In 2012, the Shanxi Xi'an archaeological team discovered a tomb. From the epitaph inscription in the tomb, it was determined that it was the joint tomb of a general and a female of imperial lineage. The main chamber of the tomb contained a double coffin to allow the burial of two people together, but that coffin contained only a single male corpse. What was unexpected, however, was that the t.i.tle of the woman of imperial heritage that was inscribed on the epitaph was identical to that of a princess who, in historical records, had married to a border area in a political marriage.

Your wedding gown like fire has scorched the horizon

Henceforth, the setting sun will sear my heart ['til red] like vermilion

It is said that peach blossoms can be found in your eyes

But how is it that in one evening, those blossoms fell like rain?

I ask, who can lend to me a chance to look back?

To go against the current, to recall those fleeting years that long slipped by

To follow along, again, as you softly sing to me 'Shang Ye' [Oh Heaven]

To see you once again

He even gave the listeners the feeling that he was the general in the story – someone who did not want to give in, did not want to let go of the woman he loved, but caught between the country and the princess, he had no choice but to only stand and watch as the princess left, to allow her to enter into a political marriage…

In those yesteryears that have long ago pa.s.sed

I laughed at you for too easily promising your hand in marriage

It was you who used all of you to recite 'Shang Ye'

Yet, I too easily turned my back on you, a wife beautiful as a flower

That year, flower petals filled the sky of Chang'an

I could hear the sobbing and blood on the spring wind from the outer pa.s.s.

The smell of blood on the wind is strong like wine

In my ears, the sound of warfare seems to swallow the wilderness

Against the light of flames, the returning geese are also letting out their sobs

The sound of weeping carries far

That song, 'Shang Ye' that you used to sing

Hereafter I will never again be able to clearly hear it

What cannot be defeated is the pa.s.sage of time that flows like water

Our country had long ago already said eternal farewells for you and I

And so, you carved your name into the historical scrolls

So now, let me carve your name onto my tombstone

Drifting petals are falling again in this season,

Yet your wedding gown is more brilliant than those falling flowers

Your lips move, as if to once again sing 'Shang Ye'

But what you say is 'I am willing to part from my love for him.'

But what you say is: "I wish to sever ties with you."

What a sorrowful sentence: I am willing to part from my love for him,

Oh heavens!

I wish for you and I to love one another

Till the end of time, without these feelings ever fading.

Only when the mountains are peakless,

And the rivers run dry,

And thunder roars during winter,

And snow falls during summer,

And the sky meets and joins with the earth,

Would I dare to sever and abandon my feelings for you.

And so you see the contrast painted by the last lines of the lyrics.

"I desire to know you deeply and love you. Forever may this be unchanging…"

Blossoms swirling in the sky of Chang'an. The smell of blood, strong as wine, carrying on the wind.

"Til the different directions of the world no longer exist, 'til the seas dry, only then will I cease to love you."

The cruelest thing in the world, perhaps, was after having possessed something, to lose it again. Those beautiful feelings, if one had never experienced them before, would not be etched into the bones and engraved on the heart. And then to use a knife and slice away, one inch at a time, those veins and bones that were joined together because of love. That was really too cruel.