LYRICS IN THE DESCRIPTION 歌词见视频介绍

北洋水师军歌, Anthem of the Beiyang Fleet. The Beiyang Fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy, if you don't know, is uh...a pretty interesting topic, among Chinese military fans. So basically the story is: China's best modernized navy got completely wrecked by Japan in the humiliating defeat of the First Sino-Japanese War. Now there's a lot of sources avaliable on the internet about the War so I'm not gonna delve into the details of things.

Instead let's talk about this über-bizzare song, basically a weird but yet somewhat awesome mash-up of qiyan jueju poetry, traditional Chinese opera and Western orchestral march, the perfect symbolism of China in the late-19th and 20th century--the old and the new, surreally coexisting, for a time.

Now very little info is available about this because the song basically got lost after the Qing Dynasty was overthrown and the Beiyang Fleet disbanded. For a long time Chinese historians knew that a song for the Beiyang Fleet existed, but had no idea what it's like. Until in 2009, the Chinese Naval History Research Committee (中国海军史研究会) found a staff sheet of the song's tune and lyrics...in the UK.

So apparently Qing Dynasty China and the British Empire had a lot of naval dealings back in the old days, and according to Western custom both nations' naval anthems needed to be played on official occasions--thus the sheet music stored in British archives, as reference for the Royal Marines Band Service.

So, 120 years after the humiliation that is the First Sino-Japanese War, the Anthem of the Beiyang Fleet came back to life.

THIS VIDEO IS SOLELY DEDICATED TO THE ARTISTIC STUDY AND SHARING OF MUSIC
INTENTIONALLY HOSTILE POLITICAL BS IS NOT WELCOMED
视频仅供对音乐艺术方面的学习分享
不欢迎任何以引战为目的的政治言论

LYRICS
宝祚延庥万国欢
景星拱极五云端
海波澄碧春辉丽
旌节花间集凤鸾

（白话文翻译：
皇位国运昌隆兴盛，普天下万国欢庆
象征国泰民安的景星呈现在五彩祥云之端
海波清澈碧蓝在春日下亮丽生辉
各国使节纷纷朝贺臣服，帝国好似花中凤鸾）

Ten thousand nations celebrate the imperial throne's prosperity
The fortune star climbs over the iridescent clouds of five colours
The crystal blue ocean glitters under spring's sunshine
Tributaries bow to the Empire like flowers centring a phoenix

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