolutely astounding just how easy du fu makes it look. i won't get into it here because i've already rambled enough about him, but if you watched shl, part of his poem 《登高》 / climbing the heights, which is one of the best existing examples of 律诗 out there, was quoted in the lyrics for 天涯客, and i explain it in the footnotes of my translation.
anyway, onto the actual poem! the context is that it was written after the an-shi rebellion was quelled; coincidentally, it was this exact rebellion that greatly influenced du fu's writing. after learning that his good friend yan wu, the governor-general of chengdu, had returned to his post, du fu too returned to his home in chengdu in great spirits. upon seeing the fresh and vivid spring scenery, he was seized by the impulse to compose a poem about it. the reason it's just named 绝句 / quatrains is because he didn't think of a title before writing it and was too lazy to come up with one afterwards (mood).
the couplet that's quoted also uses parallelism, btw. specifically:
两、一 -> number
个、行 -> measure word
黄、白 -> adjective: colour
鹂、鹭 -> noun: type of bird
鸣、上 -> verb
翠、青 -> adjective: colour
柳、天 -> noun: nature
(yeah he writes like that. constantly. how, you ask? excellent question, i don't know either.)
anyway, the full poem, as roughly translated by me:
两个黄鹂鸣翠柳, / two golden orioles sing in jade-green willows;
一行白鹭上青天。 / a line of white herons rise into the blue skies.
窗含西岭千秋雪, / within the window—snow atop the western ridges, gathered over a thousand autumns;
门泊东吴万里船。 / outside the door—vessels in anchorage, come ten thousand miles from eastern wu.
and now, finally, the third line! this one isn't a line from a poem, but the title of one: 春江花月夜 by tang dynasty poet 张若虚 zhang ruoxu, which i've translated as flowers by the spring river on a moonlit night. i won't be translating the full poem because it's incredibly long and this post is long enough as is, but it's gorgeous. it was praised by the poet 闻一多 wen yiduo as being 诗中的诗,顶峰上的顶峰 / the poem of poems, the pinnacle of pinnacles, and is also considered to have 压全唐 / surpassed the entirety of the tang [in poetry], which is insane considering just how many incredible poems/poets came out of the tang dynasty, aka the literal golden age of chinese poetry (if you recall, 李杜白 lidubai were all tang dynasty poets).
this is a 宫体诗 / palace-style poem, and each character in the title is described in great detail: 春 / spring, for the gentle and exquisite spring; 江 / river, for the winding and flowing river; 花 / flowers, for the hazy but resplendent flowers; 月 / moon, for the glow of the distant moon reflected in water; and 夜 / night, for the tranquil and melancholic night.
other than the scenery, this poem also explores the enigmas of the universe and human existence—specifically, how although each of our lives are short and limited, the existence of humanity as a whole stretches on unendingly, much like the bright moon that rises over the river day after day. it then goes on to describe the yearning of a wife for her travelling husband (fun fact: he's travelling by boat on the river), and the last line in particular is very, well. it's very li lianhua-core, shall we say? 不知乘月几人归,落月摇情满江树。 / i know not how many will return with the moonlight; the falling moon sways with the sorrow of parting, spilling it over the riverside trees. yeah. :)
next up is a quote from tang dynasty poet 王勃 wang bo, who wrote one of my absolute favourite couplets of all time, it literally rewrote my brain chemistry omg: 海内存知己,天涯若比邻。 / as long as there remains someone who knows me within the four oceans, we will be as neighbours even at the edges of the earth. (i definitely shoved it in here bc it's relevant to this post since zeng shunxi quoted it in his farewell letter to fang duobing and absolutely not bc i just wanted to :D)
anyway the ACTUAL quote is 物换星移几度秋 / landscapes change and stars shift—how many autumns have passed? it comes from the poem 《滕王阁诗》 / prince teng's pavilion: a poem, which is considered a founding piece of tang literature. in days of yore, this pavilion was constructed by prince teng, son of the tang emperor gaozu, and was often used by him to host great feasts and guests, but now that he's now long gone, the only thing left is the empty expanse of river water that flows beneath the railings. basically, it laments the ephemeral prosperity and declines of human life, particularly when contrasted against the perpetuity of the universe.
and now, at long last, the final poetic reference! the line in question is 举杯销愁愁更愁 / raise a cup to drown your sorrows, but the sorrows only worsen, which, apart from referencing a classical poem, also links back to a very similar line from the opening theme 就在江湖之上 / at the pinnacle of the jianghu: 千杯不醉入愁肠 / a thousand cups of wine lead not to intoxication but despair.
