Chang Jian reflects on change and death

Everything passes

Ancient Song
Chang Jian

I met an old man by the River Han:
Where it flows out, his rigid body lies.
His grizzled hair is caked in yellow mud,
Above his bones, a flock of ravens flies.
His capacities and skills have been forgotten,
His spirit now will never reattach.
The wind has snapped the rods that he set up—
The fish still jump, but not for him to catch.
That glistening water was his landing beach,
Across his land are wild sprouts and grains.
A low canoe is tied up on the Yangtze,
Its rippling image is all that remains.
Now gnarls of withered pine abruptly jut,
And strands of hanging moss drift below.
In this world there can be no guarantees,
Life and death are not for us to know.
Observe the people round you in our times:
There’s only you to do what must be done.
Surrounded row on row, a general falls,
While men of Han step over him to run.
One single harness yokes a hundred horses;
Ten thousand wheels must roll the self-same line.
"What’s more important: life or reputation?"
All men should hold this question in their mind.

常建 古兴
汉上逢老翁，江口为僵尸。
白发沾黄泥，遗骸集乌鸱。
机巧自此忘，精魄今何之。
风吹钓竿折，鱼跃安能施。
白水明汀洲，菰蒲冒深陂。
唯留扁舟影，系在长江湄。
突兀枯松枝，悠扬女萝丝。
托身难凭依，生死焉相知。
遍观今时人，举世皆尔为。
将军死重围，汉卒犹争驰。
百马同一衔，万轮同一规。
名与身孰亲，君子宜固思。

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This poem by Chang Jian is bursting with poignant images, all warning that time waits for no man. In the final couplet he quotes the Daodejing.