The Sword March
The Sword March | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Traditional Chinese | 大刀進行曲 | ||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 大刀进行曲 | ||||||||
Literal meaning | The Big-Knife March | ||||||||
| |||||||||
"The Sword March" is a Chinese patriotic song first sung in the Republic of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War (World War II) after the Japanese invasion of 1937. It is also known in Chinese by its first line, Dàdāo xiàng guǐzi de tóu shàng kǎn qù: "Our dadaos raised o'er the devils' heads! Hack them off!"
History
Mai Xin wrote the song in 1937 specifically to honour the valour of the 29th Army[1] during the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, where their standard weapons were only a rifle and a sword known in Chinese as a dadao. Originally an agricultural tool, the long-hilted Dadao with its powerful chopping blade was a favourite weapon of peasant militias. As this name literally means "big knife", the song was also known as "The Big Sword March". Guizi—literally, "the hateful one(s)"—was a racial epithet formerly used against the Western powers during the failed Boxer Rebellion; the anthem helped popularise its use in reference to the Japanese, which remains current in modern China.
The lyrics were later changed to broaden its appeal from just the 29th to the "entire nation's" armed forces.[1] This song became the de facto army marching cadence in the Chinese National Revolutionary Army. The Chinese television series known in English as Chop! in fact used the song's opening line as its title. It also appears in the films Lust, Caution and The Children of Huang Shi.
Lyrics
Simplified Chinese | Traditional Chinese | Pinyin | English Translation |
---|---|---|---|
大刀向鬼子们的头上砍去! | 大刀向鬼子們的頭上砍去! | Dàdāo xiàng guǐzi men de tóu shàng kǎn qù! | Our swords raised over the devils' heads, hack 'em off! |
References
- ^ a b Lei, Bryant. "New Songs of the Battlefield": Songs and Memories of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, p. 85. University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh), 2004.
External links
- 1963 music video from the opera Revolutionary History Song Performance
- v
- t
- e
1912–1949
- How Great is Our China!
- China Heroically Stands in the Universe
- Song of Five Races Under One Union
- Song to the Auspicious Cloud
- March of the Volunteers
- National Anthem of the Republic of China
- National Flag Anthem of the Republic of China
- 800 Heroes Song
- The Sword March
- Along the Sungari River
- The Great Wall Ballad
- Guerrillas' Song
- In the Taihang Mountains [zh]
- Marshal Training Soldier Song
- Song of the National Revolution
- Gong Xi Gong Xi
People's Republic of China
- March of the Volunteers
- Workers, Peasants and Soldiers, Unite [zh]
- The East is Red
- The Internationale
- Military Anthem of the Eighth Route Army
- Nanniwan
- Ode to the Motherland
- Song of the Military and Political University of Resistance Against Japan
- Three Rules and Eight Notices
- Unity is Strength
- Osmanthus Flowers Blooming Everywhere in August
- The Sky Above the Liberated Zone
- When Motherland Calls Upon Us
- Yellow River Cantata
- To the Rear of the Enemy
- I Love Beijing Tiananmen
- March of the People's Liberation Army
- I Love the Motherland's Blue Skies
- My Motherland
- Long Live Comrade Mao for Ten Thousand Years
- Red Star Shines
- Socialism is Good
- I Am a Soldier [zh]
- Learn from Comrade Lei Feng
- Sailing the Seas Depends on the Helmsman
- Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China
- My Chinese Heart
- My People, My Country
- Bloodstained Glory
- Loyalty to the Country
- Story of Spring
- When That Day Comes
- Towards Revival
- I Love You, China
- On the Great Road
since 1949
- National Anthem of the Republic of China
- National Flag Anthem of the Republic of China
- Ode to the Republic of China
- The Plum Blossom
- 800 Heroes Song
- Night Raid [zh]
- Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Song
- Chiang Ching-kuo Memorial Song
- Go and Reclaim the Mainland
- Taiwan Is Good
- The Anti-Communist and Anti-Russian Aggression Song