This poem was written in the fifth year of Tang Daizong Dali (77), that is, the year of Du Fu's death. Li Guinian was a famous musician in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, but his birth and death, birthplace and origin are unknown. We only know that he lived from Kaiyuan to Daizong in the Tang Dynasty, was good at singing, composed music and was quite familiar with local music. Once, he heard someone playing the piano in Qiwangfu and said, "This is the music of Qin." After a while, he added, "This is the music of Chu." Qi Wang was surprised and asked behind the curtain, and it happened. With his extraordinary musical skills, Li Guinian was appreciated by Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, who loved music. "He took special care of himself and grew up in Dongdu." After the Anshi Rebellion, Li Guinian lived in Jiangxiang. "Every time I meet a beautiful day, I sing a few songs for people and smell it in my seat. I have to hide my tears and stop drinking." (Miscellaneous Records of the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty)

In the late spring of the fifth year of Dali, Du Fu, who was living in the south of the Yangtze River, met Li Guinian, who was also living in a foreign land, by chance in Tanzhou (now Changsha, Hunan). At this time, due to the eight-year Anshi rebellion in the Tang Dynasty, the whole society has fallen rapidly from the prosperity of the "Kaiyuan Shengshi". Faced with the bitter reality, the bleak evening and the once glorious old friends, Du Fu had mixed feelings, and wrote this seven-character quatrain with great emotion, expressing the deep painful feelings of the reunion of the old friends who had extraordinary experiences in turbulent times, which implied infinite nostalgia for the past, deep lament for the reality, and thousands of feelings about the ups and downs of the past and the gathering and dispersion of human feelings.