A Lantern Enters the Water: Sending Old Dreams Downstream Toward a City of Lights
Grandevity Limited presents A Lantern Enters the Water, a soulful Mandopop R&B reinterpretation inspired by Xin Qiji’s Southern Song lyric poem Written on the Wall at Zaokou.
Some lights are meant to illuminate the road ahead.
Others must first enter the water before they reveal what should be entrusted to the river, and what warmth is still worth carrying back into the human world.
A Lantern Enters the Water is a Mandarin male-vocal R&B song inspired by the Southern Song poet Xin Qiji’s celebrated lyric poem, Pusa Man: Written on the Wall at Zaokou.
The clear river, travellers’ tears, countless mountains and unstoppable eastward current of the original poem flow into a new landscape of mist, a solitary boat, a long riverbank and the first evening lantern. Eventually, they arrive in a modern riverside city illuminated by thousands of lights.
This is not simply a classical poem rearranged as a traditional Chinese-style song. Nor does it reduce the historical sorrow of Xin Qiji’s work to personal heartbreak.
At its heart, the song carries a more enduring message:
Even when ten thousand mountains stand before us, we can entrust our old dreams to the river, open our hearts to wider waters and continue walking toward the lights of the human world.
Watch the MV: 🎬 A Lantern Enters the Water — Official Music Video
Headphones recommended. Watch one lantern enter the river and become a city filled with lights.
From the Waters Below Yugū Terrace to a City of Ten Thousand Lights
Xin Qiji’s Pusa Man: Written on the Wall at Zaokou has never been merely a poem about a river.
Below Yugū Terrace flows the clear river;
how many travellers’ tears lie within its waters?
The river continues eastward, yet its waters seem to carry the accumulated grief of countless people displaced by war and history.
Looking northwest, the poet sees his view obstructed by endless mountains. They conceal the direction of the lost northern homeland and all that remains beyond his reach.
Yet mountains may obstruct the eye; they cannot stop the river:
The green mountains cannot hold it back;
eastward, after all, the river must flow.
These lines contain both the sorrow of history and an irrepressible force of life.
Mountains may divide the land, but water continues to find its course. Reality may burden the human spirit, but neither time nor determination can remain imprisoned forever.
A Lantern Enters the Water begins with this very power: the power of that which cannot be held back.
Rather than directly retelling the historical circumstances of the original poem, the new lyrics allow its river to continue flowing through time until it reaches another evening:
light rain brushes the sleeves beside a solitary boat.
I turn and ask the long riverbank,
as sunset sinks behind ten thousand mountains.
The restless heart cannot be detained;
a traveller’s dreams follow the current away.
At dusk, the first lantern appears by the shore,
while a gentle wind moves through the reeds.
The riverside cliffs grow green beneath the rain. A solitary boat passes along the long bank, while worldly burdens and wandering dreams begin to drift away with the current.
This departure is neither a violent severing nor an attempt to forget.
It is the quiet moment when, after crossing a great distance, someone finally opens their hands and accepts that certain memories no longer need to remain within the heart forever.
Then evening settles over the riverbank, and the first lantern is lit:
One lantern enters the water; ten thousand lights enter the city.
How One Lantern Becomes an Entire City
The lantern entering the water does not signify that its flame has been extinguished.
It describes a single light reflected upon the river. Its wavering image travels with the current and, through music and cinematic transition, gradually becomes the countless lights of a modern city.
The single lantern is solitary, personal and ancient.
The ten thousand lights belong to the living world: modern streets, inhabited windows and people continuing to illuminate one another.
The movement from one light to many is more than a visual transition between past and present. It is the song’s central spiritual transformation.
A person who once stood alone among history and old dreams begins walking back toward humanity, the city and life itself.
The chorus carries this transformation into a wider emotional landscape:
I send my old dreams to the long riverbank
and let them follow the waves toward distant mountains.
City lights shine across the sea of people;
among them, one still keeps me warm.
The light that “still keeps me warm” is not intended as a conventional romantic answer.
It might be a softly illuminated window, a quiet riverside café, a streetlamp waiting beside an empty road or the understanding that, even after loss, the human world still contains acceptance, belonging and kindness.
The river carries the old dreams away, but the light does not disappear.
On the contrary, only after releasing the past can we recognise the light that may have been waiting for us all along.
Early-2000s Mandopop R&B: Letting the River Enter a Modern Rhythm
Musically, A Lantern Enters the Water draws upon soulful early-2000s Mandopop R&B.
