Spring Night Banquet in the Peach and Plum Garden: If Life Is a Dream, How Much Joy Can There Be?
Grandevity Studio sets Li Bai’s complete Tang-dynasty prose work Spring Night Banquet in the Peach and Plum Garden to newly composed music. The sung text uses 100% of Li Bai’s original words, in their original order, with no lyrical expansion, rewriting, added lyrics or repeated lines. Premium Cinematic Mandopop Soul and Chinese-inspired R&B meet guqin, xiao, Rhodes, nylon guitar and cinematic strings in a moonlit world of blossoms, kinship, poetry and wine.
What if heaven and earth are only an inn in which all things stay for a while?
What if time itself is only a traveller passing through the generations?
Then, in a life as fleeting as a dream,
how much joy can truly be ours?
夫天地者，萬物之逆旅也； 光陰者，百代之過客也。 而浮生若夢，為歡幾何？
Li Bai begins Spring Night Banquet in the Peach and Plum Garden with an awareness of impermanence.
Yet the work does not become a lament.
Spring arrives.
Mist softens the landscape.
Peach blossoms open.
Kinsmen gather.
Poetry, wine and conversation fill the night.
Eventually the prose reaches one of its most luminous images:
開瓊筵以坐花，飛羽觴而醉月。
We spread a splendid feast and sit among the blossoms; winged wine cups pass as we drink beneath the moon.
Grandevity Studio’s musical setting uses Li Bai’s complete original classical text.
There is no modern lyrical expansion.
No rewritten paraphrase.
No newly invented chorus.
No added lines.
No repetition of the original sentences to extend the song.
The complete text moves forward once, in Li Bai’s original order:
heaven and earth → time → floating life
candlelit night wandering → spring → misty scenery
the peach-blossom garden → the joy of kinship
talented younger kinsmen → poetry → refined conversation
the banquet → blossoms → wine cups → moonlight
fine verse → elegant feeling → the drinking rule of Golden Valley
The prose itself becomes the musical architecture.
Watch the MV: 🎬 Spring Night Banquet in the Peach and Plum Garden | Official Music Video
Headphones recommended. Peach and plum blossoms fill a Tang-dynasty garden as Li Bai first appears alone beneath the moon. Younger kinsmen gradually arrive, wine is prepared, poetry and conversation begin, and the solitary night becomes a gathering of family, literature and restrained intoxication. The film reaches its luminous centre at “sitting among blossoms, drunk beneath the moon,” before the guests depart and the garden returns to silence.
Heaven and Earth as an Inn
The opening sentence gives the entire work its scale:
夫天地者，萬物之逆旅也； 光陰者，百代之過客也。
The word 逆旅 refers to an inn or temporary lodging.
Heaven and earth are imagined as the great lodging place of all beings.
Everything arrives.
Everything stays for a time.
Everything eventually leaves.
Time, meanwhile, is not a still background.
It is itself a passing traveller.
Generation after generation comes and goes while time continues onward.
Li Bai therefore asks:
而浮生若夢，為歡幾何？
If our floating life is like a dream, how much joy can there be?
The question sounds melancholy.
But the rest of the essay transforms it.
Impermanence does not make the present meaningless.
It makes the present precious.
Why Wander by Candlelight?
古人秉燭夜遊，良有以也。
The ancients wandered at night holding candles.
Li Bai says they had good reason.
Daylight is limited.
Night is limited.
A beautiful moment does not wait for us to become ready.
The candle therefore becomes more than a source of light.
It is a response to passing time.
Because the night will end,
we illuminate it.
Spring Summons Me with Misty Scenery
況陽春召我以煙景， 大塊假我以文章。
Here the prose suddenly brightens.
大塊 refers to the vast natural world, heaven and earth, great Nature itself.
文章 in this context is not merely “an essay.”
It evokes the patterns, colours and splendour displayed by the natural world.
Spring summons the poet with mist-filled scenery.
Nature lends him its magnificent forms.
The essay moves from the brevity of life to the abundance of the world.
Li Bai does not turn away from beauty because it will disappear.
He looks more closely because it will disappear.
The Joy of Kinship
會桃花之芳園， 序天倫之樂事。
This is not simply a luxurious drinking party.
It is a family gathering.
The phrase 天倫 points toward the natural bonds of kinship.
Li Bai then praises the younger men around him:
群季俊秀，皆為惠連； 吾人詠歌，獨慚康樂。
惠連 refers to Xie Huilian, the gifted Southern Dynasties writer.
康樂 refers to Xie Lingyun, one of the great landscape poets of early medieval China.
By invoking these two literary figures, Li Bai turns a family gathering into a gathering of literary talent.
Kinship and poetry occupy the same table.
Refined Conversation Deep into the Night
幽賞未已， 高談轉清。
The appreciation of the night is not finished.
The conversation grows ever more refined.
This is one of the quietest lines in the work.
There is no spectacle here.
