Understand Ancient Chinese Poetry: From Zero to Deep Appreciation

Hello, welcome to our five-lesson Chinese class. I mean, this is your teacher. You can call my English name So can you imagine you can learn Chinese through Tang Dynasty poetry of China? The answer is yes, absolutely You know because these Timeless masterpieces they contain the soul and the cultural codes of the Chinese language And the poems contain basic words and the native speaking Which are still commonly used today. I mean every day actually so Learn these words and then you can use them right away. Okay Our five-lesson new course turns classical ancient Poems into your personal Chinese classroom Okay, so What's inside? Number one, learn and appreciate the Chinese accent ancient poems Two, to feel the mood, the emotion and the cultural philosophy behind the poem Number three, you can make a comparison between Chinese culture and the Western culture Number four, we can drag the vocabularies out of the poems to teach you Learn Chinese every single day, right? So this is a faster but a more beautiful way of learning Chinese I mean Chinese Mandarin ready to begin your journey, okay Hello and welcome to Theme 1, Shared Emotions I am Ellen and I'm so excited to take this special poetry journey with you What makes us human? across the cultures and centuries Emotions like longing, friendship, love and so on so forth. They connect us So these poems were written thousands of years ago You will not only improve your language skill but also gain insights into the emotional world of ancient China A world which emotional power endures, have been enduring up to now Firstly, let me introduce the background of the poem to you The poem's name is called Quiet Night Thought, Jingye Si It was composed in 726 A.D. by the Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai who was one of the China's most celebrated poets Li Bai, known for his free-spirited personality and love of travel had left his hometown at age 24 to explore the vast landscapes of China At the time of writing, Li Bai was 26 years old and had been away from his hometown for over two years The poem was written during his stay in Yangzhou Yangzhou was an international hub and a thriving market in Tang Dynasty and in Jiangsu Province today It was a major port on the Maritime Silk Road with traders from Persia, Arabia and Japan In Tang Dynasty, it was extremely difficult for travelers to communicate with their families due to limited transportation and postal systems, making homesickness a common experience for them And let's learn to appreciate the first song The first poem is called Jingye Si, made by Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai Follow me Jingye Si means Quiet Night Thought So the first sentence Chuang qian min yue guang means Before my bed, a pool of night The second sentence Di shi di shang shuang, can it be a whole frost on the ground? The third sentence Ju tou wang min yue, looking up I find the moon bright The final sentence Di tou si gu xiang hao, bowing in homesickness and I am drowned So let's pull out some vocabularies that we are going to learn today Tang Dynasty means Tang Dynasty Chuang means Bed Ming means Bright Yue means Moon Guang means Light Tou means Head So how to appreciate the artistic conception of the poem? The key analogy analysis is a frost question So Li Bai likened the moonlight to the frost What does that analogy reveal? Right, frost is the icy crystal that forms on cold mornings, in the morning White, cold and fleeting The comparison tells us two things Number one, the moonlight was bright, but the night is cold But more than that, it hints at a cold feeling inside of the heart Loneliness, a sense of loneliness, right? So this is a cross-cultural comparison In Chinese culture, the moon is a symbol of reunion It symbolizes reunion When you see the moon, you think of your own home, your loved ones No matter how far away you are in The moon is a bridge that connects home with your loved ones, right? That's why even today, millions of Chinese people look at the full moon during the mid-autumn festivals and think of their own home and their loved ones So the final part is answered Let's talk about the emotional connection and find out your personal moon As I said before, the moon Li Bai gazed at was in 725 AD was the same moon that we see every single day The moon belongs to everybody No matter where you are, whenever you are, and where you are from So when we read this poem, we share not just the words but a moment of human feeling across 1,300 years such as loneliness and homesickness, right? So what about you? Is there a sight, a sound, or a smell that instantly brings you back to your home? So find a person or sound from your culture That is about longing for home You can tell me in the comments, you know So finally, please follow me to read the poem again to appreciate the beauty of the poem, right? Okay, follow me Jing ye si tang li bai Chuang qian ming yue guang Yi shi di shang shuang Ju tou wang ming yue Di tou si gu xiang Chuang qian ming yue guang Yi shi di shang shuang Ju tou wang ming yue Di tou si gu xiang Hello, so welcome to our lesson 2 The name of the poem I'm going to introduce to you is called the song of the parting song Okay, the Chinese meaning is you zi yin Okay, let me give you a brief introduction about what the poem is