Chinese poem illustration: 邶风/式微 Bei Wind/Nightfall by Anonymous
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Going home(归) is a daily and simple routine for everyone, while this song of Book of Songs(诗经) endows going home with a much profound significance for Chinese. It became an indirect way of referring to marriage as to woman, life goal, death, or being hermit, all in all the life long destination for a person, It needs considerable determination, energy and efforts, of course with a bit of luck.
As Confucius said: Poetry could be used as complaining(诗可以怨), this poem belongs to one of these without any implication of real going home. In later generations many poems, many essays cited this poem, as the same time endows new significance to this poem and its vocabulary. This is how the Chinese literature, its allusion and vocabulary evolves.
Why Not Going Home(胡不归) today is mainly an alternative saying of hermit, while you could still quote it during Chunyun(春运, Spring Festival Travel Season) started in Jan. 10th, 2020, the biggest periodic human migration events in the world yearly. Is Chunyun deeply rooted in this poem?
邶风 式微
佚名
式微，式微，胡不归？
微君之故，胡为乎中露！
式微，式微，胡不归？
微君之躬，胡为乎泥中！
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