Stop at Each Station-Ancient Chinese Taoist Philosophy of ZhuangZhou

This song is featured on the first album, Spring · Sunlight, of The Four Seasons Project by Vivaldi. Hence, a brief introduction to this album is necessary before delving into the song.

Labeled as the "Warm Folk Songs of Taiwan Spring," Spring · Sunlight establishes a lighthearted and gentle tone throughout the album. Upon listening, one discovers that the album's core concept revolves around the "Pan" from Greek mythology, emphasized by the creator as a symbol of creativity, music, poetry, and sexuality. Innovative composition forms are abundant, including brief instrumental interludes between songs, and tracks where spoken word intertwines with singing, fostering a dreamy, warm, and hazy ambiance.

This song, "Stop at Each Station," also adopts "dream" as its theme.

Upon first reading the lyrics, listeners may be startled by their obscure language. The song begins with extensive quotes from "Zhuangzi's Equality of Things," a Chinese classic text, specifically the tale of "Zhuang Zhou Dreaming of Butterflies." In brief, Zhuang Zhou dreams he turns into a butterfly, and upon waking, with the dream vivid in his mind, he wonders: Did I turn into a butterfly in my dream, or did a butterfly dream of becoming me? In this song, the creator intentionally chooses the answer of "the butterfly dreaming of becoming a human," as written in the lyrics: "When spring sets its benchmarks, I had a dream / I dreamed that I turned into a human, walking onto the grassland." The butterfly becomes the narrative subject, transforming into a human in a nap-induced dream one afternoon. As it wanders through deep green grass, the butterfly marvels at the beauty of the world, exclaiming, "When I was a butterfly, I didn't know I was this happy."

However, if the song only referenced the tale of Zhuang Zhou dreaming of butterflies, it might not be so difficult to understand. In the latter half, the creator incorporates French and Chinese lyrics, actually quoting from Chinese modern female writer Zhang Ailing's Yanying's Sayings: Every butterfly is the ghost of a previous flower, returning to seek itself. Thus, another imagery of "flower" is introduced into the song. By simply interpreting Zhang Ailing's words, it's not hard to deduce the relationship between flowers and butterflies—the former being the past life of the latter. The narrative subject fluctuates in the lyrics, with the butterfly pondering in one line, "Have I encountered this cluster of flowers? Or did this flower's birth stem from me?" Followed immediately by the flower's question, "Will I encounter him again? Or have I never blossomed?"

Flowers become butterflies in reincarnation, while butterflies transform into humans in dreams. Such a chaotic blend finally highlights the song's core conclusion: "Physical forms are the stations of life where we stop and rest." Such turbulent and shifting "physical forms" align with the philosophy of Zhuang Zhou, a renowned ancient Chinese philosopher of the Taoist school and author of Zhuang Zhou's Equality of Things, who believed that all things in the world are constantly transforming, with life emerging from death and death visible in life, as humans and nature are one. Zhuang Zhou advocated that people should not be overly sentimental about changes like life and death, as this is the essential nature of the world.

In the song, the creator, as the butterfly, states, "Those wings that fear neither tahr [a mythical creature in ancient Chinese legends that eats dreams] nor death are dancing amidst the most beautiful scenery." Meaning, butterflies that are not afraid of waking up from dreams or death roam freely in the most beautiful world. The butterfly awakens to the happiness of being a butterfly and, at the end of the song, wishes, "I look forward to waking up as a butterfly that follows happiness."

The entire song begins with a gentle and soft voice, interspersed with low and relaxing spoken parts, weaving a dreamy, flowing, and pleasant dream through Zhuang Zhou, flowers, and butterflies, conveying to the listeners the concepts of dreams and reality, life and death.