Waking up at night, I really felt the ‘bright moonlight before my bed’ feeling.
Tips
history
Opening of Li Bai 李白's 《静夜思》 (Tang): ‘床前明月光，疑是地上霜。举头望明月，低头思故乡。’ (Before my bed bright moonlight — I thought it was frost on the ground. Raising my head I look at the bright moon; lowering my head I think of home.) The single most memorised Chinese poem of all time.
usage
‘床’ here traditionally meant a low couch or well-railing, not a modern Western bed; scholars still debate the exact referent. Always quoted alongside the following three lines.
culture
Often the first Tang poem Chinese children learn — used as a cultural shorthand for both homesickness and ‘basic Chinese literacy.’