Its pleasure comes from being with people who can look at the same moon, admire the same blossoms and continue speaking until the night itself seems clearer.
The joy of the banquet is therefore not noise.
It is recognition.
Sitting Among Blossoms, Drunk Beneath the Moon
Then Li Bai reaches the image that becomes the musical and visual climax:
開瓊筵以坐花， 飛羽觴而醉月。
A splendid feast is opened.
The guests sit among blossoms.
Wine cups pass through the gathering.
The moon shines above them.
The phrase does not merely describe looking at flowers or looking at the moon.
The people seem absorbed into both.
They sit within the blossoms.
They become drunk beneath the moon.
If “life is like a dream” is the great question of the essay,
this is Li Bai’s lived answer.
Life is brief.
Do not waste the blossoms.
Do not waste the moon.
Do not waste the people who are here tonight.
If the Poem Is Not Completed, Drink
The ending becomes lighter:
不有佳詠，何伸雅懷？ 如詩不成，罰依金谷酒數。
Without fine poetry, how could such elegant feelings be expressed?
And if someone fails to complete a poem, the penalty follows the drinking rule associated with the famous Golden Valley gathering.
The 金谷 allusion allows Li Bai to end not with a solemn philosophical conclusion, but with cultivated humour.
The essay begins with heaven, earth and generations.
It ends with a poem, a cup of wine and laughter among companions.
That movement is part of its enduring charm.
A Work with Variant Titles
The work has circulated under related titles including 春夜宴桃李園序 and 春夜宴從弟桃花園序.
This project uses the title 《春夜宴桃李園序》.
The exact year, precise garden location and complete identities of the participants are not all securely established in surviving historical evidence.
For that reason, the MV does not present a later garden site as a literal reconstruction of an authenticated historical location.
Instead, it builds a historically grounded Tang-dynasty visual world:
timber halls,
covered corridors,
waterside pavilions,
stone terraces,
period-inspired lighting,
peach and plum blossoms,
and a group of young literary kinsmen gathering beneath the spring moon.
The intention is historical credibility without inventing certainty where certainty does not exist.
Music: A Through-Composed Setting with No Repeated Lyrics
The musical foundation is Premium Cinematic Mandopop Soul / Chinese-inspired R&B / Cinematic Guofeng.
Tempo: 72 BPM.
Meter: 6/8.
The vocal is warm, clear and restrained.
The arrangement combines:
- guqin
- xiao
- Fender Rhodes
- nylon-string guitar
- neo-soul bass
- brushed drums
- subtle hand percussion
- pipa
- guzheng
- cinematic strings
The song is through-composed.
There is no conventional verse-chorus loop.
No original sentence is repeated.
The opening “Heaven and earth are the inn of all things” remains spacious and contemplative.
“Life is like a dream, how much joy can there be?” provides the first melodic lift.
“When radiant spring summons me with misty scenery” introduces greater light and rhythmic movement.
The full arrangement finally opens at:
開瓊筵以坐花， 飛羽觴而醉月。
After this single luminous climax, the music gradually returns to intimacy.
The final Golden Valley reference closes the work with warmth and understated wit.
This is not a lament.
It is not a theatrical drinking anthem.
It is a spring night experienced fully because everyone knows that spring nights end.
The MV: From Solitude to Gathering, and Back to Solitude
Li Bai enters the garden alone.
He reflects beneath blossoms and moonlight.
His younger kinsmen arrive.
The banquet is prepared.
Wine is poured.
They sit together.
They converse.
They recite.
Cups rise.
Petals fall.
The moon stands above the feast.
The visual and musical climax meet at “sitting among blossoms, drunk beneath the moon.”
Then the energy recedes.
The banquet quiets.
The guests say farewell.
Lights are gathered.
The garden becomes still.
Li Bai faces the moon alone once more.
But the solitude at the end is not the same as the solitude at the beginning.
A night has happened between them.
And perhaps that is the most human answer the essay gives to the brevity of life.
📜 Complete Lyrics / Original Text with English Translation
Li Bai, Chun Ye Yan Tao Li Yuan Xu
Complete original classical text set to music
No lyrical expansion, rewriting, added lyrics or repeated original lines
【Heaven, Time and Floating Life】
夫天地者，
萬物之逆旅也；
Heaven and earth
are the inn of all things;
光陰者，
百代之過客也。
time
is the passing traveller through a hundred generations.
而浮生若夢，
為歡幾何？
And this floating life is like a dream;
how much joy can there be?
【Candlelight and the Scenery of Spring】
古人秉燭夜遊，
良有以也。
The ancients wandered by candlelight at night;
they truly had good reason.
況陽春召我以煙景，
大塊假我以文章；
How much more when radiant spring summons me with mist-wreathed scenery,
and great Nature lends me its splendid patterns;
【The Peach-Blossom Garden and the Joy of Kinship】
會桃花之芳園，
序天倫之樂事。
we gather in the fragrant garden of peach blossoms
to celebrate the joys of kinship.