A warm male vocal, Fender Rhodes electric piano, nylon-string acoustic guitar, understated hip-hop drums, a neo-soul bassline and layered backing harmonies form the song’s modern emotional foundation. Subtle guzheng and bamboo-flute textures emerge like distant voices from within the river mist, preserving the atmosphere of Southern Song landscapes beneath the contemporary arrangement.
This is not traditional “ancient-style” music.
It is closer to an urban Mandarin R&B ballad shaped by the sound of the early 2000s, while the clear river from Xin Qiji’s poem continues to flow beneath its melody.
- Fender Rhodes piano carries the warmth of the night and the glow of the modern city.
- The R&B rhythm allows classical lines to enter the breath and heartbeat of contemporary listeners.
- Guzheng and bamboo flute serve not as decorative markers of “Eastern” style, but as echoes of history, water and distant mountains.
- The male vocal moves gradually from restrained contemplation toward openness, allowing release to unfold naturally rather than arrive as a sudden revelation.
When the song declares:
Though ten thousand mountains may divide the road ahead,
my heart still opens toward wide waters and clouds.
The “countless mountains” of Xin Qiji’s original poem have not disappeared.
Difficulties remain. The mountains still stand in the distance. What has changed is the human heart: it is no longer enclosed by them, but turns instead toward the river, the sky and a wider world.
This is the song’s most important modern response to Xin Qiji.
The MV: From Southern Song Zaokou to a Modern River City
The music video adopts a visual narrative that moves between ancient and modern worlds.
Its historical scenes are set around Zaokou in Southern Song Jiangxi: a broad river, towering waterfront cliffs, an ancient ferry crossing, wooden boats, mountain paths, drifting mist and skies heavy with approaching rain. Together, these images create a landscape marked by both natural grandeur and historical memory.
Xin Qiji stands beside the river, looking across the water and the mountains. Against the immensity of the landscape, the poet appears small but never powerless. The river, wind and mountains are both physical surroundings and echoes of an age he cannot ignore.
As the line “One lantern enters the water; ten thousand lights enter the city” is sung, the reflection of a solitary riverside lantern transforms into the lights of a modern metropolis.
The same river flows from an ancient ferry into a contemporary city. The same face passes from a witness of history into a traveller walking among the crowds of the present.
The modern protagonist crosses long riverbanks, bridges, waterfront paths and illuminated streets. He entrusts his old dreams to the current and, among the people and lights of the city, discovers a place where his heart can rest.
When he finally reaches the calm opposite shore and looks back, the distant rain and mist have already dissolved into the immense sky.
The mountains remain.
The river continues to flow.
But the heart has finally become wide enough to contain them both.
📜 Complete Lyrics with English Translation
[Original Poem — Xin Qiji, Pusa Man: Written on the Wall at Zaokou]
鬱孤臺下清江水，
中間多少行人淚？
西北望長安，
可憐無數山。
青山遮不住，
畢竟東流去。
江晚正愁余，
山深聞鷓鴣。
how many travellers’ tears lie within its waters?
Northwest, I gaze toward Chang’an,
but countless mountains fill my sight.
The green mountains cannot hold it back;
eastward, after all, the river must flow.
At evening by the river, sorrow gathers within me;
deep in the mountains, partridges call.
[New Classical Verse — Geng Yeqian, Pusa Man: New Green Rises Through the Mist]
壁間煙水生新翠，
扁舟疏雨沾輕袂。
回首問長灘，
夕陽沉萬山。
塵心留不住，
客夢隨波去。
汀晚一燈初，
風徐搖岸蘆。
light rain brushes the sleeves beside a solitary boat.
I turn and ask the long riverbank,
as sunset sinks behind ten thousand mountains.
The restless heart cannot be detained;
a traveller’s dreams follow the current away.
At dusk, the first lantern appears by the shore,
while a gentle wind moves through the reeds.
[Transition — Where Past and Present Meet]
一燈入水，萬燈入城。
ten thousand lights enter the city.
[Chorus — Entrusting Old Dreams to the River]
我把舊夢寄給長灘，
任它隨波向遠山。
滿城燈火照過人海，
仍有一盞為我暖。
若前路隔著萬重山，
此心仍向水雲寬。
行到風輕浪靜那一岸，
回望處，煙雨入長天。
and let them follow the waves toward distant mountains.
City lights shine across the sea of people;
among them, one still keeps me warm.