as for the poem, this one comes from 李白 li bai, the man the legend the icon himself, poet-drunkard-swordsman-hermit-he of the multiple moon and wine poems (although that pretty much describes all of classical chinese poetry so, eh). i only know three (five?) chinese poems by heart in their entirety and one of them is by this guy (静夜思, bc every cn diaspora kid learns that growing up).
this particular poem, 《宣州谢朓楼饯别校书叔云》 / ascending xie tiao's pavilion in xuanzhou for a farewell repast with uncle yun of the imperial record-keepers, is a leavetaking poem (clearly), and opens with the lines 弃我去者,昨日之日不可留。乱我心者,今日之日多烦忧。 / yesterday, which has abandoned me, can no longer be pleaded with to stay. today, which upsets my heart, causes me much anxiety. then it takes a rapid one-eighty into describing the gorgeous scenery (长风万里送秋雁 / the great winds escort the wild geese through the autumn skies) and the noble aspirations being discussed while drinking their fill atop this tall pavilion. and then right after the couplet 俱怀逸兴壮思飞,欲上青天览明月 / all harbouring intrepid and grandiose thoughts, in our surging states of mind, we desire to leap into the blue skies and take the bright moon into our arms, the poem plummets once more into the abyss of misery at the realisation that these ideals/aspirations sharply conflict with reality. (remind you of someone?)
here's where the couplet this song quotes comes into play: 抽刀断水水更流,举杯消愁愁更愁。 / draw a blade to stem the flow of water, but the surge of water only gets fiercer; raise a cup to drown your sorrows, but the sorrows only worsen. it is at this moment that the poet decides, you know what, i'm going to retire to live in the jianghu. specifically, he says: 人生在世不称意,明朝散发弄扁舟。 / since life in this world is so incongruous with my desires, i may as well let my hair down and drift through the jianghu on a small boat. :) everything's about li lianhua here huh.
and there you have it! 2,222 words about all the poetic references (that i'm aware of) in 山外.
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has anyone ever tried to adapt the early play version of the journey? or took some inspiration? like monkey's siblings
I'm trying to only read a couple of these movie/show summaries a day in order to not get burned out but I'll be honest... I don't think a single one of them has any of their own JTTW-inspired media ;_;
On one hand, I understand. Other adaptions of Journey to the West like The Story of How Tripitaka of the Great Tang Procures the Scriptures 大唐三藏取經詩話 or Zaju 西遊記 are interesting stories on their own they never gained that popularity or notoriety that Wu Cheng'en's 西遊記 adaption. And honestly, it makes sense in that Wu Cheng'en is the most popular as it was able to take the best qualities of Wukong, keeping him a mischievous but clever monkey while still making him wise and a respected fighter. It gave Wukong layers to be able to relate to any reader, being of higher class or of lower class, gaining such attention in both entertainment and scholarly work that it gained the 'canon' status.
So sadly any background of Wukong's four siblings was dropped and has yet to ever resurface.
Some more info on those if you want to look into them more.
The same being said with Supplement Journey to the West 西遊補, Journey to the South 南遊記, and Later Journey to the West 後西遊記. Once Wu Cheng'en's 西遊記 gained that popularity and status other authors wished to contribute as well. And while I am sad that there is no media of these early contributions to the novel I also understand that they are pieces of media on their own.
The 'sequels' are stories onto themselves that offer their own allegories whether that be political or religious takes by the individual author more so using the medium of JTTW so convey their stories. Similar to how artists/writers use JTTW as a medium to tell their own stories in reimagings or adaptions.
Wukong or anyone of the pilgrimage going through other adventures within the novel or having continuations after the novel is nothing new to media in modern times as there are a lot of moves/shows with original demons or making stories of what happened 'after' JTTW so I would take it like... why would a director take someone's else blueprints for a reimaging/retelling of JTTW when they have their own version of the popular story? Why take someone else demon when you can make your own? Why remake someone else's take on Sun Clan children when you have plans of your own?
Sadly that means unless some of these earlier JTTW media become REALLY popular really soon and someone is willing to put their entire goal into making them entertaining or watchable enough for the general population I think they shall only stay where they are... they are good stories but I do think what's holding them back is that on their own, they are just okay and what really made them survive is their connection to the popular adaption of Journey to the West.
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