User:Le Yuxuan
湖南师范大学2023级英语笔译研究生在读
Oct 31，2024
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Final paper
The Emotional Bearings and Cultural Connotations of the Moon Imagery in Song Lyrics
Le Yuxuan/Lydia
Abstract
Lyrics emerged in the early Tang Dynasty, and reached its peak in the Song Dynasty through the development of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. After the Song literati’s painstaking efforts, lyrics became fascinated. And in the process of painstaking creating, the Song people devoted more effort and energy to the creation of imagery. The selection, refinement, and use of imagery made Song lyrics colorful, thus reaching a higher aesthetic realm. The moon is the most widely used and culturally significant image in Song lyrics.
Main part
In lyrics, the moon is not just a purely natural landscape, but also a huge art basket and a carrier of emotions, which can carry many feelings in the world. The moon becomes a beautiful and perfect love, a warm hometown, and also the parting grief.
1.expressing one’s feelings through the moon Love is an eternal theme. Song lyrics also contain many works depicting the innocent love life between men and women. In this kind of lyrics, the moon imagery is not only used to accentuate and render, but also used to symbolize the innocence of love between young men and women, thus giving human beings the enjoyment of beauty. For example, in He Zhu’s The Moon over the Western River, “Hand in hand to see the flowers on the deep path, shoulder to shoulder to wait for the moon on the slanting porch”, the “moon” and “flowers” reflect each other, which vividly describes the beauty of the moon and flowers when men and women are dating and gives people a charming impression. This is how the lyricist expresses the development of his emotion and spirit through the different symbolic meanings shown by the flower and moon imagery. There are also many words that use the moon to express the girls’ feelings, such as Yanshu’s Butterflies in Love with Flowers, “The moon, which knows not parting grief, sheds slanting light, through crimson windows all the night.”, which expresses the infinite loneliness and endless sadness of a young girl.（Shen 2008, 231）
In addition to expressing love through the moon, Song lyrics are also used to express friendship. “Lovers would grieve at parting as of old”. The melancholy and sadness of parting is inexpressible. Facing friends and relatives who are about to leave, we can only be “hand in hand we gaze at each other’s tearful eyes, and burst into sobs with words concealed on our lips”. The moon at this moment also carries poignant and sad tones.（Deng 2003, 67）
In the moon imagery, it mainly expresses the lovesickness of relatives in other places. One is the woman who sees the moon and misses her husband who is away on an expedition, and the other is the traveler who misses his relatives at home. In Li Qingzhao’s A Blooming Plum, “When it’s time that one person returnest, full moon shall fill my chamber with joy amidst.”, the woman’s inner boredom, loneliness, and sadness like strands of moonlight flowing down, which has become a masterpiece for the ages. From a cultural point of view, the emergence of this cultural mentality is closely related to the worship of “moon” and the psychological implication given to human beings by the power of nature. According to the relevant data, the worship of the moon already existed in the Zhou Dynasty, and the etiquette was very complicated. With the change of time, people’s sacrifices to the natural gods have been simplified, and the moon’s sacrifices have been gradually replaced by the forms of moon worship and moon appreciation. The Song Dynasty was the peak of the Mid-Autumn Festival. The unlimited love of the Song people for the moon created a large number of moon imagery, which was used to express people’s desire for reunion and happiness. This is precisely the essence of Chinese culture, which is very rich in characteristics and human charm, and is an important part of the cohesion of the Chinese nation. It is this deep cultural psychological structure that has maintained its long history and culture.（Shen 2008, 155）
2.expounding the philosophy of life through the moon
