Broken Vows of the Seventh Night - 七夕誓約叛

For two days, I was stuck with 杯傾酒滴...

1 杯傾酒滴竹絲斷 Toppled cups, dripping wine, broken reeds and strings,
2 羯鼓霓裳歌舞亂 The wether drum, the rainbow raiment, song and dance in shambles.
3 長安火炎洛陽烟 The City of Eternal Peace up in flames and the second capital smoking,
4 七夕誓約馬嵬叛 Vows of the Seventh Night, betrayed at the Mawei Slope.

2 Emperor Hsuan Tsung is well versed playing this drum. Once, while the emperor while was playing the instrument, plum blossoms bloomed at an opportune moment to prove that the Emperor is also the Lord of the Sky (天公). This gave rise to the idiom 羯鼓催花. The rainbow raiment refers to Yang Guifei. She had choreographed the song and dance of 霓裳羽衣 (rainbow raiment feathered skirt).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiegu

3. The first imperial Tang capital was Changan, now know as Xian, Western Peace. The second imperial capital was Loyang established by Empress Wu because she hated the former place, perhaps to get away from her past memories.

4. Seventh Night, the Chinese Valentine equivalent. It is the time when the stars Vega and Altair meet. They are more popularly known as the Heavenly Spinner and the Cowherd stars. During one such night, the emperor and his beloved pledged an eternal vow to be forever in togetherness. During the An Lu Shan rebellion, the emperor and his court escaped to Sichuan but at the Mawei Slope (named after an official whose last name is Ma (horse) and his name “great/huge/precipitous” who built a city and garrison there). The troops refused to move further unless the emperor’s beloved is dead because they believed that she is the cause of their current plight. The emperor had no choice but to bestow a white silken cord to hang herself. This line can refer to the “rebellion” of the troops or the emperor’s betrayal to their vows.

叛 rhymes in Mandarin but not in Cantonese.

Sunday, February 28, 2021