about So the poem was written by another poet from Tang dynasty called Meng Jiao Meng Jiao was a poet of the Tang dynasty who wrote the poem Unlike many of the contemporaries who achieved early success This poet lived a difficult life Okay, he was poor And did not pass the imperial examination until the age of 46 Right, it was said that he wrote this poem after bringing his mother to live with him When he finally obtained a minor official position He was just already 50 years old In this poem, he expressed deep gratitude for his mother's unwavering support and love throughout the years of hardship Okay, the first sentence The thread in the loving mother's hand Ci mu shou zhong xian Next, make cloth for her traveling son You zi shen shang yi Before leaving, she said carefully, stitch by stitch Lin xing mi mi feng Worrying that he will return late Yi kong chi chi gui Who says that the tiny grass Shui yan cun cao xin Can repay the warmth of the spring sun Bao de san chun hui Okay, so I selected some key vocabularies, key words that I'm gonna teach you So first word Mother Mu shou Hand Zi Sun Cloth Yi Grass Cao Heart Xin Spring Chun Okay, so how to appreciate the connotation of this poem Mother's needle and thread, it symbolizes meticulous, which means selfless care The cloth of the partying son, the traveling son, protection carried on the journey It's a symbolization of the, it likens the cloth to the protection, right? The grass means the child, small and dependent The warmth of spring sun, especially in Chinese culture, it symbolizes a mother's love As fast and warm as spring sunlight Right, so let's make a cross-cultural comparison In traditional China, a son leaving home for official exams or work or whatsoever Was a moment of deep anxiety for mothers The stitching served both practical and symbolic purposes And each stitch representing a mother's prayer for her child's safe return A mother's love is one of the most celebrated emotions This poem was written by a poet from Tang dynasty also called Meng Jiao It was about a mother's love for her child who was leaving home It told us that a mother's love is selfless and deep She did small things with great care So what small thing does your mother do for you? You know, you can share in the comments, you know, let's share together How do your parents show love without saying it? Do you know any poem or song or any other things about the parents' love in your culture? Share again, share it with us in the comments, okay? So let's read the entire poem all together again 由紫身上衣 林行蜜蜜逢 一孔迟迟归 谁言寸草心 抱得三春晖 慈母手中献 由紫身上衣 林行蜜蜜逢 一孔迟迟归 谁言寸草心 抱得三春晖 Hello, welcome to our third session Today I'm going to teach you a third song called 郑汪伦 Okay, again, this was also written by Li Bai in Tang Dynasty Okay, let me introduce about it, this poem This is one of the Li Bai's most famous farewell poems Okay, it was about farewell Wang Lun was a local official and he admired Li Bai very much According to this legend and this poem, Wang Lun invited Li Bai to his hometown And Li Bai happily accepted this invitation and stayed a few days, okay? And during this process, they become confident When Li Bai was about to leave by boat, Wang Lun and the villagers sent him off With singing and standing their feet in rhythm Li Bai was so touched that he wrote this poem on the spot And this poem became one of the most beloved farewell poems in Chinese history So let's learn the poem sentence by sentence, okay? Li Bai sits aboard a ship about to go Li Bai cheng zhou jiang yu xing When suddenly on shore, your farewell stamping sounds overflow Hu wen an shang ta ge sheng However deep the peach blossoms pond may be Tao hua tan shui shen qian chi It's not so deep, oh Wang Lun, as your love for me Bu ji Wang Lun song wo qing Okay, so let's get some vocabularies out of the poem to learn Okay, first one Blossom or flower Hua, thousand Qian, knot Bu, I or me Wo, okay, so let's analyze this piece of poem What is the connotation of it, okay? Number one, singing with stamping Stamping is a kind of group activity Where people hold hands together and stamp rhythmically While singing, it is a folk farewell custom So deep water raises deeper friendship Peach blossom pond is a thousand feet deep But even then, it's not as deep as Wang Lun's feeling This contrast elevates the poem from a simple farewell To a profound statement about friendship, right? So this is a cross-cultural comparison In traditional China, sending off a friend was a ritual Friends would travel a distance with the departing person Share a final meal and exchange points What Li Bai did well in was that There is a comparison between the measurable depth of a lake With the immeasurable depth of friendship Which is an elegant way of saying Wang Lun's great kindness The final part is an emotional connection based on friendship You know, Li Bai didn't say Wang Lun was a good friend I would miss him directly Instead, what he did, okay He used the comparison pond depth versus friendship depth To show that friendship was immeasurable, right? So in your culture, how do people say goodbye to their confidants Their close friends, right? Have you ever had a friend who sent you off before? How did you feel? How did they feel? Again, share your opinions in the comments, okay? So let's finally practice this poem once again Beautiful? Okay, see you next time, bye-bye 不及王伦送我情