“The wine, the song, life goes on--but for how long?” Throughout the ages, what should be the pursuit of our life? This is a tortured philosophical mystery. Heidegger, the famous modern Western philosopher, once said that: Honestly, what is man? Try to put the earth in infinite space and compare to it, it is only a small sand in the air. Between it and another small sand, there is more than a mile of nothingness. This small sand is inhabited by a group of crawlers, confused so-called animated animals, and by a chance knowledge occurred. What is the extension of time and human life in the midst of all these millions of years? It is only a small movement of the second hand, and there is no reason why we should regard this being, which we call “mankind”, as unusual among the other endless beings.（Heidegger 1987, 159）
Many philosophers have exhausted their efforts and talents for it, but the lyricists found their answers from the beautiful and eternal natural image “moon”. By asking and exploring the moon, they express their pursuit of life and philosophical thinking. For example, in Su Shi’s Prelude to Water Melody, he asks “How long will the full moon appear?”, “What time of the year?”, and “Why then when people part, is the oft full and bright?”. The first question is intended to explain the inevitability of the defects of life by asking that the brightness of the moon cannot be eternal, and the moon has become a comparable body. The “what time” in the second question is not a specific question, and its answer is in the self-answer. Although the moon palace is beautiful, but “the high place is too cold”, which affirms the reality of life. The third question seems to be the confusion of the full moon, but in fact, “Men have sorrow and joy; they part or meet again; The moon is bright or dim and she may wax or wane.” It is the full comprehension of the inevitability of life’s shortcomings, and the individual’s ideals of the reality of life and the perception of the universe. （Shen 2008, 169）
3.establishment of the female world
The moon creates an aesthetic image of warmth. The moon, which comes from the glory of female society, embodies the aesthetic style of harmony, and is a model of feminine aesthetics. Poets expresses the themes of sentimentality, sadness and melancholy through the image of the moon, which is imbued with the spirit of traditional Chinese culture of being close to nature. The moon is both a reference for the human mind and a source of spiritual strength in the eternal theme of human life.
In addition, the moon is likewise seen in some Western cultures as a romantic representation. For example, in The Moon and Sixpence, the British writer Maugham believes that the moon symbolizes spiritual life and one’s artistic pursuits, while the sixpence symbolizes the material needs of food, rice, oil and salt. The moon becomes a symbol of beauty, art, and nobility, representing the opposition and separation from secular life, which overlaps with the meaning of the moon as a symbol of beauty and freedom in traditional Chinese culture, and constitutes cultural homogeneity in different cultural dimensions.（Maugham 1919）
Terms and Expressions
Song lyrics 宋词 Imagery 意象 Reunion and happiness团圆美满 The Moon over the West River《西江月》 Butterflies in Love with Flowers《蝶恋花》 A Blooming Plum《一剪梅》 Prelude to Water Melody《水调歌头》
Questions＆Answers
1. What is the most widely used and culturally significant images in Song lyrics? A: The moon. 2. What are the connotations of “moon” in Song lyrics? A: ① expressing one’s feelings through the moon; ② expounding the philosophy of life through the moon; ③ establishment of the female world. 3. In addition to expressing love with the help of the moon, what other feelings do poets express? A: To express the love of friends and relatives in a different place. 4. What two kinds of people often express their love for their relatives through the moon? A: Wives who miss their husbands who are away at war and a traveler who misses his family at home.
References
[1].Deng Guoguang. 邓国光. 《中国历代咏月诗词全集》[The Complete Collection of Chinese Moon Poems Throughout the Ages], 河南文艺出版社[Henan Literature and Art Publishing House], 2003. [2].Liang Delin. 梁德林. 《古代诗词中的月亮意象》[The Moon Imagery in Ancient Poetry]，广西师院学报 [Journal of Guangxi Normal University], 1991. [3].Martin Heidegger. 马丁·海德格尔. 形而上学导论 [Introduction to Metaphysics], 1987:159. [4].Shen Zufen. 沈祖棻.《宋词赏析》[Appreciation of Song Lyrics], 中华书局[China Book Council], 2008. [5].William Somerset Maugham. 威廉·萨默塞特·毛姆. 《月亮和六便士》(The Moon and Sixpence), 1919.