Man Jiang Hong
Encyclopedia
Ci (poetry)
Ci is a kind of lyric Classical Chinese poetry using a poetic meter based upon certain patterns of fixed-rhythm formal types. For speakers of English, the word "ci" is pronounced somewhat like "tsuh"...
sharing the same pattern. If unspecified, it most often refers to the one normally attributed to legendary Song Dynasty
Song Dynasty
The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
general and Chinese national hero
Folk hero
A folk hero is a type of hero, real, fictional, or mythological. The single salient characteristic which makes a character a folk hero is the imprinting of the name, personality and deeds of the character in the popular consciousness. This presence in the popular consciousness is evidenced by...
Yue Fei
Yue Fei
Yue Fei , style name Pengju, was a military general of the Southern Song Dynasty. His ancestral home was in Xiaoti, Yonghe Village, Tangyin, Xiangzhou, Henan...
. However, the commonly accepted authorship of that particular poem has been disputed.
The poem
| Traditional Chinese | Hanyu Pinyin | English translation |
|---|---|---|
| 怒髮衝冠，憑欄處，瀟瀟雨歇。 | Nù fà chōng guān, píng lán chù, xiāo xiāo yǔ xiè. | My wrath bristles through my helmet, the rain stops as I stand by the rain; |
| 抬望眼，仰天長嘯，壯懷激烈。 | Tái wàng yǎn, yǎng Tiān cháng xiào, zhuàng huái jì liè. | I look up towards the sky and let loose a passionate roar. |
| 三十功名塵與土，八千里路雲和月。 | Sān shì gōng míng chén yǔ tǔ, bà qīan lǐ lù yún hé yuè. | At age thirty my deeds are nothing but dust, my journey has taken me over eight thousand li |
| 莫等閒 白了少年頭，空悲切。 | Mò děng xián bò liǎo shào nián toú, kōng bēi qiè. | So do not sit by idly, for young men will grow old in regret. |
| 靖康恥，猶未雪； | Jīng kāng chǐ, yóu wèi xuè; | The Humiliation of Jing Kang still lingers, |
| 臣子恨，何時滅？ | Chén zǐ hèn, hé shí miè? |
When will the pain of his subjects ever end? |
| 駕長車踏破 賀蘭山缺！ | Jià cháng jū tà pò Hèlán shān què! | Let us ride our chariots through the Helan Pass, |
| 壯志飢餐胡虜肉，笑談渴飲匈奴血。 | Zhuàng zhì jī cān Hú lǔ rù, xiào tán kè yǐn Xiōng nú xuè. | There we shall feast and drink barbarian flesh and blood. |
| 待從頭收拾舊山河，朝天闕。 | Daì cóng tóu shōu shì jiù shān hé, cháo Tiān què. | Let us begin anew to recover our old empire, before paying tribute to the Emperor. |
Authorship controversy
The common belief is that Yue wrote the poem in 1133 at the age of 30 after the capture of Emperors QinzongEmperor Qinzong of Song
Emperor Qinzong was the ninth emperor of the Song Dynasty of China, and the last emperor of the Northern Song. His personal name was Zhao Huan. He reigned from January 1126 to January 1127....
and Huizong by Jurchen invaders (known as the "Humiliation of Jingkang
Jingkang Incident
The Jingkang Incident , the Humiliation of Jingkang , or The Disorders of the Jingkang Period took place in 1127 when invading Jurchen soldiers from the Jin Dynasty besieged and sacked Bianjing , the capital of the Song Dynasty of China...
" as mentioned in the poem) alongside Emperor Gaozong's retreat to modern-day Hangzhou
Hangzhou
Hangzhou , formerly transliterated as Hangchow, is the capital and largest city of Zhejiang Province in Eastern China. Governed as a sub-provincial city, and as of 2010, its entire administrative division or prefecture had a registered population of 8.7 million people...
in 1127 and the subsequent formation of the Southern Song Dynasty.
However, Princeton University History Professor James T.C. Liu states that Yue's version was actually written by a different person during the early 16th century. The poem was not included in the collected works of Yue Fei compiled by Yue's grandson, the poet and historian, Yue Ke (岳柯, 1183 - post 1234). And it was never mentioned in any major works written prior to the Ming Dynasty
Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
. The section that states the author's wish "to stamp down the Helan Pass
Helan Shan
The Helan Mountains , frequently called Alashan Mountains in older sources, are an isolated desert mountain range forming the border of Inner Mongolia's Alxa League and Ningxia. They run north-south parallel to the north-flowing Yellow River in the Ordos Loop section...
" is what led scholars to this conclusion. Helan Pass was in the land of Western Xia
Western Xia
The Western Xia Dynasty or the Tangut Empire, was known to the Tanguts and the Tibetans as Minyak.The state existed from 1038 to 1227 AD in what are now the northwestern Chinese provinces of Ningxia, Gansu, eastern Qinghai, northern Shaanxi, northeastern Xinjiang, southwest Inner Mongolia, and...
, which was not a military target of Yue's armies. Prof. Liu suggests the "real author of the poem was probably Chao K’uan who engraved it on a tablet at Yueh Fei’s tomb in 1502, in order to express the patriotic sentiments which were running high at that time, about four years after General Wang Yueh had scored a victory over the Oirat
Oirats
Oirats are the westernmost group of the Mongols who unified several tribes origin whose ancestral home is in the Altai region of western Mongolia. Although the Oirats originated in the eastern parts of Central Asia, the most prominent group today is located in the Republic of Kalmykia, a federal...
s near the Ho-lan Pass in Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the northern region of the country. Inner Mongolia shares an international border with the countries of Mongolia and the Russian Federation...
."