— Qian Qi
Why won’t you stay on Southern River any more?
Why leave its water clear, sand bright and mossy shore?
You cannot bear the grief revealed in the moonlight
By the Princess’ twenty-five strings, so you take flight.
Note
Qian Qi (c. 710–782 CE) was a prominent poet of the High Tang period, known for his refined style, musical sensibility, and mastery of regulated verse. A successful official and one of the “Ten Talented Poets” of the Dali era, he often infused his nature poetry with subtle emotion and classical allusions.
His poem “The Returning Wild Geese” (Gui Yan) uses the migratory bird as a vehicle for lyrical mystery and emotional resonance. The poem opens with a gentle question: “Why do you return so casually from the Xiao and Xiang rivers?” – a region in southern China famed for its poetic associations and natural beauty (clear waters, bright sand, mossy banks). The answer lies not in geography, but in sound: the haunting music of the se, a 25-stringed zither, played under the moonlight.
According to legend, the se was associated with the grieving goddesses of the Xiang River, whose sorrowful melodies could move even birds. In ancient Chinese mythology, the goddesses of the Xiang River were said to be skilled at playing the se (a 25-stringed zither). These goddesses were E-huang and Nüying, the two consorts of the legendary sage-king Shun. When Shun died during an inspection tour in the south and never returned, his two wives journeyed south in grief, following him all the way to the Xiao and Xiang rivers. Overcome with sorrow, they drowned themselves in the waters and became the spirits of the Xiang—known as the Xiang Ling (Xiang Goddesses).
The music they played on the se was profoundly mournful, its tones filled with longing and lament, echoing their eternal sorrow for Shun’s loss. This myth deeply influenced Tang poetry, where the sound of the se under the moon often symbolizes irreparable separation and transcendent, haunting beauty—as reflected in Qian Qi’s poem “The Returning Wild Goose.”
Overwhelmed by this “unbearable purity of longing,” the goose abandons its southern refuge and flies north again – not by instinct, but by the pull of melancholy beauty.
Through this elegant fusion of myth, music, and migration, Qian Qi transforms a natural phenomenon into a meditation on the power of art and emotion to stir the soul.
归雁
— 钱起
潇湘何事等闲回，
水碧沙明两岸苔。
二十五弦弹夜月，
不胜清怨却飞来。
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