Yang Guan Triassic is one of China's most famous Guqin (string instrument) songs. The song's origins go back to 1491. It is based on a 4 line seven character quatrain "Send Yuan Er Shi Anxi."送元二使安西 (Seeing Yuaner off on a Mission to Anxi) written by Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei王維(701-761) Wang Wei, from Taiyuan in Shanxi, was a well-known poet, painter, and musician of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). He wrote over 400 poems. The poems of the frontier fortress and the seclusion poems of the mountains are very popular with people all over the world.
Also an English translation of the original Wang Wei poem, credited to John Thompson at http://www.silkqin.com/ and to Jin Qiuyu 金秋雨 :
The morning rain at Weicheng dampens the light dust,
At the inn, the willows look lush and green once again.
I urge you, dear sir, to finish one more cup of wine, for
Going west through Yangguan there will be no old friends.
Recommend reading the entire notes at the youtube post.
The video itself presents calligraphy of the original poem, artwork portraying scenes from the poem and more contemporary song derived from it. (Also the Mandarin lyrics of the song are in the notes). Likeness of Wang Wei are presented as well. Beautifully and thoughtfully put together.
Weicheng was near Xi'an, the capital of the Tang Empire. Anxi was deep inside Xinjiang, a Tang Dynasty post there at the time. Probably a long hard trip in the 8th Century. I read one explanation that said back then, one wouldn't expect to see a friend again, who leaves on this trip.
Below is a link to another blog which put together a translation or the original Wang Wei poem to English with pinyin which is quite helpful:
王維 送元二使安西 translation: Seeing Off Yuan Er on His Mission to Anxi, by Wang Wei
Wikipedia has an interesting entry on Wang Wei:
Wang Wei
There are a number of Stephen Owen translations of other Wang Wei poems in the Wikipedia article that are wonderful.
It's not suprising that Wang Wei was a Chan Buddhist.