Though ten thousand mountains may divide the road ahead,
my heart still opens toward wide waters and clouds.
When I reach the shore where the wind is soft and the waves are still,
I look back and see the misty rain dissolve into the endless sky.
[Bridge — The River Is Silent, the Heart Grows Wide]
風過長汀，燈影微瀾。
水聲不語，送過千山。
回首處，煙水自寬。
The water speaks no words as it carries them beyond a thousand mountains.
Looking back, I find the mist and water widening on their own.
[Final Chorus — Reaching the Shore of Quiet Waters]
我把舊夢寄給長灘，
任它隨波向遠山。
滿城燈火照過人海，
仍有一盞為我暖。
若前路隔著萬重山，
此心仍向水雲寬。
行到風輕浪靜那一岸，
回望處，煙雨入長天。
and let them follow the waves toward distant mountains.
City lights shine across the sea of people;
among them, one still keeps me warm.
Though ten thousand mountains may divide the road ahead,
my heart still opens toward wide waters and clouds.
When I reach the shore where the wind is soft and the waves are still,
I look back and see the misty rain dissolve into the endless sky.
[Outro — One Lantern and Ten Thousand Lights]
壁間煙水生新翠，
一燈入水，萬燈入城。
One lantern enters the water; ten thousand lights enter the city.
A Song for Those Who Still Choose to Move Forward
Perhaps everyone carries a landscape they cannot easily cross.
It may be a love that never found its ending, a dream that could not be realised, a farewell that cannot be undone or an earlier self who unexpectedly returns to mind at dusk.
A Lantern Enters the Water does not ask us to erase these memories.
It simply suggests that old dreams may remain without becoming mountains that obstruct every road ahead.
We can entrust them to the long riverbank and watch them drift toward the distance. We can continue searching among the city lights for the one light that still offers warmth.
Though ten thousand mountains may divide the road ahead,
my heart still opens toward wide waters and clouds.
True release does not mean never looking back.
It means that when we do look back, the rain has already entered the boundless sky, the waters have grown wide and the heart has finally made room for a larger world.
💿 Credits
- Song Title: 《一燈入水》
- English Title: A Lantern Enters the Water
- Classical Source: Xin Qiji, Southern Song dynasty, Pusa Man: Written on the Wall at Zaokou
- Original Classical Lyrics: Xin Qiji
- New Classical Verse: Pusa Man: New Green Rises Through the Mist
- Expanded Lyrics / Adaptation: Geng Yeqian
- Music Composition and Arrangement: Suno AI v5.5 / Grandevity Limited
- Vocal Performance: Suno AI v5.5
- Music, Visuals and Creative Production: Grandevity Limited
- Released by: Grandevity Limited
- Production Year: 2026
Musical Style and Mood:
Early-2000s soulful Mandopop R&B, Chinese fusion and male-vocal Mandarin pop. Fender Rhodes electric piano, nylon-string acoustic guitar, neo-soul bass, soft hip-hop drums, layered harmonies, guzheng and bamboo flute create a world of riverside mist, city lights, departing dreams and an opening heart.
⚖️ Copyright Notice
Xin Qiji’s Pusa Man: Written on the Wall at Zaokou is a classical literary work in the public domain.
The original expanded lyrics, modern lyrical adaptation, music production, sound recording, audiovisual arrangement, MV imagery, cover artwork, copywriting, storyboard design and overall creative concept of this project are original or lawfully used materials and are protected by applicable copyright and related laws.
Unauthorised copying, re-uploading, redistribution, republication, editing, sampling, commercial use, reproduction, public broadcasting, use in other audiovisual works, AI model training, dataset compilation or any other automated reuse is strictly prohibited without prior written permission from the rights holder.
© 2026 Grandevity Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Licensing and Business Enquiries:
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About the Project
A Lantern Enters the Water is part of Grandevity Limited’s Classical Literature Reimagined in Music series.
Our aim is to bring classical Chinese poetry beyond textbooks, annotations and memorisation, allowing it to enter contemporary music, visual storytelling and lived emotional experience.
Centuries ago, Xin Qiji stood beside the clear river. He saw countless mountains, but he also saw an eastward current that could not be restrained.
Centuries later, another traveller stands among the lights of a modern river city. He entrusts his old dreams to the long shore and continues walking toward wider waters and clouds.
The landscapes have changed, but the river remains.
May this song accompany you across the mountains within your heart. And among all the lights of the city, may there always be one that keeps you warm.