Fang Yun looked at Shen Ming without the slightest hurry and calmly said, "Chief Clerk Shen, what is the meaning of this?"
Shen Ming smiled. "Forgive this old man for being so forgetful. This lyric gathering is somewhat special; it is not merely a matter of writing one lyric."
Fang Yun looked toward the gathering's host, the old Provincial Graduate.
The old Provincial Graduate sat below the stage. Rising with a smile, he said, "I thought Chief Clerk Shen had explained it to you on the road. It seems he did not—what an unfortunate oversight. Then let me explain again. This is a 'Tune-Transformation Literary Gathering.' Not only must everyone write one lyric, they must also write a second, using the content of the first lyric as a foundation and rewriting it in a different tune pattern."
Upon hearing the words "Tune-Transformation Literary Gathering," Fang Yun's advisers all changed color.
There were countless kinds of literary gatherings, but a Tune-Transformation Literary Gathering was absolutely the most troublesome among them. Lyrics had fixed forms: fixed numbers of lines, fixed numbers of characters, fixed tonal patterns. Every lyric had its prescribed format, and its rhyme scheme also had to be considered.
A lyric like Fisherman's Song could be composed quickly by many people, but revising it into another lyric based on Fisherman's Song required long contemplation. It was not enough to merely add lines and create a new lyric; one also had to pay attention to the content, artistic conception, and rhyme.
Moreover, choosing a new tune pattern and format for the transformation was only the beginning. If the revision was not good enough, that would not do either.
Especially for a lyric as beautiful as Fisherman's Song, an inadequate rewrite would be tarnishing the original. At a Tune-Transformation Literary Gathering, it