The slogan of moving forward is an exhilarating cry

Author: Li Chunfa

Among the many songs that reflect the life of the troops, there is a song with a strong sense of picture, permeation of agility and cordiality, like a beautiful freehand painting, which is related to the seaside "Return from Target Shooting". This song composed in the 1960s is full of military life, quite poetic, refreshing, like drinking sweet springs; like a leaf light boat floating through the years of thunder and clouds, quietly anchoring in people's hearts, unforgettable; especially the sonorous and powerful, loud and high-pitched, passionate "one-two-three-four" at the end of the song is a slogan for progress and an exhilarating cry.

The lyrics are derived from a small poem

This cheerful and energetic lyrics came from the hand of Niu Baoyuan, a young warrior at that time. He was just a 20-year-old tank soldier with an elementary school education. In March 1956, Niu Baoyuan joined the army from Beizhen County, Liaoning Province, and began his long-awaited military career. Although he only had a primary school education, Niu Baoyuan had a talent for literature and art since he was a child, coupled with his modesty and studiousness, positive and self-motivated, often diligently reading with his hands, burying his head in writing whenever he had free time, and became the literary and artistic backbone of the company after enlisting in the army. He is good at observation, and often records the good people and good deeds, new people and new things that have emerged in the military family, or writes them into small poems, or compiles them into a number of treasures, allegro, and cross-talk, and performs them in the team. Over time, his performance has been loved and admired by everyone, and he has become a small talent recognized by the whole team. In March 1959, Niu Baoyuan accompanied the tank regiment of the 1st Mechanized Division of the Chinese People's Liberation Army stationed in Dalian to Dalian Huanglongwei for live-fire training. After several months of shooting training, Niu Baoyuan has trained excellent shooting skills, repeatedly playing 48 rings in 5 bullets, and several times wearing red flowers on his chest has been commended.

One evening, after returning from training, the spirited Niu Baoyuan was looking for inspiration for artistic creation in the camp as usual. Unconsciously approaching the shooting range, suddenly came the series of familiar and loud songs of the military song "I am a soldier" born in the summer of 1950...

It turned out that there was a group of warriors carrying guns, carrying target plates, wearing large red flowers on their chests, walking in the sunset with great vigor and vigor, and the faces of the warriors were full of youthful and cheerful smiles. Suddenly, this moving picture triggered Niu Baoyuan's creative inspiration, and a thought flashed: how good it would be if there was a song that reflected the warrior's target! You might as well try to write a song like this. He hurriedly took out the notebook he was carrying and wrote four small poems:

At sunset, the red light of the western mountains flew, and the soldiers hit the target to return to the camp;

The red flowers on the chest reflect the rainbow, and the crisp gunshots are flying all over the sky.

That night, after returning to the barracks, Niu Baoyuan repeatedly pondered, revised and deliberated on the small poem. Subsequently, a relevant literary and art journal "Selected Literary and Artistic Creations of the Army" sent to the editor-in-chief of the Political Department of the Shenyang Military Region was quickly published.

Resonate with the lyrics

After the publication of this fresh and timeless poem, it aroused the interest of another young literary and artistic youth of the army, that is, Wang Yongquan, the composer of "Returning from Shooting Targets". In early 1960, Wang Yongquan was serving as the director of a club in a regiment of infantry in the People's Liberation Army, when the unit completed the construction task and was about to start military training, he wanted to write a song in combination with the military training of the troops. When preparing materials, the military region sent a publication from a year ago, "Selected Literary and Artistic Creations of the Troops," and Wang Yongquan read Niu Baoyuan's small poem while flipping through it, and immediately felt resonant, and wanted to copy it down to prepare for composition.

Because the literary and art performance was imminent at that time, the time was tight, and there was no time for new works, Wang Yongquan studied the small poems and modified the places that contradicted "common sense" to make them more suitable for the singing format and rhyme of the songs. Wang Yongquan felt that he would not wear safflower on his chest when he returned from a routine target shooting, because it was not a triumph. The "wind exhibition red flag" scene is much more spectacular. Immediately, he changed the "red flower on the chest" to "wind exhibition red flag". He also thinks that the phrase "crisp gunshots flying all over the sky" is inappropriate, and he feels that there will be crisp gunshots when shooting targets, but when he returns, he can't release the gun indiscriminately, right? At the end of the target shooting, the proud mood and cheerful smile of the soldiers after achieving excellent results are the best to express themselves with songs, which should be loud and "pleasant songs" echoing in the sky. Therefore, Wang Yongquan changed the fourth sentence to "Happy singing is flying all over the sky". With this change, there is the first lyrics of the song "Returning from the Target":

At sunset, the red light of the western mountains flew, and the soldiers shot the target to return to the camp.

The wind showed the red flag and reflected the rainbow, and the happy songs flew all over the sky.

Immediately afterward, Wang Yongquan felt that the content of these 4 small poems seemed a little thin, so he added two lyrics with a happy pen:

The song flew to their hometown, and the fathers and elders listened to the smiling and squinting, and everyone praised everyone and said that their children had a chance.