【Talented Kinsmen, Poetry and Refined Conversation】
群季俊秀，
皆為惠連；
My younger kinsmen are all talented and graceful,
each worthy of comparison with Xie Huilian;
吾人詠歌，
獨慚康樂。
as I join them in poetry and song,
I alone feel ashamed before Kangle, Xie Lingyun.
幽賞未已，
高談轉清。
Our secluded appreciation is not yet finished,
and our lofty conversation grows ever more refined.
【The Feast, Blossoms and Moonlit Wine】
開瓊筵以坐花，
飛羽觴而醉月。
We spread a splendid feast and sit among the blossoms;
winged wine cups pass swiftly as we drink beneath the moon.
【Fine Verse and the Golden Valley Drinking Rule】
不有佳詠，
何伸雅懷？
Without fine verses,
how could we express such elegant feelings?
如詩不成，
罰依金谷酒數。
If a poem is not completed,
the penalty shall follow the drinking rule of the Golden Valley banquet.
From “Life Is a Dream” to “Drunk Beneath the Moon”
Spring Night Banquet in the Peach and Plum Garden does not deny that time takes everything away.
It begins by saying exactly that.
We are travellers.
Time moves on.
Life resembles a dream.
Yet Li Bai’s response is not withdrawal.
Because spring will pass,
look at spring.
Because night will end,
light the candles.
Because gatherings disperse,
raise the cup.
Because life is finite,
write the poem now.
More than a millennium later, the question remains startlingly alive:
而浮生若夢，為歡幾何？
Perhaps the answer is not a number.
Perhaps the answer is whether, when a night worth remembering finally arrives,
we are truly present for it.
💿 Credits
- Song Title: Preface to a Spring Night Banquet in the Peach and Plum Garden
- Chinese Title: 春夜宴桃李園序
- Classical Source: Li Bai, Chun Ye Yan Tao Li Yuan Xu
- Literary Period: Tang Dynasty
- Literary Form: Banquet preface / classical prose with parallel-prose elements
- Original Text / Complete Sung Text: Li Bai
- Lyrics Format: 100% original classical text, with no modern lyrical expansion, rewriting, added lyrics or repeated original lines
- Lyric Order: Strictly follows the original text from beginning to end
- Music Style: Premium Cinematic Mandopop Soul / Chinese-inspired R&B / Cinematic Guofeng
- Tempo / Meter: 72 BPM / 6/8
- Composition / Arrangement: Suno AI / Grandevity Studio
- Vocals: Suno AI Mandarin male vocal
- Music Production: Grandevity Studio
- AI-Assisted Visuals: ChatGPT Images
- Video Editing / Art Direction / Creative Production: Grandevity Studio
- Released by: Grandevity Limited
- Production Year: 2026
- Official MV: https://youtu.be/eD2EnVAvVwE
Music Style and Mood:
Premium Cinematic Mandopop Soul / Chinese-inspired R&B / Cinematic Guofeng. At 72 BPM in 6/8, the through-composed arrangement carries Li Bai’s complete text without repeating a lyric line. It begins with the philosophical spaciousness of heaven, earth, time and floating life; brightens through spring mist and the peach-blossom garden; gathers warmth through kinship, poetry and refined conversation; then reaches its single luminous climax at “We spread a splendid feast and sit among the blossoms; winged cups pass as we drink beneath the moon.” The work closes with the cultivated humour of the Golden Valley drinking penalty and the lingering stillness of the spring night.
⚖️ Copyright Notice
Li Bai’s classical prose text Spring Night Banquet in the Peach and Plum Garden is in the public domain.
The sung text in this musical work is drawn entirely from Li Bai’s original classical text. No modern lyrical expansion, paraphrase, added lyrics or newly written lyrical passages have been introduced.
The music production, sound recording, arrangement, mixing, mastering, MV visuals, cover artwork, video editing, subtitles, storyboarding, art direction, promotional copy and overall creative production were created by or lawfully produced for Grandevity Limited / Grandevity Studio. Relevant rights are retained and administered in accordance with applicable law and the terms governing the production platforms used.
Unauthorized re-uploading, redistribution, reproduction, editing, sampling, commercial use, platform distribution, AI training, dataset use, remixing, or incorporation into another audiovisual work is prohibited except where otherwise permitted by applicable law or license.
Licensing Contact:
About This Project
Spring Night Banquet in the Peach and Plum Garden is part of Grandevity Studio’s Classical Literature Reimagined in Music series.
The purpose is not to replace classical literature with newly written lyrics.
It is to allow the original language to become sound again.
Moonlight again.
Spring mist again.
A cup passed beneath blossoms again.
A group of people choosing, before time moves on, to be fully present for one night.
Li Bai asks:
浮生若夢，為歡幾何？
More than a thousand years later,
the question remains.
But on this particular night,
the blossoms are open.
The companions have arrived.
The wine has been poured.
And the moon is exactly where it should be.