Riding the wind of rebirth

With the guitar accompaniment provided by Zhouzhi, another advantage is that male and female songs can be freely switched and matched, making it comfortable for everyone to sing.

For example, "Youth" was originally Shen Qing's representative work and one of the representative campus songs, but because it was the original version sung by a male voice, the pitch would be too low if sung by a female.

However, if Zhou Zhi simply raises the guitar pitch by a fourth, it becomes an accompaniment suitable for female voices, making it very easy for Liang Hong to sing.

Influenced by this song, Shamaricong also took the guitar and sang Qi Shenqing's other famous song, "Loneliness is Because of Missing Someone".

Do you know?
The feeling of missing someone

It's like drinking a glass of ice-cold water.

Then take a very, very long time
Tears streamed down his face, one by one…

Shama's voice was very pure, and his singing was plaintive and moving. Everyone thought it was excellent. After Shama finished singing and playing the guitar, everyone gave him a warm round of applause.

However, Shama returned the guitar to Zhou Zhi, and said with a somewhat embarrassed smile, "I can't sing it like that anymore."

"Is it the same feeling as two years ago?" Zhou Zhi joked with a smile.

Wu Renzhong quietly reached out and grasped Shama's hand. This was a great favor from the beauty. Shama said that she felt this way when she sang this song two years ago because there was someone she missed who was helping the poor in Lianhe Township. Now that the two of them are married, they no longer have to live apart, so that feeling is naturally gone.

"Elbow, you sing Cantonese songs quite well. Are there any folk songs in Cantonese?"

"Yes, there is." Zhou Zhi strummed his guitar: "There's a really nice old Cantonese song called 'Colorful Clouds Chasing the Moon,' have you guys heard it?"

Everyone shook their heads.

“I think this is a really nice Cantonese folk song,” Zhou Zhi said. “I bet you’ll recognize it as soon as you hear it.”

The song "Colorful Clouds Chasing the Moon" was originally taken from a section of Cantonese opera. Strictly speaking, it is an ancient song. However, because it is so beautiful, it has been adapted into many modern song versions. Although the melody is the same, the lyrics are all different, which is somewhat similar to the feeling that a single ci poem title can be used to write multiple lyrics.

The earliest version in Cantonese opera goes like this: "The bright moon shines on the seashore, a silver river stretches for miles, the jade sky is spotless, and the fragrance of flowers drifts in... The night is enchanting, the dream is enchanting, and the spring night adds to the romance..."

Zhou Zhi is now singing the version performed by Singaporean singer Huang Huanchan, the Cantonese pop diva of the 1970s, which is also the version most familiar to today's listeners.

"Where exactly is the bright moon? It hides itself in the daytime, and reveals its shimmering light at night, its radiance shining upon the world—it illuminates Pingyang, and the bridges, its pure white shadow admired by thousands of families—"

Everyone had a sudden realization when Zhou Zhi finished singing the first line. Although they weren't very familiar with the lyrics of the song, and even couldn't understand them, they were extremely familiar with the melody.

Just then, the moon rose, and its silvery light spilled onto the lake, giving it a shimmering, silvery appearance even in the night. Combined with the cozy campfire, the song, in both its melody and lyrics, perfectly complemented the scene.

When the second verse was sung, everyone hummed along to the familiar melody, their hearts filled with a sense of peace and tranquility.

Even Xiao Shunzi remained quiet, watching his godfather with curiosity, seemingly wondering how such a melodious tune had suddenly come out of this adult's mouth.

That's the power of music to move people.

After Zhou Zhi finished playing the last chord, everyone fell silent for a moment, seemingly savoring the feeling of what had just happened, before they began to applaud, not only for Zhou Zhi but also for themselves. "Is this an old song?" Liang Hong said. "No, no, songs that are too old don't count."

Zhou Zhi thought for a moment and said, "There's also a song called 'The Four Seasons Song,' I don't know if you're familiar with it."

"You sing first, sing it and let us hear it."

"The red sun and gentle breeze nurture the seedlings"
Birds returning from beyond the clouds herald the dawn of spring.

Who loves to dream and wakes up?

The butterfly by the bed has flown away.

The boat rocked gently under the bridge.

How much wind and rain do we know on the bridge?

A folk song, half-sung and half-recorded—

"Oh, this song? The melody is very familiar," Azi said with a smile.

This song is also very beautiful, and it later inspired many singers to cover it with various arrangements. When Zhou Zhi finished singing it, he received unanimous praise.

"This should be considered a folk song, right? And it was written in 1994, so it's a new song."

"You pass," Liang Hong said with a smile. "I just couldn't quite understand the lyrics, but they had a poetic charm."

"Yeah, I don't think I've ever heard you mention working on a thesis. Your thesis is on Middle Chinese, right? It seems to be related to Cantonese as well?"

“Doctoral research is not that easy.” Zhou Zhi strummed the strings of his zither. “Fortunately, I started preparing for it when I was a master’s student. Now I’m using historical data and the logical relationships within the data to combine written records with dialectal records to construct reasonable pronunciations of words in the Middle Ages. Finally, I’ll determine the pronunciation based on ancient tones and get the result.”

"Speaking of which, I have a question to ask," Yang Honghui said. "In ancient times, when people drew a bow, they would say they were drawing a bow with a certain number of stones. Some people pronounced 'stone' as 'shi,' while others pronounced it as 'dan.' I asked several teachers, and they all said that their teachers taught it differently. So, what do you think this character should be pronounced in ancient times?"

Zhou Zhi laughed: "If we really wanted to discuss this word in detail, it could be the subject of a full academic paper."

"You don't need to explain it in too much detail," Yang Honghui said with a smile. "Just make sure I can understand it."

“Then I’ll start with the conclusion.” Zhou Zhi smiled and said, “In ancient books that record phonetics, whether it’s the Tang Dynasty’s ‘Tang Yun’, the Song Dynasty’s ‘Ji Yun’, the Ming Dynasty’s ‘Zheng Yun’, or the Qing Dynasty’s ‘Kangxi Dictionary’, this character is marked as ‘chang zhi qie’ or ‘chang yi qie’.”

"The so-called 'Xuanqie' is actually an ancient Chinese phonetic notation method called 'Fanqie', which uses two characters to pronounce the sound. The first character takes the initial consonant, and the second character takes the final vowel. It is actually a kind of pinyin."

"'Changzhiqie' or 'Changyiqie' means taking the initial consonant of 'chang' and the final vowel of 'yi' and 'zhi' to form the pronunciation of the character 'shi'."

"That's not right!" Yang Honghui said. "The common initial consonant is 'chi,' and when you add the final vowel 'yi,' it sounds like 'eat,' not 'stone.'"

“That’s where it’s interesting,” Zhou Zhi said with a smile. “The pronunciation of common characters in modern Mandarin has changed so much, but in Cantonese, this character retains its ancient pronunciation, soeng. ‘亦’ is pronounced jik, similar to ‘叶’ in Mandarin, and ‘只’ is pronounced zek, similar to ‘责’ in Mandarin.” (End of Chapter)