The song flew to Beijing, and Chairman Mao listened to it with joy, praised us for singing well, and praised us for being the first in marksmanship.

After the lyrics were written, Wang Yongquan went to seek the opinions of the chief and the comrades of the performance team, and the comrades thought that the meaning of the lyrics seemed to be somewhat repetitive. Therefore, according to everyone's opinions, Wang Yongquan deleted and revised the addendum part, deleted the paragraph "the song flew to the hometown", and finally finalized the lyrics. In this way, the two lyrics echo back and forth, in one breath. The "realism" of the first paragraph and the "freehand" of the second paragraph are in perfect harmony and complement each other perfectly.

Finally, Wang Yongquan composed the song using the folk tune he was familiar with in northern Shaanxi, combined with some of the styles of the military camp march, and added the tone of "MisolaMiso" and the "one-two-three-four" accent, fully showing the pride and joy of the soldiers who achieved excellent results in target shooting.

The tune is like the wings of the lyrics, and the good words are accompanied by the wonderful song to naturally spread their wings and fly. Wang Yongquan, with his profound literacy in national music, after absorbing the elements of folk songs in northern Shaanxi, after repeated chanting, came to fruition, and "the tune naturally arose" (Wang Yongquan's original words).

Several awards have been widely sung

Wang Yongquan submitted the finished product of "Returning from Target Shooting" to the All-Army Literary and Art Performance, which stood out in a large number of works and won the only first prize in the song category.

"Returning from the Target" is a queue song with both folk song style and march characteristics. The innovation of this song is that it directly sings the short score "Misolamiso, Lasomedolai", which increases the cheerful and lively atmosphere of the song, fully shows the unity and tension of the revolutionary fighters, the serious and lively fighting style and optimism, and reflects the pride and joy of the soldiers. When Wang Yongquan later recalled the past, he said that the original song used tone words such as "ah" and "oh hi yo", but it sounded unnatural and disharmonious. In the repeated audition modifications, he suddenly thought that when teaching soldiers to sing, they first taught the simple score, and the soldiers also liked to sing the simple score, so why not use the simple score pronunciation to sing it directly? So there is today's song "MisolaMiso, Lasomedo" such a way of singing. At the end of the song, a password "one-two-three-four" is added, which can better reflect the style of military songs and more in line with the characteristics of marching songs.

Interestingly, due to the closed news at that time, Niu Baoyuan never knew that his poetry had become a popular "popular song" inside and outside the military. Until one day in the autumn of 1960, Niu Baoyuan overheard "Returning from Target Shooting" broadcast by the Central People's Radio from the radio, and the familiar lyrics made him feel unusually kind. He happily went to find the record, and after several ups and downs, when he got the record in his hand, he saw his name printed on the record.

In view of the increasing influence of "The Return of the Target" among the masses and the strong response, in September 1964, the General Political Department of the People's Liberation Army specially awarded Niu Baoyuan a certificate. For a long time, Niu Baoyuan regarded this award as a precious item and carefully collected it. Since then, he has successively created a large number of literary and artistic works, which have been published in newspapers and periodicals such as "People's Liberation Army Daily", "People's Liberation Army Literature and Art", and "Songs".

In March 1976, Niu Baoyuan retired from the army and transferred to local work, and finally retired from his position as a lawyer in 2002 and lived in Fushun. Decades have passed, and he still talks about the birth and circulation of "The Return of The Target" as he is still a rare family treasure. He said modestly: "That song is a well composed song, the lyrics only express my feelings on the training ground at that time and a true depiction of life in the barracks, which is the source of creation given to me by the army." To Niu Baoyuan's regret, he never met wang Yongquan, a composer who originally lived in Shenyang(shenyang), who died in 2007.

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, "Returning from Target Shooting" was included in "Those Songs That Evoke My Beautiful Memories" published by China Radio International Publishing House and "Unforgettable Songs" published by Shanghai Music Publishing House. Composer Wang Yongquan was also included in the Directory of Chinese Musicians, the Pocket Music Dictionary, and the Dictionary of Contemporary Chinese Writers and Artists, and became a member and executive director of the Chinese Musicians Association and the China Music Copyright Law Association, and a composer of the Forward Song and Dance Troupe of the Political Department of the Shenyang Military Region. In addition to "Return from Shooting Targets", his main works have also composed more than 200 songs such as "I Became the People's Liberation Army" and "The Blacksmith Furnace of the Volunteer Army".

The song "Return of the Target" is self-evident in the freshness and excitement of the melody of the song, and the creative techniques are also novel and unique. With its distinctive characteristics of the times - concise and simple, close to life, beautiful melody, easy to sing, as well as brisk and lively, youthful, passionate, full of pride and enthusiasm of the fighting mood, it has become a household-name pop song, showing strong vitality, appeal and influence. It has been sung for more than half a century, along with the growth and expansion of the people's army, highlighting its eternal artistic charm of extraordinary value. (Li Chunfa)

Source: Tianjin Daily