Zui Yu Chang Wan (Drunken Fisherman’s Night Song)

This traditional Chinese song is linked with the memory of Lu Guimeng:

Lu Guimeng (d. 881), style name Luwang, nicknames Tiansuizi, Fuli Xiangsheng, etc., was an important 9th century poet who abstained from fine food, alcohol, festivities, etc., instead floating on a boat with his books, fishing tackle and equipment for making tea. He was from Changzhou, now part of Suzhou, but after retiring from office he presumably abandoned his Suzhou residence as he is said to have subsequently made his home in Fuli (see further). There is a grave said to be his in Luzhi, modern name for Fuli, near the Wusong River southeast of Suzhou.

Lu is commonly paired with his friend Pi Rixiu and the two of them are particularly known for having created a style of matching rhyme poetry in which first one would compose a poem, then the other would have to reply with a new poem using the same rhyme. Both were also said to have loved wine and boating, with Lu Guimeng in particular noted for preferring a life on rivers and streams.

Eventually Lu Guimeng is said to have given up wine for tea.

(emphasis mine)

Lu and his fishing buddy Pi supposedly heard an old, drunk fisherman singing at dusk and wrote down a poem that went with this song.

This is actually a more recent melody than the original, which goes back at least as far as the 1500s. But whichever melody is played under the title, it’s supposed to evoke a guy on his boat not doing much of anything at all. He’s got a heater for the water for his tea. An oar to paddle with. Some lines and hooks. A setting sun.

If you want to know how to play the song, this lady will show you.

The song has 10 sections - 10 things it’s supposed to evoke:

• 00.00 1. Rowing through rippling water
• 00.50 2. Pulling the oars
• 01.20 3. Knocking on the boat planks (to frighten the fish)
• 02.01 4. Raising the nets (filled with fish)
• 02.35 5. The call of a fisherman: ao ai
• 03.43 6. (The boat settles in) the shallow water along the sandy shore
• 04.19 7. Forgetting society
• 04.45 8. A reed flute
• 05.50 9. Mourning antiquity
• 06.22 10. A mature man in retirement
• 06.57 Closing harmonics
• 07.12 End

The times there come from John Thompson’s qin version of the old melody.

Forgetting society. Mourning antiquity. Yeah, I can hear that.