This article is about the poem. For the movie, see Full River Red.
Man Jiang Hong (Chinese: 滿江紅; pinyin: Mǎn Jīang Hóng; lit. 'the whole river red') is the title of a set of Chinese lyrical poems (ci) sharing the same pattern. If unspecified, it most often refers to the one attributed to the Song dynasty general Yue Fei.
Poem and meaning
Chinese
Hanyu Pinyin
Translation
怒髮衝冠,憑欄處,瀟瀟雨歇。
nù fà chōng guān, píng lán chù, xiāo xiāo yǔ xiē.
My wrath bristles through my helmet, the rain stops as I stand by the rail;
However, James T. C. Liu, a history professor from Princeton University, states that Yue Fei's version was actually written by a different person in the early 16th century.[1] The poem was not included in the collected works of Yue Fei compiled by Yue's grandson, Yue Ke (岳柯; 1183–post 1234), and neither was it mentioned in any major works written before the Ming dynasty. The section that states the author's wish "to stamp down Helan Pass" is what led scholars to this conclusion. Helan Pass was in Western Xia, which was not one of Yue Fei's military targets. Liu suggests the "real author of the poem was probably Zhao Kuan who engraved it on a tablet at Yue 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 Yue scored a victory over the Oirats near the Helan Pass in Inner Mongolia."[1]
Music
The poem has been set to music various times, including a Mandarin song from the 1930s performed by operatic baritone Yi-Kwei Sze in the 1950s. Other singers such as Shi Hong'e, Yang Hongji and Zhang Mingmin have also performed this rendition.
Another Cantonese song of the same title was composed by Kwan Shing-yau and performed by Deric Wan for the 1984 Hong Kong television series By Royal Decree.
^In 1141, the Song dynasty signed the humiliating Treaty of Shaoxing which renounced its claims to all lands north of the Huai River. In other words, the people of Song felt humiliated when they were forced to become a tributary of the Jurchens.
References
^ abJames T.C. Liu. "Yueh Fei (1103-41) and China's Heritage of Loyalty." The Journal of Asian Studies. Vol. 31, No. 2 (Feb., 1972), pp. 291-297