Media file:
mus. 2.8
Title:
Sailing the Seas Depends on the Helmsman
Source:
Heidelberg catalogue entry, DACHS Archive
Keywords:
Red is the East, Cultural Revolution, Sailing the Seas Depends on the Helmsman, Mao ZedongThougth, red sun
Sailing the Seas Depends on the Helmsman
If meetings during the Cultural Revolution opened with the singing of “Red Is the East,” they ended with “Sailing the Seas Depends on the Helmsman” which in this version ingeniously integrates the imagery and choreography from the 1964 introduction to “Red Is the East,” the dance epic, with this song. Like so many of the other “sounds from the Cultural Revolution,” this song is not one engendered in, or exclusive to, the Cultural Revolution.
“Sailing the Seas Depends on the Helmsman” dates back to 1964, when it was first publicized under the title “Engaging in the Revolution, We Depend on Mao Zedong Thought” (干革命靠的是毛泽东思想 Gan geming kaode shi Mao Zedong sixiang) during a movement instigated by Lin Biao to further the study of Mao Zedong Thought. Zhou Enlai is said to have discovered and promoted the song in 1965, and it was mentioned as a model song in the party journal Red Flag that year (see Hongqi 1965.3:32, which includes a selection of thirteen revolutionary songs). Zhou is also said to have worked in support of the song throughout the Cultural Revolution and to have been instrumental in adding it to the first volume of the influential collection New Battle Songs (1972), where it was originally not to be included, perhaps because of its associations with Lin Biao’s campaign to idolize Mao (Bryant 2004, 73).
In rhetoric similar to that used in “Red Is the East” (which is why the visuals of one can actually work with the soundtrack of the other as in the example above) this song praises Mao (the red sun) and his leadership qualities, which here are explicitly linked to his writings, Mao Zedong Thought. Elements from the song, and especially the idea that “fish can’t leave the water,” constantly reappear in the model works.
Sailing the Seas depends on the Helmsman
Life and growth depends on the Sun
Rain and dew drops nourish the crop
Making the revolution depends on Mao Zedong Thought.
Fish can’t leave the water
Nor melons leave the vine,
The revolutionary masses can’t do without the Communist Party,
Mao Zedong Thought is the sun that forever shines.
大海航行靠舵手
万物生长靠太阳
雨露滋润禾苗壮
干革命靠的是毛泽东思想.
鱼离不开水呀
瓜儿离不开秧
革命群众离不开共产党
毛泽东思想是不落的太阳.
After coming to great prominence during the Cultural Revolution, the song disappeared for a few years as so many of the cultural products from this period, yet in the late 1980s several cheeky parodies of the song resurfaced (to the great horror of the composer, Wang Shuangyin 王双印 [1932–99], who immediately sued the plagiarists). One version, far from the determined and hopeful original, presented boredom as virtue and praised life as meaningless. Styled in the rebellious hooligan (流氓 liumang) tradition reminiscent of the language of writer Wang Shuo 王朔 (1958–) and his peers, it captured that same feelings of numbness and nihilism also present in Cui Jian’s “I Have Nothing.” Along with “Red Is the East” and the “Internationale,” then, this song was certainly one of the most frequently heard during the Cultural Revolution, and it was not forgotten in its aftermath.