The big and strong belong underneath。
The gentle and weak belong at the top。（1948, vol。 72）
It is common knowledge that “tender” is the synonym of “gentle”, “weak” or “vulnerable”。 Thus connected with the philosophy of Taoism, tenderness is an essential characteristic of the living, and whoever in possession of the feature is supposed to be long-lasting and in the advantaged place。
As for night, it appears frequently in The Holy Bible。 In the beginning of Genesis, the earth was formless and empty with only darkness over the surface of the deep。 And not until light was invented by God was there the separation of day and night。 And there is evening and morning in a day with night comes before day。 Besides, light is not the privilege of day, because God made two great lights —the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night。 According to these, it is the light that makes a difference between day and night。 Also there is "This was my situation, the heat consumed me in the daytime and the cold at night" (Genesis31:40)。 From that we can infer that day and night can be two opposite extremes sometimes somewhere。
Another description goes:
There are those who rebel against the light, who do not know its way or stay in its path。 When daylight is gone, the murderer rises up and kills the poor and needy; in the night he steals forth like a thief。 The eye of the adulterer watches for dusk; he thinks, ‘No eye will see me,’ and he keeps his face concealed。 In the dark, men break into houses, but by day they shut themselves in; they want nothing to do with the light。 For all of them, deep darkness is their morning; they make friends with the terrors of darkness。 (Job 24:13-17)。
In this part, night seems like a conspiracy of the disgusting criminals, helping him hiding all the awful things, while the day seems like a righteous judge with inviolable authority。
To sum up all the Bible quotations, day and night, each has its own features。 Day is kind of harsh in the surface but is indeed safe, whereas night seems lenient but is dangerous actually。 And supposing a night is tender, it is not weak; on the contrary, it can conquer all the mighty with ease and is capable of nearly everything。 Consequently, a tender night that gives the first impression of innocent and flawless could be deceptive and the expression has a chance of being an irony。
1。2。 The imaginations bring by the title
The title is aesthetically pleasing and a poetic title is supposed have a poetic story。 Just having a glimpse of the title, we are led into a new world where all our five senses are freed from the manacles of the real world to hear, see, taste, touch and smell as we like。 From the title, we know the touch of night is tender。 Since the five senses are an integral, one sense is able to trigger others。 In our imagination, in a tender night, the color should be dark as it is usual the case for night, the sound quiet as nothing is supposed to damage the tranquility of night, the smell fragrant as it is conducive to sleep while the taste should be complicated as it contains all sorts of things good or bad。
What’s more, there are also some works that flood to me concerning about night。
First, we tend to miss someone at night in the amber rays given out by the moon through the dark robe。 The Chinese poet Du Fu wrote Thinking of My Brothers on a Moonlit Night:
“Our nightly dews hence will be white。
On our old home the Moon is bright。” (Fletcher, 1919)
This poem was written when Du’s brothers scattered here and there during the rebellion of An and Shi, and Du was worried about them with no words heard from them。 At days he maybe has too many government affairs to deal with, while at the night when he finally spares himself a moment, the sentimental emotion crept in, and the frost seemed plainly white and the moon he saw seemed less brighter。 文献综述 菲茨杰拉德《夜色温柔》主题(3):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_86081.html